TARGETING CHRIS HANI AND FREE ELECTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Mailing to Key Labor Contacts by Mike Fleshman, Labor Desk Coordinator. The mailing says on the morning of April 10, a white neo-Nazi armed with a South African Defense Force pistol assassinated the charismatic former commander of the ANC's guerrilla army, Chris Hani; police later arrested a leader of the ultra-right Conservative Party for involvement in the murder plot. The mailing says outrage swept the Black squatter camps and townships, where Ham was second only to Nelson Mandela in popularity; in Soweto the apartheid security forces opened fire without warning on peaceful protesters, killing labor leader Sam Tambane and other mourners and wounding dozens of others; in pro-ANC Sebokeng township, 19 people were gunned down by masked terrorists during a night of hit and run attacks. The mailing says only strong discipline by the millions of people who took to the streets in protest prevented the collapse of the fragile negotiations between the ANC and the minority government; but the depth of the peoples' anger can be measured by the scope of the people's response - over tour million workers joined national strikes on both the April 14 Day of Mourning and the April 19 funeral. The mailing says YET THE REAL TARGET OF THE ASSASSIN'S BULLETS WAS NOT CHRIS HANI BUT THE FRAGILE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS UNFOLDING IN SOUTH AFRICA. The mailing says his murder came just ten days after the resumption of negotiations between the democratic movement and the apartheid government, and a week after Hani launched a personal crusade for peace among South Africa's militant youth; in the days before he died Hani had begun to speak out against both indiscriminate attacks on whites by the rival Pan Africanist Congress and criminal behavior by members of ANC township defense units. The mailing says Hani died not because he was head of South Africa's Communist party, but because of his potency as a peacemaker and an ANC campaigner in the first nonracial election in South African history - elections to end apartheid that could come as early as April next year. The mailing says without strong action by the international community to defend the democratic movement and a free and fair vote, South Africa could follow Angola into the abyss of civil war and chaos; but as the enclosed U.S. statement on the assassination demonstrates, the Clinton Administration has chosen to continue the Reagan/Bush policy of seeing, hearing, and speaking no evil of the De Klerk regime; the State Department is silent on the need for immediate multi-party control of the security forces and the disarming of para-military rightists; there is no mention of the mountain of evidence tying the De Klerk government to death squads and right-wing vigilante groups; in the weeks following the assassination there was no criticism of the use of deadly force against protesters or of De Klerks obstructionist tactics at the multi-party negotiations; the White House has yet to publicly endorse the ANC call for early announcement of an election date. The mailing says don't let South Africa slip off the American political agenda when the end of apartheid is now finally in sight; the South African people will need your political and financial support as they prepare for the first non-racial election in their history; begin planning now for Fall fundraisers and educational events in your union; urge Congress and the President to speak out against apartheid violence and in favor of free, fair and early elections. The mailing asks people to call or write President Bill Clinton, their Senators, and their member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The mailing reprints an Alliance press statement dated April 20, 1993 issued by ANC SACP and COSATU. The mailing reprints a magazine article "The Chris Hani Stayaways" from The South African Labour Bulletin. The mailing reprints COSATU press statement DEATH OF SAM TAMBANE. The mailing reprints and article "Sam Tambane, August 23, 1953 -- April 12, 1993" from the South African Labour Bulletin. The mailing discusses the ANC (African National Congress), the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), F.W. de Klerk, CPSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions), the Anglo American Corporation, the General Allied Workers Union (GAWU), the UDF (United Democratic Front), the second State of Emergency, the Chamber of Mines, FAWU (Food and Allied Workers' Union), SACOB (SA Chamber of Business), the Labour Monitoring Group, Johan Steyn, the Human Rights Commission, a Transitional Executive Council, mass action, MK (uMkhonto weSizwe), and NUM (National Union of Mineworkers).