By KERRY McCUAIG

Africa the last free leading

member of the United Demo-
cratic Front, Rev. Allan Boesak, was
arrested Aug. 27, ina move many view
as Pretoria giving the finger to Western
capitals.

Boesak, a senior vice-president of
the South African Council of Churches
had been spared in a round-up of over
300 UDF leaders in July because he had
been the focus of considerable inter-
national media attention.

He was seized by security police, on
the eve of a march he was to have led to
Pollsmoor Prison near Cape Town,
where African. National Congress
leader, Nelson Mandela is held.

; n a further crackdown in South

South Affriiea

No caving-in

to repression

Since the government declared its
state of emergency six weeks ago, 2,389
people have been detained and 300
have been killed by police and troops in
Black townships.

The state terror has led to intensified
calls on Western capitals to isolate the
apartheid regime. Sanctions legislation
is pending in some countries and re-

cently enacted by others such as
France, Argentina and Australia.

Notably international business has
begun voting with its money in an effort
to safeguard its investments. On Aug.
27, South Africa suspended trading on
stock and currency markets until Sept.
2 in order to combat the plummeting
rand and halt the flow of capital from
the country.

While criticism of apartheid by
Western leaders has reached a new
rhetorical high, U.S. President Ronald
Reagan has refused to bend to sanc-
tions calls coming from his own Con-
gress. Reagan called Botha’s govern-
ment ‘“‘reformist administration’? and
said that ‘‘substantial changes’’ had
been made in eliminating apartheid.

According to apartheid critics, any
reforms have been purely cosmetic
while maintaining the. major structures
which deny the most basic political,
economic and social rights to the coun-
try’s 24-million Black majority.

‘* Apartheid can’t be modified. It can
only be dismantled’’, said ANC Cana-
dian representative Yusuf Saloojee, ina
recent interview with the Tribune.

The petty reforms including setting
up separated houses giving limited
representation to ‘‘Coloreds’’ and
Asians only served to inflame the coun-
try’s Black population who were still
excluded.

The state of emergency, was de-
signed to quell the growing unrest, in-
stead the struggle against the regime
has intensified, said Saloojee.

Botha has also been faced with splits
in the white community over how to
resolve the crisis. A call by the UDF to
initiate a boycott of white-owned

the government to give in to Black de-
mands.

White youths are demonstrating
their opposition to apartheid. The
police came under heavy criticism for
their attack on white university stu-
dents who joined a school boycott by
Black students in Johannesburg.

There is: also a growing reluc-
tance by whites to serve in the army. As
of last January, 25 per cent of draftees
did not report, the highest number ever.
Apartheid’s aggression against
Namibia is turning into South Africa’s
Vietnam. Young whites are returning
home in body bags and some troops are
objecting to being used against Blacks
in the townships.

Divisions are also showing in the
international arena, with legislatures
bowing to intense public pressure and
taking limited action against the regime.

The ANC representative holds little
hope for U.S. ‘‘constructive engage-
ment”’ policies, Washington’s idea of
‘soft’ pressure for gradual reforms. He
reports the Reagan administration has
always had contingency plans in the
event that apartheid collapses.

‘‘Every effort is made to by-pass the
ANC’’, said Saloojee, ‘‘and to find al-
ternative leaders and organizations in-
side the country. Organizations that in
the main think differently than the
ANC, particularly about what kind of
economy South Africa will have in the
future’’. The ANC’s Freedom Charter
adheres to a socialist set of goals for the
new South Africa.

But the central question on the
agenda right now is whether current
events mean apartheid is enjoying its
last days.

South Africa’s history has been rid-
dled with similar experiences most not-
ably Sharpvilie in 1960 and Soweto in
1976, but each time the state has
through force managed to surpress the
uprisings and restore temporary order.

This time is different, Saloojee pre-
dicts. ‘“‘In order to restore calm. it
would be necessary to arrest or kill all
24-million Blacks. The decision taken
by Blacks is found in the words of Nel-
son Mandela; ‘if need be we are pre-
pared to die, but apartheid has to go’.

