FRIENDS OF APARTHEID

...Because of world reaction to its racial policies, South Africa cannot fulfill former Secretary of State Dean Acheson's plan for making it the bulwark of U.S...

...Corporations claim they can play the role of an "equal opportunity employer" through integrating factory cafeterias, providing equal pay for equal work, and placing blacks in supervisory positions...

...it is too important a country to "lose...

...policy seems to rely on propping up the white minority government until a suitable alternative can be found...

...corporations may come about, however, not as a result of such pressures or U.S...

...In the meantime, U.S...

...The U.S...

...Last November, British Chancellor Denis Healey announced that his government intends to discourage investment in South Africa by prohibiting bank loans, eliminating trade . missions, strictly curbing exchange control legislation, and withdrawing investments by nationalized industry...

...Despite the substantial growth of the economy, the wage gap between black and white workers is rising, as is black unemployment...

...The claim is contradicted by the last thirty years of South African history: As the economy has expanded dramatically, repression has increased and apartheid has intensified...

...Take them away and who do you hurt...

...hostility...

...corporations to risk attempting to stay in South Africa...

...The African...

...and conservation programs...

...embargo of Rhodesia, yet they were able to force Congress to violate these sanctions through the Byrd Amendment...

...firms used to reinvest 60 per cent of their South African earnings, but now they repatriate all but 35 per cent...

...Grassroots activism may be the only real hope of preventing a bloodbath in South Africa...

...corporate investment has tripled in the past twelve years to more than $1.7 billion, and by 1980 should constitute the largest block of investments from any one country...

...What they fail to mention is that South Africa's complex web of apartheid legislation specifically prohibits many of these proposed reforms from being implemented...

...policy, other industrialized nations are already re...

...modernization of the South African economy, whose postwar rate of growth is surpassed only by Japan's...

...This approach rests on twin fallacies: that the fanatically racist white minority would eventually be willing voluntarily to surrender its absolute political control, and that the non-white majority would accept token political leadership without a major redistribution of wealth...

...The country entered an economic slump in 1974, and has not recovered...

...Even those policymakers who adhere to a bipolar perspective are beginning to recognize that liberation is inevitable...

...Because of the capital-intensive nature of foreign investment, South Africa has been able to maintain rapid economic growth while enlarging its reservoir of unemployed and untrained black labor...

...As much as one third of South Africa's borrowed foreign capital — a total of $2.2 billion in outstanding loans and credits — comes from American banks...

...Still, the State Department is beginning to pay attention to the "Africanists," and the shift in rhetoric from the Kissinger days could signify an important turn in direction...

...Blacks have suffered most from the recession...

...As a result, South Africa is becoming an increasingly insecure investment...

...Direct U.S...

...policy toward South Africa, then, may come in spite of corporate and Government intentions...

...Government action, but as a consequence of the fact that South Africa is no longer the attractive investment opportunity it has been in recent years...

...The United States has rarely taken a progressive foreign policy stance without Widespread public advocacy...

...This trend is likely to continue as long as the South African government is assured of U.S...

...if they follow through, they could place serious pressure on American corporations to pull out...

...Such moral questions have never troubled multinational corporations, of course, and there are many reasons for their desire to maintain close economic relations with South Africa...

...West Germany and the Netherlands have acted to restrict export credits...

...An embargo and withdrawal from South Africa would be a major victory, even if it came for the wrong reasons...

...corporations, echoed by the Carter Administration, defend their presence in South Africa by claiming that economic growth and increased industrialization generate pressures that will force the whites to accept greater black participation in society...

...For American corporations, profits from South African operations dropped to 10.5 per cent in 1975 and 1976, while the world average remained constant...

...Government would like to see a black moderate regime that would maintain the economic status quo...

...We can live on mush and water...

...Change in U.S...

...Export-Import Bank and the International Monetary Fund...

...American investments have been a major factor in the rapid technological Stephen Zunes, a senior at Oberlin College, was an editorial intern at The Progressive last summer...

...South African trade in 1977 exceeded $2 billion, including $1.35 billion in imports from the United States...

...Ideally, the U.S...

...corporations — hardly enough to cause the massive repercussions that the corporations predict would result from their withdrawal from South Africa's economy...

...Otherwise, South Africa may become another case where a nationalist movement is forced into the Soviet camp because of U.S...

...Though an embargo would undoubtedly decrease the blacks' already marginal standard of living to some extent, it would be felt much more severely by the whites, whose life style depends on imported consumer goods...

...Though there is little indication of imminent change in U.S...

...imperialism in the region...

...A strong South African economy makes it possible for the ruling white population to tolerate the inefficiencies and duplications necessary for apartheid to function...

...Less certain is how this transition will be accomplished and what role the United States will play in such a cataclysmic upheaval...

...The Canadian government recently announced it is phasing out its consulates and ending its support of commercial relations...

...In addition, several black African countries have threatened economic retaliation to nations investing in South Africa...

...A major uprising would cause far too much instability for U.S...

...economic support and non-violent liberation movements are denied American assistance...

...Ambassador to South Africa William G. Bowdler admitting, "[It] must be expected that the role of American firms here will become increasingly controversial and rationale for [their] continued presence will seem less and less persuasive to growing numbers of blacks...

