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label sin —*,

South Africa’s ‘ethnic conflicts’ analyzed

SOWETO: Life and Struggles of a South
African Township. By Valentin Gordonov.
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1988. 311
pp. $8.95, cloth. At the People’s Co-op
Bookstore.

The defeat of racist South Africa in the
summer of 1988 at the hands of a joint
Cuban-Angolan-SWAPO detachment was
a turning point in the history of the region.
This led directly to the New York Accords
of December, 1988, which sparked the pro-
cess for the November, 1989, electoral tri-
umph of the South West Africa People’s
Organization in Namibia. Now the noose
around apartheid is tightening and so-called
state president F.W. de Klerk scrambles to
promote a kinder, gentler apartheid.

As ever, Washington remains Pretoria’s
main supporter, though lately, both Japan
and the Federal Republic of Germany have
been trading places as the outlaw nation’s
prime investor and trader. The U.S. admin-
istration continues to balk on imposing
sanctions against Pretoria though they have
not hesitated in recent times to sanction
Panama, Iran, Cuba and Nicaragua, to
name a few.

The “Discriminate Deterrence” report of
the Pentagon, their long-range planning
document co-authored by Henry Kissinger,
Anne Armstrong and assorted war crimi-
nals proposed that ethnic conflict be exac-
erbated as a way to fight socialism.
Interestingly, they are resigned to accept
mutual cuts in long-range nuclear missiles
but seem to link that with increased U.S.
intervention in what has come to be called
the Third World.

This is a useful backdrop for the author
Valentin Gordonov’s telling points on the
question of ethnicity and ethnic conflict in

South Africa, a main theme of his book,
Soweto: Life and Struggles of a South Afri-

can Township. The author did not visit this
troubled nation, but this does not detract
from his graphic word pictures of “life and
struggles” in the area often referred to as
South Africa’s Harlem.

He writes on changes in the contradiction
between this poverty-stricken African area
and the largely affluent white neighbouring
area. This capitalist exploitation is suffused
with racism and “divide and conquer” by
heightening ethnic conflict as a_ tool
deployed by de Klerk and Co. to maintain
domination.

Gordonov discusses at length “forced
retribalization.” This policy of-cultural rape
is made the more necessary because Johan-
nesburg, in confirming what Lenin said
about urbanization in New York City years
earlier, “grinds down national distinctions.”
(Lenin added, “And what is taking place on

grand international scale in New York is
also to be seen in every big city and indus-
trial township.”’)

The author shows sensitivity in noting:
“The terms ‘tribe’ and ‘tribal’ are used
widely in studies of South Africa by South
African and western researchers. I believe
this is unjustified because they usually
designate nations or ethnic groups, not
tribes. However, I use these terms when I
quote western authors.”

“Black on black violence” is often cited
by certain analysts as the major problem of

- South Africa. Of course, this is political

violence, often initiated by the goons asso-
ciated with apartheid placeman M.G.
Buthelezi. Nevertheless, in his discussion of
“ethnic zoning,” whereby the government
seeks to have all or most residents of an area
of the same ethnic group, Gordonov not
only sheds light on the question at hand, but
also poses questions for the United States,
with a similar de facto system. The South
African government, he relates, “‘seeks to
revive in (the various ethnic sectors of) the
Black urban population a sense of ethnic
oneness.”

. Gordonov outlines the impact of U.S.
culture on South Africa also: “Urban youth
are very much inclined to imitate the Amer-
ican lifestyle.” This has been a mixed bless-
ing. He does note, “Afro-American socio-
political schools of thought exercise a

perceptible influence on the political and -

public life of the Black townships. One out-
come of this influence was the emergence of
the Black Consciousness Movement in
South Africa in the 1970s.”

Another reflection of the American
influence is the fact that a number of music
groups take names like “Harlem Swings-
ters, Manhattan Brothers. ..the same may
be said of sports teams and the names of
sports stars.” The quintessential U.S.
prototype — the gangster — is emulated
by their compatriots across the Atlantic, in
Hollywood style.

As is apparent, this is social reporting and
social history for the most part; it is a useful
companion to those many books that ana-
lyze the political, economic and diplomatic
issue of South Africa (though the author
does touch upon all these points and more.)

The book also contains a healthy supply of ©

revealing black-and-white photos.

This is a worthwhile effort that merits the
glowing foreword by African National
Congress leader Sipo Simon Makana.

— Gerald Horne
Peoples Daily World

Gerald Horne is chair of the African-
American Studies department at the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Barbara.

Van. East cinema to close

Acknowledging that it will come as a
shock to many of its patrons, the Van-
couver East Cinema management has
announced the closure of the popular thea-
tre, effective June 15.

Owner and manager Donna Chisholm
said the building that has housed the cinema
for most of the decade has been sold to new
interests.

But the theatre could continue if the
owners manage to find a new venue, Chi-
sholm said.

Chisholm and her husband, Alan Fra-
ney, have run the theatre at the corner of
Commercial Drive and East 7th Avenue for
the past five years, featuring inexpensive,
short-run double bills along with several
premier showings of Canadian and foreign
films.

Prior to that it was managed by the Patel
family in conjunction with Franey, a former
manager of the Ridge Theatre in Vancouv-
er’s west side, who oversaw the programing.

Chisholm said Franey performed a kind

10 » Pacific Tribune, March 12, 1990

of “curatorial” role in finding films from
around the world and bringing them to
Vancouver audiences. The cinema also fea-
tured double-bills of several popular films.

