This is a preliminary announcement of the existence of: AMANDLA

Letter to Bob (presumably Robert Maurer). Contents This is a preliminary announcement of the existence of: AMANDLA: Why AMANDLA? • Projected Activities • RESEARCH • EDUCATION • FINANCES • PEOPLE • RESPONSES WELCOMED • SPONSORS • The preliminary announcement says AMANDLA is the Zulu word for Power and a battle cry in the South African liberation struggle. The preliminary announcement says AMANDLA is committed to meeting these needs by an active program of research and education. The preliminary announcement says while the black community shows increasing identification with Africa, that interest appears primarily cultural with little political content. The preliminary announcement says Americans concerned about U.S. foreign policy need more information about the African struggle and the ways in which the United States is involved in suppressing and channeling it. The preliminary announcement says a specialized research and education program is clearly needed. The preliminary announcement says we plan to: 1. Provide an empirical base for analysis of those institutions and individuals who make policy for, and benefit from, U.S. penetration in Africa; 2. Promote a politically informed consciousness within the U.S. about those individuals and institutions and the effects of their activities; 3. Promote a broader awareness about the progress of the African liberation movements and the obstacles they face. Under Projected Activities the preliminary announcement says AMANDLA will begin to organize research groups and help individuals interested in detailed research projects about the extent of U.S. involvement and influence in individual African countries and regions; covert and clandestine strategies; a survey of U.S. "counter-insurgency" thinking as it relates to Africa; institutional analysis of the Africa programs of international agencies, and the full range of U.S.-coordinated "free world" mechanisms. Individuals already associated with AMANDLA are doing detailed research about: the CIA in Africa; East Africa; the Congo (Kinshasa); Tanzania; South Africa; and South West Africa. The preliminary announcement says we hope to publish, reprint, and distribute relevant articles and pamphlets about African subjects. The preliminary announcement says the primary organizer at present is Daniel Schechter, sometime-longtime movement activist and a contributing editor of Ramparts who has been until recently in London and doing research about CIA involvement in Africa. The document discusses the North American Congress for Latin America (NACLA), student movements, anti-imperialist organizations, SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), Afro-American liberation groups, church and civic organizations, John Perdew, SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Bob Mauer, Courtland Cox, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Ivanhoe Donaldson, Collin Gonze, Phil Hutchings, Martin Legassick, Julius Lester, Mary McAnally, the University Christian Movement (UCM), Janet McLoughlin, the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), Jim Mellon, the Radical Education Project, Roger Murray, New Left Review, the Tri-Continental Information Center, Russ Stetler, Charles Turner, the Black United Front, Robert Van Lierop, Conner Cruse O'Brien, Miriam Makeba, James Foreman, Stanley Diamond, Carl Oglesby, Harry Magdoff, Monthly Review, Shirley Graham Dubois, Eldridge Cleaver, Kwame Nkrumah, Peter Weiss, Richard Barnet, Ruth First, Ronald Segal, Jack Minnis, and America's covert and overt Empire-builders. [Note: The letter was sent shortly before the founding of the Africa Research Group.]