neHS+·notes JULY/AUGUST '84 #18 SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY REFUGEE AID FUND South Africa seems to be enjoying wider credibility a fight that is certainto raise deep passions and will be in the United States. As a result of its phony peace agree­ viewed as the battle of the white South African versus the ments with neighboring African countries, the govern­ black American. ment of South Africa has received acclaim from the U.s. Zola Budd has gained fast fame as white South Afri­ government and from big business here. South Africa is ca's olympic hopeful in the women's distance runs, even increasingly capable of spreading its tentacles in a variety though she is officially competing on the British team. of different directions, a few of which have been notice­ The South African Olympic Committee is furiously lob­ able lately in New York City. bying to be re-instated in time for the 1988 games by us­ News and Notes #18 deals in detail with one such ing the argument that a racially integrated team would experience, namely the represent South Africa. If the filming of a commercial for apartheid outlaws are success­ South African television in ful in their application for re­ Brooklyn. Other examples admission, their presence in include an exhibition on the the olympic games would be evolution of mankind at one of the crowning jewels in a New York's Museum of grand propaganda campaign Natural History. Most of the for world respectability. exhibition is drawn from a These individual aspects white South African anthro­ may seem relatively pological view of the world. small in the context of A film, called The Gods the overall struggle. Must Be Crazy, produced But, taken together, and directed by white South these and numerous African movie maker Jamie other examples do have Uys, is currently being decidedly political sig­ shown in New York. This nificance. White South "comedy" pokes fun at the Africa is desperately San people (Bushmen), who trying to sell its prod­ think a Coke bottle thrown uct-racism-and from an airplane by a litter­ make it an acceptable, bug pilot is a gift from the even desirable com­ gods. This film is particular­ modity. ly insidious be- We who live in cause it provides the U.S.A. and want to no historical per­ see social transforma­ spective and the tions take place, have a San people are responsibility to put presently close to these things together, extinction; the rea­ see the connections and son being that it organize against them. used to be a favor- We certainly cannot ite pastime of white farmers to hunt trust those holding power in the the "Bushmen" for sport. Such a film U.s. to halt South Africa's propa­ by a white South African is yet another ganda blitz or their aggressive attempt to trivialize and make money off racism, primarily because Ron­ the plight of Black people in South Africa, ald Reagan and others in power something they constantly want white are just as racist. The same blend of Americans to support. ingredients is used by the U.s. sys­ In the sporting arena, a growing num­ tem with the same goal in mind: le­ ber of athletes and teams are flaunting the in­ gitimizing foreign aggression and ternational boycott and competing in South selling its "melting pot" image, while Africa. Gerrie Coetzee is going to take on the reality is quite the opposite: grossly Larry Holmes for boxing's heavyweight title, unequal conditions of life. Generally, the protest got an interested reception. Peo­ Selling Apartheid Products ple took the leaflet, and surprisingly, not too many were dis­ carded and left on the sidewalk. Some kids from the neigh­ Filming of South African-Backed TV Commercial borhood showed an interest, and one Black kid hauled us over Provides Opportunities for Brooklyn Activists to his buddies, making them shut up while we explained what the deal was all about. Some people identified very A South African production company, Gough Nurock, clearly with an anti-apartheid position. They were thoroughly completed filming a commercial for a South African brand disgusted when informed about the commercial being made. of liquor in Park Slope late last month. The commericial ad­ The humorous high point of our effort was identifying vertises Mainstay Cane Spirit, a type of white rum made the white South Africans who were directing the operation­ from sugar cane and will be shown to predominantly Black about five in all. Amidst inquiries like "Excuse me, don't you audiences back in South Africa. come from South Africa," they mostly denied their national­ Samuel Wright, the star of a Broadway production ity. One fool with an accent that only a white South African called The Tap Dance Kid was among the breakdancers in the could have, claimed he was from the United Kingdom. These commercial, which will basically consist of 40 or so seconds people were too scared to associate themselves with South of Black and Hispanic young men dancing around a white Africa, but not too scared to make money off black oppres­ woman slugging away at the Mainstay bottle. sion. Pretty sleazy, heh? The filming took place on President Street not too far When they finished filming, one white South African from the SAMRAF office. This particular part of Brooklyn, exile got into a discussion with these guys, who tried to argue known for its Brownstone houses, is in a neighborhood a rational line for the maintenance of white supremacy in which is fast becoming the domain of the upwardly mobile. South Africa. Why is it that the only people who claim things Thus, it's not surprising that it became the site for such an en­ are getting better in South Africa are white people? They had terprise. The production team apparently had approached a no response when challenged with that viewpoint. We cer­ number of other blocks and were turned down. The Block tainly gave them something to think about, and perhaps Assn. 'of President St. received $4,500 for allowing the block to they'll think twice before returning to Brooklyn. be used, with some homeowners getting additional amounts Other community people took the initiative to draw up for the use of their property. In an interview with a black a petition denouncing the commercial and the apartheid sys­ newspaper in Brooklyn, The City Sun, a resident of the block tem. They collected 300-400 signatures on the final day of said, "We basically prostituted ourselves and sold out the filming and sponsored a press conference the following week block." More than just the block was sold out. outside City Hall to hand over the petitions to a representa­ This little enterprise provided us with opportunities, tive of Koch's office. some of which were missed and some of which we can still We were very upset that a South African film company take advantage ot Right after we became aware of the filming could walk into a Brooklyn community and get away with a very ad-hoc group got together to see if something could be making a commercial enticing Black people in South Africa to done. The crew revealed they would be filming for three days, buy more liquor. They did get away with it, but their little en- and we decided to surprise them on the afternoon of the sec­ ond day, by planning some boisterous action to disrupt the filming. Despite the short notice, quite a few community peo­ ple expressed an interest in putting their voices together in re­ sistance to apartheid. Unfortunately, two things occured which blew us out of the water. One, there was a monsoon-type thunderstorm which stopped production about an hour before our planned protest. But, they had another reason for closing up shop early on that afternoon. In some ways our ad-hoc coalition was un­ coordinated, and one group advertised the demonstration on a leaflet which denounced the commercial. By openly an­ nouncing the demonstration, the cops were alerted and ar­ rived in force. The element of surprise was lost. So even if it hadn't rained, our chance of effectively protesting was com­ promised by the lack of coordinated planning. The production crew returned the following day. Some of us went down to the block to see what was happening. We distributed our leaflet (text included below) and raised our voices. While we had blown our chances of major disruption, we did cause a decided lack of concentration on the part of both crew and cast. The police intervened at an early point in our activity and threatened arrest for "interference." A num­ ber of people shouted back that they couldn't do that. Police logic is sometimes pretty strange. The police began to argue with one of our people, a Brooklynite, that no one had the right to say anything about South Africa who hadn't been there. At which point a white South African exile stated that he had grown up there, so the cop said he had a right to speak. terprise has provided the spark for some potential organizing. put the struggle in the hands of elected officials, most of An ad-hoc coalition has been formed under the name of whom are not representative of the community in the first Brooklynites Against Apartheid. A speak out is to be held on place. We have to show apartheid and its supporters that we July 25 (too late for us to report on its outcome) at which peo­ can act independently on behalf of the struggle for freedom in ple in the community will discuss what happened and what southern Africa.