Apartheid: the Class Basis

[p030] _ Apartheid: the Class Basis By a South African Labour with a white skin cannot emancipate itself while labour with a black skin is branded. KARL MARX. THE ‘COLOUR BAR’ in South Africa is not something which was born after the advent to power of Dr. Malan and the Nationalist Party in 1946. It is inherent in the economic and political structure which has been built up in the centuries since the white man first set foot in the Cape of Good Hope. All the white political parties have contributed their quota of legislation—legislation which had one basic theme—to drive deeper the wedge between work- ers with white skins and workers with dark skins. No matter what ideological arguments have been raised by the advocates of ‘apartheid’—and South African poli- ticians do not hesitate to invoke even the name of the Deity in support of the most vicious racial laws—the fundamental aims have been to create fissures between the various racial groups, the more effectively to sub- ject them to capitalist exploitation. The essential class character of colour bar legis- lation is evident from even a cursory examination of some of the laws enacted by the South African par- liament. We need go no further back than 1910, the year in which the four British colonies—Cape Colony, party line on self-determination for the colonies which brought communists into sharp conflict with fighters for national independence (French North Africa providing the classic example). Transvaal, Orange Free State and Natal—came together in the Union of South Africa. The very Act of Union, passed into law by the British Parliament, ensured that the franchise should be the exclusive privilege of the whites. True, Africans in the Cape retained their voting rights (but not the right to sit as members of the Legislative Assembly) but the predonderance of the white electorate guaranteed beforehand that, in time to come (as it came in 1936 with the Native Representa- tion Act), the African voters would be removed from the Common Roll.! The same fate has now overtaken the coloured voters (people of mixed race). Only a year after Union, at the instigation of the late General Smuts, the Mines and Works Act (1911) became law. This Act, which South Africans habitually refer to as the ‘Colour Bar Act’, reserves certain occu- pations in the mines for whites only. They are, of course, the skilled and supervisory jobs, the ‘clean’ work which brings in the biggest pay packets for the least possible outlay of energy. This Act was amended by the Nation- alist Government in 1956 to make doubly sure that the African workers remain ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ and do not improve their industrial status. The Native Building Workers’ Act of 1951 also estab- lished a legal colour bar by prohibiting African work- ers from competing with whites in areas reserved for white occupation. 1The same process can now be seen at work in the Central African Federation. 153 a a re ES

