Redoubling the fight against apartheid

Special to the Tribune

NEW YORK — Over 900 delegates from across
the United States and international delegates
representing over 18 countries gathered here Oct.
9-11 to protest escalating U.S. support for the ra-
cist regime in South Africa. Included were 23 dele-
gates from Canada representing such organizations
as Oxfam, CUSO, Canadians Concerned About
Southern Africa, the United Church, Canadian
Council of Churches, Interfaith and Ten Days for
World Development.

The conference was the first regional event in a
series of global conferences initiated by the Inter-
national Committee Against Apartheid, Racism
and Colonialism in Southern Africa and co-
sponsored by the African National Congress
(ANC) and the Southwest Africa Peoples Organi-
zation (SWAPO).

The conference’s objectives were to expose the

increasing collaboration of the U.S. government

and corporations with South Africa’s apartheid re-
gime and its illegal occupation of Namibia; to
mobilize the American people to pressure their
government and the corporations to end this col-
laboration; to organize mass support for the libera-
tion movements of South Africa and Namibia.

In his remarks to the gathering, Alfred Nzo, —

ANC (South Africa) general secretary spoke of the
increasing popular upsurge as seen in recent
demonstrations against South Africa’s white Re-
public Day celebrations.

He said that these people’s actions are being

complimented by successful attacks carried out
against the racist regime’s installations by the mili-
tary wing of the ANC, ::Umkhanto we Sizwe”’.

‘‘The ANC is the custodian of the cherished
ideal of the people — to build a united, non-racial,
democratic government for the freedom of our
people,” he said. ‘‘We are the only viable alterna-
tive to the apartheid regime.

Peter Mueshihange, SWAPO’s secretary for.

foreign relations, explained that SWAPO had been
established to recover the land which was stolen
from the Namibian people, to liberate the natural
resources of his country, and to liberate the mass of
the people from oppression.

_ “SWAPO is the people and the people are
SWAPO,”’ he declared, noting the U.S. Secretary
of State Haig’s description of SWAPO as aterrorist
group was ‘‘turning the victims into the criminals
and the criminals into the victims.”

The conference was also addressed by leading
U.S. political, religious and labor groups and per-
sonalities.

Commissions and action-oriented workshops

‘examined U.S. policy toward South Africa and

Namibia, the role of labor, women and youth, sup-
port for political prisoners, financial and material
aid and other aspects of the struggle against apar-
theid.

- The final session adopted a National Program of
Action and decided to transform the conference’s
steering committee into a conference continuation
committee to carry out the action program.

It was agreed to reconvene the solidarity confer-
ence before the spring of 1983. The meeting also
adopted ‘a resolution endorsing the call by the
Summit Conference of African heads of state for a
world conference of trade union organizations.

The New York declaration noted that U.S.
foreign policy of intervention, military adventure
and world policeman has brought about American
deaths, militarized the economy and isolated
Americans from the majority of humanity.

It condemned the Reagan administration’s effort
to distort and discredit the struggle of the national
liberation movements by spreading fears of ani al-
leged ‘‘terrorist threat’ and reviving the cold war
mentality of confrontation with the USSR.

The declaration called for recognition of the
People’s Republic of Angola, the retention and
strengthening of the Clark amendment which pro-
hibits U.S. military intervention into Angola. It
called for aid to the liberation movements and for
comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against
South Africa.

In moving language, the-conference declaration
called on Americans: ‘‘We (as Americans) have a
special role to play and are charged with a unique
responsibility. It is our government that keeps
apartheid alive, feeds it, oils it and arms it.

" “ The heroic people of the ANC and SWAPO are
destroying apartheid from within, but only we can
end our government’s pact with racism, which if
not obliterated, will destroy us all. ,

_ ‘‘ The conference proudly takes up this fight and

joins the peoples of the world.”

‘COWBOY SYNDROME’ TAKES HOLD

builds in Mideast -

The death of Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and
increased U.S. presence in the region is the
of this commentary by Spartak

Beglov, political analyst for the Soviet
news agency Novosti.

