The current period has been characterised by the most intense wave of state repression since the mass uprisings in 1976 and 1977. As the list of detentions in this issue testifies, hundreds of people were detained as the result of popular mass protests against the white Republic Day celebrations and in support of the fifth anniversary of the Soweto massacre on 16 June. Industrial action by workers has also been on the increase, followed by detentions of large numbers of workers and union leaders.
The arrests of prominent individuals involved in organising the various anti-Republic Day campaigns began before 31 May. Detentions of student leaders continued in the period preceding 16 June. Leaders of the University of the Witwatersrand Black Student Society and SRC were detained and subsequently banned.
Protests by Coloured students at the arrests of student leaders led to displays of police brutality in the streets of Johannesburg's Western Coloured Township. Teargas, baton charges and dogs were used to disperse more than 800 Coloured students who attempted to stage a protest march into the city. Fifty-nine students were arrested. Many people including 10 babies and a number of old people had to be rushed to hospital suffering from the effects of teargas.
During the next two days the police, with help from the army, carried out house-to-house searches in the township and detained people for questioning.
As a result of the police actions 4,000 Coloured students at five Transvaal schools began a boycott of classes. This was followed shortly after by a boycott of classes by Coloured students in the Cape. Education officials threatened to send teaching staff home without pay if the schools were closed and pupils found guilty of 'inciting' others would be expelled.
ATTACKS ON MEETINGS Several meetings and services organised to commemorate 16 June were banned a few days before the date, in Durban, Port Elizabeth and in the northern Transvaal.
Police and troops were mobilised around Soweto a few days before 16 June to prevent any disturbances in the township. On 14 June Soweto and other black townships in the Johannesburg and Pretoria area were cordoned off by roadblocks and all vehicles were stopped and searched. One hundred and forty four arrests were made for a variety of 'crimes'.
On 16 June in many areas workers remained at home as a sign of mourning for those who died in the police shootings of unarmed protesters in 1976. After a commemoration service attended by several thousand people at the Regina Mundi church in Soweto, police fired teargas at the church which resulted in the flight of thousands of people. Police fired rubber bullets and baton-charged the crowd.
Police vehicles were stoned and there were violent clashes with the police. Similar incidents occurred in a number of places in the Johannesburg area as police tried to break up meetings and services.
STRIKES The current spate of trade union detentions is the biggest crackdown on unionism since 1976. The detentions are seen as an attempt by the government to curb the growing number of strikes and other forms of industrial action and to eliminate the growing power of unregistered trade unions.
The 17-day strike at the end of May by an estimated 3,500 workers at Ford, General Motors and Firestone in Port Elizabeth resulted in the detention of three Firestone workers under the Terrorism Act.
Armed Ciskean police in Mdantsane township, East London, arrested a large number of former Wilson-Rowntree workers who were also members of SAAWU, on 11 June. The workers were taken away in five police vans. Later it was confirmed that 33 people were being held.
A number of other prominent trade union leaders were detained at the end of May and early June, including members of MACWUSA, the union involved in the Port Elizabeth motor industries strike.
By the end of June the entire East London leadership of SAAWU was being held by South African police in terms of security laws.