[p031] But while these are the limits of the legal industrial colour bar, custom and convention have closed the doors of almost every skilled trade to African workers. This is in pursuance of the so-called civilized Labour policy which was long advocated by the South African Labour Party and which became Government policy when that party formed the Pact Government with the Nationalists under General Hertzog in 1924.! In Gov- ernment and public departments preference is given to whites even for the more menial jobs, Africans being employed only because there are not enough white workers to go round. This ensures that there will be an adequate supply of cheap African labour for the mines and farms. It is almost impossible for an African to become apprenticed to a trade. Under the ‘Industrial Conciliation Act’, introduced by the Strydom Government last year, any trade or industry can be declared the preserve of any racial group. Thus the statutory colour bar is being extended. As in industry, so in industrial relations, the colour bar impeded—and is designed to impede—the possible solidarity of white and black workers. Up to now the white workers have enjoyed com- plete freedom to form trade unions and to engage in collecive bargaining with the employers. They have had the right to strike or to sell their labour power where they will. But for Africans there was none of this. African trade unions are denied legal recognition. Strikes are prohibited. Freedom of movement is re- stricted under the various pass laws and the ‘Natives (Urban Areas) Act’. Disputes with employers cannot be settled by direct negotiation but only through the intervention of Government officials. The one thing all South African Governments have feared is the creation of a black, urbanized proletariat and, above all, an organized African working-class movement. This fear was expressed succinctly by the then Minister of Labour, Mr. B. J. Schoeman, speaking in the House of Assembly on August 4, 1953. He said: *. . . the stronger the Native trade union movement be- comes, the more dangerous it would be to the Euro- peans of South Africa . . . we would be committing race suicide if we give them that incentive.’ Here we have complete the synthesis between the European master race and the capitalist class. When Mr. Schoeman or Mr. Strydom talk of ‘race suicide’, they have in mind the overthrow of the whole system of capitalist economic relations, the defence of which is the determining aim of their apartheid policy. . ‘Apartheid’, of course, is translated into English as ‘separateness’ and the ostensible aim of its advocates is to shut off each racial group into separate compart- ments with only the minimum of communication. But that is only the theoretical aim, bearing no relation at all to the practical realization. The apartheid laws do not, in fact, separate black from white. In every South African factory and work- 1Today we are glad to see signs that the South African Labour Party regrets this shameful past and now consistently opposes the Government’s apartheid policy. But it remains, essential- ly, the party of the skilled white (mainly English-speaking) workers and, thanks to its disgraceful history, is almost without influence in present-day South African politics. 154 shop, m every mine and commercial establishment, black and white workers are to be found side by side, taking part in the same work processes. All that the colour bar laws do is to impose severe restrictions upon the Africans in order to retard their progress and limit their earning powers. The Africans, who comprise 53 per cent of the labour force in South Africa!, simply provide a vast reservoir of cheap, disciplined labour. As a consequence of the racial policies of succes- sive South African governments and especially since the Nationalists came to power and ruthlessly pursued that policy to its logical end (even if that end is ‘Gétterdam- merung’), the whole of the South African Labour move- ment has suffered grievously. In the political field the Labour Party is all but non-existent. Even its belated efforts to live down its own ‘apartheid’ past are in vain. The African, coloured and Asian workers have never had any faith in it; the English-speaking skilled work- ‘ ers, who formed its base, are being rapidly replaced by new recruits to industry from the countryside—Afri- kaner workers whose political allegiance is to the Nationalists and whose process of proletarianization is being delayed by their ‘Herrenvolk’ outlook. In industrial organization, the Nationalist politi- cians have made skilful use of the prevailing racial prejudices to fragmentize the trade union movement. Today there are five separate trade union federations in South Africa, only one of which accepts the affiliation of African trade unions. Only one of the five federa- tions is open to the workers of all races, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, whose affiliated unions are largely Africans. Not satisfied with the voluntary (and often enthusi- astic) apartheid of the white trade unions, the Govern- ment has now passed legislation compelling separate unions, not only for African workers but also for col- oured and Asian workers.” And for the greater part the rank-and-file white trade unionists are not a bit con- cerned by this governmental interference with the in- ternal affairs of the unions. Even if they wanted to the unions could not seek remedy by political action for they are now prohibited by law from affiliating to political parties or giving financial aid to political parties or candidates. Thus the great South African trade unions, with many heroic fights to their credit, but never able to overcome their genetic weakness—white exclusiveness —are now paying the price which history inevitably demands from those who place self-interest before prin- ciples. As an effective force in the coming struggles in South Africa, the white trade unions will count for little. It is to the African trade unions that the future velong. Apartheid has not kept the Africans out of the mines and factories. Economic laws are stronger, in the Jong run, than the laws enacted by parliaments and the evelopment of South African industry demands an ever greater supply of labour. Only the African reserves and the surrounding territories can provide this. The industrial process itself teaches the need for organiza- tion and today there are 21 unions, with a membership 'White workers comprise 30 per cent, Coloured 13 per cent, Asians four per cent. “Industrial Conciliation Act, 1956.

[p032] of 30,000, affiliated to the South African Congress of Trade Unions. . Despite prohibitive legislation and vicious punish- ments, there were 33 illegal strikes in 1954 and 73 in 1955. At every strike the police are called in and work- ers arrested. The odds against victory are tremendous and only rarely do the workers achieve their demands. But they have no other weapon and, until they forge a revolutionary party, no better one. Every strike, every defeat, prepares them for the next round of struggle and leaves them the better equipped to face the enemy. The famous Bus Strike was a tremendous demonstra- tion of the African workers’ capacity for organization and to make sacrifices in the cause of solidarity. The nightmare feared by the white ‘Herrenvolk’, the emergence of an African proletariat, is upon them. Mr. Schoeman and his friends are trembling in their boots as they see an African trade union movement being forged despite the repressive laws. They can hear the rumblings of the slaves rising in revolt against their chains. And their only answer is more arrests, more beatings, more shootings, more repressive racial laws. But nothing can stop the dark-skinned workers of South Africa joining their brothers in Central Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya as the ‘Dark Continent’ marches