Winnie Mandela, wife of imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela, holds her 19-month
old grandson Zodwa. The child had been missing since a fire destroyed her home and
an adjacent clinic in Brandfort, Orange Free State, where Mrs. Mandela has been
banished for the past eight years. The anti-apartheid leader refused a $10,000 offer by
the U.S. State Department to help rebuild her clinic. She said to accept the money

would be an indication that the U.S. was opposed to apartheid.

businesses in response to the escalating
killings and arrests has been 100 per
cent effective. Businesses report a 40
per cent drop in sales and retailers’
associations have been clamoring for

“It is is only a question of time, cer-
tainly not a long time, but in the near
future armed insurrection is going ‘o be
the main
agenda’’.

item on South Africa’s

New commissions enforce safety laws

MOSCOW — Labor safety in
the Soviet Union depends largely
on the civic awareness of the
workers on the job.

You could say that about

Canada too, but there is a dif-

ference here. This country, the
Soviet Union, is run for the bene-
fit of the workers. They work for
their own benefit, for their fellow
workers and for their country.

Soviet workers are given every
Opportunity to be active in all
areas of public life, starting with
- the workplace. Since labor safety
and healthy working conditions
are among the most important
factors in every worker's life, mil-
lions of Soviet trade union mem-
bers are actively dealing with this
problem.

In 1983, the Supreme Soviet of
the USSR, the country’s parlia-
Ment, passed a law on workers’
collectives opening up new poli-
cies for initiatives by the working
people in running production and
dealing with social problems.

This made it possible for work-
ers on the job to have an even
greater role in guaranteeing to-
tally safe and healthy working
conditions.

The trade union committee in
every enterprise actively super-

vises the observance of all labor
regulations and standards, includ-
ing all the improvements
management agreed to make
under the terms of the collective
agreement.

The day-to-day work in this
connection is assigned to labor
protection commissions set up by
the trade union committees.
Members of a labor protection
commission will include trade
union activists, workers, office
and engineering staff.

Its size could be as small as five
and as large as thirty depending
on the number of employees in
the enterprise. Its composition
must be approved by the trade
union committee.

Similarly commissions are
established at the shop level
within a given enterprise and are
headed by one of the trade union
committee members. Manage-

From Moscow
Jack Phillips

ment personnel can’t serve in this
post according to law.

Soviet legislation gives the
labor protection commission full
rights to inspect all shops and
workplaces and to study all
documents concerning labor safe-
ty. Commission members check
on safety arrangements and
industrial hygiene throughout the
enterprise and at every work-
place.

Based on their findings, they
will be asked that measures be
taken where corrections or
improvements are deemed
necessary. At the same time, a
check is made to see to it that
management does not contravene
the provisions of labor legislation

in respect to working hours and.

the time allotted for rest and rec-
reation.

For example, the commissions

ensure that all workers are grant-
ed days off, annual vacations and
additional holiday leave, as
stipulated by law and the collec-
tive agreement.

It also makes sure that
management doesn’t assign over-
time prohibited by law.

To some Canadian union mem-
bers, this might seem to be going
beyond the scope of guaranteeing
safe and healthy working condi-
tions. But under socialism, re-
stricting overtime to no more than
is absolutely necessary and giving
time off for vacations and statut-
ory holidays are essential compo-
nents in the program to make
every workplace as safe and
healthy as possible.

Commission members also
check on management in respect
to other fields of labor legislation

such as labor safety, for women :

and teenagers, the provision of
special clothing, footwear and
various individual protective gear
and devises.

The contrasts between a
socialist and a capitalist society
are also evident in another way
the safety committees work here.

Labor protection commission
help management in the introduc-
tion of more sophisticated

production processes and equip-
ment and in encouraging the
automation and mechanization of
as many jobs as possible, in order
to eliminate heavy manual labor.

Under capitalism, this would
create a problem. What will hap-
pen to a worker whose job will be
taken over by a machine or robot?

There is no such problem under
socialism with its planned
economy. There’s always
another job for the worker in such
a situation and ample opportuni-
ties to train for something at a
higher level.

Labor protection commissions
are greatly assisted in their work
by public inspectors elected from
among union members. Any
worker can be elected to this post,
provided he/she belongs to a
union and isn’t holding a man-
agement position.

Shop superintendents, foremen
and other supervisory personnel
responsible for safety in their

direction of the workforce are in- — :

eligible.

The public inspectors are
mainly required to keep a close
watch on their sections, in respect
to observance of labor legislation
safety techniques and industrial
hygiene instructions.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 4, 1985 e 7