African Activist Archive

Brutus thanks the A. Philip Randolph Institute and American Committee on Africa (ACOA) for arranging the press conference and ACOA for sponsoring his nationwide tour, which included testimony before the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid and the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Sub-Committee on Africa. Brutus is Director of the Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in South Africa, sponsored by the International Defence and Aid Fund, and President of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee. Brutus says he hopes to enlist support of people here, particularly U.S. sportsmen and sports bodies. Brutus also welcomes protests and opposition to U.S. economic involvement such as the recently-launched Committee of Conscience Against Apartheid. Brutus says Coloured sportsmen have always been excluded from the South African Olympic team. This has happened because countries like the U.S. through their Olympic Committees have failed to take a forthright stand. This issue will be debated by the International Olympic Committee in Teheran in May. Brutus appeals to U.S. representatives at this meeting to support suspension of the South African team from the 1968 Olympics unless it applies a clear policy of non-racialism in line with Olympic principle. Brutus calls attention to South Africa's brutal treatment of opponents of apartheid and notes that he recently was imprisoned there for almost two years. Brutus urges the U.S. to support the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into prison conditions in South Africa and to contribute to the UN Trust Fund for South Africa.

African Activist Archive

STATEMENT BY DENNIS BRUTUS

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