daily lives. year more than 400 people Since August the police or military. This have died at the hands is the regime's answer to those who refuse to accept state president value - that is the millions 'reforms' of blacks longer governed by a governmen tolerate hey never electec All over there against apartheid. But demonstra- the tions, even the most milihont, are not enougSouth fighting people of place of last ment black centre struggle their face the stay-away who can Day being which the with ocratic demonstrations Cape brutality of theid has the such in only moveWith the rise of the pages) unions the black (see not last November, the huge May in United Demthe Azapo, Front League united action against apar- Action Broad South Africa must travel. shows imvoted for of sanc the -as Senate play no decisive role. minds. In the end it was too fresh in our By Charlie van Gelderen fighting units of the libera- sanctions but which brought tion forces down Smith. We must also beware that Reagan may use the passing increased against defeat of the revolution in Central America defeat for also be a South African revolution workers are already suffering from a 25 ing incomes and increased unemployment rate, pressive laws of apartheid. taxation, the to the ILO conference in Geneva last year stresses that the recession is hur- The report ting the black workers: In practice, black workers are forced to make what, for sanc contributions them. maintenance of the aparsanctions turn, refuses them a voice theid system would and economic policies.
the membership of unions. . Trans- The black per cent fall the op- evidence mon sight. intimidated that it alone are very significant the which, in the shaping of financial . It a surge in strikes and black lives -urgent government has all the Road blocks know They and they is they the final battle. Neither terror who can WIll black freedom fighters of Solidarity with the • including most urgently those facing frame-up is one of the most trials for their
What alliances should make to win their demands? This question, as old as the struggle for women's liberation itself, will be asked by many women again after the experiences they have gone through in the recent period.
It is a question posed very concretely for those in the Women's Action Committee of the Labour Party — who have fought hard for greater representation for women within che labour movement only to find that men win once again when it comes to the crunch at latest round of re-selections. remain the runners up. alliances is of concern to women in the peace movement. It is a burning issue tor women in the mining communities who have to wait until July to know wielden their Lenichous tions in the strike will be rewarded by associate membership of the NUM.
The first task in consolidating any alliance is the organisation of women Barnsley in at the back.
moyement demands of the Hmmeline wnere Women contribu- Christobel labour movement must go to blacks and women and 'fit in' with them. This the NUM began to do at its march in May for example when Take up that Christabel movement Emmeline the battle for But they were 'LADIES OF Great Britain, we are clever, we are efficient, we are trustworthy, we are twice the women that our grandmothers were, but we have not enough devil in us...
Wherever one gets a gathering of women socialists, one gets a programme of such charity gifts from the State as free meals and school clinics for children: excellent things, but discontentedly as niggardly instalments of a long-due debt.
children grow up in servitude. A slave is more of a slave when he is well fed than when he is hungry.' Rebecca West: 'Women and Wages: Blacklegging and Timidity' from The Clarion, 18th October 1912.
The 1985 Labour Women's Agenda provides us with yet another programme of timid demands for charity gifts from the State, which Rebecca West satirized as far back as 1912. Not timid demands made of Thatcher's State, mind you, but - rather more weaki - of the much longed-for 'future Government' often mentioned in resolumany minimal demands: for dangerous unless taken They should watch such things critically lest their "target' seats for individual males thereby excluding open competition with women; of women with a number of nomination being excluded from final all-male shortlists; of having to face discriminatory questioning bv ces and branches:
retusing consider women on ne A and 'B' lists on the grounds Who we are.. the overwhelming majority of those forty-four Labour MP's who gave support to
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funeral procession get shot on the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, it sends a wave of revulsion around the world. But for the black people of South Africa violent death and state tyranny is part of their organised labour
Africa need active support in their struggle and, in the
working class is playing an increasingly vital role
demonstrations, unions joined
In the United States the senate foreign committee
mediate package tions against South Africa.
The memory of 'sanc tions against Rhodesia' is
tions against South Africa to strengthen his argument
International working class solidarity is an entire- ly different matter. port workers should refuse
townships. presented
goes on to say that the fal in real incomes prompted
Eastern Cape, the scene of the March massacre, the army is now very much in
and army tents are a com- But the people are not
nor fake reforms will dete them from continuing the fight for freedom.
priorities for the entire labour movement