Loy | (a te ne | ih I. | VANCOUVER “Be it resolved by Vancouver city coun- cil that: The Republic of South Africa’s policy. of racial apartheid is declared inconsistent with the goals and policies of the city of Vancouver; and “The city of Vancouver will not invest or deposit its own public funds or trust funds under its care in financial institutions which do business with the Republic of South Africa, or it agencies, and will divest itself of any such investments as may be in its trust funds or may be received for its trust funds.” The above resolution, drawn up by the director of finance and recommended also by the city manager, was unanimously adopted by council's finance committee. It was to go before city council Aug. 27. South Africa, with its system of apar- theid, is the last stronghold of slavery in our so-called civilized world. And that is what apartheid is — slavery. The blacks, who make up 80 per cent of the population of South Africa, and who democratic, civil or human rights. They are They are cruelly exploited by big corpo- rations, many of them multinationals. Bata, the big multinational shoe manufac- turer, is only one of many. Pieter Botha, the dictator president of South Africa, is not only the spokesman for the white oppressing minority (and it produce almost all its wealth, have no . even denied citizenship in their homeland. - should be mentioned here than an increas- ing number of whites in South Africa are also coming out against apartheid). Botha is first and foremost the agent of and spokesman for the big multinationals, many of them U.S. owned. They are determined to keep apartheid. For them it is very profitable. And they won’t change except under the pressure and protest, and rebellion if necessary, of the blacks and the pressure of the whole international community of nations who call themselves civilized. : That’s where boycotts and sanctions come in. Big business in South Africa needs foreign investment and loans. It needs markets for its slave-produced pro- ducts. And if it can’t get any of these, it can be brought to its economic knees. The blacks in South Africa know this. That is why all their responsible leaders and organizations support the world movement to impose sanctions and a boy- cott on anything and everything South African. Will the blacks suffer if sanctions are imposed by the world? Perhaps, but they can’t suffer any more than they are suffer- ing now under the system of apartheid. They will endure anything to get rid of it because unless they do, they have no future and no hope. Of course, the big multinationals and the governments of the western world that speak for them don’t want to see sanctions and boycotts imposed. Their profits will suffer. That is why President Reagan opposes sanctions. That is why Mulroney is dragging his feet on the issue. That is why the Bennett government in B.C. is refusing to even take South African wines off its liquor store shelves. That is why we have the disgraceful spectacle of B.C. Consumer and Corpo- rate Affairs Minister Jim Hewitt saying ‘One more nail in the coffin of apartheid’ that “to impose sanctions you cripple a country eocnomically and that just doesn’t hurt the government, it hurts the people,’* and following this up with the slander that - the brave protests of the blacks are “a lot of mob activity. ..and that orderly transi- tion is the way to go, and not violenceand mob rule.” It’s the apartheid government, Mr. Hewitt, that is using violence against the people and it is the apartheid government that is preventing an “orderly transition.” The resolution that I quoted earlier, if passed by city council, may itself be a small thing. But it can be one more small nail in the coffin of apartheid. Ifa thousand cities and a hundred countries do the same, apartheid can be weakened and destroyed. It should also be added that the socialist © countries of the world, starting with the Soviet Union, have for a long time been boycotting South Africa. Some of the countries of the west now appear to be ready to do the same — why doesn’t Canada follow suit? Is Mulroney waiting for permission from Reagan? We should let both Premier Bennett and Prime Minister Mulroney know in no uncertain terms that Canadians demand that all Canadian investments in South Africa be withdrawn, that our government buy nothing from South Africa and sell nothing to it until the hated system of apartheid is abolished. ‘Act now on sanctions,’ Tory gov't told — Total and comprehensive sanctions are needed to overturn apartheid and end the minority white rule it props up in South Africa, a demonstration of some 300 people was told Aug. 22. “Let’s end all this ‘Mulroney baloney’ about apartheid. Get off the fence, Mr. Clark,” said Zayed Gamiet, chair of the Southern Africa Action Coalition (SAAQ), from the microphone on the Vancouver Art Gallery steps. Speakers from trade unions, city council and ethnic organizations repeated the call for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and External Affairs Minister Joe Clark to impose economic, cultural and other sanc- tions against the Pretoria regime. Next door at the Hotel Vancouver, Mul- roney and his top federal cabinet ministers were in their second day of meetings in - Vancouver, as the cabinet’s planning and priorities committee mulled Canadian par- ticipation in Star Wars and the controver- sial issue of free trade. - The demonstration, one of the largest Vancouver gatherings in recent years against apartheid, clearly had an impact on the Tory government. Mulroney was later to promise tougher measures to force changes in South Africa, although the prime minister did not spell these out. But a measure of how much pressure is on the government to follow the lead of other world governments who have adopted total or partial sanctions was indi- cated by the remarks of various speakers at Vancouver Ald. Harry Rankin, com- menting on a motion to come before city council Tuesday, said similar action by other Canadian cities could force Ottawa to adopt sanctions. MULRONEY ie a ls fies! Asie | lg : é ee OG The motion, passed unanimously in council’s finance and administration com- mittee, calls on the city to remove funds from any financial institution doing busi- ness with or in South Africa. A copy of the motion, which would have the city take Vancouver demonstrators voice opposition to apartheid, across from Hotel Vancouver and the Tory cabinet. “Tt will be a long range battle, but it’s what we'll struggle for until we win,” he declared to the applauding rally. - Vancouver Centre MLA Emery Barnes, who is black, recalled how he boycotted a tennis match involving South Africans in 1974, when the NDP Barrett government was in power. “I was merely responding from the gut,” said Barnes, hitting the Social Credit government for reinstating on B.C. liquor store shelves South African wines and liquors pulled by the NDP government. B.C. Federation of Labor president Art “T don’t think they'll be able to unload that ship,” he declared. Rally MC Basil Freeman cited a list of actions requested by the South African Council of Trade Unions (SACTU) of unions in countries doing business with South Africa. The five-point list, telegrammed to SAAC the previous day, urged Canadian unionists to refuse to handle all maritime, air or land based traffic coming from or bound for South Africa, and similar boy- cotts on shipped goods, telecommunica- repeated by speakers Delicia Crump, presi- dent of the National Black Coalition, B.C. — Organization to Fight Racism chair Charan — Gill, and local United Nations Organization president David Cadman. “It’s time for this (federal) government to do what six provincial governments. have said they might do — declare total sanc- _ tions against South Africa,” said Rev. Tom — Antony, a University of B.C. professor who — had been arrested and jailed with noted — South African bishop Desmond Tutu dur- ing a banned public march in Johannesburg in 1980. fe as action similar to many U.S. and other world tions and postal traffic. Unions were also Gamiet, a South African of mixed Cities, is being sent to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Rankin said the collective action of Can- adian councils would constitute a “power- Kube, responding to the call for interna- tional labor solidarity against apartheid, said the Fed’s affiliates were set to demon- strate against the arrival of a South African ship due in at the Surrey Fraser docks next urged to “mount massive demonstrations” at South African diplomatic missions and enterprises. The call for a “total ban” on South Afri- race — defined as “colored” under the republic’s racist laws — reminded the rally that “our struggle is not a racist struggle; it is a struggle for freedom, justice and equal- can products, investment and contacts was __ity. ful force to move the federal government. 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 28, 1985