Black Labor Federation in South Africa ‘Fully in Favor’ of Divestiture, Leader Says

The president of South Africa’s new federation of black labor unions called on foreign companies Sunday to press the minority white government here to end apartheid and, if it does not, to withdraw their investments from the country.

Elijah Barayi, elected president of the new Congress of South African Trade Unions over the weekend, said in a speech at a union rally that the federation is “fully in favor of disinvestment” as a way of increasing pressure on the government to end apartheid.

Blacks would not suffer any more than they do now, he said in an interview later, if American, British and other foreign companies pulled out. However, the impact on the country’s white minority would speed the process of political, economic and social change, he contended.

Few Speak Out

Until now, few black leaders have been willing to call so openly upon foreign investors to pull out of South Africa because thousands of black jobs could be lost and because such declarations might be construed as “economic sabotage” and subversion, violating the country’s severe security laws.

Barayi’s speech to 10,000 union members here was an indication of the new federation’s militancy and the political challenge it poses to the government of President Pieter W. Botha.

Barayi, who was carried shoulder-high into a sports stadium for the rally, said the 450,000-member federation, an alliance of 34 black unions, is setting a six-month deadline for an end to apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation and white minority rule.

After six months, the federation is prepared to begin a campaign of civil disobedience, general strikes and other protests to force the government to act, he added.

‘No Longer Passive’

“We are no longer going to be passive,” said Barayi, an official of the National Union of Mineworkers, which has become the country’s largest union since its founding two years ago. “Black trade unions have been politically passive for quite a number of years. Now we are going to be playing an active role, politically, socially, culturally.

“There is no difference between a black man on the shop floor and a black man in the community,” he told the rally.

This shift by the unions from economic to political issues came largely as a response to harsh government actions, particularly in the areas east and south of Johannesburg and around the Port Elizabeth industrial complex, to curb mounting civil unrest, according to labor analysts. They see the unions’ shift as one of the most important developments of the last year.

‘Wave of Oppression’

After carefully avoiding politics to concentrate on the organization of workers and wage negotiations, the unions found themselves under heavy pressure from their members to respond to what one union official from Johannesburg called “a new and terrible wave of oppression.”

“When we tried to address these political questions quietly and avoid a confrontation, we found our leaders thrown into jail, detained without charge,” he said, asking not to be quoted by name. He continued:

“That made it clear to us all that, whatever economic gains we might make at the bargaining table with management, we ultimately had to change the system and that these changes had to come quickly.

“Among our members, the mood has changed significantly over the past year. Their bitterness has increased, their anger has increased, their militancy has increased and they want their unions . . . to act for them in ending apartheid. Nothing less will satisfy them now.”

Activist in 1950s

Barayi, now 60, was active as a young organizer for the African National Congress in the “defiance campaign” against apartheid legislation in the early 1950s.

A further indication of the new federation’s political orientation, as well as its militancy, came as Barayi called--to the cheers of the union members--for a black, worker-led government to nationalize the country’s mines and to take over some of its large industries.

Although the congress is still drafting its initial resolutions, it appears to have made the repeal of the much-hated pass laws a priority. These laws restrict blacks in living and working in the country’s cities and require them to carry passes when they have permission to do so.

If the government does not repeal the pass laws within the next six months, Barayi said, the unions will lead blacks in a campaign to burn their passbooks, the identity documents containing the passes.

A top government advisory body, the President’s Council, which is drafting many of the reforms put forward by Botha, recommended two months ago that the pass laws be repealed immediately and that policies be established to help blacks wanting to move to the cities to find jobs and housing.

Botha so far has said only that he will study the recommendations.