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White on White 75¢ • F~1? LINGHETTI Brey ten bach Case "The con fess ion of the accused is a medieval principle of jurisprudence." -Nikolai Bukharin WHITE ON WHITE On November 24 , 1975, the South African (Afrikaner) poet, painter, and anti-apartheid activist Breyten Breytenbach was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment under South Africa's "terrorism" laws. The verdict in the Breytenbach case followed Breytenbach's own confused " confession" to the court. The circumstances of Breytenbach's trial are very disturbing, and strongly suggest that a false confession was extracted from him under torture. Breytenbach is considered the leading poet of the Afrikaans language today, and is a spokesman for the young generation of anti-racist Afrikaners. The only charges entered against him involve activity for solidarity with the Black people's resistance movement. A group has been formed in San Francisco to gather and disseminate the facts in the Breytenbach case, and a preliminary report has been issued. Copies are available from the address below. Meanwhile, Breytenbach is being held in solitary confinement. WE ASK ALL PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE IN THE U.S TO JOIN US IN DEMANDING THAT THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT IM MEDIATELY: A) RELEASE BREYTEN BREYTENBACH FROM SOLITARY CON­ FINEMENT. BJ PERMIT ACCESS TO BREYTENBACH BY INDEPENDENT MEDICAL AND LEGAL AUTHORITIES COMPETENT TO AID BREYTENBACH IN REPRESENTING HIMSELF BEFORE SOUTH AFRICAN LAW. Committee on the Breytenbach Case P.O. Box 26481 , San Francisco, CA 94126, USA • • • WHITE ON WHITE Today I'll write white on white No pasaran wear nothing but white Go back Wrong way drink nothing but white White searchlights eat nothing but white search the sky And I would be that sea-creature The gun turrets turn who eats light on the old Walls straining the ocean for its phosphorous­ The angel slowly moves its wings J For present time breathing the light white air is a 'white dot' in space The earth breathes and trembles with it and white is the sand ~ The governed in the hourglass will be governed running · out Liberty is not freedom White dunes of Africa Eros versus civilization running through it No Way Snows of Siberia without a pass sifting through it It is snowing white documents The seas white with sperm The very rich under the white moon get richer still where aluminum stars wheel about A white gloved hand noiselessly still reaches out the window over quivering meat-wheel earth for the money in the cup with its white whales Liberty is not free white phagocytes Some poor still ride some trains white bleached skulls The angel and albino animals stands on the edge (Blacks bleached out of the station platform into white men?) slowly moving its large white wings And to dream of white string which look too fragile a symbol of innocence to lift the body of being Though the color of death be white which still breathes anarchist air And the world checkered with death And the train white-on-black & black-on-white the train made of nothing but boxcars 'dumb pawns jammed with three billion people in black-and-white kingdoms' still stands in the station An angel stands on a station platform trembling slowly shaking its gossamer wings A white horse -Lawrence Ferlinghetti comes alone from a torn village San Francisco March 1977 Every where around the earth on station platforms they (After reading Breyten Breytenbach, Afrikaans are still putting up the placards white poet) .
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