U.S. Denial of Arafat Visa Relief Aid Condemned Around World Convoy PLO Leader
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International sales drive THE goes over the top! Page 3 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 52/NO. 48 DECEMBER 9, 1988 $1.00 U.S. denial of Arafat visa Relief aid condemned around world convoy PLO leader. Shultz' action was endorsed heads for by President Ronald Reagan and President elect George Bush. Denial of the visa violated a U.S. host Nicaragua country agreement not to interfere with the travel of UN members to its New York BY HARRY RING headquarters. The PLO maintains a recog A convoy set out for Nicaragua Novem nized observer mission at the United Na ber 28 carrying relief supplies for that hur tions. ricane-stricken country. The Shultz statement conceded that the Sponsored by Pastors for Peace, trucks, UN treaty obligated granting visas to PLO buses, and other vehicles departed from members . But, the statement claimed, Ara Detroit, Boston, Seattle, Miami, and Ober fat was an exception because he allegedly lin, Ohio. Another busload of supplies was had been an "accessory" to terrorism slated to leave two days later from Mis against U.S. citizens. Therefore, Shultz as soula, Montana. serted, the government must bar his entry Along the route, vehicles from other cit "to safeguard its own security." ies will join in, for a total of 20 vehicles. By utilizing the charge of terrorism, These include three eight-ton flatbed Washington has sought wherever possible trucks, four schoolbuses, and several pick to exclude the PLO from negotiations and up trucks. discussions on the Palestine issue. The They are focusing on collecting food PLO is regarded by the Palestinian people supplies such as rice, beans, and powdered as their representative. milk, in addition to antibiotics and other Responding to the U.S. decision , Arafat medicines. inquired: "Why are they afraid that I speak Rallies to publicize Nicaragua's need to world public opinion and explain the and solicit added donations will be made at new Palestinian decisions?" stops along the way. It is expected that Clovis Maksoud, chief UN representa more supplies will be collected than the tive of the Arab League , declared: vehicles can carry. The surplus will be "The Palestine National Council has shipped to Nicaragua through the hu taken very important and substantive deci manitarian aid organization Quest for sions that need to be communicated to the Peace. Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yassir Arafat world body at the highest level. And it is The convoy will make similar stops in not for the U.S. to decide who speaks for Mexico. Along with the supplies, the 20 BY HARRY RING tion by the Palestine National Council of an the Palestinians on a particular issue. If this vehicles will be turned over to Nicaragua to International protest greeted Washing independent Palestinian state. is allowed to become a precedent, it will be aid the reconstruction process. ton's November 26 decision to prevent That declaration had come as the upris a very dangerous one." The convoy is a project of the Interreli PLO leader Y assir Arafat from entering the ing of the Palestinian people in the West UN Secretary General Javier Perez de gious Foundation for Community Organi United States to speak before the United Bank and Gaza Strip entered its 12th Cuellar scored the denial of the visa as a zation. Its director, Lucius Walker, was t-Iations. It was expected that the UN Gen month. Hundreds of Palestinians have been violation of U.S. legal obligations. wounded last summer during a contra at eral Assembly would convene in Geneva, killed by Israeli security forces and thou G6vernments of Arab countries declared tack on a passenger boat in Nicaragua. The Switzerland, so that Arafat, chairman of the sands wounded or jailed. their opposition to the action. A number of convoy was initiated as a response to this. Palestine Liberation Organization, could Secretary of State George Shultz for Washington's European allies also ob A range of church groups and other organi be heard . mally denied Arafat a visa. Fifty-one U.S. jected to the move against Arafat. zations are supporting the project. Arafat had been slated to address a UN senators, including Vice-president-elect The only declared support for Washing The convoy's organizing center is in De session in New York on the recent declara- Danforth Quayle, had urged him to bar the Continued on Page 2 troit. A key activist has been Anne Wisda, 54, who is a nun. She will be a driver in the convoy. In a telephone interview, Wisda dis cussed her involvement in the project. Mandela 'still prisoner of S. Africa' "I'm going on this pilgrimage," she said, "because I believe in peace, not violence BY SAM MANUEL overthrow the apartheid regime and to es they shared a "common purpose" with a .. .in self-determination, not imperial Several South African government offi tablish a nonracial, democratic South Af crowd that killed a township councilman. ism." cials, including President Pieter Botha, rica. He was imprisoned on a life sentence Despite the reprieve for the Sharpeville She added, "Because of these deep be have said that Nelson Mandela will not be along with other leaders of the ANC in Six, five other Black South Africans were liefs, I oppose U.S. policy in Nicaragua." returned to Pollsmoor Prison . 