ANC anti-apartheid conference in
SOUTH AFRICA undermine the effectiveness of sanctions.
On several levels the conference was a disappointment. Many of the major invited celebrities failed - for a variety of reasons - to attend. Entertainer Stevie Wonder and US presidential contender Jesse Jackson, along with many of America's black anti-apartheid activists, stayed home to attend the funeral of Chicago's mayor, Harold Washington.
The top command of Umkhonto we Sizwe [the ANC's armed wing] - commander Joe Modise, chief of staff Chris Hani and
BUILDING a broad movement in active solidarity with the anti-apartheid struggle is far from an easy task. The concrete application of an economic boycott, for example, poses various problems. (See IV 124, July 13, 1987.) It is increasingly evident that solid support can only be built on a basis of mobilizing the youth, working people and their organizations.
Saying this does not mean that any other democratic battle is useless. But everything now indicates that the revolutionary struggle of South African Blacks brings into play political and strategic questions of such an importance that the
"anti-apartheid" conscience of some bourgeois, liberal and reformist circles will be quite unreliable.
In this context the position of the Soviet Union will be crucial.
This fact has just been demonstrated by the international conference held in Arusha, Tanzania by the African National
Congress (ANC).
Given the present difficulties in the mass movement inside the country, diplomatic moves can maintain a certain pressure on the Pretoria government. But here also the particular difficulties of this sort of activity can be noted in view of the big international negotiations underway.
We are reprinting below an article on the conference published in the December 11, 1987, issue of the South Africa
Weekly Mail, a well-informed left-democratic weekly generally sympathetic to the ANC.
H
OSTING and organizing its own international congress is a bold step for a liberation movement, particularly when the guests include government representatives. The African National Congress' conference last week in Arusha, down the road from Mount
Kilimanjaro, allowed the movement to off its immense international show prestige.
Solidarity groups from more than 50 countries, from Kampuchea to the United
States, participated in the gathering, which an ANC official described as the "parliament of the world anti-apartheid movement". Given all the fanfare, though, many observers did not really understand the purpose of the conference, the theme of which was the "world united against apartheid".
Predictably, it ended with a call to intensify efforts to impose comprehensive mandatory sanctions and to work toward the total diplomatic isolation of Pretoria. containing specific goals such as the ending of all financial loans to Pretoria and the fostering of grass-roots "people's sanctions" against South African products. There is little new in these calls and their impact is likely to be lessened by the fact that the conference in Arusha was a gathering of the already-converted party faithful aimed, in the words of an ANC representative, to "give a further boost to the international solidarity movement".
Their unanimity on the need for drastic action against Pretoria did not overcome the major hurdle in the ANC diplomatic offensive: how to break economic and other links which Western countries such as Britain, the United States, Japan and West Germany maintain with Pretoria - and which political commissar Steve Tshwete — was not there, nor was Communist Party secreHOSTING and organizing its own international congress is a bold step for a liberation movement, particularly when the guests include government representatives. The African National Congress' conference last week in Arusha, down the road from Mount Kilimanjaro, allowed the movement to show off its immense international prestige.
Over 50 solidarity groups attend the conference
Solidarity groups from more than 50 countries, from Kampuchea to the United States, participated in the gathering, which an ANC official described as the "parliament of the world anti-apartheid movement". Given all the fanfare, though, many observers did not really understand the purpose of the conference, the theme of which was the "world united against apartheid". Predictably, it ended with a call to intensify efforts to impose comprehensive mandatory sanctions and to work toward the total diplomatic isolation of Pretoria.
A programme of action was drawn up, containing specific goals such as the ending of all financial loans to Pretoria and the fostering of grass-roots "people's sanctions" against South African products. There is little new in these calls and their impact is likely to be lessened by the fact that the conference in Arusha was a gathering of the already-converted party faithful aimed, in the words of an AN representative, to "give a further boost to the international solidarity movement"
Their unanimity on the need for drastic action against Pretoria did not overcome the major hurdle in the ANC diplomatic of fensive: how to break economic and other links which Western countries such as Britain, the United States, Japan and West Germany maintain with Pretoria - and which undermine the effectiveness of sanctions.
