South Africa

Arguing for a workers' party based on the non-racial unions in apartheid South Africa (1985-94)

Three extracts on the debate about working-class strategy in the years of the decline and fall of apartheid in South Africa. Workers' Liberty 3, "Breaking the chains: black workers and the struggle for liberation in South Africa". September 1985: [There has been] a big growth of the black working class. In 1960 there were 540,000 black workers in mining and 450,000 in manufacturing. In 1980 there were 740,000 in mining and 1,150,000 in manufacturing. In January-February 1973, 100,000 black workers — shipbuilders, stevedores, drivers, textile, brick and tea workers — round the Durban area...

Mama Africa: singing the truth

The life of the South African singer Miriam Makeba, known as “Mama Africa” who, died of a heart attack aged 76 in November. Perhaps more than any other musician, Makeba popularised South African music around the world and became widely identified with the struggle against apartheid. Born in Johannesburg and singing from an early age, Makeba first became well known in the early 50s when she teamed up with the popular close harmony singers, the Manhattan Brothers. This was a time of Black cultural resurgence in the ghettos of Johannesburg and Cape Town. Makeba became prominent in this, recording...

SA dockers block aid to Mugabe: “We will not unload the weapons”

In a magnificent display of working-class solidarity, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa, refused to unload 77 tonnes of Chinese weapons bound for Zimbabwe. The An Yue Jiang left China just days after polls closed in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections with a cargo of three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3000 mortar rounds. Chinese officials claim the cargo is “perfectly normal trade” — true enough as each year China exports more than $1 billion dollars of weapons in exchange for cash, raw materials and influence. The Stalinist bureaucracy...

South Africa: workers defeat apartheid

A strike wave began in Durban in 1973 involving nearly 100,000 workers. It shook the racist apartheid regime (where only the white minority could vote) that had ruled for 25 years. Students played an important role too, calculating cost of living indexes and doing research for workers. From the early 1980s, there was a massive upsurge in working class struggle. On 1 May 1986, 1.5 million workers “stayed away” from work to demand an official May Day holiday – the largest strike in South African history. The strike wave swiftly made organisational gains. The COSATU trade union federation, formed...

South African workers refuse to back down

BY Mike Rowley On 1 June, public sector unions in South Africa called a general strike of over a million public sector workers in response to a derisory pay offer from the government (originally 5.3%, creeping up to 6%, then 6.5%) that would be completely cancelled out by inflation. Public sector workers in South Africa are very poorly paid and have not had a pay rise in real terms for ten years. Nevertheless, COSATU, the main South African union federation, with 1.7 million members, which played a crucial role in the defeat of apartheid, has for all that time been in an alliance with the...

South African workers confront state violence

By Amina Saddiq Two days before Solidarity went to press, on 6 June, police in the South African city of Durban attacked nurses picketing their hospital as part of a national public sector strike over pay with plastic bullets and stun grenades. Several strikers were injured and twenty arrested. On Friday 1 June, nearly half a million workers, including large numbers of nurses, teachers, civil servants and local government employees, struck to demand a 12% pay rise. The government, which has just given senior officials an increase of 30%, offered only 6% — an insult when South Africa’s...

Redressing disadvantage and fighting racism in South Africa

We have received a copy of a paper by veteran South African Marxist Neville Alexander on "Affirmative Action and the Perpetuation of Racial Identities", from Rajni Lallah of Lalit, Mauritius. Rajni writes: "I thought I'd you'd appreciate getting a paper of Neville Alexander on affirmative action and the perpetuation of racial identities in post-apartheid South Africa. Lalit comrades find it excellent and very useful in debate". Excerpts from the paper: Firstly, there is no need to use the racial categories of the past in order to undertake affirmative action policies. In the South African...

Workers news Round-up

South Africa Hundreds of thousands of workers in South Africa supported a one-day general strike in protest against job losses on 18 May. Three of AngloGold’s Vaal River mines were shut. Most workers were on strike at Harmony Gold’s big mines in the Free State. Two-thirds of the workforce stayed away from the Kloof mine. At the Beatrix mine in the Free State only one out of four shafts was operational. Many members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa joined the strike. The union targeted Mittal (formerly known as Iscor), Denel, DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Ford and Volkswagen. Two...

South African strike wave

South Africa is undergoing a strike wave, the second in a matter of months, with miners, municipal workers and civil servants about to take strike action. This follows stoppages in recent weeks by urban workers, grocery clerks and airline workers. Around 80,000 gold miners came out on Sunday 7 August, the first strike organised by the National Union of Mineworkers in gold mines in 18 years. On Monday 8 August the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) began another strike for higher wages. It wants 8%, while employers have imposed a 6% increase. Workers in in waste disposal, roads...

South African workers show how to fight poverty

Two million South African workers showed how to fight poverty at the end of June with the biggest strike since the days of apartheid. On 27 June tens of thousands of workers marched in the major cities, with the biggest demonstrations in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Most mines, car makers, engineering and clothing factories were completely or partially closed as a result of the strike. Car firms including Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, and Toyota were shut. Clothing companies, the Telkom phone company, Highveld Steel and almost all the platinum and gold mines were closed. The Congress of South...

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