African Activist Archive

Statement adopted by the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid Steering Committee on February 13, 1993 about the end of the Reagan/Bush era and the situation in South Africa. U.S. working and living conditions have declined, ugly racism found new life, and workers' rights and human rights, here and abroad, endured relentless attack. Not once in this era did U.S. leaders vote in the U.N. against apartheid, and it took enormous public outrage to get Congress to override President Reagan's veto of mild sanctions against South Africa. South Africa developed its natural wealth into an industrial society with help from multinational corporations. Now, South Africa seeks to learn from our experience about how to set up democratic procedures, to register voters, to get out the vote, and to stop vote fraud. In South Africa, until 1979 unions were effectively banned, yet now a greater and rapidly growing percent of workers are in unions than in the U.S. The resolution mentions IBM (International Business Machines), Ford, CAT (Caterpillar), Shell, Nelson Mandela, violence, and commonalities between the U.S. and South Africa.

African Activist Archive

THE U.S. & SOUTH AFRICA: REFLECTIONS ON CHANGE

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