unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/17/89)
SOUTH AFRICA: Defiance Overwhelms Minority Election Charade
Cape Town, September 7, 1989 (AIA/Sylvia Vollenhoven) -- The
defiance campaign mounted by the Mass Democratic Movement
(MDM) has stolen the thunder of the September 6 white,
coloured and Indian elections. Black people who do not have
the vote have placed themselves firmly under the political
spotlight.
This is the result of the demonstrations and other actions
including a mass stayaway which virtually closed the country
on election day - one observer said it was like a Sunday.
The protest was mounted against restrictions on former
detainees and continuing state repression and against the
Labour Relations Amendment Act (LRAA).
The defiance campaign continues beyond the elections with a
consumer boycott, set to begin on September 13 and to last up
to October 13, depending on decisions made in various
regions of the country by the MDM.
The campaign emerged from meetings among former detainees
released after a hunger strike during January of this year
(see S890902.SA). The aim was to challenge and overturn
severe restrictions on the former detainees and the
organisations they were associated with.
The mass defiance campaign was endorsed at the July Congress
of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) when
2,000 delegates decided to launch a programme of action
against the Labour Relations Amendment Act (LRAA), which
outlaws trade unionists from political activity. COSATU
activists say the defiance campaign will continue until the
LRAA has been scrapped.
Trevor Manuel, who was released on February 17 this year,
said in an interview which contravened his restriction
orders that activists had many discussions about possible
protest against the restrictions placed on their movement.
Manuel, an executive member of the banned United Democratic
Front (UDF), said: "The planning of the campaign has come a
long way. It is certainly incidental that it was launched on
the eve of the elections." But he adds, "At another level
the elections and the international situation served as a
spur."
The anti-government protesters realised that, more than ever
before, the acting State President F W de Klerk and his
government were playing to the international audience.
Without having provided Western governments with any
concrete proof that they intended to accommodate black
political aspirations, the South African government was
trying to buy time with promises of future reform.
Trevor Manuel said: "An important consideration for launching
the campaign was the fact that South Africa needed to roll
over its foreign loans next year.
"If the banks refuse to reschedule their debts it will be an
important way of putting peaceful pressure on the
government."
The campaign organised by the MDM, a loose alliance of the
UDF, the churches and the democratic trade union
federations, exploited an important dilemma this government
has been facing recently. The National Party leadership,
panicky about the state of the economy and double-digit
inflation, wants to reassure friendly Western Governments of
their intention to implement evolutionary political change.
On the other hand they are also eager to convince white
voters that they will not be pressured into bending to the
demands of impatient black people.
At a different level the government has an uncomfortable
symbiotic relationship with the far-right Conservative Party
(CP). The CP supporters are an integral part of the state's
bureaucracy and are capable of wrecking any progressive
initiative at grassroots level.
This and the government's dilemma between its foreign image
and tough-on-security face at home, led to a variety of
responses to the defiance campaign.
In Cape Town people were savaged by police dogs, beaten with
sjamboks and turned away at roadblocks when they tried to
swim at beaches reserved for whites.
However, a couple of weeks later when the same protest was
staged in the East coast city of Durban, hundreds of people
were allowed to swim while police watched and the only
problem came from a small group of right-wing protesters.
The weekend before the September 6 election a peaceful
demonstration in the centre of Cape Town ended in chaos as
police sprayed purple dye on people and buildings from a
large water cannon. Many people were beaten with sjamboks and
some were hospitalised.
However, a few weeks beforehand a march in the same area was
peacefully turned around by a group of policewomen.
In the black townships, mainly in the Western Cape area,
police reaction to the campaign has been consistently tough.
As a result the streets have resembled the turbulent period
between 1984 to 1986.
Burning tyre barricades blaze daily, rounds of teargas or
birdshot meet protesters and at least 60 people have been
killed. Many people have been detained, some have been
released again after being charged with contravening the
state of emergency regulations.
Soon after my interview with Trevor Manuel he was redetained
and at the time of writing had embarked on a hunger strike
again.
According to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the campaign will
continue indefinitely. Both he and Dr Allan Boesak have been
arrested twice while engaging in peaceful protest.
So far the protesters have achieved a major victory. No
matter what De Klerk and the newly-convened parliament will
say to the world now, police reaction to the defiance
campaign after the elections will be a much clearer indicator
to the over-optmistic West of this government's future
direction.
---
* Origin: AlterNet, Node1 (Opus 1:163/113)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | (3/12/24/9600 Baud)
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-