One Miner in Four Sacked on CopperbeltSource: Africa Today, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jul. - Aug., 1955), p. 6Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4183711 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 23:41

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.54 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:41:54 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

- 5 -

("U. N. Urgaes Somali Settlement", cont. from p. 5)

In the voting at the Trusteeship Council, the U. S. delegation has shown a tendency to oppose, or at least to avoid sup9orting, the Somali claims. The colonial powers thereupon followed the American lead. The reason for this is apparently the ne_essity felt by the U. S. Govern- ment to maintain cordial relations with Ethiopia. (An agreement regarding the establishment of U. S. air baaes in Ethiopia was signed in May 1954.) In this instance the strategic adliance with Ethiopia appears to be preventing consideration of the Somali ,problenm on its own merits.

TUNISIANS A2CL.,AIM HOME RULE

Demonstrations of joy swept the streets of Tunisia in early July when the Freach Assembly overwhelmingly, if tardily, approved the governrment's bill to ratify the conventions of Tunisian home rule.

Coming at the conclusion of months of negotiations, the ratification inaugurated a new era in TuniAan history. The vote was 538 to 44 with 29 abstentions, an unexpectedly favorable vote. Premier Tahar Ben Arnmar declared that the Assembly's vote was an expression of confidence in the self-governing Tunisia to come.

The joy was anot unanimous, however, for dissident Tunisian nationalist groups feel that the accords are a sell-out and that nothing less than full independence is satisfactory. At the other extreme are the French settlers, apprehensive and dismayed, who are waiting to see what their status will be under the new arrangerment.

ONE MINER IN FOUR SACKED ON COPPERBELT

The giant Central African copper strike, which ended some moilths ago, had a dranmatic post- script rece-itly when the cooper companiii-es sacked one in four of the present African labor forc, of miners in- the North Rhodesian mines. Ln an effort to break the strike the two companies -- one of which is American an:d thle other South Alfrican -- tookc on 7, 000 new recruits with the result that when a settlement ws reached, a great surplus of labor had come into being. At first the question of what was to bc done with thie suarlus men was l1eft in the air, but after the miners had settled back to work the decision was ainnounced. The m_n concerned will auto- matically be evicted from their company-ownAed homes, which are "tied" to the job. The final outcomel of thce strike has therefore been a major defeat for Africa.n labor. The position of the African Mineworkers Union was undermined by the fact that the European Mineworkers Union, which last yea2r ga-ve an undertaking to suppor the Africans in ca-.se of strike, broke their word and stayed at work.

FORT HAR7, CCLL EGE IS RE-OPENED

By decision of the Governing Council, t1he famous college at Fort Hare in South lfrici was re- opened on July 1st. It h-ad bec7 closed dow, not, as sonme thought, in connection with the Natiorlnaist Government's drive against hii,,her education for Africans, but because of internal difficulties. Following disciplnary problems in two of the four hostels, the Studa its Repre- sentative Council embarked upon a policy of partial -non-cooperation wit'-i the authorities. The college was accordingly closed down and the curriculurm i.nterrupted. All students wilL be r, - quired to apply for re-admissiorn. The Goverining Council had appointed a comnmission to enqui-[ into the administrative structure of the college.

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.54 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:41:54 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions