Work in Progress Issue no.58 - The teenagers of Tumahole
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: April 1989
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111464 , vital:33462
- Description: On January 11, South Africa's minister of home affairs and of communications, Stoffel Botha, warned Work In Progress that an examination of the publication was underway in terms of state of emergency regulations. Over a year before, Botha had warned W/P that unless it ceased 'systematic publication of subversive propaganda', he would act against it. The January 11 warning involved possible closure of W/P for up to six months, or imposing a pre-publication censor - a state official with powers to censor the contents of the publication. Over the next weeks, enormous support was expressed for W/P and its publishing policy. This came from editors of mainstream newspapers, trade unions, political organisations, religious bodies and a host of other interests and organisations. The Congress of South African Trade Unions noted that 'censorship of WIP is a direct attempt to stifle free and open debate, and to prevent the flow of information so vital to the building of democracy'. The National Union of Mineworkers said that 'every issue of W/P that does not come out will be a loss to our members', while the National Council of Trade Unions referred to the publication's 'intelligent and fearless analysis of the political, social and labour trends in our country'. From within the media world, Business Day editor Ken Owen spoke of W/P as a 'reliable, intelligent and ethically impeccable publication', while Tertius Myburgh of the Sunday Times called W/P 'an invaluable source of information which deserves to be heard by all who are interested in serious affairs in South Africa'. Representatives of foreign governments strongly condemned proposed action against W/P and other publications, and a number made direct representations to the South African government. Two weeks after Botha's warning, WIP responded to his threat of closure in a 40-page memorandum dealing with the emergency regulations in general, and the nature of the publication in particular. Botha turned down a suggestion that he meet with a delegation from the publication - and then a blanket of silence descended. By mid-February, two publications warned at the same time as W/P had been suspended for three months, and W/P began pushing Botha to respond to the representations made. Finally, on March 2, Botha's office informed WIP's publishers that no action was being contemplated in terms of the media emergency regulations. It is not for W/P to speculate on why the minister has chosen to act against some publications, and not others. The media emergency regulations involve arbitrary decisions and personal opinion. There is little point in seeking logic within arbitrariness. But it is worthwhile re-stating WIP's position on publishing: that not only do all South Africans have the right to be fully and accurately informed by a wide range of opinions, debates and analyses and reporting. In addition, freedom of speech of its nature guarantees the right of publication - and the right of readers to be exposed to diversity and contradiction. WIP has always been happy to allow readers to make their own choices on the basis of a wide range of information and views. This is the opposite of propaganda, which seeks to impose one view while suppressing others. In this battle for survival with the ministry of home affairs W/P has no doubt which side supports the publication of systematic propaganda. This edition of WIP is unavoidably late - held back until the outcome of the threatened closure had been finalised. No action is currently contemplated against the publication in terms of media emergency regulations at present - although the state still has much in its arsenal. But WIP intends surviving - and sees a long-term future for its publishing programme. One part of this future is financial stability - a crucial component of independent publishing. Ensuring financial stability, together with ever-increasing costs in paper, printing, reproduction and postage have forced W/P to raise its rates. But these increases are modest - way below rates of inflation - and in some cases are the first for over three years. The editors thank all those who supported W/P in its most-recent battle for survival - and look forward to ongoing and increasing support from the most important component of any publication: its readers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: April 1989
- Authors: WIP
- Date: April 1989
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111464 , vital:33462
- Description: On January 11, South Africa's minister of home affairs and of communications, Stoffel Botha, warned Work In Progress that an examination of the publication was underway in terms of state of emergency regulations. Over a year before, Botha had warned W/P that unless it ceased 'systematic publication of subversive propaganda', he would act against it. The January 11 warning involved possible closure of W/P for up to six months, or imposing a pre-publication censor - a state official with powers to censor the contents of the publication. Over the next weeks, enormous support was expressed for W/P and its publishing policy. This came from editors of mainstream newspapers, trade unions, political organisations, religious bodies and a host of other interests and organisations. The Congress of South African Trade Unions noted that 'censorship of WIP is a direct attempt to stifle free and open debate, and to prevent the flow of information so vital to the building of democracy'. The National Union of Mineworkers said that 'every issue of W/P that does not come out will be a loss to our members', while the National Council of Trade Unions referred to the publication's 'intelligent and fearless analysis of the political, social and labour trends in our country'. From within the media world, Business Day editor Ken Owen spoke of W/P as a 'reliable, intelligent and ethically impeccable publication', while Tertius Myburgh of the Sunday Times called W/P 'an invaluable source of information which deserves to be heard by all who are interested in serious affairs in South Africa'. Representatives of foreign governments strongly condemned proposed action against W/P and other publications, and a number made direct representations to the South African government. Two weeks after Botha's warning, WIP responded to his threat of closure in a 40-page memorandum dealing with the emergency regulations in general, and the nature of the publication in particular. Botha