African Activist Archive

Article from the NAAIC Newsletter. The article says members of the Southern Africa Committee (SAC) were present at the meeting of the Southern Africa Corporate Strategy Group, a newly-formed coalition of church agencies and Africa research/action groups. The article says SAC has reprinted copies of a feature article on MPLA which appeared in the September issue of SOUTHERN AFRICA, the committee's monthly review Southern Africa news and opinion; the ten page piece on the health situation inside liberated Angola and the activities of SAM, the medical arm of MPLA; vivid photographs and text by Boubaker Adjali depict medical teams at work and the effects of napalm and herbicides on the Angola population. Included is an urgent appeal for funds to obtain drugs for SAM. The article says members of SAC are also working with a task force emerging from the World Council of Churches concentrating on the liberation struggle in Angola, related to the struggle in terms of activities and aid; papers are planned both on the theology of liberation and analysis of the Angolan movements with criteria for some decision making. The article says two of CIRUNA's (UN Assoc. student group) members related to SAC met with Gulf's chief PR man William Cox recently; numerous detailed questions were posed to this man employed as chief apologist for Gulf's Cabinda operation aiding the Portuguese in Angola; Cox dodged questions about the liberation struggle, concentrating on Portuguese claims of advancement in education; he showed statistics to point out that 7% of Gulf workers in Angola are African or mestizo, the rest Portuguese or American (Angola is 97% black), yet justified Gulf's investments in terms of the multiracial nature of Angola. The article says thus he avoided any mention of Portuguese colonialism, Gulf's imperialistic role, or the war being waged against MPLA and the Angolan people; later that day, it was discovered that "two teachers from Pennsylvania" had made off with a copy of CIRUNA's newspaper, IN FACT, which had not been sent out yet, but had a two-page spread on the Gulf and Polaroid Boycotts. The article says SAC is joining a political education group, plans to encourage articles on corporate activities for liberation press including interviews with people just back from South Africa. • ACTIVITIES • 1. Corporate Campaigns • 2. MPLA Support Campaign • 3. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES TASK FORCE NO. 13 • 4. GULF EPISODE • 5. SPORTS

African Activist Archive

SOUTHERN AFRICA COMMITTEE

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