LABOR

SACTU’s 27 years of militant
class struggle bears fruit

March 5, this year marked the 27th anniversary of the
South African Congress of Trade Unions, (SACTU).
Right from the beginning SACTU has been allied with
the national liberation movement of South Africa, the
African National Congress, (ANC).

The relationship between SAC TU and the ANC was
best described in 1959 by then-ANC president, Chief
Albert Luthuli who said: ‘(South African) workers are
oppressed by political action; they must take political
action in reply ... SACTU is the spear, the ANC the
shield.”

The spear and the shield, these are fitting symbols for
the militant, class-based, non-racial trade unionism ad-
vanced by SACTU. And, because of it, SACTU has
won respect for itself within racist South Africa, as the
leading trade union force in the country even though the
fascist regime had driven it underground.

Since its founding in 1955, SACTU hasn’t strayed
from the three basic principles which have given the
organizations its leading and militant character in the
face of tremendous oppression of workers and the

people by the apartheid regime.

From day one SACTU has been committed to: non-
racial trade unionism; continuously linking the economic
and political struggles of the people; and, maintaining the
unity of the working class of South Africa as its prime
aim.

The recent murder of Dr. Neil Aggett, Transvaal
secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union,
(FCWU), by the South African police prompted angry
protests by Black and white South Africans.

Aggett was the 46th person to have been murdered in
jail by the police since 1963 and he was the first white
person to be killed in the regime’s prisons.

The reaction to his death illustrated the correctness of
SACTU’s policy of building a non-racial trade union
movement and proves that though most white workers
are still poisoned with racial prejudice and the racist
ideology of the P.W. Botha regime, there are progressive
white South Africans who have been and continue to join
their Black sisters and brothers in the fight against fascist
laws and the divide and conquer tactics of the bosses.

Aggett’s union, the FCWU and its sister union the
African Food and Canning Workers Union (AFCWU),
have been strongholds for SAC TU since the founding of
the congress in 1955. They’ ve also served as models of
non-racial trade unionism in South Africa and during the
70s, along with other independent and militant above-
ground unions refused to comply with the Botha re-
gime’s reactionary new trade union laws.

It is clear to the labor movement throughout the world
that Aggett’s alleged suicide, according to the apartheid
police authorities, was nothing but murder and a brutal

Backgrounder

attempt by the racist government to try and stop the
process of unity along class lines between white and
Black South Africans.

Economic and political struggles are always intimately § : rl

linked by SACTU. Campaigns suchas the Ford strike in

1979-80, the Fatti’s and Moni’s strike in 1979, currently |

the Wilson-Rowntree strike and the successful campaign
which defeated legislation forbidding workers from
withdrawing their contributions from private pension

funds until retirement, all illustrate the way in which the

fight against the employers are tied to the demands of the
black community as a whole.

SACTU was forced underground during the 1960s,
but the underground structures it build up found their
reflection in the burgeoning, militant and independent
Black trade union movement that exploded into life a
decade later.

One of the keys to SAC TU’s highly successful record
in leading the trade union struggle in South Africa has
been the organization’s unswerving faithfulness to the
principal of working class unity:

While the SAC TU banner doesn’t fly outside the fac- ~

tory gates, there’s no question in the minds of the regime
and the workers that the class conscious, militant and
revolutionary policies are those of SAC TU and the ANC
at work.

Unquestionably, SAC TU is the only trade union or-
ganization capable of representing the interests of the
entire South African working class, and its affiliation to
the 206-million member World Federation of Trade
Unions is a testament to that fact. Efforts to undermine
SACTU’s prestige inside the country and blandishments
to the organization from other international labor bodies,

such as the ICFTU has been rejected by the workersand_ -

the union, because in all cases the abandonment of
SACTU’s class struggle policies and those of the South
African labor movement have been the price exacted for
illusory gains. :

The suffering, sacrifices and struggle of three genera-
tions of South African trade unionists make up SAC-
TU’s history. It is a proud history which has been scar-
red by the beatings, jailing and murder of SACTU mem-
bers and leaders.

From the struggles of the 30s and 40s to build thé’
militant industrial unions, to the creation of SACTU in
the early 50s and 60s to the militant fighters of today, the
proud heritage is carried forward and is winning the
support of workers throughout the world.

The staunch and selfless support of the socialist coun-
tries for SAC TU is how merging into a common stream

Victorious Ford workers in Port Elizabeth, South Africa’
hail strike leaders such as Thosamile Botha, (right) in
January, 1980. The linking of the Ford workers economic
and political demands had the hallmark of SACTU’s in-
fluence and leadership from the underground.

with the material and political solidarity of the workers of

the capitalist countries.
, Here there is a growing understanding of the common

interest of workers fighting the multi-nationals at home —
and the fight of the peoples; especially the Black workers

of South Africa for their freedoms and trade union rights.
They’re seeing SACTU’s victory as a blow against the
corporations they have to fight in their own countries.
And the most far-seeing of them understand that only an
‘ANC victory will ensure a peaceful, and democratic
South Africa.

In 1981, more than 620 people were detained by the —
fascist regime without a trial. Of these only 95 were —
released, 226 were charged and 180 are stillin detention. _

There’s still a total of 119 persons who can’t be ac-
counted for in 1981. Half of those detained, 306 out of the
620 were either trade union members or militant work-

ers. This compares to a total of 21 trade unionists who “

were detained the previous year.

Two facts emerge from this picture. The first is that
while repression is stepped up against the workers, the
workers answer it with renewed militancy and bolder
action. The other fact is that international solidarity is
needed now more than ever to help ensure the victory of
SACTU and the ANC in South Africa.

Black workers in South Africa face the same enemy as .

Canadian workers when it comes down to cases. Solidar-
ity is indispensible to both of their struggles. The 27-year
old SACTU’s motto echoes the historic call to action of
workers throughout the world. An injury to one, is an
injury to all!

iY i - ie oe ee

— M.P. °

Globe guilty of trying to block union

By MIKE PHILLIPS

TORONTO — In what union rep-
resentatives are claiming is a precedent-
setting decision, the Ontario Labor Rela-
tions Board ruled that it’s just as bad to
kill workers with kindness when the in-
tent is to stop them from joining a union,
as it is to bully them out of the idea.

A three-man labor board panel, March
3 unanimously ruled that management at
Toronto’s Globe and Mail was in viola-
tion of the Labor Relations Act when it
interfered in an organizing drive by the
Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild,
(SONG), by suddenly responding to long
standing complaints of its overworked,
understaffed District Sales Re-
presentatives, (DSRs).

The DSRs are the foot soldiers of any
major daily newspaper’s circulation op-
eration. They're responsible for dis-
tributing newspapers within a given dis-
trict, recruiting carriers, and if they can’t
find anyone to deliver the papers door to
door, they have to do the job themselves.

It’s tough, frustrating work which can
see the DSR begin as early as 3.30 in the
morning and put in a 60-hour work week
with no overtime pay. They suffer the

wrath of angry subscribers whose papers
don’t arrive on-time, or are missed entire-
ly, and they’re always under the gun
from management for not coming across
with better circulation for the news-
paper.

SONG filed the complaint against the
Globe more than a year ago when Globe
management, having caught wind of an
organizing drive among the DSRs sud-
denly responded to their long-standing
request for help by hiring part-time assis-
tants for the DSRs.

“*Suddenly everything was possible’,
SONG representative Linda Torney re-
called as she reviewed the events leading
to the labor board decision and the
Globe’s revived ‘‘interest’’ in the plight
of the DSRs.

She estimated the Globe threw some
$2-3,000 into each of its eight branch
offices in response to some of the com-
plaints raised by the sales reps.

Referring to one ananymous super-
visor who took part in a meeting called
by Globe management about the organ-
izing drive, Torney recalled, ‘tone guy
said: “They gave us a blank cheque’.
During the board hearings the company

claimed it took these steps because of
Sagging circulation, but we said they we-
ren’t interested in the conditions of the
DSRs until the Globe heard of the organ-
izing drive by the union.”’

In this, the board agreed unanimously
with SONG, though they didn’t grant the
union automatic certification of the 76-
member DSR group that SONG had de-
manded in its complaint. The Union had
signed 14 of the workers and felt the
board should certify all the DSRs be-
cause the Globe’s violation of the Labor
Relations Act made it impossible to
determine the workers’ true wishes.

While pulling the Globe’s ‘‘chestnuts
out of the fire’’ on this issue, the board
did direct the Globe to give the union
access for one hour to the DSRs during
working hours to convince them of the
wisdom of protecting their rights, and
improving their wages and working con-
ditions with collective bargaining and a
union contract.

The board also ordered the Globe to
post notices in all circulation branch
offices admitting the newspaper’s
management had broken the law, assur-
ing the workers of their right to organize,

and stating that the Globe wouldn’t inter-
fere with that right.

The decision has sparked the DSRs
courage to continue the organizing drive
they started in January 1981 and it has
renewed SONG’s determination to
organize the DSRs along with several
other organizing drives the union has on
its agenda. -

“I’ve had several phone calls al-
ready’’, Torney said of DSRs contacing
the union in the wake of the board de-
cision. And little wonder, when you look

~ at the rotten working conditions they

have to endure
Torney and SONG’s lawyers feel the

decision is an important precedent for
the labor movement in fighting manage-
ment interference in union organizing
drives. They say such a precedent might

have been useful in the bank workers _

organizing drive by countering tactics

_ similar to the Globe’s used by the banks.

They also suggest, the decision could
have positive consequences in helping to
shut down union-busting seminars which
focus on the velvet glove approach to
frustrate union organization. It’s possi-
ble to argue that such counselling may
now be considered illegal advice.

Racsmeos:
PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MARCH 19, 1982—Page 4

| melt at pes en, Cer

— pat