Brian P Bunting: guardian of the revolution: the role of the left in the NDR
- Authors: Bunting, Brian, 1920-2008
- Date: [2004?]
- Subjects: Bunting, Brian, 1920-2008 , South African Communist Party -- History , African National Congress -- History , Communism -- South Africa , Government, Resistance to -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century , South Africa -- Race relations
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76892 , vital:30634
- Description: “The post-apartheid Left is a group of people whose values and visions go way beyond apartheid, in fact, go right back to the 19th century Europe, in the final analysis, and perhaps even earlier, to people like Marx and Engels and so on, to a vision of an industrial and even post-industrial world, in which human beings would live in harmony without exploitation, without oppression, and not merely without racial exploitation, in other words also without class exploitation, without gender oppression and so on.” - Dr Neville Alexander, May 1997.
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A brutal harvest: The roots and legitimation of violence on farms in South Africa
- Authors: Segal, Lauren
- Date: 1990?
- Subjects: Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Child agricultural laborers -- South Africa , Farms -- South Africa , Violence -- South Africa , Forced migration -- South Africa , South Africa -- Race relations
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/65551 , vital:28809
- Description: Extensive evidence of atrocities committed against black workers on white-owned farms has consistently been uncovered by progressive organisations working in the rural areas in South Africa. The evidence suggests the need for a thorough and systematic investigation of the nature and extent of violence on the farms, as well as a more systematic exposure of the findings. For the most part, the personality of rural South Africa remains a mystery to urban dwellers. The Black Sash and its rural project, the Transvaal Rural Action Committee (TRAC), approached the Project for the Study of Violence to undertake this research and this report was first presented at the Project's seminar programme at the University of the Witwatersrand. Its findings have provoked strong responses from the farming sector. Kobus Kleyhans, the Deputy Director, General Services of the South African Agricultural Union (SAAU), was quoted in The Star as saying, ‘According to my observations, the situation (on the farms) is quite different. I reject these findings with contempt; they are nothing near the real situation... I will not deny, that some farmers do not treat their workers as they should, but this sort of information is not representative’. (The Star; October 1990) In reply, it should be emphasised that firstly, while this study was conducted only in the South Eastern Transvaal, the case studies in this report are not isolated incidents but were selected out of a large range of similar occurrences in the area. Secondly, rural advice offices in the Western and Northern Transvaal, have reported similar cases of violent abuse of labourers on white owned farms in their areas. Although the specific contours of the communities in these regions have not been investigated, some of the case studies directly corroborate the findings of this report. The timing of this report is opportune as it coincides with President De Klerk’s announcement that the Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 are to be abolished. These Acts have been pivotal in forging and determining the violent and exploitative relations on the land. The announcement is therefore welcomed as a significant step towards creating the conditions for changing the balance of power on the land. At the same time, this report serves as a warning against the belief that the scrapping of the Land Acts will put an end to the varying forms of violence on the farms. Just as repealing these laws will not necessarily ensure equitable redistribution of the land in South Africa, so too do they not necessarily signal a move towards more equitable labour relations on white farms. This report makes this clear in three ways. Firstly, the racist attitudes and convictions of many white farmers is shown to underpin much of the violence on the farms. These attitudes will prevail well after the scrapping of the Acts. A reversal of these attitudes will only take place after a lengthy educative process undertaken by groups such as the local churches, the South African Agricultural Union, the Rural Foundation etc. Secondly, it is the very fear of white farmers and their increasingly vulnerable position, that has contributed to a growing pattern of abusive behaviour against farmworkers. The strength of the opposition of hundreds of white farmers to the scrapping of the Land Acts was demonstrated in their march on the union buildings just after the announcement was made. Thirdly, the networks that have contributed - directly and indirectly - to the violence on the farms, such as the courts and police, are still firmly entrenched in the rural areas. For these reasons, a campaign against against farmworker abuse is more pertinent than ever before. We are calling for several steps to be taken. , Revised Edition
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Coloured labour relations and political organisation: past developments and a scenario
- Authors: Natherson, R
- Date: 1988-11
- Subjects: Industrial relations -- South Africa , South Africa -- Race relations , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66392 , vital:28944 , ISBN 0797202048
