Viewing page 8 of 17

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

authorising the minister of Justice, Pirow, the South African Mussolini, to deal with "seditious" propaganda. Apparently, before the bill was enacted, another even more serious incident occurred at Durban in October, when 12,000 African workers flatly refused to pay poll tax. 

Urged on by the ultra-reactionary Afrikanders, Pirow finally decided to raid the native compounds and in the latter part of November wholesale raids were carried out by the armed forces of the state with the aid of gas-masks and tear gas-bombs. Over 600 natives were arrested. These raids had the effect of driving over some of the reformist Native leaders into the militant campaign. Pirow wanted to increase European fears so as to enable his party to railroad through Parliament legislation, depriving the Africans of the freedom of speech, assembly and the right to organize. IN this he succeeded. 

[[image]]
[[caption]] Conference Group of the South Africa National Congress. [[/caption]]

Anti-Labor Laws.

for in the 1930 Riotous Assemblies Amendement Act was placed in the Statute Book. Ever since Pirow has acted as the worst type of torturer and executioner of the native peoples and revolutionary workers.

Already ten persons have been dealt with under the Riotous Assemblies Act, seven being African natives. They are: Kadalie (Independent S.L.P.), Champion (I.C.U. base Natal), Tonyeni (Independent A.N.C.), Malkinson, Becker and Eddie Roux (white communist leaders). The last mentioned is still before the courts law. Roux was also recently imprisoned for a period of two months' hard labour, for defying the order of the dictator Pirow who ordered him not to be present in Durban for a period of a year within 7 days and after receipt of the order. This shows that the white revolutionists are fighting and suffering for the Africans while some of the so-called big Negroes especially Professors Thaele and Jabavu are licking Pirow's boots. 

On the 6th November 1931 another damnable law has been gazetted, called the Natal Native Code. This gives the Minister of Native Affairs, another torturer by the name of Jansen, one of the chief lackeys of Pirow, the right to

14



imprison a native "agitator", i.e. one who demands equal rights for natives with Europeans, to a period of three months, without trial. Persons arrested under this law shall have no right to protest. This is how the much boasted about British democracy operates in South Africa. 

The Urban Areas Act has has also been amended and the 1930 amendment compels African women to carry passes and also deals with the prohibition of meetings. The enforcement of this law has also led to the imprisonment of some members of the Independent A.N.C. at Middlebury Cape, which was very much resented by the masses who stormed the magistrate court, and other public buildings. 

Appeal for International Solidarity.

We want the workers in England, America and the whole world to know that every attempt on the part of the Africans to organize for better conditions is being met with police violence and imperialist terror of the vilest form. Not only this: The government has on its side a big force of African agents and reformist lackeys, whom the officials called "good boys". These black traitors are paid by the capitalists to side track the masses from following a revolutionary way out of their misery, which is the only road to emancipation. We are faced with a complete state of illegality. The Nationalist government has departed from all pretense of bourgeois "justice". It is an open fascist dictatorship, headed by two ignorent Dutch men, Hertzog and Pirow. 

One world about the church: The churches such as the Dutch Reformed and the Roman Catholics are bitter enemies of the African toilers and they are also working hand in hand with the government. They do all that lies within their power to feed the masses with all sorts of lies that they should pin their faith to the skies, while British and Dutch capitalists and landlords reduce us to slaves. 

Comrades, your black brothers in South Africa need your aid. Do not forget that your struggles are bound up with ours. The emancipation of the toilers in England and the other capitalist countries can never be achieved without the freedom of the colonials and other oppressed peoples. That is the why we appeal to the revolutionary proletariat in England and America to support our struggles. The masses are prepared to carry on the struggles beneath ground and above ground, until we have overthrown the imperialists. 


Negro Misleaders in South Africa
By T. Jackson (South Africa.)

Professor D.D.T. Jabavu spent the month of December 1931 in London, bringing before his English "friends the wishes, desires and just aspirations of the Non-European Conference of January 1931", of which  he was the President. Like Gandhi, Jabavu, went forth to London as "ambassador" of the whole Bantu nation. He went to warn his British "friends" that if they did not assist the Non-European Conference then the communists will win out. He told them that, "the natives love their British masters (damn the Boers) and are happy to be under the Union Jack." Thus by a skillful utilization of timid threats and lying insinuations "our" Professor hopes to gain the sympathy of his English "friends". The real history of the events that led him to undertake this trip to England are revealed in his speeches. From them it is quite plain that Jabavu's "British-loving and happy-under the-Union-Jack" natives are indignant at the oppression 

15