On several levels the conference was a disappointment. Many of the major invited celebrities failed — for a variety of reasons — to attend. Entertainer Stevie Wonder and US presidential contender Jesse Jackson, along with many of America's black anti-apartheid activists, stayed home to attend the funeral of Chicago's mayor, Harold Washington. 25
The top command of Umkhonto we Siz-
January 25, 1988• International Viewpoint
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Tanzania
attack of the South African army on the camps of Namibian refugees in Southern Angola can only be regarded as a challenge to the international
### TODAY:
NOTHING
we [the ANC's armed wing] - commander Joe Modise, chief of staff Chris Hani and political commissar Steve Tshwete — was not there, nor was Communist Party secretary Joe Slovo. "Someone has to hold the fort," explained an ANC official. "They are tired of endless international conferences,' explained another.
Much of the conference time was spent on endless solidarity messages which, after a few hours, all seemed to sound the same and make exactly the same points.
ANC spells out its perspectives
Many ANC people who were there collectively resembled a diplomatic corps without a government - "ambassadors" posted to faraway places with memories of "home" fading with the long years in exile. As a diplomatic initiative, the conference at the very least allowed the ANC to spell out to the world solidarity movements, who emerged even more clearly under the wing of the organization, its perspectives on the
The ANC position on negotiations is that it recognized the need for talks at the end of the road - but only if they are about the substantial bargaining chips to the negotiating table. For that reason, recent reports of influential Soviet political scientists advocating a political settlement are potentially more dangerous to the ANC than a flagging of the sanctions campaigns in the West.
These reports were vociferously slapped down by members of the Soviet solidarity committee at the conference and one even suggested that the "dissidents" — Gleb Starushenko and Victor Goncharov of the Africa Institute in Moscow - should be published.! They claimed that Starushenko and Goncharov had been expressing their "personal" views for 20 years, which were only receiving attention in the West now because they were publishing in English.
However, official action by the Soviet government — in particular, the joint action with the United States in September to block South Africa's expulsion from the International Atomic Energy Agency -came under fire from several delegates. One of the key points of the programme of action which was adopted declared that South Africa should be expelled from the agency next year.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sent a message of "uncompromising full support for the liberation of South Africa", a ment echoed by the deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, YY Vagris, who addressed the conference. But compared with the statements by Nyerere and ANC president Oliver Tambo, the Soviet position on ANC negotiations with Pretoria was surprisingly mild.
Vagris said a political solution — which the Soviet Union supported — could materialize if Pretoria released political prisoners, lifted the state of emergency, withdrew all troops from the townships and lifted the ban on the ANC and other political organizations.
### Joint action around boycott campaign
But it was Pretoria's continued links with Western countries which provided delegates with their biggest headache in finding practical means to intensify sanctions against South Africa.
It was against these countries - and particularly British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who labelled the ANC a "terrorist organization" at the Commonwealth conference in Vancouver - that much of the rhetoric of the conference was directed.
Other than a statement of intent to intensify the sanctions campaign, the conference did not in itself answer the question of how this was to be achieved.
It did, however, provide an opportunity for solidarity groups to get together and start planning joint action, the boycott against Shell being the clearest example of where this could be effective. * 1. Gleb Starushenko and Victor Goncharov have expressed views in articles or conferences that were thought to reflect the Kremlin's opinion. Both seemed favorable to a minimum political accord between the ANC and the regime. Goncharov even introduced the idea of an agreement between Moscow and Washington on this matter. Their positions have been published in the South African democratic press and extensively commented upon.
COMRADE YY Vagris, deputy chairman of the presidium transfer of power to majority rule. Before of the supreme soviet of the USSR, addressing the then the organization will not renounce or conference:
suspend the armed struggle.
6C The possibilities of a political settlement of the problems of Southern
Negotiations in the near future with the
National Party government are thus ruled
Africa have been widely discussed lately. We are in favour of such a out, subordinated to the international, political and, most important, military struggles
As far as we know, the ANC, despite the policy of repression against it, does not reject the possibility of a political solution. However, the willingness of the which the ANC is waging against Pretoria.
The long-term goals of the AN are thus
Botha government to search for a solution is quite doubtful.
We believe a political settlement presupposes first of all the necessary clihighly dependent on a guerrilla war which, despite repeated promises of dramatic esmate, which means releasing all political prisoners, lifting the state of emercalation, remains largely ineffective. ANC gency, withdrawing the troops and police from all Black settlements, lifting the sources indicated that something "major"
ban on the ANC and other political organisations.
•Meanwhile, we do not see any measures to create favourable conditions to would happen in the next few months, seemingly confirming the recent words of start the settlement process by the Botha government. Moreover, the recent warning from Steve Tshwete, but cynics said they had heard it all before.
The ANC realizes that it has to escalate
26 the armed struggle if it ever want escalate
International Viewpoint • January 25, 1988
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