In a press statement, Alfre Woodard expresses support for S2756, the Anti-Apartheid Act Amendments of 1988. Woodard is speaking on behalf of the Coalition of Concerned Artists Against Apartheid (CCAAA), which represents scores of actors, directors, writers and producers who can no longer block out the ongoing violence of South Africa from our own experience. CCAAA has never before supported Anti-Apartheid legislation. She notes that S2756 is substantively the same bill authored by Congressman Ron Dellums that passed the House by 244 to 152. The House has demonstrated that this is not a partisan issue, it is a moral issue. Americans have the responsibility to lead by actively taking a stand...
In a press statement, Alfre Woodard expresses support for S2756, the Anti-Apartheid Act Amendments of 1988. Woodard is speaking on behalf of the Coalition of Concerned Artists Against Apartheid (CCAAA), which represents scores of actors, directors, writers and producers who can no longer block out the ongoing violence of South Africa from our own experience. CCAAA has never before supported Anti-Apartheid legislation. She notes that S2756 is substantively the same bill authored by Congressman Ron Dellums that passed the House by 244 to 152. The House has demonstrated that this is not a partisan issue, it is a moral issue. Americans have the responsibility to lead by actively taking a stand against the inhumanity of apartheid. Detractors argue that sanctions hurt those that they are intended to help, but only about 48,000 Blacks are employed by U.S. multi-national corporations, less than one percent of the population. Leaders of the Black majority endorse complete disengagement. The democratic trade unions, United Democratic Front (UDF), South African Council of Churches (SACC), Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO), and the African National Congress (ANC) agree that the cost of comprehensive sanctions would be far less than the economic and human costs of continuing the status quo. They say they are willing to endure the short-term effects of sanctions in order to fight the long-term death of life under apartheid. The U.S. has used economic sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy, recently against Rhodesia, Uganda, Afghanistan, and Poland. In California, a comprehensive economic sanctions bill was introduced by Democratic Assembly woman Maxine Waters and signed into law by Republican Governor George Deukmejian; this clearly is not a partisan issue. Woodard calls on Senator Pete Wilson in particular and the whole U.S. Senate to follow the action taken by the House of Representatives.
