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South Atrica
Defiance marches
shake De Klerk
Klerk wants to
trap the ANC into •operating
360
Since the apartheid elections on 6 September, in cities and small towns, hundreds of thousands have participated in the biggest protest against apartheid rule and oppression in South Africa's history.
On 29 October 80,000 gathered at a legal rally in Soweto, called by the still-banned ANC: the first such for 30 years. Under the flags of the African National Congress and the (banned) SA Communist Party, Walter Sisulu, former ANC secretary general, and other political prisoners recently released by the new De Klerk government, addressed the crowd.
The marches and rallies and the release of the prisoners mark significant retreats by the government. They are victories for the black working class. The State of Emergency since 1986, torture, vigilantes, and state terror in the township streets has failed to inflict a serious defeat on a workingclass movement which has been gaining almost uninterruptedly in strength and confidence for more than a decade. In 1973 trade unions were almost non-existent for African workers. Now the Congress of South African Trade Unions is over one million strong.
The revolutionary upsurge of 1984-86 gave way to a relative, highly volatile lull. But from early this year resistance has grown again. There have been consumer boycotts against Conservative Party-controlled municipal councils, schools' struggles, defiance on beaches, buses and trains underpinned by a movement of defiance in the workplaces. The anti-union Labour Act, passed in 1988, is being made essentially unworkable. Organised workers have been challenging segregation in canteens, toilets and changing rooms.
Imperialism
and
rican ruling class look ahead apprehensively to the year 2000, when SA will have a population of over 47 million, with only 5-6 million whites. Repressive rule by the white minority is an inadequate instrument for holding back the African majority, overwhelmingly working-class, from workers' revolution.
The example of Lieutenant Rockman, a coloured police officer who broke ranks to denounce the brutality of the white riot police on election night in the Western Cape, is a sign of the unpredictability of blacks in the state apparatus, faced with the movement of the working class.
The SA ruling class is compelled to look for new methods of rule. The new President, De Klerk, proposes a 'five-year plan' to negotiate a new constitution. "The door to a new South Africa is open", , he has said. "It is not necessary to batter it down. We wish to discuss with leaders in SA how to achieve a new, fair and just South Africa."
All this is a fraud. De Klerk has made clear that the one thing that is not on the agenda is the minimum that would be acceptable to the mass of the people: majority rule, one-person-one-vote in an undivided SA.
The ruling class will cling to their power, wealth and privilege until it is taken from them. To achieve majority rule requires the defeat of the apartheid state by the working class. The militant mood in the recent marches and rallies shows the desire of the black working class to build the ANC to achieve this.
De Klerk, for his part, has temporarily pulled back the riot police, legalised these protests and released Sisulu and the other prisoners, to create a 'climate for negotiations? The release of Nel-
son Mandela is now likely before many months have passed.
De Klerk's aim is a constitution giving the appearance of participation by the African majority, but without conceding power to them. He seeks to dissolve the crudities of apartheid in favour of new and more complex forms of divide and rule, without undermining the cohesion of the state.
To move in this direction, he must trap African leaders with authority among the masses, especially those of the ANC, into cooperating. He hopes for their help in a long-term strategy to defuse the developing revolution.
The ruling class is encouraged by Gorbachev and the Soviet bureaucracy who, in the interests of deals with imperialism, are using their influence to press the ANC leaders into negotiations with De Klerk.
At the rally, Sisulu, admitting that De Klerk did not stand for majority rule, "repeatedly stressed (the ANC's) commitment ... to a negotiated settlement to South Africa's conflict." A message from ANC President Oliver Tambo stated that De Klerk "may yet earn a place among the peacemakers of our country." (Financial Times 30 October 1989)
But since freedom is not on the table, why did Sisulu and Tambo not make clear there is nothing to negotiate with this government about?
Sisulu called for the defiance to continue. But neither he nor any other speaker offered any clear programme of action for this.
Combined with creating illusions in the possibility of negotiating democracy with this government, this serves to spread confusion in the black working class.
The interpretations placed by the capitalist press on recent developments should serve as a warning. The Independent (12 Oc.
tober 1989) commented "the most remarkable thing to have emerged from Mr De Klerk's decision (to release Sisulu and the others) is the degree to which Mr Mandela and the exiled African National Congress have become participants in government decision-making." (our emphasis) The leadership needs to turn back from this course and build the forces for the revolution needed to achieve majority rule.
De Klerk cannot succeed
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aims. Sooner or later his attempts to reconcile all the conflicting forces will break down. Sharp economic recession; a revolutionary upsurge vaster on scale than 1984-6; a renewed turn of the white lower middle class and workers (now placing their hopes in De Klerk) to the ultra-right these are all possible developments in a volatile situation. The task for Congress activists is to base themselves on the militant mood among the masses and organise to step up the defiance. The working class needs to take into its hands the task of building a mass ANC under its own democratic control, round a programme for implementing the Freedom Charter. For this, the ideas and methods of Marxism are indispensible.
