By M. P: NAICKER

I South Africa today, two major
forces stand opposed to each other
in ever-growing conflict. On the one side
are the forces of the status quo, of white
supremacy, aided and abetted by inter-
national imperialism — _ particularly
British and U.S. imperialism. On the
other are the forces of liberation and
democracy, led by the African National
Congress and its allies.

In this article we show how U.S.
monopoly capital is increasingly under-
writing apartheid and what the national
liberation movement is doing to end
white supremacy and to establish a truly
democratic government, representing
the interests of the masses of the people.

Background to US Investment

In order to examine the significance
of the phenomenal increase of U.S. in-
vestment in South Africa during the past
decade, it.is first necessary to examine
and appreciate certain aspects of capital-
ist growth. in the United States itself.
In order to achieve a fuller understanding
of the vast imperialist implications
attached to the present-day situation, one
must look back to the period between the
two world wars.

The Great Depression in the United
States between the two world wars saw
the collapse of an economy which many
thought would never again recover. Only
through the intervention of government
and World War II was it possible for the
American economy and the American
capitalist system to reassert itself. As
late as 1940, when the U.S. was starting
to arm, a conservative estimate of the
number of unemployed in the American
labor force was 13%, but by 1944 they had
all been put to work and the total number
of employed workers had increased by
35%.

The entrace of many business execu-
tives into government service during
World War II consolidated a close rela-
tionship between government and busi-
ness. It was therefore only natural that,
upon leaving the armed forces, military
men became assimilated into big busi-
ness, particularly in big corporations with

interlocking managements. (By 1951, ’

135 American corporations owned nearly
a fourth of the manufacturing volume of

the world).

Military Men in Big Business

General Dynamics, the U.S.’s biggest
armaments manufacturer, had 200 re-
tired officers (including 27 retired gen-
erals and admirals) on its payrolls in
1960: United Aircraft had 171. Robert
McNamara, former president of Ford
Motor Co., was U.S. Secretary of Defense
and, earlier, so was Charles Wilson, Pres-
ident of General Motors. All this proves
the marriage of the military to industry
in the U.S. where, today, the traditional
divisions of society into business, govern-
ment and military have become obsolete
and their fusion places American society
in a constant state of mobilization for
war. 2
It came as no surprise therefore when
the United States, with its warmongering
fervor and capitalization of strife, bailed
South Africa out of the financial crisis
that followed the Sharpeville massacre
in 1960. It is from that year that U‘S.

M.P. Naicker is director of publicity and
infermation of the African National
Congress. -

Profits from
Apartheid

financial support for apartheid has shown
such dramatic growth. The United States
helped restore the confidence of overseas
investors at a time when confidence had
been badly shaken by the imminent
threat of countrywide violence, provoked
by the brutal massacre of innocent peo-
ple at Sharpeville, which reduced South
Africa’s foreign reserve to the lowest
level in years. In 1960, direct U.S. invest-
ment in South Africa amounted to some
$286 million; by 1963 this sum had almost
doubled. A recent estimate published by
Newsweek put the present total as high as
$600 million.

The major private institution involved

‘in the post-Sharpeville crisis was Chase

Manhattan Bank, which loaned $10 mil-
lion to the South African Government,
followed by First National City Bank
with $5 million. Chase Manhattan has
since joined with a South African bank,
the Standard Bank, to take care of its
interests in Africa. But the total amount
loaned to South Africa in 1961 was not $15
million — it was $150 million, the balance
provided by unidentified U.S. lenders ($70
million) and two gigantic loans from pub-
lic funds; $38 million from the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund and $28 million
from the World Bank and affiliates. Both
these international forces are heavily
influenced by the United States, without
whose approval the loans could never
have gone through. These transactions
directly involved government policy.
South Africa also enjoyed some $40 mil-
lion dollars worth of ‘‘revolving credits’’
through U.S. banks in 1963.

Super Profits

Among more recent investments are
$3 million by Goodyear and $7.5 million
by Crown-Zellerbach. Singer sewing
machines and Xerox have increased their
investments. Profits from investments
in Vorster’s Republic are, indeed, among
the highest in the world for American
investor groups, rising from an average
return of 19.7% in 1961 to 26% in 1963. In
some cases, ratio of earnings to invest-
ment has been 30% or higher, and the aver-
age return over the period since 1958
has been 12.5%.

These figures can be compared with
the average return of 6.6% for American
investment in Western Europe, and 5.5%
for its overall average. Since 1958, ac-
cording to the Moorgate and Wall Street
review in 1964, profits from U.S. invest-
ments in South Africa have been higher
than in any country. Mr. Marcus D. Bang-
hart of the Newmont Mining Corp. boast-
ed in 1962 of his connection with South
Africa ‘‘We know the people and the Gov-
ernment,” he said, ‘‘and we back our con-
victions with our reputation and our
dollars.”