turned down a suggestion that he meet with a delegation from the publication - and then a blanket of silence descended. By mid-February, two publications warned at the same time as W/P had been suspended for three months, and W/P began pushing Botha to respond to the representations made. Finally, on March 2, Botha's office informed WIP's publishers that no action was being contemplated in terms of the media emergency regulations. It is not for W/P to speculate on why the minister has chosen to act against some publications, and not others. The media emergency regulations involve arbitrary decisions and personal opinion. There is little point in seeking logic within arbitrariness. But it is worthwhile re-stating WIP's position on publishing: that not only do all South Africans have the right to be fully and accurately informed by a wide range of opinions, debates and analyses and reporting. In addition, freedom of speech of its nature guarantees the right of publication - and the right of readers to be exposed to diversity and contradiction. WIP has always been happy to allow readers to make their own choices on the basis of a wide range of information and views. This is the opposite of propaganda, which seeks to impose one view while suppressing others. In this battle for survival with the ministry of home affairs W/P has no doubt which side supports the publication of systematic propaganda. This edition of WIP is unavoidably late - held back until the outcome of the threatened closure had been finalised. No action is currently contemplated against the publication in terms of media emergency regulations at present - although the state still has much in its arsenal. But WIP intends surviving - and sees a long-term future for its publishing programme. One part of this future is financial stability - a crucial component of independent publishing. Ensuring financial stability, together with ever-increasing costs in paper, printing, reproduction and postage have forced W/P to raise its rates. But these increases are modest - way below rates of inflation - and in some cases are the first for over three years. The editors thank all those who supported W/P in its most-recent battle for survival - and look forward to ongoing and increasing support from the most important component of any publication: its readers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: April 1989
Work in Progress Issue no.62/63 - Paths to Power, South Africa and Namibia face the future
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: Dec 1989
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/112045 , vital:33541
- Description: The political map of Southern Africa is being radically redrawn. The most vivid examples of this are the pre- independence elections in Namibia, giving the Namibian people their first opportunity to exercise control over their destiny, and in South Africa the release of the seven jailed ANC leaders by a president whose predecessor swore to let them rot in jail. Even in Angola major shifts are taking place below the surface while the war drags on. Savimbi’s fighters still receive weaponry from their traditional allies, but their Western support is no longer a certainty. Establishment American voices have, for the first time, been raised against his brutal tactics. The East-West, capitalist-communist rivalries that have fostered the 14-year Angolan war are everywhere crumbling. This has been graphically symbolised by the breaching of the Berlin Wall. And as the bricks fall at the Brandenburg Gate, they take with them decades of conventional wisdoms on both sides of the Wall. In Eastern Europe, the idea that socialist economics are an adequate alternative to political democracy has been destroyed, probably permanently. For socialists, the challenge now is to demonstrate that democracy is not, as their foes maintain, the exclusive preserve of capitalist economics. The massive changes in Eastern Europe have not left the West unaffected. And they have for the first time wrought a convergence of United States and Soviet opinion on South Africa that has impacted powerfully on Pretoria. Under FW de Klerk the National Party is now hard at work attempting to restructure both the material conditions under which the process of change takes place and the economics of the society its successors will inherit. Facing a reviving and increasingly confident opposition, the National Party is now led by politicians who recognise that no minority has ever successfully held on to power without facing a revolution. Its attempts at social engineering continue both in the bantustans and in the urban areas, where concessions on group areas serve to reinforce rather than eradicate the physical separation of communities of different races - strengthening De Klerk’s own thrust for a post-apartheid society rooted in'groups' and racial separation. Economically, too, reinforcement of the existing order is underway. Deregulation and privatisation are designed not so much to 'free' the economy, but to weaken the trade union movement in the short term and, in the long term, to entrench capitalist interests so deeply that whoever inherits political power is capable of no more real a transformation than changing the colour of parliament. Nor has De Klerk abandoned his government's traditional policy of divide and rule. Today he is seeking to force a divison between between the military formations of the ANC and what he hopes will become a 'political' ANC, ideally coalesced around the released seven and Nelson Mandela. Within the opposition, however, a significant momentum is developing towards greater rather than lesser unity - both between the ANC and its internal allies and more generally, among the majority of antiapartheid and democratic forces. Despite this, the democratic movement would be foolhardy to ignore the lessons of Namibia. The first of these is that the simple assertion by the popular movements of their representivity is not in itself a guarantee of overwhelming support. Secondly - and this is a message De Klerk’s strategists will have received and understood - that, through the DTA, Pretoria has for the first time succeeded in creating an organisation capable of winning sufficient legitimacy to gain the votes of almost one in three Namibians. * A steady increase in inflation has forced us, reluctantly, to increase the price of WIP - an increase so far limited to subscriptions. Full details are published on the inside back cover of this edition. For this new annual rate, however, subscribers will be getting eight editions rather than the current six - a first step, we hope, to WIP becoming a monthly journal.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Dec 1989
