African Activist Archive

Contents:I. Political Perspective • Introduction • A. The Southern Africa Situation • C. The Strategic Importance of South Africa • STRATEGY • TACTICS • 1. Working Class and Consumers • 2. LEGISLATION • 3. MASS ACTIVITY • 4. STUDENT MOBILIZATION • 5. MEDIA EXPOSURE • 6. LOCAL AGITATION • 7. INTERNATIONAL APPEAL • III. STRUCTURAL RECOMMENDATION • Proposal presented at the Conference to Stop South African Coal held in Atlanta, Georgia on February 1- 2, 1975. The proposal points out that, by importing coal from South Africa, the Southern Co., a major southern monopoly utility, is attempting to increase its profits while turning back an important environmental victory won by people of the U.S. This campaign against South African coal imports is anti-imperialist, so it must include building support for the liberation movements and for the rights of the African majority to self-determination and dismantling the racist South African state. The situation in southern Africa illustrates consistent struggle between the forces of the black working class and the national liberation movements on one hand, and the white minority elements and the multi-national corporations on the other hand. South Africa is rich in raw materials and maintains slave labor conditions, leading to very high profits for corporations. Black workers are resisting these conditions. In 1973, 25,000 Africans who refused to work nearly paralyzed the South African economy; the following year, Ovambo workers refused to enter the Anglo-American Diamond Mine in Namibia, demanding higher wages, better social conditions, and recognition of their union. The paper mentions runaway shops, U.S. workers, John Vorster, the Nationalist Party, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere, ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union), SWAPO, Frelimo, Rhodesia, independence in Mozambique, and Zimbabwe revolutionary forces.

African Activist Archive

Proposal to STOP SOUTH AFRICAN COAL

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