ONE OF the organisations within the TUC which has been greater prominence by the NUM 'Mainstream'. Because Mainstream has as its vice chair Prendergast - the co-leader with Lynk of the Notts split.
chairperson Mainstream Terry Duffy TEIT cene ete by fight in AUEW's decision take funds nde AleM and EETPU the chief of Mainstream although only the EETPU Notts breakaway affiliated as a wuole.
claims members from the edeKu raam0n LIEDTS, for the Liberals and SNP certain constituencies Ine Calll The Guardian for an Alliance SLADOU more significant Frank Chapple Cee o a voe for SDP candidate John Grant Islington, Roy Grantham general secretary of APEX, issued a call for a vote for a series Liberal candidates well as Labour. Following Grant's defeat the general election apponted nicer first SDP appointment in a Hla O1 ul.
Mainstream nade no statement last week tha1 Prendergast would be removed from his position in the event of a break with the NUM and the TUC. Un ine con trary Prendergast expressed confidence to the press that even if the breakaway were placed outside the TUC it would remain wilt Mainstream. of Ihe chief forces been consolidating their links on policy with the smaller managers and uitra-skilled white collar British Association of Colliery Management (BACM)
followed the AUEW and EETPU in defying TUC policy and applying for governmen money to und postal ballots Other unions reported by the Financial In September 1983 the SDP achieved its first suc cess in gaining a formal meeting with a union when the leadership of the National Association of Schoomasters and Union of Women Teachers agreed to meet Owen. the same month the NALGO executive voted by a narrów majority to meet the SDP leader.
In addition to these specitic forma contacts with union leaderships Owen helped maintain his relations with individual leaders after the 1983 election through his Times last Saturdas likely to apply for Tory funds for ballots are the and Man.
Association, the British Airline Pilots' Association, the merchant shipping officers association NUMAST, and the top civil servants union the First Division Association. These latter organisations have combined membership wILi the BACM, of 101,000.
Finally the EETPU is now prepared to make contact with other parely union busting organisations as well as Prendergast and Lvnk.
"Professiona|
ociation of Teachers', the 34,000 stong antiorganisation education, announced on Friday that it would be having talks with the EETPU over how to apcontinuing membership of the Labour Committee for Transatlantic Understanding. Other acaDers this committee included Frank Chapple, Terry Duffy, Sirs : of the ISTC Kate Losinska of the CPSA Gerry Eastwood of the Association of Patternmakers and Allied Craftsmen.
which also included foreign secretary Lord Stewart and former
THE POLICY of the Reagan inistration has been okescreen to hide total complicity Pretoria. Morenver, the listic' declarations by government danes mce esen kareretul fact that the essential thing for them safeguarding the imperialist ests in the country by maintaining stability of the present regime.
ester Crocker, US under-secretary ate for African affairs, outlined the administration's 'In South Africa, country in this region, it is not up to us o choose between Blacks and whites. in this rich state, inhabited by such a iverse and talented population, imporant Western interests are at stake in the aconomic and strategic spheres, as well ne moa or Donucal. are not to undertake any action that pouid aggravate the terrible ditficulties ifflicting South Africans, regardless of heir race.
This policy no longer has the.con"dence of a section of the American suling class. But wildi dIc casons for this evolution?
The fact is that the US Congress decisions come after an unprecedented psurge of anti-apartheid ions in the United States. osember 1984, a continual sit-in has een maintained in front of the South \frican embassy in Washington. At the time, agitation deausi retoria regime has been assuming a road scope on several university camand eleven municipal governnents have decided to break off their inancial relations with US companies stablished in South Africa.
There is no doubt that the Congress nok account oi these moduisanons, as ell as of the pressures brought to bear South Africa and solutions aimed at acification in southern Africa. In both ble The elections for the 'coloured' ad 'Indian' chambers were met with nobilisations and strikes of the opSecause they no longer believe in this inforcement of the pro-South African ISIHAA Geif Oil's installations in the province COCAIS CuCE y for a new wave of US investment in egola and Mozambique and to enable chiered because of the extent of the patradictions at work, the upsurge of arlem of human rights, that underlie Dada miserable radicalisation a sulule infound one.
policy the DOS LIOI the dominant Moreover, on meeting of major stituted in South Africa We must take Wing:
British - Shell, Rio Tinto Zinc;
the real Urban ATACAS meeting was by former Prime Heath attended mobilisa- preacher Leon Sullivan.