1964. International pressure for his release executed in Pretoria November 24. The She has been to Nicaragua twice, she Mandela is being held under guard at the has intensified over the last year. total number of people hanged in South Af said, and has seen the destruction brought Constantiaburg clinic. He was transferred Mandela has consistently rejected all of rica this year stands at I 15. by the contras and the CIA. The additional from Pollsmoor Prison on August 12 to a fers by the apartheid rulers to release him On November 26 the apartheid govern havoc wrought by Hurricane Joan added to nearby hospital after contracting tuber on the condition that he renounce the use of ment released two longtime opponents of her resolve to aid Nicaragua. culosis. He was later moved to the clinic on violence in fighting against apartheid, and the regime. They were Zephania Motho In Monroe, where she lives, she's been September I . collaborate with the regime. peng, 75 years old, a founder and leader of collecting relief supplies and has found the Mandela is a central leader of the Afri In a November 24 statement, South Afri the Pan-Africanist Congress, and Harry response "very positive." can National Congress, which is fighting to can Minister of Justice Kobie Coetsee said Gwala, 69 years old, a veteran trade union "When people know the truth of what's Mandela would be transferred to "secure ist and member of the AN C. Continued on Page 2 Jiving accommodations where he will be able to receive members of his family more freely." Coetsee claimed that if totally Big push needed to collect rest freed Mandela's safety would be at risk. Winnie Mandela said her husband "still of $250,000 Pathfinder Fund remains a prisoner of the South African Government and there is no indication of BY CINDY JAQUITH we will print the final scoreboard. any release." Local organizers of the Pathfinder Fund Fund organizers have until Tuesday, De Nelson Mandela's lawyer, Ismail Ayob, drive are mobilizing in a final push to col cember 6, to send in the remaining con doubted that the announcement was part of lect the $250,000 needed to keep getting tributions they have collected so they will a phased release of the ANC leader. He Pathfinder books into the hands of workers appear on the scoreboard. All donations in added that if totally freed Mandela "would and farmers around the world. hand but not yet in the mail to the Pathfind have every protection from his own com Successful completion of the drive will er Fund as of December 6 should be re munity." make it possible for Pathfinder to publish a ported by phone to the fund office in New One day before Coetsee's statement on new collection of speeches by Malcolm X York. Mandela, the government commuted the and to promote and distribute several new Fund organizers contacted by telephone death sentences of a group of young Blacks books by and about leaders of the Cuban indicated that while collecting the final known as the Sharpeville Six. They re revolution. $79,000 in a very short time will be a chal ceived instead prison terms varying from As we go to press, $171 ,641 of the lenge, the money is there . 18 to 25 years. $261,263 pledged to the fund has been col The systematic work of talking to each During their trial no evidence was ever lected. contributor and collecting their donation produced showing that the six actually The drive was scheduled to end De right away will need to become the main committed any crime. The trial judge ruled cember 1, past the closing news date of this activity of Pathfinder supporters until the ANC leader Nelson Mandela that the defendants were guilty because issue of the Militant. In next week's issue Continued on Page 10 INS renews challenge to Randall U.S. residency application BY FRED FELDMAN in the United States of totalitarian dictator cause they can be barred from returning ." The U.S. Immigration and Naturaliza ship." Born in the United States, Margaret tion Service has renewed its challenge to the In October, Congress voted to extend the Randall gave up her citizenship in 1967 in application for permanent residency of Mar suspension for visitors for two years be order to find work in Mexico, where she garet Randall.