S. African Blacks demand: 'One person, one vote!' FORMAND WITH IE1

Scan page 21

Thousands of workers gather to launch western Cape division of Congress of South tivists have been killed by the South African police.

Mandela has also continued to press for total political and economic sanctions against South Africa until apartheid is dismantled.

Meanwhile, de Klerk has pointed to two issues over which he will not budge in any negotiations with representatives of the South African liberation movement: (1) minority or "group rights," and (2) the inviolability of the free enterprise system.

De Klerk is opposed to the demand raised by the Black majority of "One person, one vote in a unitary state." He has insisted that "white minority rights be safeguarded. Specifically, he has demanded that the white minority be able to veto laws passed by the Black majority. One option put forward is the creation of a two-chamber parliament, such as exists in neighboring Zimbabwe.

De Klerk has also rejected any talk of nationalizing industry and putting it in the hands of the Black working class. He has stated that the "democratic future" must be built on "a sound economy based on proveri economic principles and private enterprise." (Cape Times, Feb. 3, 1990) This, of course, is a reaffirmation of capitalist exploitation.

In the new situation opened up with the liberation of Nelson Mandela, a wide-open debate has broken out among the various anti-apartheid organizations in South Africa over how to approach the negotiations with de Klerk and what a future South Africa should look like.

Little is known in this country about a series of South African organizations that trace their origins to the Black Consciousness Movement founded by Steve Biko in the mid-1970s. African Trade Unions (COSATU) in February 1986.

from a document by Action Youth, the youth group of the Cape Action League, which contains an assessment of the current negotiation process that is shared by a large wing of the liberation movement. It is reprinted from the March/April issue of Arise Vukani, the bimonthly magazine of Action Youth. —The editors Eric Miller and exploited people?

Those who claim to speak on behalf of the people say that the transfer of power is their basic demand, the "bottom line." There are three basic and interlinked aspects of power-political power, state power, and economic power.

Political power means "one person, one vote in a unitary state." No double speak about protection of "group rights," accounting for white fears or minority rights, etc. Marriages Act, and the Population Registration Act. No! These laws are a means to an end. Basically they are the means to the creation of a huge pool of cheap Black labor, labor needed to feed the farms, the mines, and industry.

Apartheid is the existence of a pool of labor trained to work but not educated as a basic human right, living in vast townships with minimal facilities or dumped in the homelands to hide the chronic unemployment which is part of the capitalist system.

Before the apartheid laws of today, the Vagrancy Acts of a hundred years ago and the Hertzog Bills of 1936 served the same purpose; namely, to oppress Blacks and to exploit their labor.

Apartheid is the existence of millions of unemployed, millions of homeless and under-educated people. The fact that more than 80 percent of Black households have an income of less than R800. per month, while huge companies control assets of billions, is part of the same historical process.

Apartheid and capitalism are linked by more than a century of sweat and blood! Abolishing a few laws and then complaining that there is not enough money to solve the problems of unemployment, housing, education, health, etc., will mean that the system stays the same.

The problems of the people can never be solved as long as resources are allocated on the basis of profit rather than social need.

The negotiation process You cannot win at the negotiation table that which has not already been won on the battlefield!

It seems as if de Klerk is prepared to make quite dramatic changes to the superstructure of the system. It has seized the initiative by unbanning the ANC and other organizations. In fact the de Klerk government is so far in advance of its previous positions that it has taken everyone by surprise.

But it is also very clear that the state is still very much in power (despite the strength of the mass movement), and it has no intention of negotiating away that power.

At the moment there is every indication that a process of negotiations behind closed doors is being planned. Self-appointed leaders will sit around the "negotiation table" and decide the future of our country, will decide what compromises to make, what to accept, and what to reject. Is the only role of the people to shout the slogans, to wave the flags, and to die in the streets in "illegal demonstrations?"

At the Conference for a Democratic Future (CDF) in December last year, a broad range of democratic organizations raised the demand for a Constituent Assembly! This call of the CDF is now more urgent than ever. The oppressed and exploited masses are their own liberators.

Only the Constituent Assembly, elected under conditions of free association, can negotiate the future of South Africa/Azania. Ultimately even the Constituent Assembly will have to go back to the people for final acceptance of a new constitution. Only in this way can the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people be safeguarded.

• Down with secret negotiations!

• Forward with the Constituent Assembly!