COBLSA Newsletter

Contents: Bank Loans Senate Report • Export-Import Bank Hearings • WITHDRAWALS • NEW YORK • The newsletter says this informal newsletter is to provide all of you participating with us, whether as individuals or as organizations, with news and information about the progress of our work to stop U.S. bank support of South African apartheid; we apologize for the delay and will be staying in touch with you more regularly; our work is having an effect and that we are responding with the good conscience which we should be - is amply demonstrated in the Washington Post article which accompanies this Newsletter. The newsletter says by the time you receive this letter - the Senate Africa Subcommittee report on bank loans to South Africa, available at no cost, should be ready; written by Bill Raiford, it is very useful and we should flood the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with request so that they run off more than the projected 1,000 copies; the report is part of a longer piece called "U.S. Corporate Interests in South Africa". The newsletter says the Export Import Bank Hearings will begin early 1978; we can and should put pressure on the Exim to discontinue the insuring and guaranteeing of commercia bank loans to South Africa; one way we can do it is through a letter writing and visitations campaign; the President of Exim is John Moore; letters can go to him or to Congressman P. Maguire who recently introduced a bill to prohibit Exim from any longer guaranteeing loans to South Africa. The newsletter says in the week of November 7th. a group of black Americans formed the Emergency Coalition tor Human Rights in South Africa; made up of, among others, Judge Booth the Nev York Criminal Court and President. of the American Committee on Africa, David Dinkins, President. of the Council of Black Elected Democrats in Nev York, Dorothy Height, President of the National Council of Negro Women, Clarence Coleman of the National Urban League. State Senator Carl McCall, Frank Savage, a banker and President of the Black Council on Africa, Percy Sutton, Borough President of Manhattan, Denton Watson, journalist, Moran Weston, Pastor of St. Philip's Episcopal Church and Margaret B. Wilson, Chair of the Board of NAACP and Franklin Williams, President of the Phelps Stokes Fund. The newsletter says the convention of the United Radio, Electrical and Machine Workers Union (UE) held in mid-September, 1977 in New York withdrew an approximate four million dollar payroll account from the Chase Manhattan Bank; the Sisters of Charity (New York City) withdrew all their accounts from Citibank in New York; the Fur, Leather and Machinery Workers (FLM Joint Board) has withdrawn all of its accounts from various New York banks loaning money to South Africa. The Joint. Board will be shortly announcing this step. The newsletter says the United Automobile Workers Executive Board voted recently to support the bank campaign and "to withdraw UAW deposits in American banks that are loaning to South Africa." The newsletter says presently, thirty eight organizations are participating in the campaign. The list includes such national organizations as the Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC), the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice (UCC-CRJ), the International Union, United Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implements Workers of America (UAW) and the American Committee on Africa (ACOA). The newsletter discusses the Eximbank, U.S. exports to South Africa, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), UE (United Radio, Electrical and Machine Workers Union), District Council 1199, Union Theological Seminary, the National Council of Churches (NCC), the World Council of Churches, the Unted Negro Scholarship and Education Fund, the United Church of Christ Board for World Ministries, the United Methodist Church Board for World Ministries, the Episcopalian Church, the Church of the Brethren, Financial Guarantees, Regular Bank Guarantees, Medium Term Insurance, and Short Term Insurance.