government wage boards.
What does the ruling class in South Africa hope to achieve by this volte face?
NATURE OF COUNTRY South Africa is a large and underpopulated country. A large part of the land is infertile, and rainfall islow. The country produces cash crops for export only by using cheap black labour and minimising home consumption, in other words by allowing mass malnutrition among the black population.
The gold mines which produce the major exports of the country are the deepest mines in the world and have low grade ort. Wages to black miners are so low that most South African blacks will not work on the mines, Workers are Imported from neighbouring black states, in particular the Portuguese territories where there is a system of compulsory labour. These migrants form about 80% of the black workers The white mine workers are paid relatively high wages, but like many other groups of white workers are continually faced with the threat of being replaced by black workers. They mainDeath of a militant Behind Job reservation" and the 'puss system" Lies the armed police, and the apparatus of the police-state. It is supported by, and reiaforces the ideology of spartheid, the god given separaseparate entrances to the same building for blacks and whites. Combined with the spirit of McCarthyism, this has led to the violent suppression of the black labour movement. Why should black workers now be given the legal right to strike?
THE NEW ECONOMY Since the second world war, and partly as a result of it, the South African economy has become more industrialised, Other factors contributing to this growth in industry include the protectionist policies of the Nationalist government, diversification by the mining companies like the Anglo-American Corporation, and the need to build a military fortress which does not rely solely on exporting primary products like minerals and crops, The new industry requires a skilled work force which is more stable than the changing migrant workers, and a large market to purJOE BAXTER 1940-1973