CARTER'S PROBLEM IN RHODESIA

...by foreign and domestic white capital' institutionalizes white power...

...Acceptance of the Internal Settlement means embracing continued white minority rule...

...In the past, corporate members of this constituency have been consistent violators of the United Nations-sanctioned embargo against Rhodesia...

...Hayakawa and other conservatives, these interests have effectively defined the central issue of American policy in Africa as the need to maintain access to strategic and critical materials...

...His proposals for rural development of health care, social control over finance capital and property, and less subservient relations with foreign interests differ markedly from the present monopoly control of Rhodesia by foreign and domestic white capital...

...Ultimately, these efforts restrict the ability of the United States to support progressive change in Africa...

...America's stated goal of ending the conflict in Rhodesia while minimizing the Soviet presence in southern Africa could be achieved by rejecting outright the Internal Settlement and throwing total support behind the Patriotic Front...

...His claim that an all-black cabinet would drive whites out of the country now helps ensure white control of defense and security posts...

...Therefore, no dramatic changes will take place to the existing patterns of life____" In short, the Internal Settlement protects white power under the rationale of minority rights...

...American political and economic interests having a stake in southern Africa argued that black rule had come to Rhodesia and that the United States should support the Internal Settlement by lifting the economic embargo and extending diplomatic recognition...

...But the history of American support for white power in southern Africa and the configuration of American power and interests that continue to support white power make this approach unlikely...

...Pressure for recognition of the Muzorewa government also came from South Africa, which views the Internal Settlement as a satisfactory strategy for maintaining the status quo, and from Britain, where newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher endorses the Internal Settlement as the best way to protect Britain's extensive economic and political interests in Rhodesia...

...The chances are good that this would end the resistance of the Smith-Muzorewa forces, bringing a quick end to the fighting...

...Under the rubric of "one man, one vote" it also sustains the systems of discrimination against blacks in education, housing, wages, and health care...

...While this has a calming effect on Rhodesian whites, it also supports the claim that the new government of Prime Minister Muzorewa remains the government of Ian Smith...

...Recent violations by Mobil (oil), Bell and Howell (helicopters), United Airlines 'Acceptance of the...

...It might simply ignore the April referendum and continue to push for acceptance of the Anglo-American Plan...

...With the expansion of American economic interests in Africa during the past two decades (462 U.S...

...The power vacuum created by the withdrawal of Portuguese colonial power was filled by the liberation forces backed by Cuban and Soviet support...

...The April referendum on the Internal Settlement created a dilemma for American policy because it did not end the fighting...

...Whites, who comprise 3 per cent of the population, are guaranteed 28 per cent of the seats in the House of Assembly and one-third of the Senate seats...

...Now he is seeking more concessions from the black leaders for institutionalized white participation in the government...

...He is attempting to protect his Administration's effort — now threatened more than ever before — to sustain capitalist power in southern Africa by seeming to adjust to the tide of revolutionary change...

...Whites are guaranteed more than one-quarter of the ministerial posts in the executive branch as well as continued control over the civil service, security forces, and legal system...

...Or it could encourage new elections and the redrafting of the constitution with the participation of at least the moderate faction of the Patriotic Front...

...The American effort to legitimize the Internal Settlement could take the form of pushing Ian Smith to retire from the government, thereby removing the one white personality whom many whites and blacks regard as the key to continued white power...

...multinationals now have major subsidiaries in southern Africa), and the increased dependence of the American industrial sector on vital raw materials such as gold, chrome, and nickel, a broader political-economic front has vigorously protected the colonial and white-power status quo...

...In essence, the goal of U.S...

...This American policy was evoked by the victory of Marxist revolutions in Angola and Mozambique in the mid-1970s...

...Growing Soviet support of black nationalist forces has solidified their conviction that superpower politics is the essence of current African conflict, and that American policy should be directed at confronting the socialist presence...

...Congress...

