News, January 1965

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Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Apartheid News, January 1965

Alternative title Anti-Apartheid News Author/Creator The Anti-Apartheid Movement Date 1965-01 Resource type Newsletters Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) , United Kingdom, United States Coverage (temporal) 1965 Source Archives of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Anti-Apartheid News, MSS AAM 2200. Description Boycott movement; World campaign for the release of South African political prisoners; Torture, murder and British money underpin apartheid; Martin Luther King Jr. for sanctions. Format extent 8 page(s) (length/size)

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http://www.aluka.org Published by the Anti-ApartheidMovement, 89 Charlotte Street, Lndon, W.1.

Published by the Anti-ApartheidMovement, 89 Charlotte Street, Lndon, W.1. January, 1965No. k rieeae W~f Fenner Brockway says "I am against apartheid because I believe... ated and uneducated. The more priyileged look down on the less privileged, An understanding of human unity is the most urgent need of our time. The world becomes daily closer in contact and integration. Unless all races co-operate as equals, there will be explosion and destruction. Those of Ls who am white should remember sometimes that two-thirds of the world population are non- white. If this interpretation of life is accepled, racial superiority, contempt for any other people because of their colour, is seen to be a crime against humanity. We must not be too self-righteous. There is a great deal of colour feelng in Britain. Scan the advertisements of accommodation in the suburban newspapers: " No Coloureds." The southern states of America are, as we know, diseased by colour feeling. So are the white-occupied territories of Africa. Then why pick on South Africa when other nations in varying degrees practice apartheid? Why this concentration of protest? Why the deiusion of the British Government to stop sending arms? Why the demand foe economic sanctions? For this reason: The government of South Africa is the only government in the world which boasts of apartheid, which has made the separation of races a philosophy, which has made the claim of white superiority a religion. The rest of us are ashamed of racial discrimination. Perhaps some of us are hypocrites about it : Rhodesia, Portugal, Spain. But everywhere else in the world, govemrments, leaders of thought, political parties (except the Fascists), everyone of influence. resist colour feeling and race separation. The tide the world over is towards racial cooperation The South African Government is alone in acclaiming and extending racial segregation: It is more than a theoretical belief. As the confrontation between the two views grows, as the non-white population of South Africa becomes more self-respecting and challenging in the assertion of its rights, the oppression by the white Government must become more severe and you, reader, the decision which you must make is clear. Are you on the side of the world which is moving towards human cooperation and equality? Or are you in favour of South Africa (minority white South Africa) which repudiates the human family by the segregation and humiliation of all those who are non-white? The choice is that simple. Campaign target for 1965 1965 will be a year that will make demands of us, For 1964 was a black year in South Africa't was a year of 90-day detention, a year of brutal torture of political prisoners, a year of mass political trials. It was the year in whiah ,. and seven colleagues were senttenced to life imprisonment, the year in which trade unionists Vuyisile Mini, Zinakile Mkah, Wilson Khayingo and five other Africans were hanged, the year that brought the total number of persons convicted for offences under the Sabotage and Suppression of Communism Acts to nearly 2,000 in two years. But it was also a year of great heroism: when Nelson Mandela declared that he was prepared to die, if necessary, for his convictions; when Mini, Mkaba and Khayingo refused to save their lives by giving information to the police; and many, many others, most of them little known to the public faced long orison sentences rather than eive evidence against their comrades. And it was the year when one African wife spoke for thousands of others as, from the back of the court, she shouted aloud: " I am proud of you, my husband. Twelve years? It's nothing." Abroad, there has been massive reaction to these events, and the AntiApartheid Movement can be proud of its part in organising public protest, in its campaigns in February and November against torture of political prisoners, and, through the World Campaign, in collecting signatures representing over 200 million people throughout the world demanding the release of all South African political prisoners. Our campaigns helped to save the lives of the accused in the ; and to force the South African Minister of Justice to suspend the 90-day detention clause of the General Law Amendment Act. Those were vlories. So was the International Conference on Economic Sanctions against South Africa, held in London under our sponsorship and attended by 29 ollicial government delegation and representatives of 46 countries. This conferenc for the first time made sanctions a subject of serious practical debate in this country, and in the other countries of the West whose participation would be essential to any effective international sanctions plan. And finally, so was the implementaton by the naw Labour Government of an arms embargo against South Africa. 1965 opens therefore heavy with responsibility for those who care about what happens to South Africa - responsibility to those in South African prisons and to those who carry on the struggle at constant risk of death or imprisonment. And also rich with possibilities. For this year, we have the possibility of converting the mass profest into positive acts by governments, in this country and abroad. We have for the first time a British Government broadly sympathetic to the fight against apartheid. It is our task to show that the British public demands of it a positive policy against apartheid, and against racialism, These are some targets for 1965. This newspaper has been started. and the whole scope and organisation of Anti-Apartheid expanded, to enable us to achieve them. 1. To see that the 90-day detention clause is never reimposed in South Africa; (and that the terrible conditions of convicted political prisoners which amount virtually antis is a ntseranner- a low-nying jet attack bomber. boxteen li been made. Spare parts will he sent "as and when necessary." Government must know :je want absolutely no arms for So uth t~ss AofI