i

REPORT ON SOUTH AFRICA

Premier Malan’s policies

backed by U.S. dollars

N April 15 South Africa goes

to the polls to elect a new
government. Premier Danie!
Malan’s _ pro-fascist Nationalist
regime is weakly opposed by the
United party and Labor candi-
dates. lt is an all-white parlia-
ment, Africans being ineligible
for election and‘ represented in
the federal parliament only by
three white members.

One of these, Sam Kahn, first
Communist to be elected to the
South African parliament, was
deprived of his seat last year
under Malan’‘s Suppression of
Communism Act. Brian Bunting,
former associate editor of the
suppressed Clarion, contested
the seat in the ensuing byelec-
tion and was overwhelmingly
elected. The government’s move
to invalidate his election was re-
jected by the Supreme Court last
month.

A national protest strike is

_ scheduled to be called on the

eve of election day.

The following article outlines
the economic ‘background to the
struggle in South Africa against
the white supremacists and for
national independence.

HE African, Indian and \Col-
ored population of South
Africa in conducting a campaign
against the racial laws of the
Malan government that has the
sympathy and support of decent
men and women everywhere.

The population of the Union
of South Africa is 11,225,000. Of
these, 7,225,000 are African,
282,000 Asian (mainly Indian),
905,000 colored (mixed) and just
over one-fifth, 2,300,000, Europ-
ean. :
Malan is attempting to impose -
a fascist dictatorship upon all
non-European South Africans, to -
perpetuate and intensify dis-
crimination against them in all
spheres of life, economic, politi-
eal and social.

The U.S. imperialists believe
that carrying through of Malan’s
apartheid policy would not only
secure South Africa for unlimit-
ed investments, but would also
enable the country to be devel-
oped as a source of manpower
and materials for their agsres-
sive war plans. Ge

Over a_ considerable period,
U.S. capital has been penetrating
South Africa industry and is al-
ready dominant in gold and cop-
per mining. The first uranium
mine, which came into operation
in October 1952, is owned joint-
ly by U-S., British and South
African capital. Py

Among U.S. firms having sub
stantial interests in South Af-
rica are International Nickel
(Morgan-Rockefeller), Kennecott
Copper (Morgan - Guggenheim),
Standard Oil of New Jersey,
Ford, General Motors, Chrysler,
Studebaker, Goodyear, Firestone,
General Tire, U.S. Rubber, In-
ternational Harvester, General
Electric. General Foods and
Coca-Cola.

It is this force upon which
Malan is relying for the carrying
through of his policy of brutal
racism.

Oppression of the Non-Euro-
pean population of South Africa
dates back 300 years — to the
time of the first Dutch landings
in South Africa. It is .insepar-
able from the policy of the
Dutch and British colonialists
alike to extract enormous pro-
fits from this land so rich, in na-
tural’ resources — particularly
gold, copper and diamonds —
and to maintain an enormous re-
serve of cheap labor.

The Africans, who -constitute
nearly 66 percent of the popu-

lation, own only 13 percent of
the land. :

While. 2,250,000 Europeans are
represented by 150 members in
parliament, 7,750,000 Africans
are represented by three mem-
bers who have to be Europeans:

Wages for African workers are
on an average less than one-
twentieth of those of skilled
European workers, and the most

arduous and unskilled work is

given to them.

© :
The following facts, from the

4 Handbook on Race Relations in

South Africa, underline the ter-
rible conditions of non-Euro-
peans: :

Infant Mortality: “The infan-
tile mortality rate for Europeans
is less than 50 per 1,000 live
births; for natives it is not less
than 150 anywhere and in some
areas as high as 600 or 700.”

Children’s Health: “According
to the health survey of Bantu
(African) school children report-
ed by the Union Department of
Public Health in ‘Manpower’ in
September 1944, the following
findings were made: in Bochem,
Northern Transvaal, 62.1 percent
of the boys and 44.66 percent of
the girls presented signs of ab-
normalities of the skin due to
nutritional deficiency; as many
as 15 percent of the children
were found to be afflicted with
outright pellagra; the incidence
of syphillis as determined by the
Wasserman reaction of the blood
was 46.38 percent; altogether
88.8 percent of the boys and
81.19 percent of the girls show-
ed obvious signs of ill health
and malnutrition.”

Education: “The vast majority
of the Bantu population still re-
mains illiterate.” ;

(Only three out of 11 African
children ever go to school, while

education for white children is.

compulsory and free).

Housing: “The most outstand-
ing single characteristic of non-
European urban communities,
and particularly of urban na-
tives, is their poverty. . . . Some
live on the barest level of sub-
sistence with little more than
the most elementary equipment
in the form of blankets, mats,
pots, open braziers and crude
backless benches . . .” :

A high proportion of African
women live on the land, over
one-half of them in the Reserves.
Here, there are few able-bodied
men, for most of the men leave
the over-crowded Reserves to
work in the mines. Therefore
the women bear the brunt of all
the agricultural work, as well as
responsibility for raising the
children and tending the cattle.

The inferior status of women
in African tribal life is perpetu-
ated and even aggravated by the
present legal system, which in-
sists on the priority of African
common law. Thus while Euro-
pean women in South Africa
have won certain political, social
and civic rights, these are denied
to African women.

@

Malan’s aim is to send back
the whole African people to the
days of tribalism; to strangle the
movement for national liberation
which embraces all sections of
the non-European population
and which has the support of all
progressive Europeans in South
Africa; and to divide the trade
union movement on a racial basis
in order to break the power of
the workers.

Non-Europeans in South Afri-
ca are herded into reserves,
labor compounds and ghettoes—
shanty towns of indescribable
squalor and poverty which

Africans defying Premier Danial Malan’s aparthefd laws occupying railway passenger cars ©

served for Europeans.

sprawl on the outskirts of the
large, well-built modern indus-
trial cities of South Africa.