The September
Cape Town
Just after midday on Wednesday 13 September, I arrived at St Georges Cathedral. This is normally early enough to get a front place for the usual lunch-time gatherings. But today was a meeting with a really big difference. Thousands were packing the streets. Everyone had come to show their rejection of police brutality. The church was full so loudspeakers were set up for the people outside.
As students arrived in their buses from all over the Western Cape, they were greeted with loud applause and singing and spontaneous toyi-toying. The banners said it all: "Forward to People's Power", , "Release all detainees" and there was even one in red lettering which said "Viva the Bolsheviks" !
During the sermon, groups of youth continued to toyi-toyi. Every few minutes there were shouts of "Viva ANC! Viva MDM!". Thousands lined the streets to watch and as the youth passed them, they shouted: "Our struggle and march to freedom is for everyone."
All kinds of people were present: workers, youth, students, teachers, mothers, unemployed, yuppies, clergy, directors (one was apparently elected by his company to represent them!), uniformed white school students, longlost friends - and of course a good contingent of plainclothes police.
Many garment workers from Woodstock and Salt River left work and walked from their factories. If the leaders had made the same effort to get workers there as they did for the students, many thousands more would have marched.
As the march saw something
turned into Adderley Street, I not seen in this city since
30,000 people marched from the townships in 1960. The whole of Cape Town had been brought to a complete standstill. The marchers could not really believe it. The seemingly impossible had happened - it made everybody happy. There was a feeling that history was being made that day. The people had shown their power and De Klerk had been forced to concede our march.
At the town hall all the leaders made speeches. Despite all their talk of negotiations, they could not stop the crowd from shouting "Forward to the spirit of no compromise and no surrender" after every speech.
Afterwards people rushed for the trains. In every train hundreds toyi-toyied throughout the journey to the townships. As people got on at different stations, they joined in. From platforms they shouted "Viva ANC! Amandla!"
Durban
The march on 23 September was 30,000 strong and dominated by the youth. There were just a few hundred workers and the union banners were accompanied by the officials only. Placards and banners called for the release of the detainees, the unbanning of the ANC and the ending of police violence. The Phoenix women's organisation demanded houses for all and affordable rents and some banners said "Fight the LRA" (Labour Relations Act).
The march moved up West Street in four waves. Although small groups of youth threatened to break off and run wild, the mood was one of celebration rather than belligerence. The street was lined with office workers, half of them white. Construction workers hung from scaffolding, joining in the singing and waving their hammers. As everybody toyi-toyied towards City Hall, it was as if everything moved -
On the march.
Eyewitness reports from Cape Town, Johannesbu Durban an East Rand.
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380 MIR Winter 1990 South Africa
power of the orkers
there all to
see
only the buildings stood still.
During the speeches, all defiant statements met loud approval and and the largest cheer went to one speaker who warned the mayor that we were coming back to take over!
Kwa-Thema, East Rand
The crisis in our high schools began at the beginning of August when 8000 students from all seven schools went on a three day boycott in support of the defiance campaign. Then a meeting of 2000 workers, students, teachers and parents called a mass demonstration for 25 September.
They demanded that: the Department of Education negotiate with students directly; police harassment be stopped; that free discussion be allowed; and that charges against seven arrested students be dropped.
On the morning of the march it was cloudy and bitterly cold. But this did not deter 600 people from gathering outside the Civic Hall. The priests who were to leave the march arrived late and buses and taxis to take people to the city did not come. But everybody decided to foot it instead, even though it was 10km into town and back.
We broke onto the street and as the sun came through the clouds, hundreds kept away by the cold joined us. When we reached Thema Road near town there were over 6000 people on the march. People sang and toyi-toyied jubilantly. It was like a big celebration. There was not a whiff of anger in the air. Everybody marched together as one united mass.
Originally it was not planned that primary pupils should come but there they were - six to ten year olds - bubbling and singing along. Placards conveyed the messages: "Mass Democratic Movement means freedom", , "We want bread not bullets", "Unban COSAS". Congress Militant posters calling for defiance of apartheid and one person one vote in a unitary South Africa daubed the march as well. Some students had stuck these posters on their backs with tape.
The march was blocked by a heavy contingent of army and police. Some of us shouted that we should break through but most were not in the mood for confrontation. Security police perched on a nearby building with video cameras to monitor the crowd who listened to petitions being read out. During prayers many kept their eyes open, arms unfolded and talked among themselves.
People eventually went back to the Civic Hall singing : "Socialism ke thebe (Socialism is a shield)"; "Tambo sithwele kanzima kulomhlaba (Tambo we live in hardship in this land)". Whenever we came across the police we always sang: "Noma siyafa sitsho sithi haluhkho ulovalo (even if we have to die we say: we have no fear)."
At the Civic Hall there was more singing and dancing before the march broke up in waves. The police demanded the march disperse within ten minutes. People cried "ten minutes is too little - they are mad. Where should we disperse to? This is our township; we're going no. where." Confrontation seemed imminent before everybody started trickling away slowly, well after ten minutes.
Our movement was a demonstration of strength, and along with defiance campaign of workers at Ergo and Impala Platinum, it confirms that East Rand is now entering the political upsurge nationally.
