SOUTH AFRICA: Strike Tactic

Walkouts vs. apartheid

For the fifth time in two weeks, the black trainee had failed to show up at his job at the Ford Motor Co. plant near South Africa's industrial capital of Port Elizabeth. He had asked for two hours off to answer a summons from the police, but failed to return to work. When a white foreman cautioned Thozamile Botha, 30, an intense former schoolteacher turned black activist who had worked for Ford for less than twelve months, to improve his attendance, Botha snapped, "Why don't you fire me?" He then...

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