African Activist Archive

Draft history of the Boston Coalition for the Liberation of Southern Africa (BCLSA). The document describes the formation of BCLSA in 1976 following the Soweto uprising in South Africa. Before that, the founding organizations and individuals had done solidarity work together, in the Gulf Boycott Coalition, Southern Africa Committee, Southern Africa Solidarity Committee, and other formations. These groups had focused on U.S. government and corporate support for white minority regimes in Southern Africa, on liberation support, and on anti-racist campaigns in Boston. The earlier coalitions had included representatives of the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC), student groups, church groups, and anti-imperialist individuals. In the Winter of 1976, progressives in the U.S. and in Boston were in a major debate about the civil war in Angola. Two positions formed: 1) support the MPLA in its attempts to consolidate a new government and defend against destabilization by South Africa and the Western imperialist powers, and 2) support a "government of national unity" comprised of MPLA, UNITA and FNLA and oppose interference in the internal affairs of Angola by other countries. The Cuban presence in Angola been shown to be international solidarity at its best. After the Soweto uprising, the ANC took the initiative to organize support for the South African liberation struggle through a new coalition in the Boston area; BCLSA was the result. In the Fall of 1977, Steve Biko was assassinated and a lot of attention was again focused on South Africa. The report mentions African Students for Angolan Liberation, African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC), Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), Trotskyist groups, Zaire, CIA destabilization, the State Department, Henry Kissinger, Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF), Mel King, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), National Student Coalition Against Racism (NSCAR), the Sharpeville massacre, Socialist Workers Party, Revolutionary Workers Headquarters, Steve Biko Memorial Committee, Krugerrands, the role of the Soviet Union, the New England Committee on Southern Africa, Citizens for Participation in Political Action, the Boycott First National Bank of Boston campaign (including 50 showings of a slide show), Themba Vilakazi, Roxbury Community College, material aid, Zimbabwean refugees, Zambia, Ella Ellison Support Committee, Willie Sanders, the Winnie Mandela Solidarity Committee, the Zimbabwe Action Campaign, the Bay Area Southern Africa Organizing Committee, MPLA Solidarity Committee in NYC, the ZANU Women's League, the Lancaster House agreement, the Patriotic Front, ZANU-PF, ZAPU, the Boston Organizing Committee, and State pension fund investments in South Africa-related stocks.

African Activist Archive

Political History of BCLSA

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