NON-EUROPEAN UNITY
FORGED IN STRUGGLE
_by LANGAThroughout the Soweto uprising, the leaders of the "black consciousness" movement such as Mkele and M. Buthelezi, along with the Quislings of the Bantu Affairs Department and Coloured Affairs Department such as "Chief" Buthelezi and Sonny Leon, were calling for a "dialogue" with Vorster. Ar the some time, leoders of the "indepandent" neocolonial states - Nyerere of Tanzania, Kaunda of Zambia, Mobutu of Zaire, Kenyatta of Kenya, Amin of Uganda, and Khama of Botswana - were continuing their collaboration with imperialism, conducting their own dialogues in the framewark of Kissinger's "African shuttle" diplomacy. As against this collaboration, the oppressed of South Africa were pursuing a nationwide policy of non-collaboration with apartheid and non-European unity. This contrast constitutes the heart of the events in South Africa between June and September. African-'coloured' unity The official number of students and workers murdered in South Africa since June rose toward 400 in September; more reasonable estimates of the true number exceed 1,000. The official number of arrests rose to more than 2,500 as the September struggles reached levels even higher than those of the August struggles, just as the August struggles had evidenced greater unity and consciousness than those of June. The nationwide character of the battle became especially evident in one important aspect: the powerful upsurge of the "coloured" 10
-south africastudents and workers side by side with the Africans. ("Coloureds" are defined under racist South African laws as people of "mixed" ancestry.) This was not so much an act of solidarity as a reflection of the consciousness among the coloureds that they are part of one and the same struggle along with the Africans. Throughout the Cape, where most of the 2,250, 000 coloureds live, the struggle raged to the point that one correspondent could write: "The situation is clearly out of control in the sense that the police are unable to prevent the outbreak of violence or to suppress violence when it occurs. (The Guardian, September 10.) For imperialism and its racist South African regime, "violence" is the struggle of the oppressed against the institutionalized violence of the regime, which through its oppression and exploitation kills an average of 2 million non-Europeans each decade (calculated on the basis of the difference between black and white mortality rates under apartheid). The coloured upsurge, centered in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, swept through large rural towns like Paarl and Huguenot, where the whites fled in panic from their own commercial centers as the coloured workers entered the white city, from which they are barred by the location system. The police opaned fire everywhere, sometimes using snipers. The coloured locations of Cape Town, similar in structure and conditions to the Soweto black location outside Johannesburg, erupted, including Ravensmead, Elsie's River, Athlone, Tierylei, Bon-
theuvel, Bishop Davis, Grassy Park, Manenburg, Sherwood Park, and Retreat. According to official figures, twenty-four coloured demonstrators were shot dead on September 8 and 9 alone. This struggle went hand in hand with that of the African locations of Langa and Nyanga. On September 14 and 15 some 500,000 African workers of Soweto and Alexandra Township went on strike (mainly in services, commerce, domestic service, and light industry). At the same time, some 1,600 kilometers to the south, the coloured workers of the Cape joined in with a massive strike of 250, 000 in the docks, industry, commerce, and transport. It was the first time since the Cape Town struggles of 1919-20 that there had been a simultaneous and combined non-European strike, and this time on a much broader scale and higher level. The theme of non-European unity was taken up by the student strike organizafions, and for the first time this unity took a mass form, expressed in industrial action on close to a national scale. Moreover, this struggle was centered on the issue of the Bantustans and the Coloured Affairs Department, against racism and for full democratic rights, although this was not explicitly expressed everywhere because of the lack of leadership. One nation or multiracial racism? In essence, this non-European unity was antiracist and not antiwhite. The stoning and bombing of white cars, businesses, and houses were fundamentally expressions of anti-racism. The terror of the white racist oppressors was based on their fear of the just retribution of their virtual slaves; it was their reaction to the backlash against their own system. Kissinger's panicky call for financial and political guarantees for "minority rights" for the white populations of Rhodesia and Namibia were thrust aside by the non-European oppressed fighting for one, unpartitioned, non-racist nation with equality and democracy for all and not for another form of apartheid, a "multiracial" form of racism. The massive struggles of August and September and the unbreakable courage and united action of the non-European oppressed were their response to both the "multiracialism" of the liberals and the "Black identity" schemes of the apartheid government. In a public statement on September 15 Vorster himself expounded on the "identity" cult now being fostered by European liberalism, imperialism, and