Boycotts and Sanctions Against South Africa: an International History, 1946-1970
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Boycotts and Sanctions against South Africa: An International History, 1946-1970 Simon Stevens Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2016 Simon Stevens All rights reserved ABSTRACT Boycotts and Sanctions against South Africa: An International History, 1946-1970 Simon Stevens This dissertation analyzes the role of various kinds of boycotts and sanctions in the strategies and tactics of those active in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. What was unprecedented about the efforts of members of the global anti-apartheid movement was that they experimented with so many ways of severing so many forms of interaction with South Africa, and that boycotts ultimately came to be seen as such a central element of their struggle. But it was not inevitable that international boycotts would become indelibly associated with the struggle against apartheid. Calling for boycotts and sanctions was a political choice. In the years before 1959, most leading opponents of apartheid both inside and outside South Africa showed little interest in the idea of international boycotts of South Africa. This dissertation identifies the conjuncture of circumstances that caused this to change, and explains the subsequent shifts in the kinds of boycotts that opponents of apartheid prioritized. It shows that the various advocates of boycotts and sanctions expected them to contribute to ending apartheid by a range of different mechanisms, from bringing about an evolutionary change in white attitudes through promoting the desegregation of sport, to weakening the state’s ability to resist the efforts of the liberation movements to seize power through guerrilla warfare. But though the purpose of anti-apartheid boycotts continued to be contested, boycott had, by 1970, become established as the defining principle of the self-identified anti-apartheid movement. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. vii Introduction: Strategies of Struggle .......................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Boycotts and Sanctions against South Africa: The Prehistory, 1946–1958 ............ 22 I. ‘The best and surest measure which India can adopt to bring South Africa to her knees’: India’s Imposition of Sanctions ............................................................................................................................. 26 II. ‘The national liberation of Africans will be achieved by Africans themselves’: The Primacy of Domestic Strategies of Resistance ............................................................................................................ 50 III. ‘How can you love your neighbour, if you are never allowed to meet him?’: The First Cultural and Sports Boycotts .................................................................................................................................... 82 Chapter 2: The Spread of Anti-Apartheid Boycotts, 1958–1960 ............................................. 105 I. Setting the ball rolling: The All African People’s Conference ........................................................ 109 II. ‘A devastating weapon’? Boycotts Foreign and Domestic ............................................................ 123 III. ‘A gesture of sympathy’: South African Liberals, the British Labour Party, and the ICFTU 152 Chapter 3: The Turn to Sanctions, 1960–1964 ....................................................................... 176 I. ‘A solution could only come from outside’: Sanctions after Sharpeville ...................................... 178 II. ‘A vital factor operating against the enemy’: Sanctions and the Turn to Violence .................... 210 III. ‘A policy of total economic sanctions against South Africa is feasible and practical and can be effective’: The Climax of the Campaign for UN Sanctions ................................................................ 227 Chapter 4: New Targets, New Tactics, 1965–1970 ................................................................ 241 I. ‘The UN has been revealed as a weak, indecisive body’: The Collapse of the Campaign for a UN Sanctions Regime ............................................................................................................................... 244 i II. ‘Making African revolt somewhat easier’: The First Anti-Corporate Campaigns ...................... 259 III. ‘Part of the standard equipment of the movement’: Disengagement and Ending Collaboration .............................................................................................................................................. 286 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 296 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 301 ii ABBREVIATIONS AAM Anti-Apartheid Movement AAPC All-African People’s Conference ACOA American Committee on Africa AFL-CIO American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations AFSAR Americans for South African Resistance ANC African National Congress ARCA Archive for Contemporary Affairs BAT British American Tobacco CAA Council on African Affairs CAO Committee of African Organisations CFR Council on Foreign Relations CNETU Council of Non-European Trade Unions CORE Congress of Racial Equality CPSA Communist Party of South Africa DFA Department of Foreign Affairs DIRCO Department of International Relations and Cooperation FASA Football Association of South Africa FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association FRELIMO Frente de Libertação de Moçambique GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade IAD International Affairs Department ICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions iii ICJ International Court of Justice INC Indian National Congress IOC International Olympic Committee ITTF International Table Tennis Federation JPRC Joint Passive Resistance Council KFL Kenya Federation of Labour LBJ Lyndon Baines Johnson LSE London School of Economics and Political Science MCC Marylebone Cricket Club MCF Movement for Colonial Freedom MFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs MK Umkhonto we Sizwe NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAHECS National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre NAZ National Archives of Zambia NEC National Executive Committee NEUM Non-European Unity Movement NIC Natal Indian Congress NIO Natal Indian Organisation NSF National Security Files NUS National Union of Students NRC Native Representative Council NSCF National Student Christian Federation OAU Organization of African Unity iv PAC Pan Africanist Congress PAFMECA Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa PHM People’s History Museum PNP People’s National Party PRAAD Public Records and Archives Administration Department PREP Peace Research and Education Project RG Record Group SACP South African Communist Party SACTU South African Congress of Trade Unions SADET South African Democracy Education Trust SAFA South African Football Association SAIC South African Indian Congress SANROC South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee SAOCGA South African Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association SASA South African Sports Association SASF South African Soccer Federation SATTB South African Table Tennis Board SATTU South African Table Tennis Union SAUF South African United Front SDS Students for a Democratic Society SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies STST Stop the Seventy Tour TIC Transvaal Indian Congress v TIYC Transvaal Indian Youth Congress TUC Trades Union Congress UAW United Automobile Workers UCLA University of California, Los Angeles UDI Unilateral Declaration of Independence UKNA United Kingdom National Archives UNGA United Nations General Assembly UNO United Nations Organization UNSC United Nations Security Council USNA United States National Archives USNSA United States National Student Association UTC United Tobacco Company WFDY World Federation of Democratic Youth WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions ZAPU Zimbabwe African People’s Union vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When South African anti-apartheid activist Albie Sachs went into exile in 1966, he entered a Ph.D. program in Britain. Doctoral study, he later joked, was just as stressful as underground political work in South Africa had been: “I discovered… this whole community of Ph.D. students, you get it all over the world, they all have that same rather haunted look, because it never leaves you, instead of going to bed worrying about the Special Branch, you’re going to bed worrying about your Ph.D.”1 That my own doctoral experience was not nearly so terrifying – and was, indeed, tremendously enjoyable – is due to the support of many individuals and institutions. I have been especially fortunate in my teachers. David Reynolds, Erez Manela, Andrew Preston, and the late Ernest May introduced me to the craft of historical research and the field of international history. Many years later, I am still writing about issues they first raised with me. It was David who initially proposed international action against oppressive