Mr. Keith Funston, President of the
New York Stock Exchange, held similar
views when, in 1962, he stated: ‘‘The
whole of the Western world and all the
nations of the free (sic) world, of which
South Africa and the U.S. are two out-
standing examples, will have to work
together more in the coming years.” And
the extraordinary Charles Engelhard,
adviser to the U.S. State Dept., major
contributor to the Democratic Party and
a South African mining magnate second
only to Mr. Harry Oppenheimer, believes
that ‘there are not many countries in
the world where it is safe to invest, and
South Africa is just about the best of the
lot.”” And finally, economic self-interest
and political opportunism combine in
the opinion of Gen. Luris Norstad, former
NATO commander in Europe and later

in soll

enero

Above: Port Elizabeth is the site of most

Driefontein mine.

president of the Owens-Corning group,
which in 1965 launched a $1.4 million ex-
pansion scheme in South Africa: “This
country’s record of economic and indus-
trial expansion is outstanding. We have

‘great appreciation of South Africa’s

importance as an ally and as an economic
force in the free world.”’

With Britain and France, the U.S. has
opposed every move to use economic
sanctions against the apartheid regime,
voting against the November 1962 United
Nations resolution calling for the total
isolation of South Africa, and against the
1963 resolution proposing an oil embargo
against the Republic, etc.

Since 1960, when Cuba was struck off *

as a supplier of sugar: to the United
States, the South African quota has in-
creased from zero to over 100,000 tons
in 1965. The U.S. has a large surplus of
uranium, yet the Atomic Energy Com-
mission (and its British equivalent)
purchased 5,480 tons of uranium oxide
per year until 1970 from South Africa
According to the London publication
“Africa 1964,” the U.S. is paying $12
per pound for this uranium, although the
Americans would be willing to sell for $4
a pound. This is the price U.S. imperial-
ism is prepared to pay in order to draw
more superprofits from the mass of
exploited African and non-white workers
while enhancing the South African fas-
cist regime.

The trading partners of South Africa
in the United States as well as those in
Britain, West Germany, Japan and
France bear a heavy responsibility for
the continued oppression and misery of
our people. The international monopolies
and many others back white supremacy
and by so doing hope to save their invest-
ments.

Fight Back

Meanwhile the struggle in South .

Africa is increasing. Guerrilla forces of
the African National Congress have been
active in Rhodesia, in the valleys of the
Zambesi and on the plains of Sipolilo.
They have routed the enemy in the Wank-
ie game reserve and have seen him run.
Many have died in the cause of freedom

American auto companies’ plants const
Africa; inset: mineworkers, waist deep in water, manhandle material for © © ii
tion job at Charles W. Engelhard’s American-South African Investment Co

. which the United States is the

and many more have reached wet
land and are working in the U?
preparing the people for action:

As the struggle becomes * ‘vt
the liberation forces gain grr a
expect the propaganda machi wad
South Africa and its imperi@® veil
to move into full gear to di ch
liberation movement and wer
Horror stories of what the ty
are doing will flood the i oe)
The favorite ‘‘nuns have pei: i
canard will be used to mobi igs
opinion against us. Learne™ |
academics on the ‘‘atavisti¢ th
of the African people will ste (he
the best-seller lists. All this [dl
evitable reaction of the decay @ gil)
eration of imperialism tO. st Oy
struggles of the people again vest
and will set the tone for ine i
volvement, including military ig
ment, of the forces of inetd

0 4

The international solidat! i)
against racism and apartheid ne Mt)
Its potentiai is unlimited. Mell)
states have taken. the lead in
Nations and other internation ip po
isolate the white supremacists hel
culture, sport and economics’ ogi
supplying the liberation mov" gt
the means to prosecute the “lth

Apart from the Africa® SF y
are forces in Asia and

that support the initiatives sl
aN

cans. Sweden, Holland and
also taken progressive Sl!
white supremacy and havé
material and moral assista™
eration movement. _ an vif
In imperialist countrie® ade
progressive organizations ~— Bl cb
universities, churches and ree ed
zations — have mobilized late 9 if
of the population to suppo sou!
against white despotism in ret;
and to oppose the pro-apat
of their governments.
And the socialist coun

freedom in South Africa 1) gl Pal
Nations and at all internal! nt x
ings. The aid the liberation ie 7
gets from the socialist C™ |
measurable. P