BY GREG ROSENBERG

The adoption of a new constitution by South Africa's Constitutional Assembly registers what workers, rural toilers, other democratic-minded fighters, and the leadership of the democratic revolution in the African National Congress have conquered. It marks the transition from the constituent assembly and national coalition government to the dawn of a democratic republic.

In this process, the working class, by allying itself with the rural toilers, is putting its stamp on the struggle to carry through the democratic revolution in the most thorough and uncompromising way. This has been the case throughout the decades-long battles that led to the freeing of Nelson Mandela, the unbanning of the ANC, and the one-person, one-vote elections in 1994 in which the ANC won a decisive majority.

Registering the sweeping victory over the old racist order, the new constitution enshrines broad democratic rights. The bill of rights bans discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy, or marital status. It establishes rights to adequate housing, food, water, education, health care, and jobs, all of which were denied to the Black majority under apartheid.

The constitution establishes the complete reversal of the former apartheid policies and practices on the question of land. It codifies the principle of land reform and leaves the door open to its implementation to redress the nearly complete expropriation of the African population.

The document codifies labor's right to form unions, engage in union activity, and strike. It does not give the bosses the right to lock out workers on strike, which had been one of the main demands of big business. The April 30 strike by millions of members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the simultaneous street mobilizations by hundreds of thousands of workers dealt a blow to the employers' efforts to include such a provision.

The recent mobilizations demanding that all-white schools admit Black children played a role in ensuring that the provisions on education guarantee the right for everyone to receive education in one or more of the 11 official languages they choose. This is an essential step in forging a nation that can overcome divisions among Africans - Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, or Tswana, who were kept apart by apartheid through language differences, regional disparities, and different tribal origins - and between Africans and others.

The new constitution reflects the progress South African toilers have made in their battle to eradicate the legacy of apartheid. The slow but steady class differentiation under way -

allowing some to farm, some to become professionals, some to become retailers, and others wage workers, all regardless of race by law - is a further sign of progress in the development of a South African nation.

The vast majority of Africans remain dispossessed of land, and conditions of life and work for millions of Black proletarians are night and day from those of South African whites.

The recent labor mobilizations, however, show that the working class has decisive weight and power in the unfolding class struggle. That's what worries investors in the country's stock markets and the architects of apartheid in the National Party who walked out of the coalition government the day after the adoption of the constitution.

The claims by National Party leaders over the last few years that they represent the aspirations of all South Africans and would become a majority party ring more hollow than ever. F.W. de Klerk and his ilk have continued to promote racist, anti-working- class policies. The National Party never carried much weight in the coalition government. But as the ANC correctly pointed out, its presence in the cabinet was an impediment to democratic change. Its departure reflects a relationship of class forces that favors revolutionary democrats.

These conquests make it more possible for working people to organize, discuss, collaborate with fellow fighters, and become deeply involved in political and social life without fear of persecution. This is necessary for forging the kind of proletarian leadership that can be built within the ranks of the ANC, if the democratic revolution is to be led to triumph and the doors opened for workers and peasants to wage a struggle for political power.

Young people and toilers from around the world should stand shoulder to shoulder with revolutionary democrats like Nelson Mandela and South Africa's working people in their struggle to wipe out the vestiges of apartheid and climb the next mountain on the road to freedom.  
 
 
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