AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE POLICY GUIDELINE ON SOUTHERN AFRICA

The policy document says in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Namibia (South-West Africa) and South Africa, people are struggling for goals with which we in the American Friends Service Committee unite; these include the ending of white minority rule, the elimination of exploitation and discrimination against black Africans, and the construction of just, non-racist societies; as a Friends organization, the AFSC desires to see these goals achieved in a just and nonviolent manner. The policy document says in view of the escalating armed struggle in the region, it is important to recall that for a great many years the blacks of South Africa, under the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chief Albert Luthuli, undertook a heroic nonviolent effort to achieve freedom and racial equality; the final response of the government of South Africa to the "Defiance Campaigns" was the brutal and bloody Sharpeville massacre of 1960; this indiscriminate slaughter of defenseless people moved their grieving leaders to the conviction that they must henceforth respond to violence with violence; that violent interaction has persisted to the present. The policy document says we see the present governments of Rhodesia, Namibia and South Africa as defenders of minority rule and white privilege, resorting to police brutality and imprisonment of their opposition, and ready to use armed violence to maintain the status quo; such policies and practices are an abomination by any moral or democratic standard. The policy document says we take note that for years the U.S. government paid relatively little attention to the plight of black Africans in southern Africa, and in fact maintained a record of official government backing for the white supremacy governments and support of the corporate and financial interests of those countries, from which black Africans draw little benefit; now, with considerable public attention given to its actions, the U.S. government is stressing the seriousness of the crises in southern Africa and undertaking diplomatic initiatives. The policy document says we welcome official declarations of opposition to racist oppression and minority rule; such declarations are consistent with the high moral and democratic principles which should be the basis of U.S. policy throughout the world; there is no escaping the fact, however, that our government's actions are significantly motivated by a desire to sustain political equilibrium in the area, to assist Western economic and political interests, to forestall Soviet or other socialist nations' involvement in the area, and to eliminate indigenous radical movements. The policy document says that U.S. investment continues to grow in the region; that there is competition among the major powers for political alliances and strategic advantages in that region, as in others; that the U.S. and Western powers have supplied arms to these· governments and have established other military and intelligence links: all are reasons to believe that a main purpose of the recently announced policies is to protect U.S. national, financial and corporate interests in southern Africa. The policy document says in our view the case for economic sanctions against South Africa, including total withdrawal of financial assistance and investments, is compelling and that withdrawal is long overdue; we refuse partnership with apartheid; we refuse any longer to benefit from investments in South Africa and are selling all our stocks in those companies which operate there; moreover, we are seeking in concert with other like-minded individuals and organizations, to develop nonviolent strategies to end all support for apartheid. The policy document discusses human freedom, majority rule, white governments, U.S. troops, military aid, NATO, the AFSC Board of Directors, and an international arms embargo.