- Description: The rise and development of ‘Coloured’ labour relations and political organisations form the central theme of this study. These two areas of South African contemporary history have received comparatively little attention for a number of reasons. Not the least of these is the controversial issue of whether or not it is justifiable or accurate to treat ‘Coloureds’ as a separate and identifiable group apart from the black majority. The term ‘Coloured’ as used in the South African context refers to those people often described in other societies as of mixed race, mulattos or half-castes. Within this study the term ‘Coloured with a capital C and hereafter without apostrophes is used to avoid confusion with ‘coloured1 meaning black. Black is used in the general sense of all those people not being White. The impact of organized Coloured politics, however, has been greater than their minority status would suggest, especially in the Cape, and in particular in the Western Cape, where most of the people described as Coloured live. When Coloured political mobilization started in the 1890’s, it centered in Cape Town. The founding of the first successful Coloured political movement, the African Political Organization (APO), marked the start of successful black political mobilization on a national scale in South Africa. Other Coloured organisations which emerged after the APO made important contributions to the tactics and ideologies of Black political leaders. Coloured intellectuals in the 1940’s propagated the principle of non-collaboration with segregatory political institutions, implemented through the tactic of the boycott, a strategy employed to good effect by contemporary Black organisations. This study is divided into three main sections. Chapters 1 and 2 trace the origins of the labour history in which past and present day developments in the industrial relations system can be viewed in relation to the political, industrial and economic systems that have evolved within South Africa since the occupation of the Western Cape by the Dutch in 1652. The initial contact between these Europeans and the indigenous inhabitants of the Cape developed a relationship which determined the pattern of interaction between Black and White South Africans the major traces of which have still remained until today. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 deal with the early history of the Coloured people, their industrial and political organisations prior to the watershed year of South African Industrial Relations, 1979, whereafter a more generalised view is adopted in order to trace the broad trends which have emerged with the new labour dispensation and its industrial enfranchisement of the Black worker. The remaining chapters concentrate on Coloured participation within the Industrial and Political arenas, particularly in the Western Cape, and offer substantiation for the postulate of a new political grouping based on socialist principles and having a similar trend in terms of its origins to that of the British Labour Party at its birth at the turn of this century. It is concluded that this grouping would be a natural home for the ‘stateless’ Coloured, and ideologically and politically would offer coherence and structure to the disparate groupings within the United Democratic Front (UDF) and form the most potential, Western Cape based political party ‘in waiting'. , This occasional paper is based on the technical report which received the Finansbank award for 1987
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AZASO: tribute to women
- Authors: AZASO Western Cape Region
- Date: 1983?
- Subjects: Tamana, Dora , Anti-apartheid movements -- South Africa , Women civil rights workers -- South Africa , Anti-apartheid activists -- South Africa , South Africa -- Race relations
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66212 , vital:28918
- Description: As women in South Africa, it is important for us to understand the nature of our oppression, for it is only after understanding it, can we identify the target of our attack and plan the appropriate strategy and tactics for our struggle. Black women in South Africa suffer three types of oppression. 1. Political oppression, which is common to all blacks in South Africa, ie. the denial of rights to vote for or choose the type of government we want, and the denial of rights as a people in South Africa. 2. Economic oppression as black workers in South Africa. Black women workers are even more exploited than men workers. They are paid lower wages for the same job, are treated as temporary staff and can be fired at anytime especially if they fall pregnant. 3. Social oppression which stems from the idea that women are born inferior to men and therefore have to play an inferior role in society. The socialization process starts at birth and women and men are geared towards certain roles in society. Men most often towards leadership positions and professional jobs and women towards household duties and secretarial jobs. This socialization process continues throughout ones life such that most people accept it as a natural phenomenon and a way of life. Having understood the forms of oppression, we can see that the struggle is not between men and women, where men are seen as the source of our oppression. Nor is it a struggle for mechanical equality between men and women ie. being paid the same wages as men, and having equal status as men in society, because this will mean equality within the present status quo. Our struggle is a struggle between womenand the existing social order. It is a struggle of the oppressed against oppression. Our main weapons in the struggle for liberation are UNITY and ORGANISATION. Unity is realised through common effort, links are forged through collective work and study, through criticism and self-critcism and through action against opression. Organization can be achieved through women's groups and organization. A women's group's first demand should be the clarification of our ideas, to get rid of miscosepts and erroneous ideas concerning the role and liberation of women. A women's group usually tackles the question of social oppresion, but more important, it must be seen as a stepping stone towards involvement in the broader struggle can we destroy the foundations of exploitative society and rebuild society on new foundations. Foundations built on the demands of the FREEDOM CHARTER. “The fundamental struggle is for national liberation of the oppressed people of South Africa, and any women's organization that stands outside this struggle must stand apart from the mass of women. What was realised by the Federation of South African Women was that it would be impossible for women to achieve their rights as women in a society in which so many fundamental rights are denied to both men and women by virtue of their colour and their class. Therefore just as there can be no revolution without the liberation of women, the struggle for women's emancipation cannot succeed without the victory of the revolution".
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PFP, Progressive Federal Party: the PFP stands for-
- Authors: Progressive Federal Party (South Africa)
- Date: 19--?
- Subjects: Progressive Federal Party (South Africa) , South Africa -- Parliament , Apartheid -- South Africa , Political parties -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government , South Africa -- Race relations
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76277 , vital:30530
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