the African collaborators. He declared that apartheid would remain forever, which indeed is the basic policy of U.S. and European imperialism, both of which deliberately excluded South Africa from the policy of "one man one vote" and "majority rule" in their policy statements of last April. But Vorster went further. He explained that "apartheid is not oppression. It is not inequality. it recognizes the equality of everyone, but on the basis of their differences. Apartheid is based on the principle of identity. " Since June, nearly 500 non-Europeans have lost their lives fighting against this Catholic-"Socialist"-European apartheid "identity principle," which Vorster's September 15 speech revealed for the racist nonsense it always was. The June-September events have continued to confirm the fundamental analysis of South African revolutionary Marxists that it is the working class that must lead the struggle to resolve the national question. The strikes of August and September, it is true, did fall short of the complete unity that is necessary. The compound workers, who stand at the heart of mining and heavy industry, hub of the economy, were generally absent from the strike. But the location workers, those forced to live on the outskirts of the big cities, rose up in united fashion against the creed of Botha, Vorster's white minister of Bantu affairs, who had declared on August 26 that the Africans came to "the white areas to sell their labor and for nothing else. Those who accepted the citizenship of a tribal homeland would be more welcome in white areas than those who did not." The non-European working class, both African and coloured (and some sections of the Indian population as well) struck 1 million strong against this basic and unifying economic principle of apartheid: cheap labor and Bantustans. Toward a pre-revolutionary situation Sir Villiers Graaf, leader of the liberal pro-apartheid United party, the white opposition, said on September 9 that "the post twelve weeks have changed South Africa." This does not mean that he or any other representative of imperialist racism, whether Boer or British, believes that there is yet a revolutionary situation in South Africa. They are well aware that the economic, political, and military might of the Common Market, NATO, and U.S. Imperialism have a vested interest in the preservation of apartheid and will back up the racist state against the non-European oppressed by any means necessary. Unless the proletariat of the imperialist countries takes action against its own bourgeoisie on this point, the non-European working class in South Africa will face a difficult task indeed. But what worries Villiers Graof and his like is that there has now been a crack in the structure of apartheid. This crack has been conditioned by four essential factors:
*the world capitalist economic recession, which for the first time has hit South Africa hard, halving the price of gold, South Africa's main export, at least temporarily;
*the military and political victories of the MPLA and FRELIMO over Portuguese imperialism, which whatever the deficiencies of the leaderships have moved the border of white-controlled African states southward;
*the entry of Soviet influence and of Cuban troops into southern Africa;
*the contradiction between the necessity for the South African ruling class to establish Bantustans on the
SOUTH AFRICA one hand and the impossibility of doing so because of the mobilization of the non-European oppressed on the other hand. From the standpoint of the non-European working class itself, the fourth factor is the most decisive one, for it is linked to one of the classical elements of a prerevolutionary situation: the inability of the ruling class to continue to rule in the old way. Since the Nigerianor Kenyan-type alternative of "independence" and the establishment of a neocolonialist state in place of the old system of apartheid within a unified South African state is not a viable one in South Africa, the Vorster wing of the ruling class has opted for the only remaining solution: apartheid in a "multiracial" framework including nine "independent" Bantu mini-states, one all-powerful white state commanding all the country's wealth, and some as yet unresolved "national" solution for the coloureds and Indians. (The struggle of the coloureds during September has dashed any hopes Vorster may have entertained for finding a smooth solution to the crucial "coloured problem. ") Since the regime is unable to rule in the old way, it is seeking to establish the Bantustans as a new form preserving the old content of apartheid. The non-European unity forged during September in a struggle against Bantuization is thus a potentially mortal blow to the keystone of the new western strategy in South Africa and therefore to western strategy in souther Africa as a whole. It is this that concerns not only Villers Graaf, but also the South African ruling class as a whole as well as its imperialist backers. After his talks with Helmut Schmidt in Bonn and with Kissinger in Bavaria last June and after his September 16-17 talks with Kissinger in Pretoria, Vorster made it clear that the program of establishing Bantustans would not apply to Namibia. The latter, called South West Africa by the apartheid regime, is a territory two-thirds the size of Angola that is occupied by South Africa in violation of the will