MANNE DIPICO is a South African Nati Unlon of Mineworkers (NUM) agional org He was the second meraber, wit plained to Socialist Action the conditions in Soci printing the first part of the interview this week. W will be continued in our aext issue.
Is worse than any country.
When South Africa South Africans. imple, to these minerals.
were allowonly manual or to the mines themselves. The 101their COUL tries. So was forcing us to on the mining They the time ther everyone was rushing to the mines. There was no alternative source of income.
The mines were the only source of employment.
In going to the mines, where. they their families lived. legislation was introduced that the men union pr doxlatsi, of the NUM's delegation to al Mineworkers Organisation confere at the end of November. Dipico vividly co Africa's mines and the strategy of the NUM. We are The govern ment the hundreds of Wasted for months contract.
the bound boomerang So they destabilised the family who learn the handed the dog or twenty There is no privacy The Diseases not even The only way describe the food is junk'. People eat juid to fill their stomachs not to get nourishment. The food is such low quality.
With such appalling food BO-CONCIL medical facilities, disease and il health are common.
The working conditions are equally bad. On safety, most of the accidents are were never recorded. People didn't know he canes through which to take them cidents evere un recorded. It муси усту schous vou said vou were insured. the employer would vou somewnere out of ine way to keep you quiet. If said wère satisfied they dismiss you. It's as simple as that. Th employer had total control and kept the mines closed to - the tolera houses make the miners pay families and at the same In reality, the man is not in a position to teed his to say to his children? Why With no way to express beaten into submission, to China at stemming the tide of the street actions. nine non-students are still being held demonstrations in For four weeks students across China have gone into the streets to express their demands for 'democracy' and 'press freedom'. The protests started in Hefei on 9 December. They spread to Shanghai - where tens of thousands took to the streets — and to eight other cities. On 23 December 3,000 marched Shanghai colleagues. Some wall posters put up in Beijing originated in Hefei, suggesting a degree of coordination between quite disThe student movement has been criticised by People's Daily. The authorities in Beijing and Shanghai introduced restrictive regulations aimed He Donchang, vice-minister of the Education Commission, appointed to lead an investigation, told a press conference on 30 December that most of the students who had taken part in demonstrations had been patriotically showing their enthusiasm for reform, that no students had been arrested and that none had violated the constitution.
Twenty-four students who were arrested in Beijing on 1 January were soon released, though The background to these events is clear. The upsurge has its roots in the shift in government leadership under Deng Xiaoping, ten Central government investment in agriculture has been reduced by 50 per cent since 1978 and private production encouraged. During the same period there has been a 35 per cent inIn October 1984, associated measures were in. troduced into industry. Statistics for the first half of 1985 indicate a 23 per cent increase in industrial Simultaneously with this the government opened China up to foreign investment, expanded trade and accompanied this with an openly reactionary cher and the EEC, for a period for the Pinochet regime in Chile, and included China's brutal invaInternally, the economic measures were ac-