- Authors: WIP
- Date: Dec 1989
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/112045 , vital:33541
- Description: The political map of Southern Africa is being radically redrawn. The most vivid examples of this are the pre- independence elections in Namibia, giving the Namibian people their first opportunity to exercise control over their destiny, and in South Africa the release of the seven jailed ANC leaders by a president whose predecessor swore to let them rot in jail. Even in Angola major shifts are taking place below the surface while the war drags on. Savimbi’s fighters still receive weaponry from their traditional allies, but their Western support is no longer a certainty. Establishment American voices have, for the first time, been raised against his brutal tactics. The East-West, capitalist-communist rivalries that have fostered the 14-year Angolan war are everywhere crumbling. This has been graphically symbolised by the breaching of the Berlin Wall. And as the bricks fall at the Brandenburg Gate, they take with them decades of conventional wisdoms on both sides of the Wall. In Eastern Europe, the idea that socialist economics are an adequate alternative to political democracy has been destroyed, probably permanently. For socialists, the challenge now is to demonstrate that democracy is not, as their foes maintain, the exclusive preserve of capitalist economics. The massive changes in Eastern Europe have not left the West unaffected. And they have for the first time wrought a convergence of United States and Soviet opinion on South Africa that has impacted powerfully on Pretoria. Under FW de Klerk the National Party is now hard at work attempting to restructure both the material conditions under which the process of change takes place and the economics of the society its successors will inherit. Facing a reviving and increasingly confident opposition, the National Party is now led by politicians who recognise that no minority has ever successfully held on to power without facing a revolution. Its attempts at social engineering continue both in the bantustans and in the urban areas, where concessions on group areas serve to reinforce rather than eradicate the physical separation of communities of different races - strengthening De Klerk’s own thrust for a post-apartheid society rooted in'groups' and racial separation. Economically, too, reinforcement of the existing order is underway. Deregulation and privatisation are designed not so much to 'free' the economy, but to weaken the trade union movement in the short term and, in the long term, to entrench capitalist interests so deeply that whoever inherits political power is capable of no more real a transformation than changing the colour of parliament. Nor has De Klerk abandoned his government's traditional policy of divide and rule. Today he is seeking to force a divison between between the military formations of the ANC and what he hopes will become a 'political' ANC, ideally coalesced around the released seven and Nelson Mandela. Within the opposition, however, a significant momentum is developing towards greater rather than lesser unity - both between the ANC and its internal allies and more generally, among the majority of antiapartheid and democratic forces. Despite this, the democratic movement would be foolhardy to ignore the lessons of Namibia. The first of these is that the simple assertion by the popular movements of their representivity is not in itself a guarantee of overwhelming support. Secondly - and this is a message De Klerk’s strategists will have received and understood - that, through the DTA, Pretoria has for the first time succeeded in creating an organisation capable of winning sufficient legitimacy to gain the votes of almost one in three Namibians. * A steady increase in inflation has forced us, reluctantly, to increase the price of WIP - an increase so far limited to subscriptions. Full details are published on the inside back cover of this edition. For this new annual rate, however, subscribers will be getting eight editions rather than the current six - a first step, we hope, to WIP becoming a monthly journal.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Dec 1989
Work in Progress Issue no.54 - COSATU Congress
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: July 1988
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111453 , vital:33460
- Description: If Home Affairs Minister Stoffel Botha did not have so much power, his comments on the media would be funny. A man who seriously suggests that South Africa's progressive media, already restricted in what it may publish by some 100 statutes and reams of often unintelligible emergency restrictions, furthers 'fear, hatred, intimidation, murder, mutilation and other similar evils' is difficult to take seriously.But his powers to close publications are serious. His notion of 'media terrorists' - 'people who are in a position to provide publicity for the revolutionaries' - is easier to understand. For Stoffel Botha is a leader of a political party which has, for 40 years, systematically undermined the most elementary aspects of democracy. He is not really expected to know much about the media's duty and right to inform its readership. Work In Progress remains under threat from state sources which believe that publication of information they do not like is 'media terrorism'. But if its political survival is to some extent out of WIP's hands, its publishers can at least secure its economic future. Readers will have noticed that Work In Progress is being printed on a lighter paper than before. This makes the publication somewhat thinner, although a changed design format allows for more copy per page. Work In Progress has not raised its selling price since January 1985. Indeed, the cost for some categories of readers has actually dropped. Subscriptions were last increased at the end of 1986 - and then only marginally. Inflation has hit all facets of publishing - paper, printing and distribution costs have all jumped each year. Only WIP's ever-growing circulation has enabled its cover price to remain constant. Recently, however, something had to change. Rather than increasing cover price or subscription costs, the publishers decided to print on a cheaper and thinner paper, while upgrading cover quality. Hence a slimmer Work In Progress - but no price increase. Also new in this edition is the inclusion of a number of short briefs. This is a section the editors hope to expand and improve in the future - Stoffel Botha and his 'media hit-men' notwithstanding!
