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|    Newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist Movement     |
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SOUTH AFRICA: ARMY CALLED OUT AGAINST PEOPLE

  On October 7th, the world's police state par excellence
called on its army to quell the rebellion of Blacks against
apartheid. The forces were deployed in Soweto where defiance
of white colonial rule is running strong despite the
infamous police massacre of over 1,000 schoolchildren there
in 1976.
  Once again schoolchildren are at the forefront of the
action with 150,000 boycotting the oppressors' schools which
grind out unskilled Black laborers for South Africa's gold
and diamond mines. The separate Black schools are funded
one-tenth per capita of what the white schools receive.
The recent wave of protest of white settler rule in South
Africa has involved rent struggles, bus fares and school
conditions and union struggles, but above all recent changes
in the apartheid Constitution. Riots broke out when
elections to an advisory Parliament were held for the
country's so-called Colored peoples which are any minority
in South Africa which is not purely white or purely African
in background. The so-called Colored people are a smaller
fraction of the population than the 15.5% white settler
fraction. The 73% African population was excluded from even
any so-called democratic rights and the Constitution
emphasizes increased separation of the Africans into the
"homelands." The Colored peoples, however, did not jump at
the chance to a seemingly second class citizenship over the
Africans. Less than 20% of the "Coloureds" voted in the
elections for the segregated Parliament.
  The boycott of the elections demonstrated on a national
level the farce of white settler rule and provided a single
national opportunity for protest. At a time when the whole
world was supposed to see a repeat of the Central America
election farce, the whole world saw rebellion and hatred for
imperialism. At a time when the Western media was
cultivating South Africa's "mellow" image by pointing to
agreements with Angola and Mozambique, the oppressed masses
made it clear that the South African army would have to be
used at home.
  The South African ruling class itself knows it must
"reform or die" as in the words of its prime minister. The
Constitution in enhancing executive powers acknowledges that
apartheid will have to move fast to multi-racial capitalism
or see capitalism go under with the liberation of the
African Azanian nation called South Africa.
  The apartheid rulers want to keep the lid on protest while
they move to coopt a Black middle class. The white
capitalists need Black technicians and managers because of a
white labor shortage, but they have to improve education to
get them. They need housing for their workers in the cities
because it is easier to be established in the white cities
than in the undeveloped homelands where the Blacks live.
This requires desegregated residency (as opposed to the
pass-law system which mandates that Africans live in
restricted areas) or government efforts to develop the
reservations called "Bantustans." In other words, the
capitalists need to drop parts of their segregation and
national oppression apparatus, but this will provide
opportunities for Black empowerment and liberation. In the
end though, only the Blacks themselves have the will,
capability and desire to set right the injustice and
exploitation that is even now holding back the development
of the white-dominated economy.
  For example, all whites are required to spend two years in
the armed forces and a lifetime of reserve duty. Also, the
increase of the police force by 45% to 68,000 brought on by
the recent riots is a further drain on the white labor
force, so the whites have stepped up recruitment of Blacks
into the army and security forces. The question is whether
the Blacks will be loyal in the advent of revolution. As it
is, only a third of white youth say they are willing to die
in a war to defend apartheid. What will this figure be for
the Blacks recruited? How long will the bourgeoisified white
working class agree to serve more army time? How long will
these same white workers agree to abolition of the
privileges that made them "bought off"--better paid and
higher ranking by law--relative to the Black workers? The
white capitalists can not easily ease the national
oppression they designed without endangering the class
distinctions they seek to maintain.
  South Africa is already in a state of war against its
people. By their own admission 80 people have died in the
violence--police violence against the masses. The New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, Reagan and Mondale all deplore
"the violence," but they do not say who and what system is
responsible. The U.S. government is only willing to
criticize South Africa to the point that reforms seem
necessary to save capitalism and a U.S. ally. For example,
the U.S. and England were unwilling to provide sanctuary for
six "Coloured" fugitives who were ordered into indefinite
detention for unspecified reasons amidst the recent
"Coloured" boycott of the sham elections. Nor did the arrest
of 600 Blacks at a time when all indoor meetings by Blacks
are prohibited provoke outcries from Mondale or Reagan even
in this election season. The U.S. has obvious commercial
interests in South Africa, but it is also lining up South
Africa to go to war against the Soviet bloc. That is why
neither Reagan nor Mondale are very critical lately of the
only remaining white colony in Africa.
  Yet, the U.S. can not count on a stable ally in time of
war. Even in the most perfectly designed police states like
South Africa, the people resist. As South Africa's army is
committed more and more abroad, the people of South Africa
will gain the opportunity to overthrow apartheid.

SOURCES:

The New York Times, 9/24/84, 10/7/84, 10/8/84.

International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa,
Apartheid:The Facts, 1983.

"The Limitations of Economic Analysis of Social Change: The
Cases of the American South and South Africa."
_____________________________________________________________

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