Bill Martin
Urbana, Illinois, United States
February 6, 1992
3 pages
The memorandum says as you remember from our meetings at the ASA conference, the Political Action Committee was delegated to operate as a “fire brigade,” addressing and mobilizing on issues on a case-by-case basis; this was premised on the belief that the long-term policy papers issued from the IWG’s would reset and reorganize our agenda, giving birth to a new program of action. The document says we have of course many “fire-brigade” issues. Eg.: U.S. aid to Inkatha and Unita; the lack of support for OAU/African initiatives in Morocco, Sudan, Zaire, etc.; responses to calls for assistance in relation to De Klerk’s and U.S. government’s unwillingness...
The memorandum says as you remember from our meetings at the ASA conference, the Political Action Committee was delegated to operate as a “fire brigade,” addressing and mobilizing on issues on a case-by-case basis; this was premised on the belief that the long-term policy papers issued from the IWG’s would reset and reorganize our agenda, giving birth to a new program of action. The document says we have of course many “fire-brigade” issues. Eg.: U.S. aid to Inkatha and Unita; the lack of support for OAU/African initiatives in Morocco, Sudan, Zaire, etc.; responses to calls for assistance in relation to De Klerk’s and U.S. government’s unwillingness to consider a real democratic transition, etc. The document says we need to mobilize more broadly on U.S. policy, creating a constant voice in support of popular African demands for a new era, and against U.S. aid and policy being used to forge a repressive new world order (often by working through the IMF/World Bank/even UN; see for example Harkin’s proposal on IMF conditionality for U.S. aid as an example).
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars
Africa
Angola
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Morocco
South Africa
Sudan
Western Sahara
English
text/pdf
Used by permission of several co-chairs of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars.
