1980S: the Anti-Apartheid Convergence David Goodman

FOR THE FIRST TIME, A PANORAMIC VIEW OF U.S. ACTIVISM ON AFRICA FROM 1950 TO 2000. “We were part of a worldwide movement that continues today to redress the economic and social injustices that kill body, mind, and spirit. No Easy Victories makes clear that our lives and fortunes around the globe are indeed linked.” —NELSON MANDELA Hundreds of thousands of Americans mobilized to oppose hear in No Easy Victories.” —Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of apartheid in the 1980s.They built on decades of behind-the- New News out of Africa: Uncovering the African Renaissance scenes links between African liberation movements and American activists, both black and white. “With its mixture of history, personal stories and photographs, this richly detailed book has the feel of a family album.The family, No Easy Victories draws on the voices of activists of several genera- though, is a large one: multiracial, multicontinental. Some of its tions to explore this largely untold history.While U.S.-based members are well known, some unsung.All of them share a pas- groups and individuals contributed to African liberation,African sion for justice.” —Adam Hochschild, author, King Leopold’s Ghost struggles also inspired U.S. activism, including the civil rights and black power movements. “No Easy Victories is equal parts inspiration, education and celebration of how social change happens. It is a remarkable Today Africa and the world face global injustices as deadly as chronicle of how activists on opposite sides of the Atlantic apartheid. Understanding this history of solidarity is essential for united around their shared commitments to freedom and finding new paths to a future of equal human rights for all. self-determination.” —Amy Goodman, host, Democracy Now! Richly illustrated with 120 photographs, No Easy Victories features chapters by William Minter, Lisa Brock, Mimi Edmunds, Joseph F. Jordan, David Goodman, and Walter Turner. Shorter essays high- WILLIAM MINTER taught at the secondary school of the light a wide array of individual activists and organizations. Mozambique Liberation Front in 1966–68 and 1974–76.An independent scholar, widely published author, and activist, he is “No Easy Victories tells the compelling stories behind the U.S. the editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin. anti-apartheid movement in the voices of those who were there. It reminds us that movements emerge over time, built on hard GAIL HOVEY, among the founders of Southern Africa magazine work by movement foot soldiers and on personal networks that in 1964, served as research director for the American Committee bridge generations and continents.” —Danny Glover, actor, on Africa/The Africa Fund and as managing editor of Christianity activist, chair of TransAfrica Forum and Crisis. “Africa today is experiencing a second wind of change, with CHARLES COBB JR., senior correspondent for allAfrica.com, Africans demanding good governance, respect for human rights, was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating and empowerment of women.Those who are in the forefront are Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi in 1962–67. His latest book is standing on the shoulders of those whose voices and stories we On the Road to Freedom:A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail. No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000 SPECIAL 20% discount off list price if you place your order by October 30. edited byPRE-PUBLICATION William Minter, Visit Gail www.noeasyvictories.org Hovey, and Charles for Cobb,details andJr. toAfrica make Worldyour purchase. Press, 2008. xvii, 248OFFER! pages; Use ill., Google maps; Checkout, 28cm. Paypal,Includes or print bibliography out a form to and mail index. in. ISBN: 1592215742 (hardback); 1592215750 (paperback). Excerpts and more information at www.noeasyvictories.org List price $29.95. 15% discount------------------------------- for orders through www.noeasyvictories.org List For Price additional Library $29.95. Recommendation 5%15% discount discount enter on www.noeasyvictories.org. couponForm code asp08 Name: _____________________________"This is a remarkable5% andadditional often insightful discount: E-mail collection enter or phone coupon of essaysnumber: code andasp08 ______________________reflections ... in its Position"This is a (faculty,remarkablevery strength student, and oftenit otherexposes insightful library an entire collection user): realm _________________________________________of of essays research and that reflections has yet ...to bein itscompleted." very strength - it exposes an Comments:entire realm of research thatGerald has yet Horne, to be H-Net completed." revieww, - Gerald January Horne, 2008 H-Net Review, January 2008 The 1980s: The Anti-Apartheid Convergence David Goodman t was the fall of 1978, and South Africa was read about appeared to be utterly unmoved by polite about the farthest thing from my mind. I was pressure and the occasional diplomatic scolding. The just entering college and knew little of this simple reality