The building was purchased by a chain
called Far East which runs the Chinese-
language Shaw Theatre on East Hastings
Street, among others.

*““We had just assumed we’d be around to
negotiate a new lease,” said Chisholm, who

noted the building has changed hands sev- :

eral times in the past.

In a release Vancouver East said it was
immediately ceasing the sale of $5 annual
memberships. Additionally, it noted that
current members can surrender their card
for one free showing at any time.

The next published program will cover
the period of May 11 through June 12, the
cinema management stated.

“Tt will celebrate the past and may even
contain good news for the future, if (Chi-
sholm and Franey) are successful in their

‘search for a new venue,” the statement said.

We know you just can’t wait to stomp
the Goods and Services Tax and other
manifestations of Tory brigandage. You
get the chance, at least symbolically, to
do that and put some needed bucks into
the coffers to fight Mulroney’s menace at
the GST Stomp this coming Saturday,
March 17, 7 p.m. at the Ukrainian Hall,
805 East Pender in Vancouver.

Singers Holly Arnzten, Linda Chobo-
tuck and Lindsay Kenyon, Pro-Canada
Network chair Tony Clark, playwright
John Gray, and economist Marjorie
Cohen are among the headliners. Dancing
to Latin band Santiago follows. Tickets,
$10 or pay what you can, are available at
the People’s Co-op Bookstores and
Octopus Books, and the union offices of
CAIMAW, the Telecommunications
Workers and the Provincial Council of
Carpenters.

* * *

He’s written some of the world’s grea-
test songs, but his name is largely
unknown outside folk and left-wing cir-
cles. But Earl Robinson will be in the
spotlight on Saturday, March 17, 8 p.m.
at the Peretz Institute, 6184 Ash St. in
Vancouver.

The Seattle-born Robinson, who
turns 80 this year, is the author of the
acclaimed anthems, “I Dreamed I Saw
Joe Hill Last Night,” and “Ballad for
Americans.” A committee to mark
Robinson’s work with a series of activi-
ties is headed by composer and conduc-
tor, Leonard Bernstein.

Tickets for the concert, co-sponsored
by the Vancouver. Peretz Institute and
the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, are
available at Black Swan Records, High-
life Records, the People’s Co-op Book-
store, the folk festival office and the
Peretz Institute. They cost $10, $6 for
seniors, fixed income and unemployed.

* *  *

Roll” appears courtesy of the Vancouver
Folk Music Festival this month. He’s
called Attila the Stockbroker and he has
to be heard to be believed. Angry, left-
wing, British, this poet-singer-songwriter
appears Tuesday, March 20, 8 p.m. at the
Vancouver East Cultural Centre.. Tickets
are $12, phone 254-9578 to reserve.

* * *

Cinema Film and Video Festival this

Holly Arntzen (centre) to perform at GST Stomp.

Stomp the GST March 17;
IDERA film festival set

Concerts: The “King of Rant and |

IDERA Films presents its Third Annual -

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

upcoming weekend, March 16-18, at La
Quena coffeehouse in Vancouver. All
evening showings are at 8 p.m. and cost
$4; matinees Saturdays and Sundays are
at 2 p.m. and are free.

The big feature Friday, March 16 is a
Canadian premier of a Nicaraguan film,
Children of the River/Wanki Lupia. Nani
on the country’s Miskito Indians. Also
on is the acclaimed Fire from the Moun-
tain.

Saturday’s showings are: At 2 p.m., a
women’s program: Kababaihan: Filipina
Portraits; Bangladesh: The People’s
Health; Who Will Cast the First Stone? —
(Pakistan); Angola Is Our Country; Elvia:
The Fight for Land and Liberty (Hondu-
ras). At 8 p.m., Latin America: One
Hundred Children Waiting For a Train
(Chile); Death of a Bureaucrat (Cuba).
Speaker is professor Grisel Garcia of the
University of Havana.

Sundays showings are: At 2 p.m.,
international: Vietnam: After the Fire;
After the Hunger and Drought (Zim-
babwe); Turning Dreams Into Reality
(Cuba); Guatemala: Roads of Silence. At
8 p.m., a Native program: Home of the
Brave (Ecuador, Bolivia, U.S., Switzer-
land); Martin Chambi and the Heirs of the
Incas (Peru); Our God the Condor (Peru).

For tickets or information phone
IDERA, 732-1496.

aN, Sa. I

Plays: Presentation House at 333 Ches-
terfield Ave. in North Vancouver hosts
Clarence Darrow, about the famed U.S.
lawyer of the underdog, March 15-27,
Wednesday through Saturday, 8 ‘p.m.
Tickets are $10 adults, $7 seniors and
students. Phone 986-1351 to reserve.

* * *

Tube: Knowledge Network airs Earth,

a “hypothetical checkup” on how our
five-billion-year-old planet has with-
.stood humankind’s ravishes. The three-
part series begins Sunday, March 18, 8 |
p.m. : ‘ ’ ‘ z
KCTS public television presents Sto- +
ries from El Salvador, a British-made:
documentary on the history and conse-
quences of the*conflict there, Tuesday,
March’27, 9 p.m. Also on Smithsonian —
World is “Tales of the Human Dawn’’, on —
the evolution ofthe species, featuring
novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and anthro- —
pologist Rick Potts, on Wednesday, —
March 28, 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 1, 3
‘a.m. Closed-captioned. 7