April 12, 1988 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 6489 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS SANCTIONS: THE CONGRESS' the President's veto and passed these sanc­ son, it is important to reflect on just what CURSE ON THE PEOPLE OF tions? When President Reagan vetoed the they thought they would achieve in the SOUTH AFRICA Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, he did not heady days of October 1986 when Congress do so under disdain for the South African overrode a White House veto to secure the blacks. He foresaw the effect these sanctions first humiliating defeat of a hitherto all­ HON. PHILIP M. CRANE conquering President. OF ILLINOIS would have on the black community. But why It is perhaps not too cynical to suggest IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES did so many Congressmen ignore his warn­ that that was part of the attraction. But ings? Was it a lack of foresight? Or did they Tuesday, April 12, 1988 other motives were confused and contradic­ simply use the black's struggle to enhance tory. For some-the high-minded rather Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, as Americans we their own public image? than the ruthless-excommunication was all feel a burning desire to help the oppressed I challenge my colleagues to open their the only way to convince Pretoria of the people of the world in the struggle against minds and put the interests of the South Afri­ error of its ways; white South Africans their tyrants. We observe these people's tire­ can blacks ahead of their own. Instead of would feel the pinch and, putting wealth less fight to secure a better future for their searching for praise from the media, we need above racism, would force their government children and embrace their struggle as if it to search for answers. Answers which will to change, thus effectively preventing the expected bloodbath. For others revolution were our own. We share in their pain, sorrow, assist the black community achieve economic was the solution, not the problem. Sanc­ frustration, and especially their commitment. prominence as the. first step in securing a tions, they calculated, would so impoverish However, many times these feelings lead future of freedom for their children. black South Africa that, with nothing left some to foolishly embark on a quest to cure For a deeper insight into the present situa­ to lose, it would rise up against its fatally the world of it's many ills. The world has tion in South Africa, I highly recommend an ar­ weakened white oppressors and thus usher come to realize that an American on a cru­ ticle entitled "The Scandal of Sanctions" in in the Utopia where all men were equal in sade can be as threatening as the Red Army the March 1988 edition of the American Spec­ poverty and which would no longer make itself. Such is the case in South Africa today. tator. any claim on America's conscience <only on It has been almost 2 years since the passing · [From the American Spectator. March its purse). Those who felt a little queasy of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act and 1988] about inflicting further penury and depriva­ black South Africans are no closer to achiev­ tion on South Africa's black citizens were si­ THE SCANDAL OF SANCTIONS lenced with the answer that this is what ing political and economic freedom. In fact, <By Fleur de Villiers) South Africa's black leaders themselves de­ the repercussions of these sanctions have In the fall of 1986, fueled by moral out­ manded. dealt a hard blow to the black community. It is rage and high moral purpose, the United In any case, it was suggested, sanctions time to reexamine the value of sanctions to States Congress set out to punish South would be felt more keenly by wealthy the cause of the South African blacks. Amer­ Africa and express solidarity with its black whites than by blacks who had little enough ica cannot continue to be a negative influence oppressed masses. Its chosen instrument anyway-a proposition that ignores the inte­ on the black's struggle against apartheid. was the imposition of sanctions that would gration of the South African economy and excommunicate South Africa from the the simp1e fact that if you take food away The effect of sanctions on the South Afri­ world's economy until the apartheid state can economy are quite disturbing. By initiating from a fat man he will suffer, but if you was brought to its senses, if not to its knees. take it away from a thin man he dies. the exodus of over 170 U.S. businesses, Those who wielded bell, book, and candle Above .and beyond all these considerations these sanctions have greatly hindered the blithely ignored the fact that sanctions was the conviction that a successful transfer blacks in their quest to achieve economic without the threat of direct military inter­ of power to the black majority was inevita­ freedom. While whites have eagerly pur­ vention have had a dismal record in the con­ ble, if not imminent, and that it was impor­ chased these companies at firesale prices, duct of international affairs. Indeed, the tant for America's long-term interest in a re­ question of whether or not sanctions would source-rich region to "get on the right side the blacks have suffered. They can no longer achieve the abolition of apartheid and the benefit from United States business spon­ of history"; failure to do so would hand the transfer of power to the black majority was, area over to Moscow and its surrogates. sored employee welfare programs and are one suspects, always secondary. The main now subject to the wrath of the new Afri­ That belief was shared not merely by sanc­ aim was not to liberate South African tioneers in Congress-Senators Kennedy, kaaner owners, who have systematically fired blacks, but to free the U.S. Congress from the frustration of doing nothing. Simon, Lugar, and Cranston and Congress­ their black workers. We all know that the key men Wolpe, Solarz, Gray, Rangel, and to the establishment of a free, democratic so­ Moral outrage and an instinct for med­ dling in areas that few politicians visit and Leland-but by state and municipal govern­ ciety is a strong middle class, yet we persist in even fewer understand are American quali­ ments across the United States which, impeding the black community from achieving ties the rest of the world has come to dread. through boycott and threat of boycott, have this prerequisite for freedom. The blacks need There are few spectacles on earth more at the latest count sent 170 American com­ our help-the key to their future lies in the alarming than American legislators in panies in South Africa stampeding for the continued presence of United States busi­ search of a quick fix of other people's prob­ exit. nesses in South Africa. lems. But if this addiction has too frequent­ But just how effective has the whole sanc­ tions package been-disinvestment includ­ In addition, the sanctions have wreaked ly made United States foreign policy the diligent pursuit of folly, seldom has it been ed? How have the promises survived more havoc on South Africa's political establish­ more diligently or more blatantly pursued than a year of practice? ment. By threatening the security of the Afri­ than by those who believed that the only The first answer was not long in coming. kaaner community, the sanctions have en­ way to bring South Africa into the family of President Botha cashed. in quickly, using hanced the political standing of the rightwing. civilized nations was to remove all traces of this unexpected American bonus to call and In the most recent elections, the liberal Pro­ American influence. win an election in early May, calculating gressive Federal Party [PFP] was defeated as Now, eighteen months since the passage correctly that external threat would induce the official opposition to Prime Minister of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, the white electorate to rally round the flag. Botha's administration. Moreover, the once the full extent of that folly should be ap­ In a country in which history has bred a parent to all-except those congressmen strong strand of isolationism, he could moderate Botha has toughened his stance on and senators who, having saddled the sanc­ hardly go wrong. But South Africa is not the black opposition for fear of losing popular­ tions horse, are determined to ride it all the unique. Other histories have-or should ity within the white electorate. way to this year's elections. But before one have-instructed us that a people who be­ Is this the "moral backbone" so many of examines their failure to win anything, lieve their security is threatened will put my colleaguP.s demanded when they overrode except possibly the approval of Jesse Jack- that security above material considerations. e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. 19-059 0-89-17 {Pt. 5) 6490 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS April 12, 1988 Botha, however, miscalculated in one im­ Motors, which sold out to local management the radical National Union of Mineworkers portant respect. His own attempts at which in turn promptly fired 500 black to put the question directly to workers in reform-however, despised by the rest of workers, removed itself from the Sullivan South Africa's coal industry.