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: July 1988
- Authors: WIP
- Date: July 1988
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111453 , vital:33460
- Description: If Home Affairs Minister Stoffel Botha did not have so much power, his comments on the media would be funny. A man who seriously suggests that South Africa's progressive media, already restricted in what it may publish by some 100 statutes and reams of often unintelligible emergency restrictions, furthers 'fear, hatred, intimidation, murder, mutilation and other similar evils' is difficult to take seriously.But his powers to close publications are serious. His notion of 'media terrorists' - 'people who are in a position to provide publicity for the revolutionaries' - is easier to understand. For Stoffel Botha is a leader of a political party which has, for 40 years, systematically undermined the most elementary aspects of democracy. He is not really expected to know much about the media's duty and right to inform its readership. Work In Progress remains under threat from state sources which believe that publication of information they do not like is 'media terrorism'. But if its political survival is to some extent out of WIP's hands, its publishers can at least secure its economic future. Readers will have noticed that Work In Progress is being printed on a lighter paper than before. This makes the publication somewhat thinner, although a changed design format allows for more copy per page. Work In Progress has not raised its selling price since January 1985. Indeed, the cost for some categories of readers has actually dropped. Subscriptions were last increased at the end of 1986 - and then only marginally. Inflation has hit all facets of publishing - paper, printing and distribution costs have all jumped each year. Only WIP's ever-growing circulation has enabled its cover price to remain constant. Recently, however, something had to change. Rather than increasing cover price or subscription costs, the publishers decided to print on a cheaper and thinner paper, while upgrading cover quality. Hence a slimmer Work In Progress - but no price increase. Also new in this edition is the inclusion of a number of short briefs. This is a section the editors hope to expand and improve in the future - Stoffel Botha and his 'media hit-men' notwithstanding!
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: July 1988
Work in Progress Issue no.46 - Striking OK Workers in Class War
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: Feb 1987
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/112034 , vital:33540
- Description: The current state of emergency is into its ninth month. If anything, regulations promulgated during December and January make it more restrictive than before, and recent statements from government ministers suggest that there is no intention of ending emergency conditions at present. With a whites-only election scheduled for 6 May, opposition political parties have protested that the terms of the emergency favour the National Party in the election campaign, and seriously hinder other party efforts. And there is no indication that some of the most repressive aspects of emergency life - long-term detention, comprehensive media censorship, and a blanket ban on all sources of information concerning security force activities unless sanctioned by government - are softening. Government is clearly using emergency powers to undermine and attack serious challenges to its power - the ANC, the trade union movement, popular political organisations, and the embryonic structures of 'people's power' that developed in townships after 1985. But it is important to recognise that the state of emergency is not only being used to attack: it also functions to support and promote some interests and organisations at the expense of others. Organisations like Inkatha and its trade union wing, UWUSA, are benefitting from repression suffered by progressive organisations in Natal. The detention of all leading COSATU trade unionists in Northern Natal, for example, created a space for UWUSA in that area. In East London, government is attempting to create a basis of legitimacy for Duncan Village's newly constituted town council. But this could only happen after the UDF-affiliated Duncan Village Residents Association was severely weakened by police raids and detentions. Strikers involved in the OK Bazaars dispute have been so badly harassed by police that OK management approached government on this question. And government's attempts to silence discussion on the ANC within South Africa, and at the same time wage a propaganda war against that organisation, are greatly helped by emergency provisions. The blanket ban on advertisements calling for the unbanning of the ANC is just one example of this trend. Importantly, then, progressives must not only look at which organisations and interests are being undermined by the state of emergency. They must also ask who benefits. For government and its allies are not just involved in a battle against progressive opposition forces. They are also intervening in an attempt to create, support and direct structures and organisations which are more sympathetic to government's view of the future than any progressive groups will be.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Feb 1987
- Authors: WIP
- Date: Feb 1987
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/112034 , vital:33540
- Description: The current state of emergency is into its ninth month. If anything, regulations promulgated during December and January make it more restrictive than before, and recent statements from government ministers suggest that there is no intention of ending emergency conditions at present. With a whites-only election scheduled for 6 May, opposition political parties have protested that the terms of the emergency favour the National Party in the election campaign, and seriously hinder other party efforts. And there is no indication that some of the most repressive aspects of emergency life - long-term detention, comprehensive media censorship, and a blanket ban on all sources of information concerning security force activities unless sanctioned by government - are softening. Government is clearly using emergency powers to undermine and attack serious challenges to its power - the ANC, the trade union movement, popular political organisations, and the embryonic structures of 'people's power' that developed in townships after 1985. But it is important to recognise that the state of emergency is not only being used to attack: it also functions to support and promote some interests and organisations at the expense