African Activist Archive

Leaflet advertising pickets at branches of Bank of America including in Pasadena, Los Angeles, U.C.L.A. (University of California Los Angeles, UCLA), and Santa Monica-Venice on November 17, 1978. The leaflet says Bank of America is a Bank of Apartheid. The leaflet says along with a consortium of international banks, including Security Pacific and Wells Fargo, the Bank of America has loaned South Africa about 200 million dollars which the government has used to maintain its repressive system of racial separation. The leaflet says after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the Soweto uprising in 1976 U.S. banks provided the foreign capital which gave the racist government the psychological and economic security to continue their oppression; each dollar loaned is another dollar which can be used to expand the police and military apparatus which has killed and arrested thousands; but resistance to the apartheid system is growing. The leaflet says your support of the bank campaign does not occur in isolation; in Northern California, the Coalition is also leafleting, picketing, and demonstrating, to demand an end to loans to South Africa; this growing movement has resulted in a number of international banks STOPPING loans to South Africa, and each victory weakens the commitment of the South African government, which has prevented equality and self-determination. The leaflet suggests people withdraw your money from the Bank of America, yell the bank manager that you think it's wrong for the bank to give loans to South Africa, and write to Mr. Tom Clausen, the President of Bank of America. The leaflet asks people to sign the petition available in front of many of the Banks branches; arrange a showing of the filmstrip "Banking on South Africa" at your church, union, or any other organization; start an Anti-Apartheid group in your area. The leaflet discusses SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization), the racist governments of South Africa and Rhodesia, the Patriotic Front in Zimbabwe, and the liberation forces of South Africa. [Note: This was apparently part of statewide pickets at some 400 branches of Bank of America on November 17 organized by Stop Banking on Apartheid.]

African Activist Archive

$TOP BANKING ON APARTHEID

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