Since There first big Saxon origin SUILI "verligte"("enlightened") "verkrampte"
MUIC Palulalld bourgeois currents.
anticlil o voco lne The imperialist governments have realised that South Africa may now be plunged into a situation of large-scale social confrontations accompanied by of the Black population. The sort of threats Fabius made are only anomner mudaleq move that indicates that the imperialists are looking for a solution but have not The debates in the US Congress and LaKCll bv the French authorities are at least indicative of the concerns felt in some imperialist circles.
7-8 March 1985, British, US and South African companies took place in Leeds Castle in Britain. On this occasion, all these charming people had to discuss the reforms that had to be inAccording to the financial Times the companies involved were the followCaltex, MIODII. General Motors, Control Data, and Merks;
BP, GEC, Barclays, South African Barlow Rand, Anglo Vaal, and South Foundation. reportedly presided over Minister Edward by AnICnCau The debate is a constant one within the South African bourgeoisie itself.
of all, differences among the Liberals and nationalists, which partially reflect the division betfinance capital of Anglothe Afrikaaner bourgeoisie. Then, on top of this, there between the ("hard line") wings of the nationalist camp, between those who want to propose some face-lifting that the two traditional alignments in the white bourgeoisie are evolving. The Botha regime has been obliged to adjust on the political and social level to major changes in the South African industrial structure and economy over the cepted 'liberal' measures such as granting new rights to unions, it has had to order to contam a growine mass movement. It is, thus, the objective situation that is forcing the regime to try to feel its way, seeking to combine some major developments in the country, however, is not a simple task when the reforms are coming too late and the mass movesclidiol. ment is advancing steadily. All this is little by little upsetting the traditional ror the moment there is a regroupment "at the centre"
LUIlmore and more inclined to flirt with a wing of the Black movement. But this fluid since we are now seeing a sort of nemannaanon or lok cesae lr the imperialist camp itself, there is now ana a cient to explain the sudden eruption of these discussions is a political dispute put pressure on Pretoria to calm ine situation down. dt is to coopt a part of the Black movement and divert it. it l5 to divide the movement and hitch a section of it to a long-term perspective of a begun this work of division. Edward Kennedy's trip to South Africa early in Reverend Allan Boesak, was one of the organisers of this junket. where Boesak lives, the UDF organisec a public meeting with Kennedy. Winnie was also one of the supporters of this tour, and she accepted a bust of John F. Kennedy from the US support the Kennedy operation, it did either. Tutu explained, for his part, that the demonstrations gave de facto aid and comfort to the federation, the CUSA, part in a meeting with Kennedy.
rorum Committee and some unons regarded the senator as an imperialist agent and did not support this operaOscar Mpetha, the chair of the UDF, refused to share a platform among the various currents. amone the an operation suçn as ene Kennedy trip was well timed to exacerFrom Paris to Washington, what the imperialists are interested in now is dividing the mass movement and consolidating a moderate current around the churches and a section of the UDE. All the speechifying about economic sanctions against South Africa is a necessary phase in this strategy was involved Ever since the question of boycott raised, racist regime responded by explaining that what was was an Com munist plot against South Moreover, the main victims of a boycott would be the Black workers themselves The US administration was also
To justify its government financed a study by Professor Laurence Schlemmer of the Institute of Social Research at the University of Natal in South Africa on the attitude of the Blacks in the country the withdrawal Not unexpectedly, this study came to the conclusion that three fourths of Blacks are opposed to disinvestment. This finding, however, disputed to a large extent by another academic, Herman Giliomee, of the University of the Cape and by a series of articles in the independent press.
The imperialists and their retainers their hands about created by the multinationals. They pretend not to know that these companies invest in the country of apartheid for reasons that have to do with the rate of profit. The rate of profit has begun to drop sharply, and it is not the boycott campaign but simply capitalism that are the reason why foreign companies their capital. None of these companies is worried about the unemployment this is producing.
The economic crisis now gripping South Africa is sharply reducing the possibilities of a number of companies to rake in superprofits. Ford and Coca Cola have announced that they are going to trim their interests African companies . SEVEN holders.
Carolina clothing manufacturer, alla high-technology Perkin Elmer, have sold off all their holdings. Several such as Associated British Foods and ICL, have done the same.
Disinvestment According to The Economist, more inan tnirty American companies have withdrawn South 1980. All this is mainly due to the recession, and nobody in the capitalist world has had anything to say about its consequences for the jobs of Blacks.
Another argument that is generally used to justify and defend investment in South Africa is that the foreign companies bring a positive pressure to bear on working Codes of Conduct' itiated to favour such a policy. One example the Sullivan American companies.
known for a long time that these rules have seldom been followed, if at all.