...While Smith's presence makes the Internal Settlement problematic, the new Rhodesian constitution, worked out by Smith and the black leadership, '. . .Mugabe's plans...

...Administration' (pilot training), and Space Research Corporation (arms) only add to a long list of illegal corporate activity...

...With this institutionalization of white power by the constitution, it is unlikely that any significant change in the lives of Rhodesian whites or blacks will occur, since any reform must be approved by the white-dominated government...

...The United States might then be an influential force in the new government of black-ruled Zimbabwe...

...Attempts to isolate the militant factions, especially those advocating a socialist Zimbabwe or backed by Soviet and Chinese support, can be expected...

...Overtures to the more moderate Nkromo, whose capitalist sympathies are well known, have been made by Ian Smith in an effort to elicit his participation in the Internal Settlement...

...So far, most of the front-line African states have rejected the Internal Settlement...

...While this option would satisfy many domestic interests, it would antagonize important Black African states with which the Carter Administration has tried to cultivate good relations...

...American policy makers shifted from outright support of white power in Rhodesia and began gently pushing Ian Smith's government toward accepting black majority rule...

...Should the nationalist war effort continue to be successful, the militants within the Patriotic Front will continue to hold the political trump card...

...Angola was a painful lesson to them, but dominant American interests are not ready to forsake their commitments to white minority power in Rhodesia or South Africa without a fight...

...Carter views these nations as important to the minimizing of Soviet influence in Africa...

...Tomorrow it will be in South Africa, where all the problems of institutionalized racism loom much larger...

...The American political and economic constituency supporting the Internal Settlement is a powerful lobby against progressive change in southern Africa...

...Thatcher's reversal of Labor Party sponsorship of the Anglo-American Plan upset the carefully coordinated Western strategy...

...The lesson of Rhodesia is that if America is to be part of the solution in southern Africa, it must align itself with the forces of the future rather than with those of the past...

...Represented in Congress by Senators Jesse Helms and S.I...

...It appears doubtful that the United States can successfully negotiate the necessary compromises by itself...

...Today the American policy dilemma is in Rhodesia...

...Whites will vote for black candidates, but no black may vote for whites...

...Whites will control the major public institutions for at least the next ten years and probably beyond...

...No public pledges for racial justice or appeals for the democratic process can alter that fact...

...But in the long run there can be no way of helping white adherents to apartheid adapt and adjust to changing realities without challenging the systemic basis of racism...

...No black who has been held illegally in concentration camps and now is free will be compensated, yet all crimes by the past white regime are to be forgiven...

...differ markedly from the present monopoly control...

...It would also enable Carter to acknowledge gracefully that the loss of British support had brought the Anglo-American Plan to its knees...

...policy became the installation in Rhodesia of a moderate, internationally recognized, acceptable black government that would protect white and Western interests...

...The essence of the new arrangements under the constitution is explicitly spelled out in secret government papers that state: "All existing regulations remain in full force and effect, unless they are amended by a two-thirds majority of the Council of State...

...Smith's ability to bluff Muzorewa has been well established throughout the constitutional negotiations...

...To this end, American and British diplomats put forth the Anglo-American Plan, which calls for British-supervised elections with all parties participating...

...This would enhance the chances of gaining support for the new government from the international community and in particular the African states...

...President Carter has continued to resist the pressure — and in doing so he is performing a delicate balancing act...

...Blacks are not legally excluded from these agencies of government, but they are effectively eliminated by the criteria for qualification established by the constitution...

...It is especially unlikely that the Smith-Muzorewa forces, their position strengthened by British recognition, will feel compelled to negotiate with the Patriotic Front...

...Under this formula, labeled Beau Grosscup reaches politics at Ithaca College, New York...

...The new constitution protects both pension and property rights of past and present white officials even if they have fled the country...

...The Carter Administration can be expected to focus on the division within the Patriotic Front between ZANU, led by the Marxist Robert Mugabe, and the ZAPU forces of Joshua Nkromo...