They cannot move about free-
ly. A curfew is imposed on
them. They may not travel on
buses or trains used by Euro-
peans. They have to enter pub-
lic buildings by different en-
trances. They may not go to
theatres and concerts and can-
not go to the same cinemas as
Europeans, or eat in the same
cafes. They do not, in most
cases, even have the right to
worship in the same churches.

On June 26, 1952, the National

Action Committee of the African
National Congress and the South
African Indian Congress launch-
ed a campaign of Defiance of
Unjust Laws. The aims of the
campaign have been put very
clearly by Dr. Y. M. Dadoo, pres-
ident of the South African’ In-
dian Congress and one of the
20 leaders of the campaign now
on trial: :
“We are confronted with the
alternative of destruction or sur-
vival—destruction of our hopes,
our aspirations and of our future

Smells like Jim Crow

E. MARSH, Vancouver, B8.C.:
The Carpenter of Nazareth said,
“Inasmuch as ye do it unto one
of my brothers ye do it unto
Me.”

Inasmuch as what was done
unto Clarence Clemens it was
done unto us all.

Enclosed find a $2 donation for
the defense of the Pacific Trib-
une. I cannot afford not to af-
ford a little donation to help
keep the light of the PT glowing
amidst the encircling gloom of
racism and war hysteria. The
illuminating articles that the PT
publishes are a real education.

‘All down the ages, as Tom Mc-
Ewen wrote in his column, the

’ powers-that-be have practised

the tactic of, “Away with Him,
release unto us Barrabas.” |

How the powers-that-be would
“away with him” in regard to
the Clemens case. How they
would like the Clemens case to
be hushed up. ~

It was never thought that the
light of the PT was so powerful
until it released to the light of
day the sordid story of the treat-
ment of Clemens. i

The jury’s verdict said Clem-
ens died as a result of “injury
to the spinal cord caused by an
old injury which may have been

ss

for a very long time to come.

Destruction we will never ac-

cept.
“The path of survival is the
only path before us .. . It is

with this choice before it that
the Conference of the African
National Congress decided to
adopt a practical plan of action
for the Defiance of Unjust
Laws.” .

The campaign takes two
forms: the present stage -which
is one of mass action in com-
mitting breaches of certain re-
stricted laws considered by the
inhabitants of each particular
place to be the most burdensome
of the unjust laws; and, during
the next stage, the holding .of
strikes where and when condi-
tions make these possible. It is
essentially a campaign of non-
violence, basing its strength on
common action.

The campaign shows signs of
developing into the largest mass
movement in the history of South
Africa. It is sweeping through
the whole country, daily winning
new recruits and forging new
heroes and heroines among the
African, Indian and colored peo-
ple both young and old. Pro-

aggravated. by his strenuous
struggle while resisting arrest.”

Out of the dim past, years and.

years ago, an old injury reaches
out to cause his death, notwith-
standing the fact that his health
was so good he was able to per-
form the strenuous work of a
longshoreman! Why did the X-
rays not show this serious condi-
tion?

The wording of the verdict
must have been “accidental’’ for.
it doesn’t show much ° intellig-
ence. It smells like Jim Crow.

Yes, we can learn

JAY ESS. Vancouver, B.C.:
After seeing the crossword pul-
zle contest in the PT, I feel that
you are beginning to make a
break into the field of broaden-
ing the contents of the paper.
The need is for more publicity.
Why not use give-away sheets
such as I mentioned: in a prev-
ious letter, also advertise the
contest in the capitalist: press,
put out placards, etc.

The thing to do when you get
new readers is to keep them and
make them permanent support-
ers. Can you honestly say that

the present make-up of the -

paper is conducive to that end?
The “pure” socialist sheets have
half a dozen readers. The PT, a
little more appealing to the peo-

ae
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 10, 1953 — pac

Denartinent|
at Yor Peete

gressive Europeans includité
portant sections of the trade ¥
ion movement, support the cal?
paign.

The number of those arresteé
now runs into the thousand®
Leading members of the ™
organizations of the peoples a
been jailed — and new lead
have come forward to take ti

place.

Police use every means t0 a
timidate the people — provol!
tion, agents, brutality, raids :
homes and offices. Heavy fe
tences are imposed on vol
teers. Young registers are is

paign who gather outside su
courts to attend trials of V? the
teers’ are baton-charged bY

e
police. But all these acts ser”
only to strengthen the dete ate :

ation of the people to com
the fight until victory is won

The National Action Com.
tee recently stated: “The ‘a
Salute’ has become the acer
sign of greeting among hes
Europeans. ‘The _ struggle wl
gripped the imagination of
lions of non-white péople.”
€

ple, has a few thousand read
The capitalist rags have mill y
of readers. Can’t you lear? a

thing from such plain facts?

Your job is to match the cle
capitalist publicity methods ue
subtle skill in your advert®

and headlines.

This letter will probably he
thrown ‘in the waste pape! 19s
ket but I know my work a
and what they want, 4? wt
shouldn’t be ignored. Some)
I think you are too pigheadé
Nearness

‘ ne

In the interest of bein “il

structive in my criticism © | {0
now say that if a person wan ,

read your paper he sho;
pe 5p
feb

have to go out and buy t
or Province later on to 8? ibe
news. Every happening % jf¢
week in ‘the press and 9 jv
radio, you should write UP: tot
ing a brief report and the

from a working class angle:

should be short articles. A

You should have more jp
umnists, branch out int? |
comic field, create workin’ “i
characters. to compete ys
Yankee “comie’’ filth. surely
your ranks there are arts i
no mean ability. Be versatile“
flexible and you will peco™
mass paper... a tribun?
stead of a washout. a