African Activist Archive

Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Defender saying that all charges against Moses Mayekiso have been dropped. He had spent one year in solitary confinement and was then charged with treason and subversion, and was on trial for 1-1/2 years. Inside South Africa, unions waged an extensive campaign, and the international labor community sent representatives to monitor the long trial. Thousands of petitions asking for the release of Mayekiso and all political prisoners were sent from Chicago. Mayekiso is out of jail, but he is not free; the apartheid regime continues to rule the country. Soweto Day, June 16, is the largest day of protest in South Africa, commemorating the 1976 massacre of school children by the police. People are invited to join a Soweto Day Walkathon and Rally in Chicago on June 17, starting at 9: 30 a.m. from the Charles Hayes Labor and Community Center. It will raise money for medical and legal aid for detainees who are jailed without being charged, many of whom are children. A Rally following the Walkathon will kick off a renewed campaign for Comprehensive Sanctions against South Africa. We can help make apartheid unprofitable and help to even the odds for the black majority. Contact people are Harold Rogers at Cong. Hayes office and Kathy Devine of the Labor Network. The letter thanks The Chicago Defender for its coverage of South Africa and Juanita Bratcher, especially, for her articles on the Mayekiso campaign.

African Activist Archive

[Dear Editor: In South Africa (SA) on April 24, a Supreme Court judge dropped all charges against Moses Mayekiso, leader of SA's second largest union, and four other accused.]

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