Save the Sharpeville Six
1988 1988-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 9 →
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Six young people from Sharpeville, South Africa, have been condemned to the gallows—convicted of murder and arson. The apartheid regime has refused to consider the appeals for clemency submitted by many heads of state, including President Reagan. The execution is scheduled for this month.
In the wake of the Sharpeville rent strike of September 1984, a government collaborator was stoned to death by an angry crowd. The defendants were charged merely with being in the vicinity at the time. Their convictions stand as an example of the Nazi-like principle of "collective guilt."
When two trial witnesses revealed that police had forced them to give false testimony, defense attorneys obtained a temporary stay of execution. But on June 13, a Supreme Court judge denied their appeal on procedural grounds.
The Sharpeville Six have only one legal course of action left open. They must obtain a pardon by either the chief justice of the Supreme Court or President Time is running short. We must redouble our efforts to save their lives!
Trade unions, civil-liberties organizations—and all people around the world who support human rights-can join together in mass protest actions demandIn addition, telegrams urging clemency should be sent to President P.W. Botha, the State President's Office, Private Bag X213, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. Send copies to Ambassador Dr. Piet Koornhof, Embassy of South Africa, 3051 Massachusetts Ave., Washington D.C. 20008.
10 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1988 P.W. Botha.
ing freedom for the Sharpeville Six.
(continued from page 1: “Nine years after revolution, Nicaragua is still besieged”) labor movement. The meeting was held in a calm and friendly atmosphere....
"Both organizations recognized that unity in action is a prerequisite for the quick defeat of apartheid. To this end, both organizations agreed that it was imperative for the labor movement inside the country to strive toward unity with the eventual objective of a single labor federation."
[Following the meeting, the NACTU delegation issued its own press statement, which is printed elsewhere on this page.] United front advocated It is also important to note that a specific trade union of COSATU, the Commercial and Catering Allied Workers Union of South Africa (CCAWUSA), played an important role in promoting trade-union unity by publishing and widely distributing a poster which stated:
"Fight the bill! Unity between NACTU and COSATU! United Front between COSATU, NACTU, AZAPO [Azanian Peoples Organization], UDF [United Democratic Front], and other progressive organizations. (Signed CCAWUSA, Johannesburg branch)
The development of these two mass labor including the trade-union movement, is essential in the present crisis.
5) NACTU reiterated its commitment to the establishment of unity in the working class.
6) The meeting agreed that there were more issues on which the parties agreed than those they disagreed on.
federations, and the prospect of further joint actions and a possible merger, has the South African ruling class sitting on a powder keg. As the three-day general strike attests, it has added a new dimension to the decades-long struggle against the apartheid regime.
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