Conference indicts apartheid regime

As federal government officials
in Ottawa moved last week toward
closer relations with the racist
regime in South Africa, Canadians
in another part of the country came
together to declare their
unequivocal opposition to apart-
heid and to affirm their solidarity
with the liberation movements of
southern Africa.

The occasion was the conference
“Southern Africa: A Time of
Change’ and more than 350
delegates crowded into the
Canadian Memorial Church May
14 to hear various leaders of the
liberation movement and to chart a
campaign of support.

The conference, as well as a
public meeting held the previous
evening, was sponsored by the
Canadian Council for International
Cooperation together with the
Southern Africa Action Coalition.

Opening the conference was
Abdul Minty, general secretary of
the London-based Anti-Apartheid
Movement, whose’ address
Saturday morning was a powerful
indictment of the racist South
African regime of John Vorster
and of the duplicity of the western
countries — Canada among them
— which talk of majority rule for
Rhodesia but continue to prop up
the system of apartheid in South
Africa.

“Because there was fear among
the western countries that South
Africa would be swept away in a
wave of revolutionary spirit,”
Minty told the delegates, “they
sought to bolster the regime in
South Africa while talking of
majority rule for Rhodesia.

“But no one talks. of majority
rule for South Africa.’

JAMES STUART

grate urges total

economic boycott of South
Africa.

The anti-apartheid leader

pointed out that all the while that
British government officials were
speaking of “majority rule in
Rhodesia in two years,” four new
air bases were swiftly being
assembled in that country.

“They are intended for fighter
planes and are strategically
located for attacks against African
states,” he warned.

Moreover, Minty said, the
Rhodesian economy could not have
supported the rapid development
of the air bases. Only the U.S. with
its enormous military budget and
construction expertise could
possibly have built the bases in
such a short time.

In South Africa, the evidence of
the complicity of other countries in
the institutionalized violence of the
apartheid government is equally
damning. Even as world public
opinion stood in outrage at the
massacre of school children at
Soweto, the government of Britain
made no move to stop the sale of
British Land Rovers to the Santh
African police. Nor did the
government of France halt the sale
of helicopters — also used by the
police.

When the Vorster government
became alarmed by the upsurge in

ABDUL MINTY
peaceful change in southern Africa based on military collaboration with

apartheid.”

liberation support in the wake of
the Soweto events, the U.S. moved
_again to bolster the regime, this
time agreeing to train South
African police experts in “riot
control.”

“Jt is not only the complicity of
countries such as Britain and the
United States that we are con-
cerned with,’’ Minty emphasized,
“but also the silence of countries
like Canada. That is what we are
seeking today to change — to put
the country on the side of the forces
of change and liberation instead of
the forces of repression.”

And there is much to change in
the relationship that exists bet-
ween Canada and South Africa,
Minty told the conference. This
country has considerable in-
vestment in South Africa and
“every dollar of investment sets up
a cobweb of relationships — in-
cluding military relationships.”

He pointed out that he had
spoken with the Canadian
delegation to NATO whose repre-
sentatives had argued that
Canadian arms manufacturing
was so small as to be insignificant
in the over-all shipments to South
Africa.

“But that isnot the point,’’ Minty
said, “‘if legislation were passed by
Parliament forbidding the sale of
arms to South Africa, it would have
a demonstrable effect.”

Investment by Canadian com-
panies in South Africa also provide
significant support for the Vorster
regime although many cor-
porations continue to promote the
fiction that foreign companies
operating in the country can pay

good wages to African workers and
provide opportunities not normally
open to them.

. “can no longer accept the western thesis of

—Sean Griffin photo

“Not only is that a specious
excuse — it is also a measure of
supreme arrogance;
are saying that they will decide
what is good for the South African
worker,” he declared.

_ “In fact, business circles in the
west are a powerful lobby for
apartheid.”

That continued financial and
corporate support for South Africa,
the involvement of the NATO
alliance and the bellicose anti-
Communism of the Vorster
government have also contributed
to making Southern Africa a
potential danger to world peace —
which demands world action.

“There is a constant and real
danger of southern Africa
becoming another Vietnam,”’
Minty stressed, adding that official
circles in the west have in-
creasingly emphasized anti-
Communist postures in attempting
to defend South Africa.