was that the college president could distant, tortured land. A chance encounter with not bring himself to part with such profitable invest- Ian anti-apartheid activist changed all that. On a ments. My anti-apartheid activism began that day. sunny September afternoon during freshman week Although I didn’t know it at the time, my chance at Harvard, I was walking up the steps of the Fogg encounter was being repeated on sidewalks, in living Art Museum to participate, along with a thousand rooms, and in workplaces all across the United or so of my new classmates, in the quaint ritual of States. Schoolteachers, longshoremen, investment having tea with the college president, Derek Bok. managers, legislators, and retirees were learning of As I approached the front door, a graduate student the ways that they were unwittingly supporting a named Joe Schwartz pressed a leaflet into my hand. racist state on the southern tip of Africa. And they “Why don’t you ask President Bok why Harvard were figuring out that they had the power, right in supports apartheid?” he challenged me. He explained their own communities, to make a difference. that Harvard had millions of dollars invested in These realizations did not come about by chance. companies doing business in South Africa. I figured The explosion of activism in the 1980s in support of there must be some explanation for this, but I was Southern African liberation was the culmination of sufficiently cheeky to venture inside and go directly decades of efforts, reflecting lessons learned from over to the university president. He was cradling a countless past successes and failures. The singular teacup, surrounded by a clutch of awestruck fresh- achievement of U.S. activism in the 1980s was the man. Was it true, I asked Bok, that Harvard was transformation of disparate profiting from apartheid? The students fell silent. African solidarity movements Bok pursed into a tight smile. He replied coolly, into a focused, multiheaded, speaking of the importance of remaining “engaged,” and surprisingly successful maintaining “dialogue,” and bringing pressure on anti-apartheid movement. South Africa from the inside. My own engagement I was unimpressed, and frankly disgusted by his reflected how the movement explanation. Two years after the police attack on pro- had spun off numerous local— testing students in Soweto, the white regime that I even neighborhood—initiatives. David Goodman Photo courtesy of David Goodman. As a college activist, I joined efforts to force Harvard In 1983 I was involved in launching the Endow- to divest itself of the approximately $1 billion that it ment for Divestiture, an alternative donation channel held in companies doing business with South Africa. for Harvard alumni who wanted to pressure the uni- I worked with Harvard’s Southern Africa Solidarity versity by contributing to an escrow fund that would Committee, helping organize demonstrations, teach- only be turned over to Harvard after it divested ins, debates, and fasts, and constructing a South from South Africa. Following college, I was active African–style shantytown in Harvard Yard. in several Boston-based anti-apartheid groups, and I participated in demonstrations aimed at stopping the sale of Krugerrands. I was mostly just a foot soldier in these efforts, one of thousands around the country engaged in the seemingly quixotic challenge of smash- ing the pillars that supported apartheid. My involvement in the divestment movement led me to want to see for myself what the apartheid of my protest chants was about. Themba Vilakazi, a friend who was a longtime member of the African National Con- gress, told me, “You should go to South Africa if you can get in. But,” he added, “when you come back, you will have a responsibility to tell people about it.” In 1984, as a budding freelance journal- ist, I journeyed to Zimbabwe and South Africa. I chron- icled what I found there for a variety of U.S. and British publications and ultimately wrote a book about that and subsequent visits, Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa (Goodman 2002). In this chapter, I tell the story of U.S. activism in the 1980s by focusing on representative examples of anti- apartheid activism in three Anti-apartheid demonstrators fill the streets of New York City, August 13, 198. ACOA joined with a coalition of labor, key arenas: local, national, religious, and community groups led by Cleveland Robinson, secretary-treasurer of United Auto Workers District 6, to and international. At the organize the event. Photo by David Vita. 1 David Goodman local level, I take as a case study the organizing that Africa (FREESA), which became the de facto leader happened in Massachusetts, which led to passage of anti-apartheid work in the Boston area. of the nation’s first statewide divestment initiative Two African American leaders played central in 1983. Former Massachusetts state representative roles in anti-apartheid efforts in Massachusetts. Mel Mel King and Massachusetts Institute of Technol- King is a lifelong community activist in Boston.

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