Lessons of Soweto Killings Armed Struggle- Only Way

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African school student carrying murdered school friend. last week. South Airca nas a cussed". "etahilica' tha citratinn in Conthorn It i The barbaric response of the Vorster regime - leaving 200 dead and over 1,000 wounded - to the uprising of African workers in Soweto lays bare once again the impossibility of any peaceful reformist road to elementary democratic rights for the 20 million black South Africans.

The protests about the use of the Afrikaans language in African education is only the tip of an iceberg.

As the Observer noted:

"Eighty-six percent of houses (in Soweto) have no electricity, 93% are without a shower or bath and 97% have no hot water......fifty four percent of all Sowetans are employed…. the average monthiy wage per worker is f10, this compares with. £69 for the average white worker in Johannesburg"

It is on this that the rate of profit of international capital invested in South Africa depends.

CONNECTION

This connection was dramatically brought home by the Sunday Times survey last month of the utter failure of the Labour government's 'code of practice' on wage rates to African workers of British companies operating in South Africa.

According to the code the minimum wage paid should be at least 50% above the poverty line. "Most companies," concluded the Times (May 16) "are paying below the minimum wage rate laid down by the British government"

Of course they are! Their profits depend on it. And it is to maintain those profits and those of white South African capital that Vorster's police state exists.

TOWNS

Since African workers have to work in towns - where the factories are - and since towns breed class consciousness and trade unionism, Vorster has to take every measure possible to resist the growth of a conscious political leadership in the African working class.

The police terror and battery of legal restrictions are growing. A new State Security bill currently before parliament will legalise what already happens as a matter of common occurrence - detention without trial of anyone whose actions oppose or criticise the regime for virtually indefinite periods.

In spite of this, Vorster is not succeeding.

The wave of strikes in 19734 has been followed by the rapid expansion of black trade unions. Black trade unions are denied legal bargaining rights by the state.

CITIZENSHIP

In October, Vorster will begin the attempt to play what will undoubtedly be his last card in the struggle to hold back the movement of the working class - stripping the vast majority of black South Africans of their citizenship.

This will be done by creating 'independence' for the black Bantustans (Homelands) - backwaters of barren land onto which blacks were forcibly evicted at the turn of the century.

Blacks will become citizens of their respective homelands but will of course have to continue to work in South Africa stripped of even the few civil - rights they have, as 'foreigners' in their own country.

Throughout Suuth Africa blacks have demonstrated their complete opposition to these proposals.

CLEFT Vorster is now sinking more and more tightly into his cleft stick. The regime of apartheid and police terror is integral to the survival of the capitalist industrial economy of South Africa.

But so is the acquiescence of the black African regimes to the north. These regimes are now coming under increasing pressure from the masses to take a left face and criticise apartheid and finance the guerrilla war in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia).

Vorster has been putting sure on Smith in Rhodesia to come to some sort of settlement with the Nationalists to avoid a prolonged war of liberation which would mobilise the masses in southern Africa even further.

The events in Soweto show that it is now too late.

MILITANCY

The increased militancy and self confidence of the workers and oppressed classes in South Africa is directly linked to the successful anti-colonial struggles in Angola and Mozambique.

In Rhodesia itself, the Smith regime flounders on a similar set of contradictions. Any attempt at a negotiated settlement with even the right-wing of the nationalist movement immediately poses the question of land.

But any concessions on this crucial question threatens the whole economic basis of the settler regime. Thus despite pressure from Vorster and Kissinger, Smith has been able to offer no concessions or new initiatives since the talks with Nkomo broke off.

Last week the Rhodesian Special Commission on Racial Discrimination published its report. And the Rhodesia Front ruling party was immediately thrown into crisis as regards its implementation.

Its report recommends some minor changes in the land law to allow a few middle class Africans to buy farming or industrial land in the white areas.

These recommendations which even if implemented would in no way change the balance of power in Rhodesia, were sufficient to sena a wave of horror through the majority of the white settlers.

Meanwhile the guerrilla war is going badly for Smith. More and more areas of the country have proved vulnerable to attack by freedom fighters.

Not only that but the official "kill ratio' has fallen from 12:1 in favour of the Rhodesian army in January to 6:1 today, as the equipment and training of the guerrillas increases in quality. This means that an increasing part of the white population is being called up into military service. crucial role in US strategy to Africa outlined by Kissinger in his Lusaka speech in April.

Kissinger is relying on Vorster to pressure Smith to make a settlement to prevent a long liberation war in Rhodesia:

prevent it spreading into South Africa itself. Now just this is happening!

Small wonder that after two days of talks with Vorster all Kissinger could find to say was that "all the major problems affecting Southern Africa : have been disWhile the bourgeoisie discuss unel strategy to repress tne suraggle of the black masses in Southern Africa, the events in Soweto must be the starting point for a renewed campaign of support in the labout movement for the armed liberation In Britain this means not only forcing the Labour government to break its many links with the racist Vorster regime, but demanding that active assistance and material aid, including arms, is provided to those liberation forces now fighting for self determination.