of others. Organisations like Inkatha and its trade union wing, UWUSA, are benefitting from repression suffered by progressive organisations in Natal. The detention of all leading COSATU trade unionists in Northern Natal, for example, created a space for UWUSA in that area. In East London, government is attempting to create a basis of legitimacy for Duncan Village's newly constituted town council. But this could only happen after the UDF-affiliated Duncan Village Residents Association was severely weakened by police raids and detentions. Strikers involved in the OK Bazaars dispute have been so badly harassed by police that OK management approached government on this question. And government's attempts to silence discussion on the ANC within South Africa, and at the same time wage a propaganda war against that organisation, are greatly helped by emergency provisions. The blanket ban on advertisements calling for the unbanning of the ANC is just one example of this trend. Importantly, then, progressives must not only look at which organisations and interests are being undermined by the state of emergency. They must also ask who benefits. For government and its allies are not just involved in a battle against progressive opposition forces. They are also intervening in an attempt to create, support and direct structures and organisations which are more sympathetic to government's view of the future than any progressive groups will be.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Feb 1987
Work in Progress Issue no.36
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: April 1985
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111431 , vital:33453
- Description: Police shootings in Uitenhage's Langa township have deepened an already serious crisis of township rule. In rural and urban areas alike, black townships look more like war zones than residential areas. With police and army occupation, and a legal ban on gatherings in areas most affected, the claim of civil war is not far-fetched. Under pressure from organised capital and conservative Western interests, government lurches from blunder to crisis in an attempt to give substance to its 'new deal'. Increasing pressure from a surprisingly united disinvestment lobby in the USA and elsewhere, is matched by a growing international belief that the Botha government cannot deliver even limited reforms. Moderate and conservative Western interests have at last realised that change South African government-style does not necessarily involve progress. While the rebellion of the townships involves attacks on the symbols of political power - police, local authority or community council representatives - the underlying basis of rebellion is increasingly economic. Millions are unemployed. More and more school leavers and boycotting pupils know that they will never be employed. Retrenched workers experience a desperate situation as one-time family breadwinners - with little or no social security, savings, or prospects of employment. Sustained economic recovery seems unlikely without transforming the very nature of the economy. And any containment of the ever-growing township crisis is dependent on high economic growth. Neither world economic trends, nor government's monetarist policies, seem likely to pull the economy out of its fatal combination of high inflation and stagnation. If recession is to be a permanent feature of the next few years, then an increasingly ungovernable crisis-ridden society is a real prospect.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: April 1985
- Authors: WIP
- Date: April 1985
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111431 , vital:33453
- Description: Police shootings in Uitenhage's Langa township have deepened an already serious crisis of township rule. In rural and urban areas alike, black townships look more like war zones than residential areas. With police and army occupation, and a legal ban on gatherings in areas most affected, the claim of civil war is not far-fetched. Under pressure from organised capital and conservative Western interests, government lurches from blunder to crisis in an attempt to give substance to its 'new deal'. Increasing pressure from a surprisingly united disinvestment lobby in the USA and elsewhere, is matched by a growing international belief that the Botha government cannot deliver even limited reforms. Moderate and conservative Western interests have at last realised that change South African government-style does not necessarily involve progress. While the rebellion of the townships involves attacks on the symbols of political power - police, local authority or community council representatives - the underlying basis of rebellion is increasingly economic. Millions are unemployed. More and more school leavers and boycotting pupils know that they will never be employed. Retrenched workers experience a desperate situation as one-time family breadwinners - with little or no social security, savings, or prospects of employment. Sustained economic recovery seems unlikely without transforming the very nature of the economy. And any containment of the ever-growing township crisis is dependent on high economic growth. Neither world economic trends, nor government's monetarist policies, seem likely to pull the economy out of its fatal combination of high inflation and stagnation. If recession is to be a permanent feature of the next few years, then an increasingly ungovernable crisis-ridden society is a real prospect.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: April 1985
Work in Progress Issue no.37 - Unions & Community Organisations in Conflict
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111442 , vital:33457