News Analysis

The world community is becoming
seriously concerned over the “‘cowboy
syndrome” in the American politics.
Regardless of what takes place in the
world today, be it the birth of a new

nation or the death of an aged leader, .

Washington reaches for its gun.

This has again happened with the
death of Anwar Sadat. Sending of U.S.
warships to the shores of Egypt and put-
ting the Rapid Deployment Force on top
alert can only be seen as ‘‘crude pressure

on a sovereign state” says a Soviet

government statement. :
. The sudden turn of events in Cairo,
behind which is concealed an acute polit-
ical crisis brewing inside the country,
was seen by U.S. leaders as a threat to
the entire structure of U.S. power poli-
tics in the Middle East and Mediter-
ranean. U.S. reaction was to instantly
send the 6th Fleet toward Egypt and
Libya and to alert the U.S.-based 18th
airborne corps.

There was, of course a doctrine to jus-
tify all this. This Reagan-Haig-Wein-
berger doctrine (since all three have
given their version of it) was devised to
permit the U.S. to violate international
law in the region or, to be more precise,

‘to back with force the ‘‘U.S. right” to

interfere in the affairs of other states. It’s
interesting to note that Saudi Arabia is

cords — to give legal validity to the U.S.
protectorate over the eastern Mediter-
ranean — can be seen with special clarity
these days. Washington’s represen-
tatives who came to Cairo for Sadat’s
funeral behaved just like protectors
would. Their comments were nothing

- less than attempts to tell the Egyptians
what they should do next, and their fleet -

and troops on alert stand-by were to
show their readiness to back up their
words. ;

These latest events make it more evi-
dent that it is impossible to portray the
Camp David accords as ‘‘an example of
peace-making”’. Never before has the
Middle East been divided by such a deep
abyss of hostility, hatred and bloodshed
as the one dug by the Camp David deal.

Some 15,000 Palestinians and

Lebanese were killed in Lebanon alone
since the signing of the Camp David
agreements. The Palestinians are further
than ever away from their cherished
dream of regaining their homeland, and
that’s fully in line with the American Is-
raeli scenario.

While it was exploiting Camp David

and the ‘‘strategic consensus” slogan,
the U.S. began building up its military
presence in the area from the Persian

Gulf to the Suez Canal. Washington.

hopes that the fanning of discord in the
Arab world and manipulating the
‘Soviet threat’’ myth will help bolster
the military foundations of American
domination in the area.

Doesn’t this extensive U.S. military-—

stratégic penetration help explain why
the U.S. is so allergic to any proposals
for an all-embracing political settlement?
Isn’t this the reason Washington ignores

proposals to remove the Mediterranean

from the vicious circle of power politics?

Under cover of the Camp David accords the U.S. has steadily built up its military presenc®

in the Mideast.

Attitudes of the west and the east are
poles apart on the future of the Mediter-
ranean area. U.S. spokesmen bluntly re-

~ fused to entertain any proposals for

strengthening regional security.

It was the government of Malta, for
example, which was among those who
initiated the discussion on problems of
the Mediterranean. At the moment when
U.S. armadas were showing the flag in
the eastern Mediterranean Malta pro-
claimed itself a neutral state with a policy
of non-alignment. The USSR welcomed
and recognized this proclamation and
called on all states to respect this status.

A Soviet-Maltese communique em-
phasizes this peace alternative which can
be accepted by all nations. It says that
the path to a Middle East settlement lies

_in the convening of an international con-

ference with the participation of all par-
ties concerned, the Palestine Liberation

Organization included.

A lasting and comprehensive settle-
ment should be based on the lawful na-
tional rights of the Palestinian people,
including their right to create an inde-
pendent state, and on the unconditional
withdrawal of Israel from territories it
has occupied since 1967.

Turning the Mediterranean into a re-
gion of stability and peace will benefit all
nations. And to do this means extending
confidence-building measures in the mili-
tary sphere, to achieve agreed upon re-
ductions of armed forces, reach agree
ments to withdraw nuclear-carrying wal”
ships from the area and turn the region
into a non-nuclear zone.

Nuclear powers should pledge them
selves not to use such weapons against
any Mediterranean nation which does
not allow its territory for deployment of
such weapons.

—_—— f