what this means. It does not mean that sections of the white ruling class think it may be more profitable to abolish apartheid as such. None stand for any system of one person one vote and the right of blacks to the land held by the white settlers. Big capital think that the offering of radical reforms and concessions within the framework of maintaining intact the apartheid state might he more ettective in heading oft the present upsurge of the black masses than using more and more military repression. They favour only limited transformations of the economic British The same applies to the sections of the US and British ruling class which beginning raise the issue of reform of apartheid. The problem is that they don't know what such concessions would be. They simply think it should be the minimum necessary to head off the rising rebellion but at the same time to hold the foundations of the apartheid state intact.
This framework means that possible pontical comprises perialism could propose are rather narrow. Meanwhile PW Botha's National Party remains convinced that any partial concessions would simply have the chec or Tanning cne rames or ine South African revolution 'constitutional reform' of dramatically indicated. And at present the majority of the white population rather evidently agrees with Botha.
The attitude of Botha's white base is perhaps shown up most clearly on the relatively straightforward issue of the demand for the release of imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela. Whereas У0 per cent of blacks demand his realise without contentions. whites oppose his release under any circeptable to the whites, and be sufficient to head off the present wave of black revolt. This is what the imperialists are real African ruling class. But whether they can get it is altogether another matter.
class united in its opposition to the end of the apartheid state, and with a virpopulation as a whole, the question of armed struggle and the violent overenormous mass struggle in the cities and in the countryside, it is also the case that black people have to build their The Economist recently has taken the apartheid regime in the present upsurge can easily be overestimated if it is forgotten that the South African state is armed to the hilt, with a loyal army, and the black masses at present have to largely rely on sticks, stones and petrol the imSocialist It is elementary for British socialists to defend the right of black people of South Africa to arm themselves, and to the fight gun in hand. Indeed we give them 1983 every encouragement in doing so. Fortunatelv arallIst virtual v regime in the world is the legitimacy of armed action so widely accepted against South Africa.
But the entire key to the revolutionary struggle in South Africa finally lies in the black which has to beable to come forward to lead the nation in the struggle against of apartheid.
The whole aim of the white ruling the cities. Boom working class is now 8-9 million strong These unions and throughout They really dustrial struggles in the early 1980s. All these company bosses. develops directly general the strikes and struggles led by these unions had an dustrial character.
OLICI mass stay aways working class itself, UDF, the community bantustans, apartheid hoped to prevent stable forms of working class organisation developing among black people in This policy failed mainly due to the economic boom of the late 1950s and tion. 1960s and the increased need for skills — which demanded a stable workforce.
As a result the black urban and mining black working class.
The On this basis the most lasting feature of the black upsurges of the 1970s was the mushrooming growth of the indepen dent black and non-racial trade unions. nation;
grew out or the specifically industrial struggle — beginning with the Durban strikes in 1973 Soweto events. stabilised themselves through the even greater waves of inindustrial struggles necessarily involve direct confrontation with apartleid and not just with the This dynamic because the discriminatory labour legislation, and Theory the attempts to use the apartheid state and its laws to smash strikes. But in class in essentially inHowever with the new upsurge of the mass struggle against apartheid the activities of the unions increasingly interlock with the mass national liberation struggle. The highest point of this interconnection has been seen with the - for example the stay away in the Vaal area south of Over Johannesburg in November last year socialist ones. which was organised collectively by the Will organisations and the independent trade unions. This was one of the most effective actions can be certain. organised against apartheid in the curbecome virtual no-go areas with barricades and militarily organised exclusion of the apartheid police and army. The local 'separate' administrations of the black areas have been dismantled by the blacks themselves. Only five of the 38 black local councils established in the 1983 reforms continue to funcBlack collaborators have been driven out of their posts. And in all these developments we see more and more clearly the leading role of the Broad of the South African revolution is clear. The black working class must place itself at the head of the It must carry through the destruction of the apartheid state — a destruction that can only be achieved through violent revolution. Through this struggle it must fight to transfer political power into the hands of the black working class and peasants. Only by these means can even the democratic ment revolution in South Africa be carried through to conclusion in every aspect including the transfer of land to the black majority and the achievement of person the task of national liberation.
But the arrival of the black working political power necessarily something eise. There is no 'Chinese wall' between the tasks of democratic revolution in South Africa and those of socialism. The conquest of political power by the black South African workers and peasants, along South the axis of the struggle for democracy against the apartheid regime, means the revolution will begin to grow which from the democratic tasks to this struggle to overthrow apartheid result in the creation of a workers state in South Africa? No one That will be determined in struggle itself. But to the degree that Africa can go — including the struggle SOCISIO carrying through the democratic revolution to its conclusion, not making an attempt to skip over it, that will determine the success of the socialist revolution in The carrying through of the transfer of political power into the hands of the workers and peasants -and that means their black majority -that is the strategic line of march of the South African revolution within which all other tasks are situated.
This also determines all organisations claiming to lead the South African revolution are to be judged. The criteria of a correct orientation in South Africa today is not a formal commitment to socialism — still less emphasis on economic struggle. It is a radical and unswerving commitcarrying through the democratic revolution. That is the correct line in South Africa Unequivocal commitment to one vote, the unambiguous understanding that this can only be achieved through the violent overthrow of the apartheid state; ding that the tasks of the democratic revolution can only be fully achieved through the transfer of political power into the hands of the working class. therefore the necessity of the radical destruction of state power of apartheid and the capitalist class, , these are the criteria of a correct strategic line in the African revolution today. All other tasks, including the attack on the economic bastions of the capitalist class will the way for socialism situated within tha political framework and flow out of it.
Only such a political line will ensure the complete destruction of the apartheid state. Only such a political line finally open the way for socialism in South Africa.
Socialist Action 6 September 1985