- Description: South African politics is experiencing rapid realignments. Old and emerging alliances face severe tests in the present climate of recession and revolt. This is as obvious in the realm of popular and trade union politics as it is in the efforts of the extreme right wing to rebuild a power base. It is too easy to see areas of intense social conflict like the Eastern Cape in television-like images of death and street clashes. It is also too easy to attribute control and authority over events to local organisations. This issue of Work In Progress begins with a careful discussion of events surrounding the March stayaway in Port Elizabeth, tracing the organisational conflicts that are now being so bitterly fought out. In the intense stress of that crucible, divisions between trade union, political and community organisations have been carried to an extreme. Whether resolution of these competing organisational interests is possible remains unclear. But it does seem clear that few organisations are in control of members and supporters in the Eastern Cape - and this may be the result of an over-emphasis on political mobilisation, with a consequent neglect of the structures of political organisation. This over-emphasis on mobilisation has sometimes led to a search for simple answers to complex issues. For example, the rising tide of media and government hysteria about effective foreign disinvestment should not conceal the need for South African organisations to evaluate critically the effects of such campaigns at home. As at least some trade unions have found, a progressive policy on disinvestment is more complicated than it at first seems. As the 'Courts' feature in this WIP indicates, there are more treason trials underway in South Africa at present than at any previous time in history. Precisely why the state has chosen this moment to charge 16 UDF leaders in a trial which, on the face of it, deals with activities that were public and above-ground, is not clear. But from other treason trials before the courts, it seems that the ANC's armed struggle continues despite the Nkomati Accord and other similar agreements with Southern African governments. Of particular interest are state allegations that the ANC is training cadres inside South Africa, and that its military campaign includes township supporters who have not undergone specialised training outside South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
- Authors: WIP
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111442 , vital:33457
- Description: South African politics is experiencing rapid realignments. Old and emerging alliances face severe tests in the present climate of recession and revolt. This is as obvious in the realm of popular and trade union politics as it is in the efforts of the extreme right wing to rebuild a power base. It is too easy to see areas of intense social conflict like the Eastern Cape in television-like images of death and street clashes. It is also too easy to attribute control and authority over events to local organisations. This issue of Work In Progress begins with a careful discussion of events surrounding the March stayaway in Port Elizabeth, tracing the organisational conflicts that are now being so bitterly fought out. In the intense stress of that crucible, divisions between trade union, political and community organisations have been carried to an extreme. Whether resolution of these competing organisational interests is possible remains unclear. But it does seem clear that few organisations are in control of members and supporters in the Eastern Cape - and this may be the result of an over-emphasis on political mobilisation, with a consequent neglect of the structures of political organisation. This over-emphasis on mobilisation has sometimes led to a search for simple answers to complex issues. For example, the rising tide of media and government hysteria about effective foreign disinvestment should not conceal the need for South African organisations to evaluate critically the effects of such campaigns at home. As at least some trade unions have found, a progressive policy on disinvestment is more complicated than it at first seems. As the 'Courts' feature in this WIP indicates, there are more treason trials underway in South Africa at present than at any previous time in history. Precisely why the state has chosen this moment to charge 16 UDF leaders in a trial which, on the face of it, deals with activities that were public and above-ground, is not clear. But from other treason trials before the courts, it seems that the ANC's armed struggle continues despite the Nkomati Accord and other similar agreements with Southern African governments. Of particular interest are state allegations that the ANC is training cadres inside South Africa, and that its military campaign includes township supporters who have not undergone specialised training outside South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
Work in Progress Issue no.29 - Caught in the crossfire
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: July 1983
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111411 , vital:33449
- Description: During July 1983? the Ciskei Transport Corporation (CTC) announced that it intended increasing bus fares on certain routes. A committee representing commuters objected to the proposed increases, arguing that commuters could not afford them, given the recent price rise in the cost of basic foodstuffs. The CTC - partly owned by the Ciskei government - dismissed these objections, and the committee duly called a boycott of all buses owned by the company. On 19 July the boycott began. The following day the press reported an 80% drop in the use of CTC buses. From this point on, police, the army, and a private army of vigilantes were used by the Ciskei administration to force commuters to use buses. In the past two months, Ciskeian authorities have indicated their willingness to use any official and unofficial, legal and extra-legal forms of violence to break the boycott. Violence has escalated, and the conflict has now become a test of strength between bantustan rulers and their unwilling subjects. The first concerted attempt to break the boycott was directed at private car owners and taxi drivers. Police established road blocks on routes in and out of Mdantsane. From then on, vigilantes under the control of police harassed car passengers, car drivers and taxi drivers. Police manhandled car passengers, using sjamboks on some occasions. Cars have been confiscated, and passengers forced to alight and return to bus stops. The brunt of the tactics used to break the bus boycott have been borne by train commuters. As with vehicle commuters, the means used to prevent them from catching trains appear to know no bounds. Civilians have been attacked, assaulted and fired on by police and vigilante groups under police control. Residents of Mdantsane put the death toll at over 60. By September, at least 67 people - most of them trade unionists - had been detained under Ciskei security legislation. In addition, over 1 000 commuters have been detained for technical offences such as curfew breaking. In September, the South African Allied Workers' Union was banned by the Sebe administration. On 4 August, the Ciskei's minister of justice declared a state of emergency. No person may be on the streets without permission between 22h00 and 04h00. No more than four people may congregate together in houses or on the streets. There have been numerous reports of assaults and torture of detainees held in the Ciskei, and a number of detainees have been admitted to hospital