AMERICAN COMMITTEE ON AFRICA AMERICAN COMMITTEE ON AFRICA A CTION1 ACTION NEWS: FALL 1990 Number 30 i 198 Broadway * New York, NY 10038 * (212)962-1210 A Hero's Welcome Nelson Mandela's tour of the United States created a groundswell of support for the democratic movement in South Africa. Everywhere he went, record breaking crowds and high-ranking officials welcomed him and his message to Keep the Pressure On Apartheid. Here we have captured some of the events in New York City, first stop on his tour. Above left, ANC Deputy President Nelson Mandela addresses National Activists Briefing. Left to right: Aubrey McCutcheon, Executive Director, Washington Office on Africa; Lindiwe Mabuza, ANC Chief Representative to the U.S.; Nelson Mandela; Jennifer Davis; Tebogo Mafole, ANC Chief Representative to the U.N.; Jerry Herman, Director Southern Africa Program, American Friends Service Committee. Middle left, Mayor Dinkins presents Mr. Mandela with the keys to the city on the steps of New York City Hall. Bottom left, a ticker tape parade passes ACOA office in lower Manhattan welcoming the Mandelas to the U.S. on June 20,1990. The large truck in the foreground housed the Mandelas, Mayor Dinkins and Gov. Cuomo during the parade. ACOA's Jennifer Davis served on the New York Nelson Mandela Welcome Committee. Pictured above she introduces Nelson Mandela to a meeting of grassroots activists (see story). ACOA also helped to organize the Yankee Stadium Rally and the event for women leadership with Winnie Mandela. Mandela Speaks to the People Nelson Mandela's historic visit to the United States in June saw an outpouring of excitement usually reserved for returning national heroes. The visit soon became the largest media event in the country, and anti-apartheid activists found themselves pushed aside as the whole country reached out for the "Freedom Man." While recognizing this as a great victory, activists were still eager to have their own time with Mandela and the political leadership traveling with him. To satisfy this need ACOA Executive Director Jennifer Davis worked with the ANC's Chief Representative Lindiwe Mabuza and a committee: Aubrey McCutcheon of the Washington Office on Africa; Jerry Herman, AFSC Director of Southern Africa activists and Prexy Nesbitt, to bring anti-apartheid activists from across the country to a one day meeting with the visiting ANC delegation and Nelson Mandela. The National Activists Briefing on June 22 1990 was attended by nearly 100 activists, from 49 cities and 29 states. It was a rare opportunity for people who work locally to meet each other and share strategic and regional problems and successes. The bulk of the day was spent in briefings and workshops with a delegation from the African National Congress including Thomas Nkobi, Treasurer of the ANC; Chris Dhlamini, Vice- President, Congress of South African Trade Unions and Barbara Masekela, ANC Head of Cultural Affairs. Activists were urged by each speaker to keep up their work and expand their base of support. As Sister Bernard Ncube, President of the Federation of Transvaal Women put it, "We say to you, comrades, it is only the beginning." At the end of a long day, conference participantsgreeted Nelson Mandela with a thunderous roar of approval. He confirmed the importance of their grass roots organizing: "We never forget in all these countries where we have been invited by the government that our power lies in the people, both inside the country and outside. We are of course happy when the ANC is acknowledged because the invitation that we have got to visit these countries, invitations by the government, are a testimony of the impact which the organization has made and the high esteem in which it is held by governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals. We are happy about that because it makes our task much more easy and it leads to the further isolation of white South Africa. We are happy about that, but if we ever forgot that our source of power is the masses of the people both in the country and outside, then we would commit suicide. The governments would never have assisted us were it not for the fact that the people in their respective countries demand action against South Africa and therefore we must keep in touch with the masses of the people both in our country and outside." COSATU Lader Vots Cyril Ramaphosa, General SecretaryofSouth Africa's National Union on Mine Workers (NUM) visited the U.S. in late September. His trip included stops in Pittsburgh, Miami for the Mine Workers Convention, and Washington D.C. where he met with the Congressional Black Caucus. The NewYork legof histripwas organized by The Africa Fund. Ramaphosa is pictured at aNew York Labor Committee Against Apartheid luncheon with labor leaders where he joined them in casting their ballots for sanctions and democracy. Ramaphosa (left) and Cleveland Robinson, Treasurer of the UAW, sign an enlarged Vote Campaign ballot. Human Rights