SOUTH AFRICA

The government of South Africa continues in its despicable policy of racial apartheid. Its barbaric form of institutionalized racism maintains a society of exploitation where only whites--less than 20 percent of the population--control 87 percent of the land and 70 percent of the purchasing power of the economy. Income for whites is twelve times that for blacks. Education for whites gets fifteen times as much funding as education for blacks.

South African labor law seeks to enforce the tenets of apartheid at the work place. Basic rights to organize, assemble, demonstrate, and strike have been systematically denied to black workers. Recent changes in the labor law, intended to give the appearance of liberalization, are little more than cosmetic. Any black worker involved in a dispute can still find himself arrested for riotous assembly, conspiracy, terrorism and breach of his labor contract. Any black dismissed in the course of a dispute could risk losing rights of residence and be sent back to a homeland. Blacks are still effectively excluded from skilled jobs. New regulations could prevent the collection of union dues "if deemed in the public interest" by the South African government.

Against these impossible odds, between 60,000 and 85,000 black trade unionists have managed to organize numbers that tragically represent hardly more than one percent of black workers. The growth of new central trade union bodies like the Federation of South African Trade Unions, the Consultative Committee, and the Black Allied Workers' Union offer a hopeful sign. We recognize the brave efforts of those teachers, municipal workers and others who have dared to strike. We see their action as a demonstration of what it will take to change South Africa. This is the pressure tactic they have chosen. The Black Municipal Workers' Union, for example, struck recently and its leader Joseph Mavi, was arrested and detained. They need our support.

To avoid a bloody debacle, change must come in South Africa. It must be a form of change demanded by South African blacks themselves and not imposed from without by those who have their own solutions to push. American trade unionists must use firm and calculated pressure to help bring it about. We offer our assistance to those who have chosen to strike.

We also call on the South African Government and American corporations doing business there t fully recognize all bona fide South African trade unions; and deal with such unions equitably, whether they be black, colored or mixed in racial composition. We further urge:

• enactment of American legislation to regulate the conduct of American corporations operating in South Africa, requiring them to recognize unions, offer training programs, grant equal pay for equal work and preventing them from contributing in any way to the enforcement of apartheid laws.

• the levying of penalties against companies that fail to do these things through taxation, the denial of loan guarantees, and critical publicity.

If all else fails, we finally recommend the development of a staged plan of action to deal with corporate and government assistance based on the recommendations of black South African trade unionists. This plan could include selective bans on the importation of South African products, the barring of new investment, disinvestment and the severance of all social, cultural and diplomatic ties.

As teachers and trade unionists we support increased contacts and ties with black trade unionists struggling for justice. We recognize the supportive efforts being made by democratic trade unionists in Europe. We urge the AFL-CIO to expand its own work in South Africa. We in the AFT will do everything we can to assist our teacher brothers and sisters there.