S. Africa Black Unions Form Broad Federation : Aggressive Stance May Pose Another Serious Challenge to White Authorities

Thirty-four black South African labor unions, wanting to give their nearly 500,000 members a stronger political voice, formed a new union federation here Saturday that could become a serious domestic challenge to the the white minority government.

Although the federation’s unions will retain their usual economic priorities, particularly higher wages, they also intend to use their combined strength to fight apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation.

With most anti-apartheid groups now under such heavy government pressure that they have almost ceased to operate, the aggressive political stance of the new Congress of South African Trade Unions could quickly make it a major opposition group.

Socialist Orientation

Already, it is the country’s largest labor organization, with more paid-up members than the conservative Trade Union Council of South Africa, and its politics are clearly socialist as well as strongly anti-apartheid.

“Unions initially were involved mainly in economic issues, but we will be dealing with political questions,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers and a key figure in the new federation. “If, in fighting against oppression, we have to hit our heads against the government, so be it.”

Chris Dlamini, president of the Federation of South African Trade Unions, around which the new congress is largely built, agreed that the focus of black workers is now shifting to politics and that they will carry a much greater burden in the fight against apartheid than they have until now.

“Unions are aware that political and economic problems cannot be divorced because the people are exploited as a class and oppressed as a nation,” he said. “ . . . Until now, there has not been sufficient unity within the trade union movement for unions to attack the underlying structural oppression in this country.”

‘Very Substantial Force’

Mark Swilling, a political scientist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who follows union politics, commented, “The new federation could become a very, very substantial force to be reckoned with, and it may well move beyond” what he termed “the comparatively moderate demands of the African National Congress (the outlawed black liberation group).”

Over the last six years, black workers have been allowed to form trade unions and to bargain collectively with their employers under one of the reforms introduced by President Pieter W. Botha.

The government’s intention was to restrict the unions to negotiating pay and working conditions within the strict limits of South African law. There are about 500 registered black trade unions now, most of them small organizations representing the workers of a single company or plant.

But the larger black unions have grown rapidly, some doubling their membership each year and testing their strength in several major strikes recently, and their leaders want to join the battle to change the country’s political system.

But the new congress has its own political problems, some serious enough to divide its members and destroy the federation.

Some Refused to Join

Two groups of “black consciousness” unions with more than 200,000 members refused to join the new group because of its commitment against racism--the acceptance of whites within its organization and later within the society that they hope South Africa will become.

In a significant shift within black politics, the 160,000-member National Union of Mineworkers quit a black consciousness federation over this issue to ensure the formation of the new congress.

The rival black consciousness unions will continue to compete for members with those that joined the congress, deepening the political divisions among blacks and weakening the union movement.

Delegates acknowledged, as they debated the constitution of the new federation, that another problem will be its precise political role--whether it should follow the leadership of groups such as the African National Congress or the United Democratic Front coalition of anti-apartheid groups; what its ideological orientation should be, what should the balance be between political and economic interests.

The 871 delegates debated for more than an hour on the question of proper ownership of the country’s wealth, concluding finally that wealth belongs “to the working class.”

In this, the new congress appears to be a successor to the old South African Congress of Trade Unions, an affiliate of the African National Congress, that went underground in the 1960s after the ANC was outlawed and now attempts to represent black South African workers in international forums.

Practical Question

“We hope that we are going to be able to continue from where the South African Congress of Trade Unions left off,” Ramaphosa said.

In practical terms, however, the immediate question--still not settled--is whether to affiliate formally with the United Democratic Front, a broad-based multiracial group, or agree to cooperate with it in organizing such specific political protests as general strikes and consumer boycotts in opposition to apartheid.

Within the new federation, power struggles are likely among those unions that have joined the congress as it presses to reorganize the trade union movement so that only one of its unions represents workers in each industry, rather than three or four, as is common now. Within six months, the congress hopes that the present 34 unions are reduced to 13.

Smaller unions will be merged into larger ones, general unions will all but disappear, and present union leaders may find themselves demoted to shop stewards in the process, delegates to the inaugural meeting here said.

The delegates Saturday elected Elijah Barayi, a vice president of the National Union of Mineworkers, as the new federation’s first president. Dlamini of the Federation of South African Trade Unions was elected a vice president. Another official of the old federation, Jay Naidoo, was picked for the key post of general secretary.

For many labor analysts, the formation of the congress, which required 4 1/2 years of negotiations among potential members, constituted a major achievement.

“On any scale, it is the biggest federation in South African labor history and by far the most representative,” Jon Lewis, editor of the South African Labor Bulletin, commented.

“The existence of (the new congress) will not only transform the labor scene (but) help mold the future political terrain, linking struggle against economic exploitation with resistance to racial oppression,” Lewis said.