African Activist Archive

Houser addresses recent protests of corporate involvement in South Africa, including the campaign of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement and the Episcopal Church's support for a stockholder resolution calling on General Motors to withdraw. Houser makes the case for corporate withdrawal, pointing out that, as foreign investments have increased during the past 20 years, apartheid restrictions and political repression have increased. He counters the "half-truth" that African wages increase because of foreign investment by pointing out that the gap between white and black incomes has not lessened and that fundamental economic changes, such as allowing African workers to organize into unions and strike, are outlawed. U.S. investments in strategic sectors of the economy are helping South African become more economically self-sufficient and aligning the U.S. politically and economically with the status quo. Houser quotes Albert Luthuli in his support for economic sanctions: "If it is a method which shortens the day of bloodshed, the suffering to us will be a price we are willing to pay."

African Activist Archive

AMERICAN BUSINESS SHOULD PULL OUT OF SOUTH AFRICA

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