an

World

Word from the Michael Manley-led
People’s National Party (PNP) in Jamaica
is that it will now be clearing the decks to
carry out major rehabilitation work fol-
lowing its hurricane-like victory at the
polls last month.

Observers say the task is uphill all the
way after eight years of rule by Edward
Seaga’s rightist Jamaican Labour Party.
The PNP took 44 seats in parliament, and
the JLP 16. The other major party, the
Workers’ Party of Jamaica, decided not to
contest the election.

Voters on this island of 2.2 million peo-
ple were generally fed up with a jobless

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Manley faces uphill
struggle after vote

This time, Manley played down his crit-
icism of the worst features of these corpo-
rations and U.S. interference in the region.
He also gave the cold shoulder to left for-
ces within his party. However, the PNP
promised to restore ties with neighbouring
Cuba which had been severed imme-
diately after Seaga took power in 1980.

The JLP strongly backed Reagan’s pol-
icies in the Caribbean, including active
support for the 1983 invasion of Grenada.
And during a CARICOM meeting on
Haiti last year, the JLP was widely
accused of siding with the repressive mil-
itary regime there.

Norman Faria

rate running officially at 20 per cent under
Seaga. Overseas markets for bauxite and
alumina had virtually collapsed, and the
foreign debt had climbed to $2 billion
since 1983. ,

For its part, the PNP had shifted to the
right during its years in Opposition, and
there appeared no major difference to
voters on economic issues with the JLP.
Previous PNP administrations between

development-oriented policies coupled
with an independent foreign policy.
Among these were an alumina deal with
the USSR and Hungary, which promised
to be one of the ways to escape the unpre-
dictable and ultimately exploitative nature

Canada and the BESS

1972 and 1980 witnessed brief glimpses of

of trading totally with transnationals in

FROM THE CARIBBEAN

The populism -of Manley contrasts
sharply with. Seaga’s autocratic, often
arrogant style. His closer touch with the
people, while perhaps a large factor in the
PNP win, is no guarantee that PNP poli-
cies will be a cure-all for the myriad of
problems inflicting the island.

Observers say the PNP must now con-
sider working more closely with other for-
ces like the WPJ. Community groups and
people’s institutions must also be freed up
from political patronage to defend any
gains made over the period leading up to
the vote. This would help reduce the
manoeuvering of saboteurs and CIA-
assisted elements whose well-documented
activities during the 1980 election cam-
paign led to the death of over 700 people
(11 died in this year’s campaign).

New Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley is thronged by supporters follow-
ing his People’s National Party election victory.

Worker’s Party of Jamaica leader Dr.
Trevor Munroe argues it is now time for
Jamaica to have a proportional form of
government which would allow for seats
to be distributed in accordance with the

number of votes received by each party.
This is not done in Jamaica which saw
PNP candidates win 44 of Parliament’s 60
seats with only 57 per cent of the popular
vote last January.

Thatcher throwing door open to apartheid

By WILLIAM POMEROY

Britain’s Thatcher government has open-
ed wide the doors for the biggest company
in apartheid South Africa to acquire a
major base in Britain and Western Europe.

On Feb. 2, the British Monopolies and
Mergers Commission, an arm of the
Department of Trade and Industry, cleared
the way for Minorco investment company
to proceed with a takeover bid for British-
based Consolidated Gold Fields.

Minorco, a front for the huge South Afri-
can Oppenheimer conglomerate, which
includes Anglo-American Corporation and
De Beers mining interests, made its bid for
Gold Fields last September. At $52.5 bil-
lion, it was the biggest such bid in British
history. Resistance by Gold Fields and
opposition from anti-apartheid forces
resulted in its referral to the Monopolies
and Mergers Commission.

Anglo-American, De Beers and Consoli-
dated Gold Fields are involved in mining,
construction materials and other firms in
South Africa and elsewhere. De Beers con-
trols 80 to 85 per cent of the world output of
rough diamonds. Anglo-American controls
20 per cent of the world gold market and
will have 32 per cent if it takes over Gold
Fields.

Consolidated Gold Fields has a control-

ling 38 per cent interest in South Africa’s
second biggest gold producer, Gold Fields
of South Africa. Its worldwide mining
interests include a half interest in Newmont
Mining in the United States.

Anglo-American’s takeover bid is part of
a shift of its interests from South Africa to
other parts of the world in expectation that
the apartheid system will collapse. Other
South African companies are making sim-
ilar shifts. However, these developments
also expand South Africa’s trade and
finance links, helping to sustain the racist
state for the time being.

Britain’s Monopolies and Mergers Com-
mission has given a boost to this process.
Trade and Industry Secretary Lord Young,
one of the most right-wing members of the
Thatcher cabinet, could have halted the bid
since his department is conducting an
inquiry into allegations that Minorco was
earlier involved in insider dealings over
Gold Fields. But the commission spurned
the extensive public protest over the poten-
tial damage the tie-in with apartheid would
do to Britain’s national interests. It also
dismissed as irrelevant the apartheid labour
polices of both Anglo-American and Gold
Fields.

The decision to allow the bid was
denounced by the Labour Party, whose

shadow trade secretary. Bryan Gould,
called “wrong and regrettable.” Labour
Member of Parliament Doug Hoyle said:
“It is disgraceful that this bid has been
allowed. Here we are encouraging apartheid-

ridden South African companies to invest in.

Britain.”

Although Mrs. Thatcher, hard pressed
by the rest of the Commonwealth, has been
giving lip service to limited sanctions against
South Africa, her government in practice
has been doing quite the opposite, promot-
ing as much trade as possible with the apar-
theid state.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement recently
published a devastating report, “Selling Out
to Apartheid,” which exposes the Thatcher
government’s aid to South Africa.

The report shows that Lord Young’s
Department of Trade and Industry is form-
ing and assisting trade missions to South
Africa by British companies, in disregard of
a ban on such missions agreed on by Com-
monwealth heads of state in 1985. In the
first nine months of 1988, the value of Brit-
ish goods sold to South Africa jumped by 18
per cent to nearly $1.5 billion.

To date, 55 transnational corporations
from various countries have left South
Africa, but such big British firms as ICI,
Lonrho, Consolidated Gold Fields, Shell,

Rio Tinto Zinc, Sea Containers, NEI and
Manro Holdings have increased their stake.
Although Thatcher agreed to a voluntary
tourism ban, British tour companies con-
tinue to promote tours to South Africa with
. impunity.

The Department of Trade and Industry
co-operates with the United Kingdom-
South Africa Trade Association in setting
up trade missions, and British consular offi-
cials in South Africa provide instructions
for arriving missions.

Says Bob Hughes, the Labour MP who is
chairman of the Anti-Apartheid Move-
ment: “‘The prime minister has made such a
fetish out of being opposed to sanctions that
she is incapable of making rational deci-
sions.” He claims that Thatcher’s attitude is
shaped by the fact that South African com-
panies make heavy contributions to the
Tory Party, citing a De Beers donation of
$85,000.

As the Anti-Apartheid Movement report
was being published, Commonwealth for-
eign ministers were meeting in Harare,
Zimbabwe, to discuss anti-apartheid sanc-
tions. The British foreign minister was
absent.

William Pomeroy is European correspond-
ent for the People’s Daily World.

Pacific Tribune, March 13, 1989 «9