The month of June was marked by the highest level of action in resistance to apartheid since the renewal of the State of Emergency in June 1987. Almost two million workers stayed away from work to protest at the restrictions imposed on 17 political organisations and COSATU in February, and against the Labour Relations Amendment Bill.
At the same time churches held a convocation to plan a common strategy of resistance to apartheid, school boycotts continued in Soweto and other areas and a new campaign against rent increases started in Durban. The protests were marked by extensive support, reflecting the greater unity between anti-apartheid forces evident since the February restrictions were imposed.
Sustained over three days, the stay-away of 6-8 June was the largest and longest such action to date. It followed a conference called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) on 15 May to consider responses to the proposed Labour Relations Amendment Bill and the emergency restrictions of February.
The bill contains provisions for prohibiting secondary strikes; for employers to sue unions for losses caused by illegal strikes and measures which would reverse shop-floor gains won by unions over the last decade. The emergency regulations imposed in February had effectively banned 17 anti-apartheid organisations, as well as severely restricting the political activities of COSATU.
The conference was attended by representatives from both the trade union movement and political organisations. It resolved to build a broader alliance in opposition to apartheid.
Effect was given to this when the smaller National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), which organises workers along 'black consciousness' lines, endorsed the COSATU proposals for action. NACTU's support came after the first ever meeting at executive level between the two trade union federations.
The subsequent stay-away was thus supported by almost the entire independent trade union movement. In the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal area an average of 78 per cent of industrial workers participated over the three days. In the Eastern Cape participation was almost total. In Natal 72 per cent observed the call - the strongest response to a stay-away in the region to date. This happened in spite of a call by the Inkatha movement, linked to the Kwazulu bantustan, opposing the protest. In many parts of the country schools and universities were closed.
After February, organisations not directly affected by the clampdown increasingly took on the activities of those which had been restricted. This was most marked among religious organisations.
At a convocation held at the end of May and organised by the South African Council of Churches (SACC), more than 200 religious leaders from Protestant, Catholic and African Independent Churches met to discuss non-violent strategies of resistance to apartheid. It was described as 'the largest and most representative coalition of churches and church leaders ever in South Africa'. The meeting threw its support behind the stay-away on 6-8 June and a standing committee was set up to draft specific proposals for a 'national campaign of effective non-violent action'.
On 29 June, 26 religious leaders, representing 16 denominations, defied emergency regulations by calling on all Christians not to vote in the forthcoming local elections.
Scarcely a week after the first stay-away upwards of a million workers again stayed away from work, to observe the twelfth anniversary of the Soweto uprising. Schools and universities in many parts of the country closed and commemorative services were held. There were a number of clashes between demonstrators and police but censored news reports contained few details of the incidents. Police opened fire with birdshot and teargas to disperse a crowd leaving a memorial service at the Regina Mundi Cathedral in Soweto and a commemorative ceremony was broken up by police at the University of Natal, Durban.
The stay-aways and mobilisation of a broad front against emergency restrictions took place at the same time as education protests continued and resistance to rent increases broadened.
School boycotts in six Soweto high schools, fuelled by detentions of pupil leaders and activists, continued until mid-July.
Rent boycotts in many African townships had been sustained for three and half years by the beginning of July. The introduction of a new formula for setting rents for tenants in Indian, Coloured and White areas with effect from 1 July led to new rent protests.
In the Durban area, events in June were building towards a rent boycott among Indian, Coloured and White tenants of council housing. Spearheaded by the Durban Housing Action Committee (DHAC), an affiliate of the UDF, tenants launched a campaign against the new rent tariffs. A plan to hold a march through Durban to deliver a memorandum to the City Council was dropped when the event was banned by the authorities.
A protest meeting was later held at the University of Natal campus, attended by about 4,000 people including many from White areas. It was held amidst a heavy police presence. Shortly before the meeting police served notice on lawyers acting for DHAC warning the organisation that it was an offence under the emergency regulations to call for a rent boycott. No such call was made at the meeting, but press reports indicated that DHAC was considering a strategy which would involve tenants paying rents at the old rates, and refusing to pay the new tariffs if they were imposed.
