SAMRAF news + notes

Contents: COALITIONS ARE FORMED INSIDE SOUTH AFRICA • DENNIS BRUTUS ASYLUM DECISION • SOUTH AFRICAN WAR RESISTERS • ANGOLA. BIG CHEESE CAN'T BUDGE S. AFRICANS • FEDS ARE AT IT AGAIN • WARNING: SUBWAY TRACKS ARE DANGEROUS • POLICE BRUTALITY. A RESPONSE • GREAT WHITE HOPES USUALLY FALL FLAT IN RING • NAAS BOTHA GETS THE BOOT • ENTERTAINMENT SCOOPS • WHOSE ALL BEEN? • WHOSE ALL GOING? • RACISM AT NEW YORK CITY GAY BARS • JUSTICE TAKES A BEATING • SOUTH AFRICANS HAVE WRONG ATTITUDE • SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS GETS AWARD FROM BUDDIES • SAMRAF AND OUR PROGRAMME • SAMRAF CONTACTS • The newsletter reports on two anti-apartheid coalitions that have formed in South Africa: the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the National Forum (NF). The UDF was launched at a national congress attended by more than 12,000 people on August 20 in Cape Town. The multi-racial UDF includes labor unions, church, student and community groups. The NF is an alliance of Black groups that was convened in June. Dennis Brutus was finally granted asylum in the United States; Reagan's State Department never changed its position seeking deportation, but an immigration judge ruled in favor of Dennis. Details of his case are discussed. SAMRAF, with the United Methodist Church and Church World Services, hopes to arrange sponsorship into the U.S. for refugees living in camps just across the borders of South Africa. Sponsors are individuals, community groups, or church congregations that agree to offer food and shelter to a refugee for the first 90 days in the U.S. United Nations Secretary General Perez de Cuellar recently led a delegation to southern Africa concerning independence for Namibia. South African Airways has won Israel's 1983 "Most popular Tourist Enterprise" award, given to foreign airlines. The U.S. government and multi-national corporations are a serious enemy to both peoples of South Africa and Black, Third World and working people here. The newsletter includes a letter to the editor from Carlos Rodriguez in Mexico City. The newsletter mentions racial violence, draft resisters, opposition to the constitutional changes, P.W. Botha, Allan Boesak, Oscar Mpetha, Albertina Sisulu, Archie Gumede, the Azanian Student Organization (AZASO), the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), the Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Freedom Charter, the African National Congress (ANC) and its jailed leaders, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Dennis Goldberg, Gatsha Buthelezi, the Inkatha movement, the Progressive Federal Party, extra-parliamentary groups, the "Zulu homeland," sympathetic whites, liberals, Black Consciousness groups, white capitalists, white workers, reactionary sections of the Black middle class, Azanian Peoples' Organization (AZAPO), South African Council of Students (SACOS), Dr. Neville Alexander, a political prisoner, Robben Island, Harry Oppenheimer, South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC), international boycotts of South African sports, Immigration Judge Irving Schwartz, SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization), Cuban troops in Angola, the MPLA government, South African-backed UNITA dissidents, political assassinations in the frontline states, military invasions of Angola, Mozambique, and Lesotho, Joe Gqabi, UN resolution 435, Jeremiah Denton, Gerrie Coetzee, Michael Dokes, Larry Holmes, Don King, the Dallas Cowboys, the Portuguese Armed Forces Movement, the U.S. GI Movement, Artists and Athletes against Apartheid, Harry Belafonte, Arthur Ashe, Tony Randall, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Linda Ronstadt, Motown music, touring Sun City, Tom Selleck, Elton John, Nana Mouskouri, popular music, Liberace, Black and White Men Together (BWMT), the Congress of the People, the South African Police (SAP), the International Police Association, Marilyn Godwin, Soweto, the Pretoria City Council, the Southern Africa solidarity movement, national liberation movements, racism, white supremacy, and the anti-racist struggle.