S. Africa: more repression of trade unions
Socialist Press1981 1981-06-25Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 2
As crowds of demonstrators marking the fifth anniversary of the Soweto riots ran into a barrage of police violence last week, South African cops arrested another leading black trade unionist and imposed a five year banning order on a student leader.
Thami Mazurai, news editor of the 'Sowetan' daily newspaper and a prominent member of the black media workers union MWASA was detained last Thursday.
The 'Sowetan' has emerged as the most popular paper among the black working class: it took the place of "The Post" which was closed down by the apartheid regime after a two-month strike by MWASA had halted its production.
MWASA -which seeks to organise not only journalists but also printworkers and even newsvendors and cleaners into a single media union-has waged an outspoken struggle against apartheid.
As a result it has suffered a heavy toll of arrests and banning orders. Its latest union journal contains an article in tribute to no less than nine black journalists under banning orders , and thus debarred from attending MWASA's own congress.
An article by Thami Mazwai is sharply critical of black boxer Peter Marhebula for engaging in a fight with white challenger Laciar.
Another article focusses attention on the programme for action on South Africa passed by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in London last November.
MWASA is plainly looking towards the international labour movement for active solidarity. We urge readers (particularly those in print and media unions) to seek resolutions of support for MWASA.
Students, too, should
mobilising in support their victimised fellows South Africa.
School students have been staging boycotts and protests against the detention without charge of student leader Aziz Jardine.
And the president of the students union at the University of Witwatersrand, Sammy Adelman, has been subjected to a five year banning order--barring him from attending public meetings.
The attack on Adelman appears to be the result of the invitation he issued to US radicals Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden to give a lecture in South Africa.
Both the film star and her politician husband were twice prevented from entering South Africa last week.
*Messages of solidarity should be forwarded to MWASA. 609 Lecton House. Wanderers Street, Johannesburg, South Africa.