The October marches
Cape Town
The march against the LRA on 14 October was very different from the previous march in September. Missing were the company directors and the yuppies wanting to be part of something big and historic. This march, although much smaller than the previous, was 90% workers. As I walked towards the march all one could see was a sea of red and yellow T-shirts. SACTWU (clothing and textile union) and FAWU (food union) workers dominated the march.
There was a great sense of unity between African and coloured workers, especially among the SACTWU and FAWU workers. The most militant were the striking South African Breweries workers who toyi-toyied from the station to the meeting place in their work overalls. They sang two songs all the time. The first was one which compared Gatsha Buthelezi to Hoza, the gangster puppet mayor of Khayelitsha. The second was "Ilizwe lethu ya basebenzi" (our country of the workers). This song really characterised the mood - the power of the workers was there for all to see.
Throughout the march there were shouts of "Phantsi LRA!" (down with the LRA), "Phantsi De Klerk!" and "Viva ANC!" '. I asked one of the SAB workers what he thought of the release of the eight political prisoners. He said: "This is a victory for us. De Klerk was forced to release our leaders, now we must force him to release Mandela. But we must not be fooled, he also wants to put a mask in front of our face so that we must think that everything is OK. We must tell the people that there are still many people in detention."
The same worker commented on their strike: "Did you see the papers this morning, there is already a beer shortage. Last year SAB made a big profit and now we want to get an increase. All our workers are on strike and that is our power. We will win this strike!"
The biggest cheer on the march was when a youth draped the ANC flag on the statue of Louis Botha outside parliament. Immediately
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thousands of ANC, 'ANC!".
"Waar is De Klerk? Laat hy uit kom om te sien wie is die power in die land," (Where is de Klerk? Let him come out to see who is the power in the country) shouted a young worker as we marched past parliament.
At the end of the march there were many speeches. They were all very militant. All the worker speakers called on workers to continue the fight against the LRA and apartheid.
One worker speaker said: "we make cars but we don't have any cars, we make clothes but we don't have clothes, we make houses but we don't have any houses. We are the workers who have the power. The Freedom Charter says: "The wealth of the country shall be shared equally amongst all the people', and that is what we are fighting for."
Dullah Omar, Western Cape UDF Chairman, acknowledged that the workers had put their stamp on the movement through their struggles and this march. He said that workers must not wait and depend on their leaders to do things for them, they must lead the struggles.
"We must be careful about what De Klerk is doing" he said. "He wants to trap the leadership with all the talk of reform. We must be clear that the monopolies in the country support his system and we will never be free as long as these monopolies still control the economy. Negotiations will not win us total freedom. We must fight for that freedom."
Then he said: "There are some people who disagree with the presence of red flags on the march. Some people have asked me why there are red flags on the march. There are red flags because they are the flags of the working class, red represents the blood of the working class and the goal of our struggle. Are there any people here who disagree with the red flag? They must say so now!" There a massive response from the crowd who all shouted "NO!"
Let me explain why this question was raised. Supporters of the Marxist Workers' Tendency of the ANC were the only people on the demonstration with a big red flag, together with our ANC flags. We had also made small red flags which workers took and were waving all the time.
Supporters of the SA Communist Party were extremely angered by this. Leading SACP members came up to our flag but only one had the courage to say: "where is the hammer and sickle?". We replied: "this flag is the genuine flag of the working class and Marxism".
I think that what really angered the SACP supporters was that the Marxists were openly distributing the Congress Militant statement on 'Negotiations?' and selling Congress Militant No 2. Our comrades were also very vocal throughout the march, leading many workers with
people started shouting: "ANC,
their shouts of "Build a mass ANC on a socialist programme!" and "Reject negotiations with De Klerk because he rejects majority rule!"
There was no talk about negotiations in any of the speeches and lots of talk about socialism. I think that Congress left-wingers like Dullah Omar and union leaders can see that the main body of the leadership is moving rapidly to the right and that there is a growing opposition amongst the workers. On Saturday they were responding to this reality.
Jobannesburg
The Joburg march against the Labour Relations Act on 14 October was around 15,000 strong, 90% workers. SACTWU was the best organised and most colourful. First-time marchers were enjoying the experience, but rapidly caught on to the frustration and anger of those who had marched before.
The slogans included "Long Live ANC!" "Fascists Beware! Crush AWB!". Supporters of the Marxist Workers' Tendency of the ANC carried placards: 'Don't trust De Klerk!', 'Oneperson-one vote in a united South Africa. 'Don't trust De Klerk!' was the placard of ours most people wanted to carry.
Natal
In Durban, the march against the LRA on 14 October was much smaller than the last one, with about 5-6000 people. But more than 70% were workers.
In Pietermaritzburg, the march was small, about 2000 people. Supporters of the Marxist Workers' Tendency of the ANC were, however, strongly present. Besides placards, they had the biggest home-made banner. They distributed Congress Militant stickers saying 'Don't Trust De Klerk!', ', 'Step up Defiance!' Practically everyone was wearing them.
Sisulu, ANC veteran.
We will never be free while the monopolie control th economy
MIR
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