U.S. Churches Pledge Intensive Opposition to U.S.Corporate Investment in Apartheid - Part One

Contents: Statement on American Corporations Which Are Key to Apartheid • New Focus on Twelve Companies • Strategies • THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA • U.S. Companies Computerize South African Society • U.S. Computers Enforce Apartheid • Computers in Local Governments • Apartheid Government is Big Business for U.S. Companies • INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES • CONTROL DATA CORPORATION • BURROUGHS CORPORATION • U.S. BANKS and SOUTH AFRICA • U.S. Banks Fuel the South African Economy • Escalated Foreign Borrowing • Lending to Private Sector Up • Private Sector Lending Frees Capital for Public Sector • South African Operations of U.S. Banks • CITICORP • Other ICCR Publications on South Africa • After sponsoring shareholder resolutions for 14 years, U.S. Protestant churches, Roman Catholic religious communities, and dioceses are beginning new tactics for opposing U.S. corporate complicity in South Africa's racist apartheid policies. On May 20, 1985 church leaders announced a focus on twelve U.S. corporations that are key investors in apartheid: IBM, Control Data, Burroughs, Citicorp, Mobil, Texaco, Chevron, Fluor, General Electric (GE), Ford Motor Company, General Motors (GM) and Newmont Mining. Information is given for each company, including: Number of Employees, Total Assets, Total Sales, Subsidiaries/Affiliates, Description of Operations, Strategic Role, History of Institutional Shareholder Action, Company Position and Church Position. The newsletter discusses apartheid laws, influx control, the Group Areas Act, political rights, freedom of speech and assembly, voting, forced removals, population relocations, land, release of political prisoners, detainees, people charged with treason, banning of organizations and individuals, public funding of education, health care, social services, the black majority, the South African Defense Force (SADF), computerized command and control system, NCR, Hewlett-Packard, Sperry Rand, Mohawk Data Science, the Carter Administration, the U.S. Commerce Department, Data General, Wang, Automating Apartheid, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), police, ammunition, Honeywell, Inland Revenue, the South African Atomic Energy Board, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Human Science Research Council, the Industrial Development Corporation, South African Railways, South African Airways, Vecor Heavy Engineering, AECI, the Department of Cooperation and Development, John Akers, the divestment movement, Congress, legislation, parastatals, ESCOM (Electric Supply Commission), ISCOR (Iron and Steel Corporation), CDC's PLATO educational software, Percy Qoboza, William C. Norris, Barlow Rand, General Mining Union, armored vehicles, weapons, homeland (Bantustan) agencies, Chase Manhattan, the North Carolina-based NCNB, the armaments industry, segregated housing, the decline of international gold prices, OPEC's oil embargo against South Africa, international sanctions, Wells Fargo, First National Boston, Chemical Bank and J.P. Morgan, and Citibank NA Ltd.