For a number of years now the picture presented in the bourgeois press of the remaining white controlled territories of Africa, has been one of relative stability. Smith's regime had, they said, survived the deliberately half-hearted sanctions campaign following on UDI in 1965 and, despite certain shortages, was maintaining a steadily expanding economy. The Portuguese propaganda machine crowed over alleged successes in the 10 year old war against the liberation forces of Angola, Mozambique and Guine. The South African "economic miracle" continued unabated while opposition to the apartheid regime was at a low ebb and Vorster enjoyed increasing success in his diplomatic offensive into black Africa. This complacent picture, so assiduously drawn, has suddenly been shattered by a number of events in the past few weeks which have revealed the chronic instability of the racist regimes.
PANIC 1. On January 9th the Smith government announced a blockade of the Zambian border until Kaunda agreed to the closure of all guerila bases. The Rhodesians were of course careful not to offend the chief representatives of imperialism in the area they made an exception for the exports from Zambia's copper mines! Certain points however immediately emerged: (a) the closure was a panic reaction to an apparently rather insignificant outbreak of volence involving the shooting by guerillas of a couple of white farmers. The extreme sensitivity of the racist regime in the face of these incidents is eloquent testimony to their deeply felt lack of self confidence. (b) the subsequent dissembling of the South African government spokesmen showed clearly they had not been consulted on the move. Of course their cool reaction reflects Vorster's aim of neutralising any threat from the North by quite different means - through involving the black African states within the South African economic orbit: the link up with Malawi being the most developed outcome of this strategy to date. (c) clearly Smith's initiative was not very effectively co-ordinated with the Portuguese imperialists. When Kaunda announced he would take all exports away from Rhodesia railways he had no problem about diverting a part of the copper to Lobito, Angola. STRIKES IN DURBAN 2. For the past few weeks Durban in Natal has been the scene of an escalating series of strikes by African workers around the demand for a minimum wage equal to the official minimum subsistence level for a family of tive. Currently three-fifths of Durban's 400,000 workers are below this breadline. The upsurge appears to have been totally unforeseen by Government or employers who had no strategy for dealing with the situation. Some firms have conceded, others have taken a hard line, the Minister of Labour says the Government will not tolerate the situation but they've done nothing about it to date. Faced in other words with this mass upsurge of a key sector of their work force, the South African ruling class is temporarily paralysed. The lesson will not be lost on the black masses of Southern Africa. Since the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 the apartheid government had apparently held the whip hand. In Namibia last vear, in Durban this the myth of invuinerability is being cracked. The prospect now is for a renewed upsurge of the nationalist struggle.
REVERSAL 3. A month ago Amilcar Cabral, leader of the PAIGCV liberation forces, was assassinated in Conakry. The authenticated version of the killing appears to be that it was done by elements in the nationalist movement who were prepared to do a deal with the Portuguese. This would have involved the latter abandoning mainland Guine in return for a pledge that the guerillas would not try to take the Cape Verde islands. While such a compromise would be a defeat for the liberation forces it would signal on the part of the Portuguese the complete reversal of their insistence that there would be no question of giving up any of the "overseas territories". Their willingness to negotiate such a settlement is undoubtedly a sign of willingness to cut their losses in Guine, the better to be able to conduct the battles they are fast losing in Mozambique and Angola.
On the three key fronts for the African liberatIon movements therefore, 1973 has opened with events which demonstrate the weakness and confusion of the regimes in the white enclaves and the potential strength of the liberation forces. There can be every hope that the year will see further decisive steps forward. In such a period it will be the duty of socialists inside the imperialist countries to develop the most active campaigns of solidarity with this new stage of the African revolution. candidates and for abstaining where they are not on the ballot. In the second round, it will continue to denounce the programme of the Union de la Gauche and its purported roads to socialism. But in order to enable the workers to learn by their own experience and not to put any obstavle in the way of this, the Ligue Communiste will call on its supporters, in accordance with the old tactic already set forth by Lenin in his Left Wing Communism, to eliminate the candidates of the bourgeoisie by voting for the candidates - but not for the programme - of the Union de la Gauche. In this way we will have counterposed our entire programme to that of the bourgeoisie and of the Union de la Gauche and done the most that we can to promote a result that will open up a vast perspective for the development of the class struggle. (Intercontinental Press/ January 22, 1973. * Lutte Ouvriere declares itself in favour of the revolutionary road to socialism, but unfortunately ine immediate programme that it has worked out for this campaign has nothing transitional about it. but is made up of immediate demands, a fact which renders it reformist in content.
INTERNATIONAL MARXIST GROUP (British Section of the Fourth International) 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. / would like more information about the IMG and its activities.
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