AS we pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, the pillar of the struggle against apartheid. Wages and conditions have improved considerably. The African National Congress (ANC) government has adopted a series of labour laws which are amongst the most progressive in the world, and has enshrined fundamental trade union rights in the country’s constitution.
The world’s number one citizen Nelson Mandela said in three of his Quotes. “We understand still that there is no easy road to freedom we know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world
Let there be justice for all
Let there be peace for all”
“Overcoming Poverty is not a task of charity; it is an act of justice”
“No one born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion”
During apartheid’s darkest hours, the resilience of black independent trade unions was viewed as a beacon of hope as they relentlessly pressed for economic sanctions. Throughout this period, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) consistently backed the development of a strong independent black trade union movement in South Africa and provided the necessary international coordination of trade unions initiatives.
Sanctions were first imposed against South Africa in protest apartheid in 1960s, following the Sharpeville massacre, when the UN General Assembly called for an arms embargo. This embargo was weak-kneed as it was not binding on member states and arms continued to be delivered by South Africa’s trading partners. In the wake of the Soweto uprisings in 1977, the UN Security Council adopted a mandatory arms embargo.
In the 1970s OPEC countries imposed an oil embargo but in the absence of effective enforcement agencies, South Africa obtained adequate supplies of oil from small oil-exporting countries, third parties and off-shore companies. Foreign multinationals showed little or no willingness to comply with international calls for sanctions against the bloody minded regime.
Codes of Conduct for companies with investments in South Africa proved ineffective. The ICFTU, which had been calling for mandatory economic sanctions since its inception in 1949, had stated several years ago that such codes would have been welcomed by the international free trade union movement if they had included an effective enforcement clause backed by a tripartite monitoring system and penalties of sanctions against offending companies.
The ICFTU played an active role in the work of the UN’s special committee such as the UN committee Against Apartheid, the Ad-hoc Working Group of Experts – Centre for Human Rights and the International Labour organisation Special Conference Committee on Apartheid.
The ICFTU provided a direct response to the demands made by black workers. This policy was reflected in the conclusions of the ICFTU’s London Conference in 1980,that adopted a comprehensive action programme in support of the independent black trade union movement; in the updated programme of action in 1984 and, most importantly, in the daily follow up work carried out in the framework of the of the ICFTU’s special Coordinating Committee on South Africa – (COCOSA). This committee coordinated financial assistance to the unions and provided a forum to members of the international free trade union movement for the exchange of related information as well as for collective monitoring of their various actions.
The ICFTU’s Executive Board, which met in Washington in 1985, adopted a statement “Beating Apartheid”- outlining a specific sanctions programme. The statement called on governments to use administrative and legislative action to up a programme of compulsory disinvestment. After the imposition of the state of emergency in South Africa in 1985, when the international community finally began to seriously consider sanctions as the only realistic option, the ICFTU statement served as a blueprint for other sanctions programmes.
By mid-1985, a chain reaction of disinvestment began slowly, the US, the European Community and the Commonwealth began to introduce packages of selected economic and other sanctions. The international free trade union movement launched a worldwide campaign to focus attention on the appalling situation in South Africa, including targeted campaigns, beginning with an internationally coordinated boycott of Royal Dutch Shell.
However, a 1985 ICFTU fact-finding mission found that so-called reforms had not scratched the surface of apartheid and blacks were suffering under more repression than ever before. In July 1986, an ICFTU delegation travelled to South Africa to show solidarity with the independent black trade union movement and the families of detained trade unionists. The message from the unions was unanimous: the overwhelming majority of black workers in South Africa were demanding sanctions.
The ICFTU, together with the Southern African Trade Union Coordination Council (SATUCC), organised and international conference, “Beating Apartheid and strengthening the frontline”, hosted by the Zambia Congress of Trade unions in Lusaka, October 1986. The conference called upon the ICFTU to set up the Monitoring and Research unit which monitored disinvestment and transnational corporation withdrawals. The Monitoring Unit highlighted the hypocrisy behind withdrawals of corporations, noting that only a few multinationals, had left altogether. The majority had pulled out without really leaving.
ICFTU acted as an observer in the run up to the first democratically held elections won by the African National Congress (ANC) in April 1994.
Extract of statement delivered by Comrade Nelson Mandela from the dock in Pretoria Supreme Court on April 20, 1964, at the opening of the defence case in the rivonia trial in 1963 – 64 reads thus:
“The South African Government often answers its critics by saying that Africans in South Africa are economically better off than the inhabitants of the other countries in Africa. I do not know whether this statement is true and doubt whether any comparison could be made without having regard to the cost of living index in such countries. But even if it is true as far as the African people are concerned it is irrelevant. Our complaint is not that we are poor by comparison with people in other countries, but that we are poor by comparison with the white people in our own country, and that we are prevented by legislation from altering this imbalance.
“The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of white supremacy. White supremacy implies black inferiority. Legislation design to preserve white supremacy entrenches this notion. Menial tasks in South Africa are invariably performed by Africans. When anything has to be carried or cleaned the white man will look around for an African to do it for him, whether the African is employed by him or not. Because of this sort of attitude, whites tend to regard Africans as a separate breed. They do not look upon them as people with families of their own; they do not realise that they have emotions that they fall in love like white people do; that they want to be with their wives and children like white people want to be with theirs; that they want to earn enough money to support their families properly; to feed and clothe them and send them to school. And what ‘houseboy’ or ‘garden-boy or labourer can ever hope to do this?
“Africans want to be paid a living wage. Africans want to perform which they are capable of doing and not work which the Government declares them to be capable of. Africans want to be allowed to live where they obtain work and not to be endorsed out of an area because they were not born there. Africans want to be allowed to own land in places where they work and not be obliged to live in rented houses which they can never call their own. Africans want to be part of the general population and not confined to living in their own ghettoes. African men want to have their wives and children to live with them where they work and not be forced into an unnatural existence in men’s hostels. African women want to be with their menfolk and not to be left permanently widowed in the Reserves. Africans want to be allowed out after 11:00 pm at night and not be confined to their rooms like little children. Africans want to be allowed to travel in their own country and to seek work where they want to and not where the Labour Bureau tells them to. Africans want a just share in the whole of South Africa; they want security and a stake in society.
“Above all, we want equal political rights because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in the country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy.”
“But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on colour, is entirely artificial and when it disappears so will the domination of one colour group by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs it will not change that policy.
“This then is what the ANC is fighting. Their struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of African people inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.
“During my life time I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
In conclusion, we could quote from the tribute paid by Colin Legum to Sobukwe after his demise in February 1978:
“Contribute, with the firmest solidarity, to the fulfillment of our duties towards the South African people and all those who are still suffering the consequences of imperialist and colonialist exploitation”
SHERWOOD CLARKE
General President
Clerical & Commercial Workers’ Union
