African Activist Archive

The document says the Bay Area Free South Africa Movement (BAFSAM) is a broad-based group of people - from community, labor, religious, political, peace, youth and student movements - who are determined to change U.S. policies that support the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. It is a multi-racial group seeking to be firmly based in the Black community and strongly allied with the organized trade union movement, especially the rank and file. The group's work on economic links between the U.S. and South Africa is intended to contribute to the growing momentum of the national Free South Africa Movement. It supports the South African liberation movements and the trade union movement, which are part of the international peoples' struggle for world peace and justice. On November 23, 1984, the longshoremen of the ILWU Local 10 refused to unload South African cargo in the port of San Francisco. BAFSAM was launched to give public support to that action. BAFSAM's focus includes working with the Oakland Port Commission to encourage them to refuse to accept cargo of South African origin and initiation of boycotts against banks and businesses supportive of the South African regime. The document mentions the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the "Red Ribbon Campaign," the Oakland-Berkeley Rainbow Coalition, informational tables at shopping centers, an International Women s Day rally, a Children's Demonstration, IBM (International Business Machines), a BAFSAM Student Network at East Bay community colleges, University of California (UC), Berkeley, San Francisco State University, California State University (Cal-State), Hayward, the April 20 Mobilization, a cultural observation of South African Women's Day on August 9, the Church of All Faiths, BAFSAM/Peace Navy boat blockade of the ship carrying South African goods at San Francisco, Pier 80, divestment legislation, the City of Oakland, the West-Coast Campaign to Stop South African Trade, a coast-wide boycott of South African cargo, John George, Lorenzo Carlisle, Franklin Alexander, and Willia Gray.

African Activist Archive

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