African Activist Archive

The report says after months of lobbying last year by Union Carbide and Foote Mineral, the two big chrome producers in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Congress passed the Byrd Amendment to the Military Procurement Bill, which effectively ended U.S. support for U.N. sanctions against the illegal Rhodesian regime by allowing the import of ANY item on the strategic stockpile list; Nixon signed the Bill and on January 24th the U.S. Treasury issued a general license to companies to import 72 items - including chrome and goose-feathers! The report says on Sunday March 19th, the first ship carrying chrome from Rhodesia, in defiance of the sanctions, arrived at a U.S. port; the ship, the Argentinian-registered Santos Vega, carried 25,000 tons of chrome. The report says at Burnside, Louisiana, a small off-loading dock between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the ship was greeted by several hundred demonstrators from the Committee of Blacks Against Oppression, a group including students and staff of Southern University; they were confronted by armed sheriff's deputies, and two were arrested; the ship was eventually off-loaded by scab labor, after men of the International Longshoremen's Association had refused to offload the ore. The report says the Agios Giorgis, a Greek flagship carrying Union Carbide's shipment, slipped into the Mississippi delta about 11 p.m. on Easter Sunday. The report says legal actions are being instituted in Federal Courts, both by concerned stockholders and by the Black Congressional Caucus, supported by many other organizations. The report says action will be taken at stockholders' meetings of both Union Carbide (New York, April 18) and Foote Mineral Company (Philadelphia, April 27), the two major miners and importers of chrome (Rhodesian subsidiaries of these two U.S. firms control nearly all of the territory's chrome production). The report says violation of the U.N. embargo, aiding the racist Smith regime, will be a continuing action until we change U.S. policy. The report asks people to write their Congressman, Union Carbide Corporation and Foote Mineral Company. The report includes a quote by Thomas W. Gleason, President, International Longshoremen's Association. The report discusses Burnside, Louisiana; Steubenville, Ohio; the Electro-coal Transfer Terminal; The New York Times; IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization); and Davant, La. • Background • The First Ship Arrives • The Second Ship • ACTIONS - PRESENT AND FUTURE

African Activist Archive

U.S. SANCTIONS-BUSTING: THE CHROME SHIPS IN PORT

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