...The black nationalists rejected the Smith-Muzorewa plan, viewing it as a facade for continued white power...

...This would answer the domestic critics who feel that American aid for the new government should be forthcoming as an expression of support for the democratic process...

...Property rights for whites are protected under the constitution, whereas the Tribal Trust Bill empowers the government to "move tribespeople away from an area to make way for a scheme of national importance...

...Without success in such undertakings, American efforts to portray the Internal Settlement as "a just sharing of power" in Rhodesia as a democratic, multi-racial society would remain a sham...

...Acceptance of the Internal Settlement would ease some short-term problems for the Carter Administration...

...And once the economic sanctions are lifted by Britain and the United States, no amount of external pressure is likely to bring about the fundamental reforms that are necessary to create a "just sharing of power," let alone black majority rule...

...There is virtually no likelihood that Smith will gracefully retire from power or that the constitution will be redrafted...

...Another option for the United States is to recognize the Internal Settlement politically and end the economic boycott...

...The Land Tenure Act remains in force, which means that whites will retain their control over 50 per cent of the land...

...Those are the very differences that make Mugabe and his forces unacceptable to American interests...

...A fundamental part of this policy would be to push for as much black power in the government as possible within a context of minority rights...

...The plan has met with no success...

...The Carter Administration found it difficult to ignore the argument, especially since ground rules for judging the April referendum had been formally established by the U.S...

...settlement would ease some short-term problems for the...

...On the other hand, land that has been stolen from blacks and property that has been destroyed by war will not be compensated for...

...This posture would satisfy even those liberals in Congress who doubt that the Internal Settlement will produce a shift from white power to black rule, but who are anxious to counter the charge that rejection of the referendum is a pro-communist stance...

...American policy that legitimizes the Internal Settlement in effect encourages and supports continued white power in Rhodesia...

...a just sharing of power," the United States seeks to minimize Soviet influence without undermining existing power arrangements in the region...

...The 64.5 per cent voter mandate that created the new state called Zimbabwe Rhodesia, bringing black Bishop Abel Muzorewa to the helm of a government still profoundly influenced by a tiny white minority, has put pressure on the United States to abandon the economic sanctions that provide the best leverage for encouraging black majority rule...

...American recognition could then be extended to a government that, in the words of Bishop Muzorewa, "is a democratic, pro-western, anti-communist, multi-racial society...

...Initially, the political muscle to oppose economic and political sanctions against Rhodesia came from such corporations as Union Carbide and the steel industry, which has major investments in the area...

...All evidence points to a continued Smith presence in the new government...

...A major obstacle to the realization of American objectives in southern Africa has been the inability of the United States to sustain a credible relationship with black liberation forces, especially the Patriotic Front, the more militant factions of which have long understood the priorities of American policy...

...Despite the repeal of the Byrd Amendment, which had provided a legal loophole through the embargo, their political clout remains intact...

...This means continued rejection of negotiations...

...they would view Carter's recognition of the Muzorewa regime as contrary to his public pledges of support for black majority rule...

...The Carter Administration is under continuing pressure to deal with the dilemma created by the April referendum by withholding formal diplomatic recognition while lifting the economic boycott...

...Under the general objective of minimizing socialist influence and maintaining southern Africa as a capitalist preserve, the Carter Administration's approach to the Patriotic Front is to widen the divisions by enticing the moderates into the Internal Settlement with promises of power...

...But the United States has been hard-pressed to sell its plan for an all-party conference to the Rhodesian belligerents even with British support...

...The precepts of the Rhodesian constitution are in stark contrast to Mugabe's plans for a non-racist, non-sexist, democratic socialist Zimbabwe...

...On the other hand, powerful domestic and international interests pushed for Western recognition of the new government...

...What will the Carter Administration do in light of this challenge to its new but well established policy...