The Cruel Summer The terms "unrest areas" and "unfortunate lapses on the part of security forces" have become the new masks of apartheid as the South African government practices a two faced strategy of negotiations on one hand while continuing to violate human rights on the other. Since Spring The Africa Fund has sent thousands of mailings and made hundreds of telephone calls warning Americans not to turn their attention away from South Africa thinking the government committed to peaceful change. As the summer of 1990 passed, the South African securityforces underscored the shallowness of the reforms undertaken by the apartheid regime. By June 301990, they had killed 180 people and injured over 1,500.This beforethe bloody months of August and September. The State of Emergency was lifted, with the exception of Natal, where fighting has claimed over 3,000 lives in the last five years. The same violence which has devastated Natal, and remains un-investigated, shook the whole country this summer with its brutality and number of fatalities. The Africa Fund worked closely with churches and human rights organizations both inside South Africa and in the United States to publicize the growing threat to peace that the Natal conflict presented. When the situation spread into other parts of the country we alerted thousands of people to the truth behind the term "black on black violence." In May we assisted in coordinating the tour of Willis Mchunu and Nicholas Haysom, representatives of COSATU and the United Democratic Front, who live and work in the Natal area. They briefed human rights activists and government officials about police collaboration with Inkatha, the need for an impartial judicial inquiry into the failure of the Kwazulu court system to deal with any cases concerning the killings, and the urgency of ending the State of Emergency. The Fund's Human Rights department continued to highlightthe plightof political prisoners, who remain in jail despite agreements for their release the government made in talks with the African National Congress. The department also publicized thegrowing numberofdetentions and cases of police harassment and killings: the first deaths in detention in 1990 and the mysterious deaths of a number of leading members of opposition groups. ACOA Bulletins ACOA GROUNDS APARTHEID AIRWAYS ADS State-owned South African Airways may have lost its U.S. landing rights, but not its desire to break the tourism boycott. In August the apartheid air carrier kicked off a $1.75 million American advertising campaign with a glossy, 20page supplement in Avenue Magazine. Other publications, including Time Magazine, TravelHolidayand Newsweek have also accepted the scandalous ads. In an August 28 memorandum ACOA alerted key anti-apartheid and civil rights organizations to the SAA advertising blitz, and called for pressure on the publications to drop the ads. Two weeks later, activists in Los Angeles forced the cancellation of a SAA promotional event for travel agents and prospective customers. ACOA also worked with journalist John Motavalli at Inside Media magazine, a widely-read advertising trade journal, on a damaging expose of the campaign in the September issue. When asked aboutACOA's charge that the ads were flagrantly racist, SAA executive Gavin Vander Merve assured Motavalli that "some of my best friends are Black," and added that the New York office "employs a lot of minorities. We're way above the quota." ACOA'S INTERNS ON THE MOVE ACOA's 1990 summer interns were involved in numerous office projects. In addition to helping maintain the office's 8,000 plus file research center, interns updated the list of state and local divestment legislations across the country. They produced a list of U.S. athletic footwear Vote Campaign 50,000 Ballots F While United States George Bush and apartheid President F.W. de Klerk were meeting with reporters on the White House grounds on September 24, ACOA's associate, The Africa Fund, was Voter casts his ballot at breakingsome Tower Video in Manhattan. ground of its own delivering 50,000 ballots to Congress for stronger U.S. sanctiong against South Africa. The ballots, collected in 46 states by the End Apartheid: Vote for the People Campaign, were presented to House Majority Whip William Gray at the Capitol by a delegation lead by Executive DirectorJennifer Davis. The delegation includ- stronger sanctions against apartbeld. Contact Tho Afric Fund, 198 s nway, Now York, MY 100j IIZ121 962-1210 companies regarding the status of their business ties with South Africa. They also did a study of U.S. bank loans to South Africa. The highlight of the summer came early with Nelson Mandela's trip to the U.S.. ACOA was one of the key groups organizing hisvisit. In addition to helping staff the Activists Briefing with Mandela, they provided invaluable assistance during an incredibly active June which was full of press calls, inquiries and heightened interest in South Africa.