plied by arresting student leaders under the infamous "Suppression of Communism' law (which allows them to imprison political opponents without trial almost indefinately), 1000 students marched on the local police station in protest.
The demonstrators were invited to send a delegation to discuss their demands with the police. But when they did so members of the deleg»tion were in tufn imprisoned. The One of the most important Despite repression, black student held a mass rally to celebrata FRELIMO victory in Mozambique, students then organised an eightday strike and occupation of the aniversity, This political terment has also haut its effects among black gold The conditions in the gold mines are notoriously bad. ands of black migrant workers from other African states are kept virtual prsoners in the mine compounds for months on end, earning abysmRally low pay, most of which they end of their contracts".
for better conditions are violenty suppressed by the police, often Tens of thousfilled with sand. Some 200 Air ers.
and tear gas.
order.
do not receive until after they are shipped out of the country at the All atempts to protest or fight through the murder of black work**In the past year alone, 59 black were on strike. workers have been killed in violence at the gold mines. The mine manais fell particutarly keenly because six of the junta's remaining Hawker- been taken. Hunters have been grounded since May after their engines were found Force officers and servicemen at gers try to blame all these disturbances on "inter-tribal rivalry. It is trie that this closed and repressive set-up often throws the workers at one another's throats, but many strupples have hit out against the management and the terrible lising and working conditions in the Recent events have shown how these struggles can develop. On 13 October a fight broke out between two groups of black workers at one mine, and was violently broken up by the police. The next day a protest strike was staged by 1500 workA week later the struggle took a clearer curn when Mozambiquan miners oloved into the leadership. A thousand of them tried to march on the administration building. but were blocked by police dogs The typical racist arrogance of the munagement is shown in the mine manager's comment that dogs were unicashed on the workers just to show them we would maintain STRIKES Again the workers responded to this repression by striking, and putting in a demand for higher wages. The strike movement spread where. and as of last Wednesday f23 Octoher)-by which time another two miners had been killed in the suppression of a riot —almost 10,000 In Africa. miners in three different mines Both the demands of the MozamIiquans for higher wages, and the At Fasline, naval shipyard workers have refused to service or supply the two Chilean submarines being built ar Scotldemand raised by 1500 striking miners from the black Africanstate of Malawi that they be sent home, are very worrying for the South African mine owners. For they came no more than three days after black workers wages were increased by one-third (to the princely sum of 97p per shift or about t25 a mont), precisely in order to ensure the continuing flow of migrant workers from countries like Mozambique and Malawi Without these workers the cruc tal gold mining industry would suf fer a very serious labour shortage, and the whole South African econ omy would be badly hit.
The situation has never been as favourable as it is at present to stanup out the evil of white racism in Southern Africa and launch a powerful assault on imperialist exploitation throughout the continent. This makes Labour's cover-up job for South Africa particularly treacherous.
The Labour movement must sol idarise with their oppressed black brothers in South Africa, and warn Callaghan and his like in no uncertain terms that Labour's present policies are totally unacceptable. The Labour Government must be forced to:
*End all diplomatic support for South Africa in the UN and else*End the Simonstown military agreemen, and all torms of military aid to white South African racism *End all British trade with, and in vestment in, the white racist regimes Royce most clearly shows, the boycott actions have had a direct effect on the military junta.
However the past actions of the Labour Government have done nothing to help the boycott cam