Form letter to the editor from Perry Bullard, State Representative, 53rd District, Ann Arbor. The letter to the editor says any institution that invests in corporations operating in South Africa invests in apartheid; the world's cruelest form of racism. The letter to the editor says apartheid is the system in South Africa that denies all fundamental human rights to the black majority; it is a system that prevents blacks from acquiring education or owning land, and forces them to live in segregated, culturally and economically deprived circumstances; further, apartheid is a system that maintains a flow of cheap black labor; black South Africans make up 70% of the labor force, but receive only...
Form letter to the editor from Perry Bullard, State Representative, 53rd District, Ann Arbor. The letter to the editor says any institution that invests in corporations operating in South Africa invests in apartheid; the world's cruelest form of racism. The letter to the editor says apartheid is the system in South Africa that denies all fundamental human rights to the black majority; it is a system that prevents blacks from acquiring education or owning land, and forces them to live in segregated, culturally and economically deprived circumstances; further, apartheid is a system that maintains a flow of cheap black labor; black South Africans make up 70% of the labor force, but receive only 23% of the wage income; under apartheid, blacks are denied the right to seek alternative and better employment, and prohibited from collective bargaining; they are specifically prohibited from ever supervising any white worker. The letter to the editor says despite these facts, U.S. corporations insist that their presence in South Africa is beneficial to blacks; this outmoded, weary argument that economic growth and increasing industrialization automatically creates pressures that will force whites to allow greater black participation in society has been totally disproved by the last ten years of South African history; instead, blacks have experienced Intensifying political oppression and land dispossession; the creation of the Bantustans and the final total exclusion of black South Africans from any right to identification as South African has occurred at the same time the country has experienced enormous economic growth. The letter to the editor says given these facts, U.S. investments in South Africa are of prime importance; the real impact of U.S. corporations in South Africa resides in the enormous amount of technology and capital placed at the disposal of the South African government by these businesses; due to their influence, U.S. corporations have a direct cooperative relationship with the South African government, and play a direct role in the maintenance of the South African state; this money and expertise supports the continuing economic expansion of a white owned, white controlled, racist oriented economy; a much publicized contingency plan drawn up by G.M.'s South African branch graphically illustrates the role GM expects to play in supporting the white minority government in the event of civil insurrection on the part of the black majority. The letter to the editor says the oldest and most prestigious organization working for equality in South Africa, the African National Congress, has endorsed investment divestiture as the only meaningful action state institutions can take in expressing condemnation of apartheid; under pressure from various civil rights and religious groups, more institutions are divesting every day; while it is reprehensible that corporations continue to support the South African state, it is totally unconscionable that any institution of higher education permit its investment portfolio to contain holdings in such companies; the divestment action of Michigan State University and several other universities and pension funds is not a meaningless action, but a most significant step that can have a profound effect on corporate policy in the United States. The letter to the editor says as Americans, we have a deep interest in a peaceful resolution to the South African dilemma, and a moral obligation to make it clear that the current policies of the South African government are intolerable; strong economic pressure is the only means to reducing the necessity of an armed struggle for liberation in South Africa --a struggle in which Cuba and the Soviet Union will surely be on the side of the black majority. The letter to the editor discusses General Motors, the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the Allende regime, Vietnam, divestment of corporate interests in South Africa, civil war, the ANC (African National Congress), human rights, and corporate profits.
