400 Bank of America Branches leafleted in California

The press release says the anti-apartheid movement in the United States continues to grow as quickly as the tension in Southern Africa escalates; in Namibia South Africa is locking itself into a collision course with the United Nations over the issue of elections; in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) the military collapse of the white minority government is seen to be just months or weeks away and only massive South African military intervention can prevent it; in South Africa itself the liberation movements continue to escalate the struggle both with armed actions and other forms of protest; and so, fueled by events in Southern Africa and by its own momentum, the level of protests against U.S. support for and complicity in apartheid is still on the rise. The press release says the student movement continues to expand; recent conferences in Chicago (400 plus participants), Chapel Hill (about 100), and New York (over 1200 registrants) attest to this; it isn't a movement of meetings only; there have been large protests at schools all over the country, especially in the East Coast. The press release says there have already been sit-ins at Mt. Holyoke and Vassar; ten Vassar students face disciplinary action at a result of the action; they aren't alone; 38 Berkeley students face disciplinary action stemming from last spring's sit-in there and 4 members of the Afro-American Student Liberation Forces were arrested during protests at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in October. The press release says the student movement has some very real problems; there is the growing repression for example; the Berkeley students not only face disciplinary sanctions from the University of California, they are also being tried in the Alameda County courts for the sit-in; and to top it off, the University is appealing the acquittal many of the same students won for a divestment sit-in of two years ago. The press release says the massive leafleting of the 17th marks a whole new stage of the anti-apartheid movement. The Bank of America has over 200 million in loans to the South African white regime. The press release says in the immediate future there will be a great deal of work around liberation support and fund-raising; anti-Krugerrand campaigns are being planned in Los Angles and other places for the holiday season; on the campuses the issues of divestment (sale of university stocks in companies supporting apartheid), recruitment (placement interviews by those same companies), and lobbying for a new U.S. foreign policy in the area of Southern Africa will be the major focuses. The press release discusses CUAA (Campuses United Against Apartheid), the Socialist Worker's Party (SWP), the Northeast Coalition for the Liberation of Southern Africa (NECLSA), Bay Area Southern Africa Coalition (BASAC), Campaign for Economic Democracy (CCED), churches, unions, Stop Banking on Apartheid (SBOA), community groups, and SCSAC (Southern Californian Southern Africa Coalition).