TIME RUNNINGOUT Richard S
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NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U. S. POSTAGE Rochester Committee for Justice PAID in Southern Africa ROCHESTER, N.Y . Genesee Ecumenical Ministries PERMIT NO. 94 17 S. Fitzhugh St. Rochester, N. Y. 14614 American Committee on Africa 1 98 Broadway New York, New York 10038 TIME RUNNINGOUT Richard S. Gilbert, Editor December 1983 DIVESTMENT: AN IDEA WHOSE TIME H~S COME There are significant signs the divestment movement is coming of age: 1. In January of 1983 the Johannesburg Rand-Daily Mail carried this headline: "P..nti-SA investment bid sweeps u.s. A wave of ru lings demanding that US companies with South African operations with draw their investments there is sweeping state and city governments." 2. Carole Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies and the national coordinator of the Campaign to Oppose Bank Loans to South Africa wrote: "The divestment reovement has achieved more in the last 12 months than in the previous 12 years. One could say it has developed its own brand of "New Federalism," bypassing a soft-on South Africa Reagan administration and taking its case directly to states, counties and cities •••• (The campaign) will take $300 million out of firms that do business in or with South Africa." 3. There has been increasing lobbying activity by South Africa at all governmental levels, a sure sign the campaign is hurting the regime. T H E L 0 C A L S C E NE Locally, the Rochester Committee for Justice in Southern Africa hosted a Consultation on Public Divestment and South Africa on Novem ber 30. Featured speakers were Robert Schaeffer, legislative assis tant to Senator Jack Bachman who introduced a successful divestment bill in Massachusetts, and Dumisani Kumalo, a South African Blac~ now Project Director of the American Committee on Africa. The two briefed the gathering, reporting on efforts to date and successful strategies used. There was enthusiasm for launching such an effort in New York State. Divestment legislation has been intro duced and legislative hearings are set for January 11 in New York City and January 17 in Albany. RCJSA expects to give testimony and will work with others across the state in developing a New York di vestment strategy. For further information write: Mass. Divest, 13 Sellers Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02139 or the American Committee on Africa, 198 Broadway, New York, NY 10038. For local information contact the Rochester Committee for Jus tice in Southern Africa, write: RCJSA, c/o 935 East Avenue, Roches ter, N. Y. 14607. 2 NA T I 0 NA L NE H S SOUTH AFRICAN AGENTs· PROLIFERATE According to US Department of Justice records, the South African government and the so-called independent "Bantustans" ••• spent just under $2 million last year on foreign agents in the United States. Among the new agents is Stuart Spencer, public relations millionaire, who is expected to be an official in President Reagan's 1984 cam paign. Spencer joins John Sears, another South African agent and Reagan confidante, and fifteen other well-paid agents in promoting apartheid's interests in the U.S. The South African .nternational Gold Corporation and its Ameri can agents, Kirkpatrick, Lockhart, Johnson, and Hutchinson, spent . well over $3 million just in the months of May and June (1983) promo ting Krugerrands and lobbying against the Solarz bill (stopping Krugerrand imports) in Congress. -- from Washington No·tes on Afr·ica, Summer/Autumn 1983 from The Africa Fund "Human Rights Violations Apartheid -South Africa'' # 1/83 NATIONAL STUDENT ANTI-APARTHEID CONFERENCE A National Student Anti-Apartheid Conference was held at New York University the 7th through the 9th of October. There were 300 stu dents attending the conference including representatives from the African National Congress (ANC), the Pan-African Congress (PAC), and the South-west Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO). The Conference called for anti-apartheid groups to work closely with students fighting against US intervention in Central America and with those working for a nuclear freeze. In addition the conference participants placed special importance on mobilizing support for pen ding divestment legislation in Washington D. c., and they appealed to activists to make southern Africa an issue in next year's presidential elections. Workshops focused on campus organ~z~ng, sports, cultural boycotts, material aid campaigns, community-student alliances, and strategies for making links with other progressive movements in the u.s. -- from Africa· News, October 1983 CULTURAL BOYCOTT PICKS UP STEA!-1 The apartheid regime has drastically intensified its efforts to woo US entertainers and athletes to perform in South Africa in the hope of strengthening apartheid and giving it inter~ational legiti macy. Pretoria is sparing no expense offering as much as $ 2 million to come and perform. Local US groups have been successful in countering this cultural collaboration by organizing boycotts of artists who appear in South Africa. The Executive Director of the Washington Office on Africa recently stated: "We must tell these entertainers who dance to Pre toria's tune that they pay a higher price than huge sums of money they receive from that racist regime." -- from: Washin·gton No·t ·es on Africa, Summer/Autumn 1983 3 CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION ON SOUTH AFRICA There are several South Africa related measures attache.d as amend- ments to the Export Administration Act. They are Rep. William Gray's (D-PA) prohibition on new American investment, Rep Howard Berman's (D-CA) proposal to restore the restrictions on u.s. exports to South Africa, and Rep. Stephen Solarz • s (D-NY) bil·l imposing fair labor prac tices on u.s. companies in South Africa and barring new bank loans and Krugerrand imports. On September 30 the House adopted an amendment to the Act pro posed by Rep. Howard Wolpe (D-MI) imposing a 60-day waiting period for Congressional review on all sales of nuclear-related material and ser vices to countries not adhering to the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty and not opening their nuclear facilities to international inspection. Rep. Julian Dixon's (D-CA) amendment requiring the u.s. to oppose International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans to South Africa adopted by the·· House in August remains stalemated, since no conference committee to resolve the House-Senate differences has yet been established. --from Af·rica News, October 1983 Note: Below are names and addresses of local Senators and Representatives to write regarding the above issues: House of· ·Repr·esentatives Frank Horton Jack Kemp 2229 Rayburn Building 2252 Rayburn Building Washington, D. c. 20515 Washington, D. C. 20515 Barber Conable John LaFalce 237 Cannon Building 2419 Rayburn Building Washington, D. c. · 20515 Washington, D. C. 20515 s·enator Senator Daniel Moynihan Alfonse D'Amato u.s. Senate U. S. Senate washington, D. c. 20510 Washington, D. C. 20510 E D I T 0 R I A L V I E WP 0 I NT Why divestment? South .Africa is a regime where racism is offic ial government policy. Appeals to justice, "constructive engagement" and other forms of persuasion succeed only in changing window dres sing in South Africa. They do not bring significant change for the Black majority population. The government there responds to economic power that threatens to undermine it5 total control of the Black popu lation. American investment in South Africa benefits a very tiny minority of the Black population -- chiefly a small middle class elite who are dependent on the racist government. Only 1% of· all employees work for American corporations, while 99% are subject to total apartheid. Most of the B,ladk leaders support divestment as one way of pressuring change from the government. The Sullivan Principles, for all their good intentions, have had little impact. Divestment promises to be a language South Africa understands. For a detailed rationale for divestment write for "South Africa: Questions and Answers on Divestment" from The Africa Fund, 198 Broadway, New York, NY, 10038. -----------------------------------------------------------------------Subscriptions for TIME RUNNING OUT -- $ 5 per year Payable to: Committee for Justice in Southern Africa Send to: TIME RUNNING OUT, GEM, 17 S. Fitzhugh, Rochester,N.Y. 14614 NAME Editorial correspondence should be sent to Richard s. Gilbert, First ADDRESS Unitarian Church, 220 Winton Rd. s., Rochester, N. Y. 14610. _________________________ZIP ________ ( 3 am1eu61s romUll ..C:: I $:1 r-t SJBin:>!UBd "3 9Q!J1 ~·.-! 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