at various stages of their detention. As disturbing as are the number of people hospitalised are reports of the failure to hospitalise or treat other detainees injured in assaults. This is the context in which SARS, in conjunction with the Development Studies Group, is publishing a detailed report on the Ciskei. Produced by Nicholas Haysom, a research officer at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the report covers the political history of the Ciskei, security legislation, torture and repression in the past years, background to the current bus boycott, and methods used by the Ciskei administration to crush the boycott. There is also a section on the current schools boycott in the Ciskei, the involvement of South African security police and firms in the Ciskei crisis, and the response of people resident in the area. Subscribers to SARS publications will receive this report as part of their subscription. Copies will also be available at bookshops stocking Work In Progress, or directly from SARS
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: July 1983
- Authors: WIP
- Date: July 1983
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111411 , vital:33449
- Description: During July 1983? the Ciskei Transport Corporation (CTC) announced that it intended increasing bus fares on certain routes. A committee representing commuters objected to the proposed increases, arguing that commuters could not afford them, given the recent price rise in the cost of basic foodstuffs. The CTC - partly owned by the Ciskei government - dismissed these objections, and the committee duly called a boycott of all buses owned by the company. On 19 July the boycott began. The following day the press reported an 80% drop in the use of CTC buses. From this point on, police, the army, and a private army of vigilantes were used by the Ciskei administration to force commuters to use buses. In the past two months, Ciskeian authorities have indicated their willingness to use any official and unofficial, legal and extra-legal forms of violence to break the boycott. Violence has escalated, and the conflict has now become a test of strength between bantustan rulers and their unwilling subjects. The first concerted attempt to break the boycott was directed at private car owners and taxi drivers. Police established road blocks on routes in and out of Mdantsane. From then on, vigilantes under the control of police harassed car passengers, car drivers and taxi drivers. Police manhandled car passengers, using sjamboks on some occasions. Cars have been confiscated, and passengers forced to alight and return to bus stops. The brunt of the tactics used to break the bus boycott have been borne by train commuters. As with vehicle commuters, the means used to prevent them from catching trains appear to know no bounds. Civilians have been attacked, assaulted and fired on by police and vigilante groups under police control. Residents of Mdantsane put the death toll at over 60. By September, at least 67 people - most of them trade unionists - had been detained under Ciskei security legislation. In addition, over 1 000 commuters have been detained for technical offences such as curfew breaking. In September, the South African Allied Workers' Union was banned by the Sebe administration. On 4 August, the Ciskei's minister of justice declared a state of emergency. No person may be on the streets without permission between 22h00 and 04h00. No more than four people may congregate together in houses or on the streets. There have been numerous reports of assaults and torture of detainees held in the Ciskei, and a number of detainees have been admitted to hospital at various stages of their detention. As disturbing as are the number of people hospitalised are reports of the failure to hospitalise or treat other detainees injured in assaults. This is the context in which SARS, in conjunction with the Development Studies Group, is publishing a detailed report on the Ciskei. Produced by Nicholas Haysom, a research officer at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the report covers the political history of the Ciskei, security legislation, torture and repression in the past years, background to the current bus boycott, and methods used by the Ciskei administration to crush the boycott. There is also a section on the current schools boycott in the Ciskei, the involvement of South African security police and firms in the Ciskei crisis, and the response of people resident in the area. Subscribers to SARS publications will receive this report as part of their subscription. Copies will also be available at bookshops stocking Work In Progress, or directly from SARS
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: July 1983
Work in Progress Issue no.20
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: Oct 1981
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111400 , vital:33448
- Description: THE WAGE BOARD attracts frequent criticism. TUCSA has in the past adopted resolutions attacking it for taking the side of employers and for 'showing little concern for the workers' case'. The recent Wage Board investigation into the work conditions of nightwatchmen and other employees in the security services industry has attracted a certain amount of publicity. This article will recount the process of the investigation and, hopefully, illustrate a number of features of the Wage Board's operation. THE WAGE BOARD THE official version of the Wage Board's function is that it investigates an industry and then makes recommendations to the hon. the Minister who in turn makes a determination. The Wage Board attempts to recommend fair wages and other conditions of service, taking into account ‘the industry's ability to pay and the cost of living in the area concerned. What occurs is that in industries where no form of collective bargaining exists, the Minister of Manpower requests the Wage Board to investigate working conditions in that industry. The Board invites all interested parties to submit evidence, and may hold hearings at which oral evidence may be presented. As a result of the investigation the Board makes recommendations to the Minister as to what the minimum wages and working conditions in the industry should be. If the Minister accepts the recommendations, they are published in the Government Gazette as a Wage Determination.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Oct 1981
- Authors: WIP
- Date: Oct 1981
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111400 , vital:33448