...The rhetoric of the Carter Administration is a notable improvement over that of its predecessors, but the substantive emphasis continues to be on maintaining "stability," regardless of the consequences to the non-white majority...

...The tragic irony of this policy is that the temporary stability the American presence provides increases the likelihood of a full-scale racial war...

...Though the Executive has the power to enforce sanctions unilaterally, the present Administration is not at all likely to take such a course...

...It would not be a hardship for the United States to place an embargo on trade, since South Africa is far more dependent on American technology and industrial goods than the United States is on South African raw materials...

...Already, South Africa is paying an extremely high premium on foreign loans...

...South Africa has no minerals which the United States could not find readily elsewhere, except for chromium and platinum — and even these cm be obtained from secondary SG!.j;;:c.-i, '¦cv/ckm...

...U.N...

...Secretary of State Cyrus Vance recently stated, "Our trade with Nigeria alone is double the value of that with South Africa...

...withdrawal and enibpsgo are not only becoming increasingly feasible, they may soon be obligatory...

...Through their example, they argue, they will undermine the apartheid system...

...Not only does 38 per cent of America's crude petroleum come from Africa, but the potential domestic markets of the rest of the continent dwarf South Africa...

...Since as many as 350 U.S...

...This same thirty-year period has witnessed the dis-enfranchisement and further segregation of the 2.4 million coloreds, whose culture is virtually the same as that of the whites...

...For this reason, less than one half of 1 per cent of the black labor force is employed by U.S...

...Ambassador Andrew Young publicly denies that most South African blacks favor an embargo, but a confidential State Department cable obtained by the Southern Africa Committee reveals U.S...

...The experience in Angola and Mozambique has produced the realization that it would be more pragmatic to give support to liberation movements early, even if their ideology deviates from American economic interests...

...Government continues actively to support the white minority regime at the expense of 80 per cent of the nation's inhabitants...

...Yet there are still powerful interests that would have much to lose should such sanctions be imposed...

...Polarization of blacks and whites is widening as the South African government becomes increasingly repressive and intransigent and the non-white majority grows more and more militant...

...The United States is now South Africa's largest supplier of imported goods and is second only to Great Britain in overall investments...

...Moreover, the very presence of the corporations supports a system explicitly designed to prevent equal opportunities for blacks...

...Such actions have not been strictly enforced, nor have they proved to be as effective as hoped, but they do indicate a shift toward more cautious relations with South Africa...

...As a Soweto shopkeeper told J. Regen Kerney of The Washington Post, "Some 40 per cent of my goods are American...

...Corporate investment is not the only means by which the United States supports the South Africa regime...

...The withdrawal of U.S...

...Oliver Tambo, president-general of the African National Congress, observed, "Companies are not motivated by the desire to bring employment to the African people or to improve economic conditions of the African workers [but...

...One can still hear dire predictions that a communist-controlled South Africa would threaten oil tanker shipping lanes — ignoring the fact that there are more than 3,000 miles of navigable waters south of the Cape of Good Hope...

...corporations would be affected should similar sanctions be imposed on South Africa, it is difficult to imagine that they would allow Congress to approve such action...

...Government itself has lent billions of dollars to South Africa in the past three decades, chiefly through the U.S...

...Only two or three American corporations were directly affected by the U.N...

...In 1976, total U.S...

...South Ulrica may become another case where a nationalist movement is forced into the Soviet camp...' examining their relationship with South Africa...

...There are more than one million unemployed in a labor force of about six million, creating what one government official calls "an economic time bomb...

...Meanwhile, the intimidated, low-paid labor force which the system provides offers little incentive for the corporations to seek the kinds of change which would only reduce their profits...

...Unless the United States withdraws such support, the result may be a bloody race war of horrifying proportions...

...A recent survey by the University of Delaware placed South Africa second highest in the "moderate risk" category of nations, with only Indonesia above it...

...Senator Dick Clark of Iowa, in a report of his subcommittee on African affairs, stated, "The net effect of American investment has been to strengthen the economic and military self-sufficiency of South Africa's apartheid regime...

...The unique combination of an affluent consumer society with a large, cheap, exploitable labor pool is inviting...

...Black political leaders and their organizations have been virtually unanimous in their demand for a total embargo on trade and a withdrawal of foreign investments...

...Pressures on these governments from students, labor unions, religious organizations, and leftist political groups have been mounting...

...And it is unrealistic to expect, as corporate propaganda suggests, that South Africa would be willing to assimilate skilled and educated Africans...

...The average return on investment has run as high as 20 per cent annually during the past two decades — about twice the world average and among the highest anywhere...

...Within three years, South Africa is predicted to be a "prohibitive risk" and within seven years it should be the "highest prohibitive risk of all countries...

...Through NASA tracking stations located in South Africa, vetoes of United Nations resolutions of censure, and subtle shifts in gold policy, the U.S...

...The region offers an opportunity to abandon Washington's traditional Cold War orientation and to make way for a more flexible regional approach...

...investment grew only 5.5 per cent, a dramatic decline from the 24 per cent average growth in the previous three years...

...largely by considerations of profit, their share of the market, and the sources of raw material supplies they require...