South Africa's women of courage By ROSEMARY SMALL NE OF the most touching sights in Johannesburg is to see the rows of African women patiently waiting, day after day, hoping for news of a husband or a son. It is a sight that is repeated in many South African cities, in the small inconspicuous of- fices where the Defence and Aid organization does its best to help the families of political _ prisoners. Solidarity Husbands and sons_ disap- pear, arrested under one of the repressive apartheid laws. - Where are they? In jail? In solitary ccnfinement? Arrested _ without charge under the 90-day detention laws? Charged with a pass offence? With ‘“sabot- age’? With contravening an or- der confining them to their own _ township? __ The wives and mothers go to _the jails and ask, but they are - turned away without informa- tion. - _ So they come and sit in the Defence and Aid office, hoping _ that news of their menfolk will come through—but, in the vast prison-camp which is South _ Africa today, with its constant arrests, it may be days before this happens. For nearly- every male poli- tical prisoner, there is a woman struggling to do the work of _ two people — to be both father and mother to her children, to On the labor front Se STRUGGLE of major im- portance to the movement is being waged by the International Typogra-. _ phical Union against the three daily newspapers in Toronto _ around the issue of automation. __ As far back as April the fol- lowing story appeared in the Globe & Mail: “the publishers are making plans to operate if - the differences can not be set- tled and the dispute leads to a _ strike. Training is being given to employees outside of union _ jurisdiction in the punching of typesetting tape. ‘We prefer to avoid a strike, but we intend to operate with or without print- ers’ a newspaper spokesmen said.” the Toronto Daily | Star in -outlining its position on _ the eve of the lockout declared: “the ITU’s claims for jurisdic- tion over multi-purpose comput- er work reflect the fear of auto- mation and -its concern that there should be no reduction in the nurther cf jobs covered by labor : earn a meagre living in a town- ship by taking in washing. Average And the average prison popu- lation on any given day in the year is 66,575, three-quarters of them Africans. The women themselves have -also suffered for their own and their husband’s fight for free- dom. Families are doubly strick- en by the arrest of father and mother. : A glance at a few individual cases “— particularly the fami- lies of the men just sentenced to life imprisonment after the Rivonia trial — will illustrate this. 3 Winnie Mandela is the second wife of Nelson Mandela; daught- er of the Transkei Minister of Agriculture, a child welfare worker, a most beautiful and intelligent woman. Devoted -She met Nelson when he was accused in the treason trial — and, sitting in the public gal- Jery, she was the most beauti- ful woman for miles around. They married in Pondoland in the Transkei, where Winnie - was born, and now have two little daughters. -This devoted couple have scarcely known the simple plea- sure of sharing each other’s company in a home of their own. They had been married less than a year, and Winnie was pregnant .with her first baby, when she was arrested for tak- ing part in a women’s demon- stration, and spent a fortnight in prison awaiting trial; she was arrested again last year for contravening a banning order. Since 1961 her husband has _ been underground, eluding the police, or in fail. Banned Because Winnie herself is proscribed from attending any meetings or meeting any ban- ned person, she had to get spe- cial police permission to. travel from Jghannesburg to Pretoria to attend her husband’s trial. She had to fight for weeks, with the thought constantly in her mind that he was facing a possible death sentence, before © she could get the required per- mission. .Back in 1944, Nelson Mande- la was best man at the wed- ding of Walter and Albertina Sisulu. During the toasts and the speech-making, one speaker warned Albertina: ‘You are marrying a man who is alrea- dy married to the nation.” Albertina, a nursing sister at an Orlando clinic, has five chil- dren. The youngest is a little girl of five, the eldest, Max is 17. : Tragic When the police were looking for Sisulu, before the Rivonia- raids, they arrested both Alber- tina and Max under the 90-day detention law, to try and find out from them where he was. One of the most. tragic cases © is that of Caroline Motsoaledi, whose husband, Elias was also sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia trial. : Elias and Caroline have seven children, the youngest a baby of six months; yet Caroline is serving her second term of im- prisonment under the 90-day Act. She was arrested in the very courtroom in Pretoria where she had gone to see her hus- band fighting for his life and liberty, and has been detained ever since. These cases of hardship to women and. children could be multiplied indefinitely. The wife of Govan Mbeki (also under life imprisonment) ~ is keeping the family together by running a small trading store in the Transkei. Govan’s first and only grandchild was born during his trial and he has never seen the baby. Escort Raymond Mbhlaba (also life imprisonment) is a widower with eight children, who were being cared for by their grand- father — but the grandfather died during Raymond’s trial. Taken to the funeral under police escort, Raymond. must have had three thoughts in his mind: the loss of his father, the future of his children, and his own sentence. And many other. families” apart from those of the m' sentenced at the Rivonia # face a similar situation. Mary Turok, jailed last year for distributing leaflets, is 1° living under a vicious ban® order — one of the most sev’ except for house arrest. While her husband is jal for “sabotage” in Pretoria Maly is confined to one sqquare mile of the European suburb ® Orange Grove — which meam that if she needs to take Ht children to the clinic or VP: the dentist she must apply '@ special police permission t0 ds So. _Courage Maggie Strachan’s husbands Harold, is serving a three-y& jail sentence, also for “«sabo- tage”; they have a young baby: whom Harold has only Sé&€ held up to the visitor’s gate ® the jail by Maggie. The courage of these womer and the many others like thé is something to marvel at. pite the repression and the timidation, they continue — struggle. It was the African wom who dared, under the noses the police, to unfurl banné and sing freedom songs at th end of the Rivonia trial, just they have dared to demonstrat in the past against starvall® wages and high taxes, fore labor and passes, and as tht?” will continue to fight until fre dom has been achieved in the? country. Toronto printers’ strike By WILLIAM KASHTAN that union. If newspapers agreed to that principle it would be impossible to automate, since expensive new equipment would bring no savings in wage costs”. Clear enough.’ Of course the companies were prepared to pay a price for the union’s accept- ance of automation and conse- quent layoff of workers. They promised that no one will be laid off for two years from jobs made redundant by auto- mation. They promised to re- train displaced employees for possible other jobs. And they would provide incentives for early retirement. What they did not promise is job security to their workers. This is the heart of the issue which the ITU is fighting over. Its demand for jurisdiction over the multi-purpose computer work where it does composing room work is an effort at achieving job security and a measure of control over produc- tion, © The present struggle may be a long one. Certainly, from the statements of all the publishing companies as well as from their long preparations for the pre- sent lockout, they are determin- ed to break the ITU’s resistance to paying the cost of automa- tion. If they are successful there, the other printing trades unions will be next. This struggle is being closely watched by industry generally which also has its timetable for installing~ automated processes, This struggle and its out- come is therefore of great con- cern to the labor movement. The three daily papers claim that the workers and_ their union are standing out against progress, This is furthest from the truth. The workers do not oppose automation. What they oppose is that-they should become its victims and the employers the sole beneficiaries. For the moment the publish- ing companies have outma- neouvred the printing trades unions, signing separate agree- ments with all of them except the ITU so as to prevent a solid “united front around the issues of automation. Despite this tem- porary advantage however, all the printing trades unions, in- cluding the Newspaper Guild, have an obligation, in the spirit of solidarity, to seek out ways and means to limit this tempor- ary advantage and to develop the maximum of pressure on the publishing companies. The Newspaper Guild has taken one weapon away from the publish- ing companies by making clear that the principle of ITU juris- diction over composing room work has its support. In the longer run however, because negotiations with other daily papers will other parts of the country, agreement ought to be reached between all printing unions, that they will bargain jointly and sign jointly. With all its limitations the joint negotia- proceed in. tions by railway unions h paid off for railway worker Why shouldn’t that pattern 4 ply to the printing trades unio Looking ahead the print! trades unions also need to bee examining their present t ; union structure. As the Toronl Star statement declared: “CO” puters can produce bills classified and display advé tisers and newspaper distrib ors; they can assist in pay! costing, production and a of other functions. The 547 computers also can simp! some of the work now done the composing room by Tt members”. Multi-purpose compu l® need a union structure able face up to the problems aU! mation presents to the worké! While this may not be an mediate problem in the pre? strike, it nevertheless cons tutes a problem which the tire trade union movement not afford to ignore. The immediate problem i the mounting of effective pee sures on the three dailies the entire _ Jabor mover” througout Ontario. The strome the pressures the shorter strike and the greater guarantee of victory for ITU and the labor movem generally. h ihe ent < : 2 y 6 July 24, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pa9?