He said that the threat to peace
warranted action by the UN based
on the continued policy of in-
stitutionalized racism in South
Africa in violation of the
Nuremburg declaration that
racism is a crime to humanity —
and because of the continuous
violation of the UN sanctions
against Rhodesia by South Africa.

“South Africa is the greatest
single threat to peace in the world
today,’’ he emphasized. ‘But still
the western powers insist in talking
of ‘peaceful change’ in southern
Africa. :

“We must reject any western
thesis of ‘peaceful change’ that is
based on continued military
collaboration with apartheid.”

Minty placed particular em-
phasis in his address on the course

| Celebrate

with

Hal Griffin

50 years of writing for labor

Saturday, May 28, 6:30 p.m.
DINNER AND DANCE

Adm. $5. Students, unempl. $3.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 20, 1977—Page 10

Tickets Tribune
office, Co-op Books

businesses «

of events which had necessiated
the liberation movement taking the
course of armed struggle.

“There is no one which would
have more to gain from peaceful
change than the liberation
movements of Southern Africa,”’
he declared. “But we have asked
the world to act against apartheid
andit has not acted. We have gone
to Geneva, to London and still
change has not come.

“But if our armed struggle is
successful — then Vorster and Ian
Smith will talk.’’ He emphasized
that peaceful change could be
supported by the western powers
“if they really want it’ — by
economic blockade, arms em-
bargoes and resolutions in the UN.

“But when those measures have
been proposed, they have been
blocked by the U.S., by Britain,
France and others. And the
violence against our people con-
tinues.”’

“This is a time for change,” he
declared, paraphrasing the con-
ference theme, ‘‘and there is little
time enough to avoid catastrophe.”’

“‘T urge you: Rouse the people of
Canada for a change in southern
Africa.”

Minty’s address, greeted by a
standing ovation from _ the
delegates, was a keynote of the
conference which proceeded
through a series of workshops to
outline a campaign in support of
ation in southern Africa.

Several other speakers also
addressed the two-day conference,
many of them during the workshop
sessions. Conference organizers
had brought together Callistus
Ndlovu and Edison Zvobgo of the
Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe;
Nahas Angula, representative of
the South West African People’s
Organization (SWAPO); James
Stuart of the South African
Congress of Trade Unions; Horst
Kleinschmidt, exiled representa-
tive of the Christian: Institute in
South Africa and Bishop Desmond
Tutu, formerly of the Anglican
Church in Johannesburg.

James Stuart, who also ad-
dressed a plenary session of the
conference told delegates of the
work of the illegal South African
Congress of Trade Unions in South
Africa and urged conference
delegates to work toward a total
boycott of South Africa and a with-
drawal of investment from the
racist regime.

The African unionist also ad-

couver and District Labor Council
Tuesday whom he urged to “‘give
maximum possible support to your
brothers and sisters in Southern
Africa.”

Zimbabwe Patriotic Front rep-
resentative Callistus Ndlovu —
outlined the situation in Rhodesia
and appealed particularly for aid
from Canadians to provide food,
clothing and medicines for the
thousands of refugees fleeing the
Smith regime.

The conference adopted a
number of proposals for sub- —
sequent action on behalf of the
liberation movements :
lobbying all levels of government ~
across the country to press for
arms’ sanctions against South

Conference scheduled for May.

CALLISTUS NDLOVU
appeals for aid to refugees.

Also proposed was the establish- .
ment of a committee on a goods —
boycott on all products from South
Africa. ‘‘Our ultimate aim is the
complete economic boycott of
South Africa,’’ the committee
stressed.

In memory of

Harvey Murphy

whose timeless contribution}
to the Canadian
working class will
not be forgotten.
Wishing condolences
to his family
Olgin Club, CPC

THE COMPLETE
TRAVEL SERVICE

We will professionally look after
all your travel needs. We specialize
in tickets, tours, passports, permits
and reservations, Call us today

for prompt personalized service.

GLOBE TOURS
2679 E. Hastings St.,
Vancouver, B.C.
253-1221

dressed delegates to the Van- .

including

Africa at the Commonwealth ~