A recent report on the 107 British idy to pick up this argument. George companies working In hultz, speaking on April 16 to the points up the number of violations of tional Press Club in Washington, ex- the EEC ined that sanctions would lead us to pay less than the subsistence wage to effective that would 1,700 of their employees. lengthen the resistance to change pay less than the EEC bre than the forces of reform.' He wage to about 9,000 of their workers. ded: "There has been more change in Among twenty out of 107 companies recognise the Moreover, à report of notes that the number of workers paid less than the subsistence wage is now growing.
All these facts do not do much to confirm any "positive" effects for the Black workers of the operations of foreign companies in South Africa.
position, ine US of foreign has been jobs the laws of withdrawing in South OCCOLLIE North Blue firm, companes Africa since conditions and the laws were in fact inCode for But is has been THE USU South Africa tories, code. Seven firms reportedly ly in Thirty-nine all." recommended commerce and industry April 1984, it declared "FOSATU as a trade union organisation which is concerned with jobs and the livelihood of its members has to give careful consideration to the question of disinvestHowever, it is FOSATU's considered view that the pressure disinvestment has had a positive effect and should therefore not be lessened. FOSATU is definitely foreign investment that accepts the conditions of oppression maintained this regime. FOSATU is, however, also clear that its own focus of attention be the building workers' that can set the terms of foreign investment and ultimately ensure that the facmachines and buildings presentSouth Africa will be retained in Sputh Africa to the ultimate benefit of The other aspect of the problem up for discussion in the trade union and tion for the The for opposed dustries by Peace of a strong substituting political movement is the argument that attributes to the boycott a positive funcdevelopment of African capitalism in the narrow sense.
example generally given is the 'Rhodesia' of lan Smith's time. After the British took a certain number measures designed to force their rebel colony to yield, we saw the development of a whole series of substitution inand the development Rhodesian industrial bourgeoisie.
In the imperialist camp itself comments have been made that the embargo on shipments of oil and arms to South Africa has already enabled the country to develop two major import industries. The chemical complex makes it possible for Pretoria to convert coal into petroleum arms exporter.
the inflows arguments. GM COOKSON total boycott of the South Photo:
as manganese.
the country. So, governments and the It is the Solidarity vestments South true. for example, of keeping African fuel.
of a branches French banks are financing projects or theid. should be set jective, in any case, is utopian. Sasol workers' that they throw this system.
bourgeois Democratic governments. products, and the country is now an The argument that the boycott aids the local bourgeoisie, however, is a fee. ble one. In fact, it has been possible for South Africa to compensate in this way only because the boycott has not halted of foreigr capital technological inputs into South Africa.
The movement in solidarity with the oppressed people of South Africa does not have to get involved in economists' think Whic moreover, that we are going to see a real South Africar economy by the imperialist countries What is more, it has to be realised that a real boycott would have as bad effects for the world imperialist economy as Africa alone. The latter is, fact, the Western world's major sup plier of gold. It is also the major sup plier of rare metals such as platinum and palladium and strategic ones such La strangling of the racist regime could in the very short term open up a revolutionary situation Ine imperialist multinationals have no interest in a real boycott.
not therefore very useful to have a debate on the effects that such a boycott could have, if, by some miracle Never came to deplore apartheid to that extent.
The question of the boycott has to be looked at from a political point of view. Any such campaign is a way to show the complicity of the imperialists with the racist state and the fact that apartheid is fundamentally an instrument of capitalist superexploitation.
The first objective of boycott campaigns is, therefore, to denounce the inmultinationals South Africa and to show that only the pressure of the mass movement - ano not any human-rights ethics of such companies — can force them to retreat.
In some cases, boycott campaigns can be very easily linked to the needs of the workers' movement itsell. This is as regards South African shipments of coal to countries such as Great Britain and France, where the authorities are closing pits : while up their imports of South The banks can also be easily exposed by showing that the South African British, American, military Dens useu channels through which industrialists can place investments in South Africa for a while and exploit all the advantages of aparThese are the sort of aims that for the boycott campaigns, and not that of strangling the local economic system. The latter obIt is necessary above all to link such concrete support campaigns the and people's organisations that are fighting in South Africa. Both things can be done at once because the problem is not to convince the racists should "democratise' the society. It is to help the oppressed overIn this way, boycott campaigns can be kept clear of the demagogy of democrats anu Social A boycott serves no purpose unless it is a means for the workers' and anti-imperialist
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pres poen him oof the EETP S the
'Fair Votes' inginged formel
South Africa in the last four years than in the thirty before.'