- Description: THE WAGE BOARD attracts frequent criticism. TUCSA has in the past adopted resolutions attacking it for taking the side of employers and for 'showing little concern for the workers' case'. The recent Wage Board investigation into the work conditions of nightwatchmen and other employees in the security services industry has attracted a certain amount of publicity. This article will recount the process of the investigation and, hopefully, illustrate a number of features of the Wage Board's operation. THE WAGE BOARD THE official version of the Wage Board's function is that it investigates an industry and then makes recommendations to the hon. the Minister who in turn makes a determination. The Wage Board attempts to recommend fair wages and other conditions of service, taking into account ‘the industry's ability to pay and the cost of living in the area concerned. What occurs is that in industries where no form of collective bargaining exists, the Minister of Manpower requests the Wage Board to investigate working conditions in that industry. The Board invites all interested parties to submit evidence, and may hold hearings at which oral evidence may be presented. As a result of the investigation the Board makes recommendations to the Minister as to what the minimum wages and working conditions in the industry should be. If the Minister accepts the recommendations, they are published in the Government Gazette as a Wage Determination.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Oct 1981
Work in Progress no.8 - Total War
- WIP
- Authors: WIP
- Date: May 1979
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111333 , vital:33438
- Description: What is apartheid/separate development - the policy followed by the National Party government and enforced through the state apparatuses since 1948? It is a specific option adopted by capitalism to structure production and reproduction in South Africa, Why was this option taken? Because it reflected certain political and economic power relationships during the mid 1940's, namely an alliance between an aspirant Afrikaner bourgeoisie, a privileged white working class, and an agricultural sector moving from semi-feudal relations to capitalist production. But this alliance and its actions in shaping the future of South Africa was in turn acting within an historical reality of dependent development within an international capitalist context, reliance on mining and agriculture for economic strength, racial division of the working class (in economic, political and ideological terms), geographical division of races, etc. What are the main characteristics of the apartheid option? The most important point to make is that it is capitalist - despite all the cries of "creeping socialism"; state "interference"; free market foundations and the Sunday Times business editor* Apartheid is an intense form of labour allocation, control and repression of the working class, It relies primarily on directly regressive measures to ensure the reproduction and maintenance of the capitalist way of producing. The apartheid option has institutionalised divisions in a range of areas — divisions which are once more essential for the reproduction and maintenance of society in its present form. These divisive tactics manipulate existing antagonisms and create new ones in the society - anatgonisms which revolve around ethnicity, nationalism, class conflict, urban-rural divisions, etc. While this process of reproducing the society in its present form has been (and remains) a largely repressive process, it is now taking on an increasingly ideological form. To repeat: the point is that apartheid is not antagonistic to capitalism; it is not, fundamentally, antagonistic to the demands of foreign capital investment and of modern imperialism, despite soms political disagreements, And the latest moves in the fields of industrial relations , living conditions and commercial opportunities for blacks have made the policy more easy to sell to those who want to believe in the moral correctness of exploitation of the working class in South Africa,
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: May 1979
- Authors: WIP
- Date: May 1979
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111333 , vital:33438
- Description: What is apartheid/separate development - the policy followed by the National Party government and enforced through the state apparatuses since 1948? It is a specific option adopted by capitalism to structure production and reproduction in South Africa, Why was this option taken? Because it reflected certain political and economic power relationships during the mid 1940's, namely an alliance between an aspirant Afrikaner bourgeoisie, a privileged white working class, and an agricultural sector moving from semi-feudal relations to capitalist production. But this alliance and its actions in shaping the future of South Africa was in turn acting within an historical reality of dependent development within an international capitalist context, reliance on mining and agriculture for economic strength, racial division of the working class (in economic, political and ideological terms), geographical division of races, etc. What are the main characteristics of the apartheid option? The most important point to make is that it is capitalist - despite all the cries of "creeping socialism"; state "interference"; free market foundations and the Sunday Times business editor* Apartheid is an intense form of labour allocation, control and repression of the working class, It relies primarily on directly regressive measures to ensure the reproduction and maintenance of the capitalist way of producing. The apartheid option has institutionalised divisions in a range of areas — divisions which are once more essential for the reproduction and maintenance of society in its present form. These divisive tactics manipulate existing antagonisms and create new ones in the society - anatgonisms which revolve around ethnicity, nationalism, class conflict, urban-rural divisions, etc. While this process of reproducing the society in its present form has been (and remains) a largely repressive process, it is now taking on an increasingly ideological form. To repeat: the point is that apartheid is not antagonistic to capitalism; it is not, fundamentally, antagonistic to the demands of foreign capital investment and of modern imperialism, despite soms political disagreements, And the latest moves in the fields of industrial relations , living conditions and commercial opportunities for blacks have made the policy more easy to sell to those who want to believe in the moral correctness of exploitation of the working class in South Africa,
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: May 1979
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