Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 14:33:31 +0100 (MET)
Subject: M-G: COCKROACH EXTRA (SWAZILAND)14/2/97


COCKROACH! EXTRA (Swaziland)14/2/97

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The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) in southern Africa several
weeks ago called a two day general strike February 3 and 4 to protest lack
of political freedom in the country as well as an anti-worker industrial
relations law imposed by the undemocratic government last year.  A
political crisis over the call has steadily mounted, and on Friday the
government arrested the President, Deputy President, General Secretary and
Deputy General of the SFTU.  This heavy-handed repression seems to have
backfired, because a number of unions that had declined to back the
stayaway call seem to have swung over to backing it to protest the arrests.


The Kingdom of Swaziland is a country a little smaller than Connecticut
with a population of about 900,000 people, located between South Africa and
Mozambique.  Since a royal decree made on April 12, 1973 abolished the
existing elected parliament and its legislative powers, Swazi kings have
ruled by decree over a no-party state, in which political parties and
political activities are banned.   In the subsequent quarter-century,
cities and towns, wage-labor, and a managerial-professional middle-class
have all grown rapidly.  Even most rural households are connected to the
urban wage economy (in
Swaziland and South Africa) to a substantial degree, as families pursue
strategies drawing on both urban and rural resources to survive.  In these
circumstances, dissatisfaction with lack of a direct, representative voice
in government has grown.  Since the end of apartheid in South Africa,
democratization pressure has intensified.

It is opposed by conservative "traditional leaders," often called
"labadzala" or elders, who exercise patronage by controlling land access,
public jobs, and social services, but also by segments of the middle
classes who benefit from parastatal investment corporations controlled by
the royalty "in trust for the Nation" but with no means of accountability
over that trust.   Because political parties are banned, advancing
democratic political claims has fallen to organizations in civil society,
including the pro-business press (although not business organizations
themselves) but most especially the trade unions.

The SFTU is a federation of unions of over 80,000 workers; there is a
smaller, more conservative federation as well.  Thus unions represent
something on the order of 20% of the working-age population, but since only
perhaps 50% of that population is in formal employment at any given time,
they represent a much higher proportion of the workforce in the formal
sector.  On the other hand they are organizationally weak due to lack of
resources, and to being hampered by highly restrictive industrial relations
laws.

Last year in late January the SFTU and its political allies (especially the
People's United Democratic Movement, [Pudemo] an illegal but quasi-open
political party) called a similar mass stayaway which had considerable
effectiveness, organized around a list of 27 demands, the most central of
which concerned repealing the April 1973 decree against political parties,
demands for a democratically representative parliament, repeal of
repressive security laws modelled on those of the old South African
government, and repeal of anti-labor laws.  The stayaway forced the
government to form a Constitutional Review Commission, but it was stacked
with supporters of the current order, and the opposition pulled out from
participating in it.

This year there has been less unity behind the stayaway call.  The
country's main independent newspaper has opposed the stayaway, which in
general supports the demands for political reform, although not those for
labor law reform, and which is highly critical of the government, has
opposed the general strike as likely to drive away foreign investors.  That
range of positions shared by a large part of the business community, many
middle-class Swazi citizens and a good number of workers; certain important
unions too came out against the stayaway.  In addition to the investment
question, perceptions that stayaway supporters last year resorted at times
to violently disruptive and coercive tactics to enforce the strike have
created ambivalence and opposition this year.  But many people are also
concerned about coercion from the government side, and the arrest of the
union leaders appears to have increased support for the stayaway.

Reports over the internet on Feb 3 suggested that the stayaway had slowed
but not stopped business in the capital Mbabane, and that there had been
greater effect in the central commercial city of Manzini, including shots
fired by police or military forces.  Sugar workers in the eastern lowlands
were apparently moving to honor the strike.  The situation was reported as
tense, with many small military patrols visible in the streets of the main
cities.

The arrested union leaders have been imprisoned solely for calling the
strike.  Their arrests have been condemned by the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (ICTFU), which was already bringing complaints to the ILO in respect
of the industrial relations laws passed last year.  Cosatu has promised
support to the SFTU, although inside Swaziland this is used by stayaway
opponents (including some who advocate democratic reforms) to portray the
SFTU as controlled by foreign interests, which the Federation denies.
Apart from general principles of supporting democracy and solidarity,
Cosatu unions have substantial numbers of Swazi members (citizens of both
Swaziland and South Africa; there are more Swazi people in South Africa
than Swaziland), and labor repression in neighboring countries weakens the
position of South African unions.

Among the arrested unionists are SFTU President Richard Nxumalo and General
Secretary Jan Sithole.  I do not have the names of the other two at hand
right now.  This message is compiled from news reports forwarded via
e-mail; interpretation is my own.  Please feel free to forward.  Apologies
to those of you who receive multiple copies.

Chris Lowe
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