Steps toward labor unity spur S. Africa general strike
1988Alan Benjamin 1988-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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U.S. government attempts to stop On June 6-8, an estimated 3 million Black workers staged the largest and most effective general strike in the history of South Africa. The strike was called jointly by the 900,000-member Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the 400,000-member National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU).
The strike was called to protest the Feb. 24 emergency measures, which ban the activities of 17 anti-apartheid organizations, and the announcement of a new labor bill, the Labor Relations Amendment Bill, which severely restricts the rights of the trade unions.
The general strike was called a "peaceful protest" because the state of emergency does not allow the unions to wage an action of a political character.
In the working-class heartland of South Africa, the Transvaal industrial area around Pretoria and Johannesburg, the strike was 90 percent solid. All seven of the country's major auto-assembly plants were shut down by the strike.
"Event with deep consequences"
One of the most important-though perhaps most overlooked—aspects of the strike was the fact it was called jointly by the country's two rival trade-union federations: COSATU, whose leadership is politically close to the African National Congress (ANC), and NACTU, whose leadership is politically close to the Azanian Peoples Organization (AZAPO) and the Pan African Congress (PAC).
The significance of the joint call, the first ever issued by the two federations, was not lost on the South African capitalists and their media, however. The June 2 issue of the Johannesburg daily newspaper The Star referred to the joint call as "an event that will have deep consequences."
What made the united call possible was a breakthrough in relations between NACTU and the ANC at a meeting held in Harare, Zimbabwe, on May 2-3, 1988.
The joint communiqué issued after the meeting states in part:
"The ANC and NACTU met in Harare from May 2-3, 1988, to discuss matters of mutual concern, including unity of the (continued on page 10) EVERY
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inquiry. See story page 4.