Contents: WHY SHOULD SAN FRANCISCANS BE CONCERNED ABOUT INVESTMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA? • WHAT IS APARTHEID? • HOW IS THE U.S. INVOLVED? • DOESN'T U.S. INVESTMENT HELP BLACK WORKERS? • WHAT DO THE MAJORITY OF SOUTH AFRICAN WANT? • WHY SUPPORT THIS POLICY STATEMENT? • WILL DIVESTMENT ENDANGER THE SAN FRANCISCO CITY AND COUNTY PENSION FUNDS? • HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP ASSURE PASSAGE OF THIS IMPORTANT DECLARATION ON INVESTMENT POLICY • A growing number of Americans are criticizing the wisdom and morality of investing in South Africa and making profits from apartheid. After the events in Soweto, the murder of Steve Biko, ongoing forced removals of 3.5 million blacks to reservations,...
Contents: WHY SHOULD SAN FRANCISCANS BE CONCERNED ABOUT INVESTMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA? • WHAT IS APARTHEID? • HOW IS THE U.S. INVOLVED? • DOESN'T U.S. INVESTMENT HELP BLACK WORKERS? • WHAT DO THE MAJORITY OF SOUTH AFRICAN WANT? • WHY SUPPORT THIS POLICY STATEMENT? • WILL DIVESTMENT ENDANGER THE SAN FRANCISCO CITY AND COUNTY PENSION FUNDS? • HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP ASSURE PASSAGE OF THIS IMPORTANT DECLARATION ON INVESTMENT POLICY • A growing number of Americans are criticizing the wisdom and morality of investing in South Africa and making profits from apartheid. After the events in Soweto, the murder of Steve Biko, ongoing forced removals of 3.5 million blacks to reservations, and South Africa's continued aggression against neighboring countries, members of religious institutions, unions, universities and colleges, and human rights groups are demanding that something be done about U.S. investments which help prop up the South African government. Officially, blacks are not citizens of South Africa and have no vote in the laws which control their lives. Any resistance to these laws and the apartheid system--by black or white--is met with police and military repression. 350 U.S. corporations support the South African economy through direct investment and trade. In 1980, U.S. exports to South Africa jumped by 50%, making the U.S. the largest trading partner of South Africa. U.S. investments have increased steadily in the past two decades, yet the lives of South African blacks have become steadily worse. Almost every major black organization in South Africa has called for an end to foreign loans and investments until there is majority rule. San Francisco's Pension Funds currently hold over $233 million in approximately 30 companies that do business in South Africa. The document mentions influx control, migratory labor, black families, unemployment, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the World Council of Churches, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the National Council of Churches (NCC), the U.N. General Assembly, a Passbook, the petroleum market, motor vehicles, computer business, the Sullivan Principles, Massachusetts Governor Michael S. Dukakis, Connecticut, Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska.