of the population and various decisions by international bodies and courts. Because South African sovereignty over Namibia is not recognized by the imperialists (for their own reasons, as we shall see), the more "classical" neocolonial solution is more practical there than any attempt to include the territory in the Bantuston program. As long ago as his August 24 statement in Windhoek, Vorster had declared that Namibia would be granted "Full independence" on December 31, 1978. Until that time there would be "self-government" under "mixed rule, " with a Bantu chief as "president. " Vorster intends to exclude the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) From this arrangement, whereas German imperialism, which has direct stakes in the Namibian economy (Namibia was one of Germany's African colonies before the first world war, and German capital and settlers have held important positions in the economy ever since), prefers to try to integrate the SWAPO leadership into the neocolonial project. The German settlers in Windhoek, Luderitz, and Swakopmund, as well as the German-owned ranches, businesses, and mining 12 companies, believe they can buy off SWAPO and thus swallow up an "independent" Namibia. The most likely content of a deal arrived at between Vorster and German imperialism is that Germany would be given a free hand in Namibia while in return the German government would recognize the "independence" of the Transkei, which is slated to become an "independent" Bantustan in South Africa on October 26, 1976. It is also likely that this subject was discussed by Kissinger and Nyerere during their September 14 talks in Dar es Salaam. In fact, the rising influence of German imperialism is one of the important factors in the new world imperialist strategy in southern Africa. One of the indicators of this rising influence is that West Germany is now South Africa's largest trading partner, if the trade in gold is left out of account. For a world boycott Regardless of the collaborationist diplomatic ains of the "independent" African collaborators like Kaunda, Nyerere, and Mobutu, and whatever the maneuvers of people like Agostinho Neto and Samora Machel, the current armed struggle against the Rhodesian regime being waged both inside and outside the country weakens Vorster's position in South Africa. The Herrenvolk Imperialists will make every effort to have the Smith regime in Rhodesia accept a "peaceful solution" or to eliminate him if this becomes impossible, in order to pacify and protect the norther border of the West's white bastion of South Africa. In any event, however, the Rhodesian crisis will contribute to intensifying the non-European struggle in South Africa. In spite of that, the non-European oppressed face heavy odds, even greater than those faced by the Vietnamese revolutionaries, for imperialism's direct economic and political stake in South Africa is greater than was the case in Indochina. The entrance of the proletariat of the United States and the Common Market countries into the struggle against apartheid would be of enormous aid to the South African proletariat. In fact, in the long run it may be said that without the active solidarity of the proletariat in the imperialist countries, without a mass movement against imperialist intervention, the South African revolution will not be able to achieve victory. Airport workers in Rome have decided on a one-day boycott of South African Airlines. There were also actions in Genoa, Trieste, and Naples. Such actions, of a primarily token content, are steps in the right direcfion. But they fell short of what is necessary in one essential respect: They did not attack the direct Italian involvement in apartheid. The Rome protest shows the Pies Tide, and nancial, year, ald diplomit trotdealings with South Africa by the proletariat in West Europe. This is what is needed from the standpoint of the interests of the South African proletariat and From the standpoint of proletarian internationalism in general. September 16, 1976
Although independence was proclaimed on November
11, 1975, by an MPLA anxious to follow the letter of the Alvor accords on the process of decolonization, it was not until March 27, 1976, that South African troops, defeated militarily and politically, withdrew from Angolan territory. With UNITA and the FNL A beaten, the MPLA found itself in control of a country not only devastated by the war but also deformed by the severalcenturies-long colonial presence, With the bridges destroyed, the trails cut, and the villages rozed it was very difficult to assure transport between the cities and the countryside. Supplying the urban centers did not necessarily become any easier with the cessation of fighting. The Huambo region, traditionally the "breadbasket" of Angola, had for several months been the sordid arena of imperialist intervention. In the course of their retreat, the South Africans and the Zairols soldiers had managed to carry off many cattle, plundering and burning as they left. In the northern part of the country, in the regions that were held by the ENLA, and even in the capital, Luanda, it is still difficult to find products of basic necessity. In the south, in Huambo, on the other hand, the peasants are unable to sell their meager production on a rickety and badly organized market. It was in this context of grave economic crists that the