SOVIET LEADER Mikhail Gorbachev has stepped úp the pressure for a nuclear-free Europe deal with his latest proposals for immediate talks on the removal of short-range missiles. During his speech in Prague on Friday 10 April, Gorbachev declared: *we are in favour of moving towards a radical reduction and eventual abolition of all short-range and This latest move has created some contradictions in Ronald Reagan's administration, but the problems posed for greater. CAROL TURNER explains.
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and holding meetings to spread the action transport, the Black Staff Association. truck driver. ACTION AGAINST the new South African law banning any protest against detention •On 10 April it became a crime punishable by up to 10 years in jail, to even call for the release of thousands of detainees, or to solidarity with, or in honour of' a detainee.
The opposition to these new measures was swift Even church leaders called on the people to defy the law by wearing 'Release the detainees' T shirts and by putting up 'Free the Childien' stickers In Cape Town, Archbishop Tutu defied the law at a church service attended by 750 and called for the government to release the detainees. In the face of such widespread defiance, Pretoria was forced to exempt prayers from the list of offences. Other aspects of these new laws are currently being challenged on However the massive rail and transport workers strike has not been given the same international pres coverage. Over 20,000 railworkers have been on strike since mid-March. They are rapidly rallying others in telecommunications workers. In the mines, as the first stage of a campaign decided by the February conference of the NUM, the wives and families of Landau colliery workers have moved into the single. sex hostel in defiance of the Group Areas Act.
The strike of the South African railway workers in the Transvaal has inflicted massive damage on the economy of the state which includes the major Businesses are heavily dependent on the South African Transport Services (SATS), a state-owned monopoly which Over 2000 containers have piled up at 23 depots. The passenger service is in chaos after a walk-out by guards and ticket collectors at over 60 stations. More than 50 railway coaches have been sabotaged and a section of the line near Soweto has been bombed in response to a vicious police attack on strikers. Truck drivers who deliver containers have unloaded them at access gates to prevent white seab drivers from Railway strikes are strictly illegal. But this has not stopped a united show of strength by over 20,000 Seven hundred workers strategic Jan Smuts airport have come out in supPorkers Union (SARHWL) which is leading the ac- The South African Railway and Harbour tion has also won the support of its sister union in the public sector, the Postal and Telecommunications Union. POTSA is on strike in Johannesburg The rail strike, which began on 19 March, is the biggest public sector dispute ever. Its strength reflects the political developments of SARHWU as a na. tional union, and the collapse of the bosses' union in The strike was triggered off by the sacking of a The action has developed into a recognition struggle and a protest against the wages and appalling conditions in the single-sex compounds where many railway workers are forced te live. Anglo American Mines workers in the Transvaal recently moved their wives and families into the hostels at the Landau Colliery in a campaign to end this racist hostel system. The action has been highly
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tactical missiles in Europe.' He elaborated this offer during George Shultz's three-day visit to Moscow.