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T 1,11 ' »*——
The Augusta News-Review
Mallory K. Millender... Editor-Publisher
Paul D. Walker Special Assistant to the Publisher
Barbara Gordon Sales Representative
Rev. R.E. Donaldson Religion Editor
Harvey Harrison Circulation Manager
Mrs. Rhonda Brown Sales Representative
Mrs. Mary Gordon Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson t ,. Church Coordinator
Mrs. Fannie Johnson Correspondent
'Mrs. Clara West... McDuffie County Corresponsent
David Dupree,¥orts Editor
Mrs. Been Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Al Irby Columnist
Mrs. Marian Waring Columnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Grady Abrams Editorial Cartoonist. Columnist
Roscoe Williams Photographer
Mailing Address
Box 953 (USPS 887 820)- Augusta, Gn.
Phone (404) 722-4555
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903
Published Weekly
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Affirmative
Action By Gerald Home
Reagan Has Foreign Policy
With South Africa
Many ctitics erf the
Reagan Administration have
alleged that "it has no
foreign policy. But as far as
apartheid South Africa
goes, it seems that
Reagan’s policy is all too
clear. Consider the
following:
Item: On March 13th
U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations Jeanne
Kirkpatrick met with five
leading South African
military officials in open
contravention of stated U.S.
policy. Observers recall
that when a similar meetmg
took place between Andrew
Young and a PLO official,
tie Carter Administration
official «»'M(as sacked
immediately.
Item: When the issue
of comprehensive sanctions
against Pretoria arose
recently in the U.N.,
Ambassador Kirkpatrick
exercised the U.S. "veto.”
Item: On May 14
Secretary of State
Alexander Haig engaged in
intensive talks in
Washington with South
Africa’s Foreign Minister
Roelof (Bik) Botha. Haig
called for a “new beginning
of mutual trust 'and
confidence between the
U.S. and South Africa, old
friends who are getting
together again... South
Africa can rely on (the
U. 5.)...” Earlier, President
Reagan had praised South
Africa as an “ally” that
had stood by the U.S. in
past wars, despite the fact
that the present leadership
there had been interned
during World War II
because of explicit Nazi
sympathies.
Item: The State
Department has approved
the visit of the South
African rugby team, the
Springboks, for a series of
games in Chicago, Albany
and New York in
September. African nations,
led by Nigeria, have raised
the specter of a boycott of
the 1984 Olympics
scheduled for Los Angeles.
Item: The Organization
of African Unity (OAU) at
its most recent meeting in
Nairobi- condemned the
Reagan Administration for
stalling on a settlement in
Namibia (Southwest Africa)
and collaborating with
South Africa against the
authentic representative erf
the Namibian people—
SWAPO (Southwest Africa
Peoples Organization).
Item: The Reagan
Administration has come
out strongly for repeal erf
the “Clark Amendment” in
an effort to destabilize the
government erf Angola. a
prime supporter of SWAPO .
Item: The Washington
based Black lobbying group
Trans Africa released a
series of internal State
Department memos that
document in detail the U.S.
- South Africa attempt to
prevent SWAPO coming to
power and maintaining
Pretoria's illegal occupation
erf Namibia.
Page 4
maneuverings are merely ~
the tip erf the iceberg. The
U.S. transnational
corporations-General
Motors, Ford, Firestone,
etc... while shutting down
plants in the U.S. have
been moving operations in
droves to South Africa to
take advantage erf the cheap
Black labor there. U.S.
corpcrate investment in the
land of apartheid has been
growing at an astonishing
25 percent per year, the
most rapid rate of any
U.S. foreign investment.
Hundreds of U.S.
monopolies have found a
home in South Africa and
right now the U.S.
continues to be Pretoria’s
largest trading partner,
exporting the tune of $2.5
billion and importing $3.3
billion. .
The OAU countries,
Nigeria in particular, have
expressed a growing
concern about the
direction of Reagan policy
toward South Africa. In a
recent New York Times
interview, Dr. Chuka
Okadigbu, senior political
advisor to President Shenu
Shagair, said Nigeria had
not excluded its "oil
weapon” against the U.S.
Nigeria’s trade alone
dwarfs the amount of
commerce done with South
Africa and the U.S.
investment in the oil
industry of Gabon,
Cameroon and other West
African nations is rising
daily, along with
dependence on this source.
Nigeria supplies about 13.5
percent of U.S. oil imports
and ranks second to Saudi
Arabia among foreign oil
sources. The importance of
Nigerian oil to the U.S.
economy is magnified by
the fact h that their crude
is “sweet oil,” which,
unlike oil from the Persian
uGulf, is largely light, low
in sulfur and ideally suited
for refining into gasoline.
In short, the volume erf
U.S. trade with Nigeria is
twice as big as U.S. trade
with South Africa. Last year
the U.S. exported goods
worth $1.49 billion to
Nigeria but imported goods
valued at $10.95 billion
mostly oil--leaving a
staggering $9 billion deficit.
Nigeria’s threat to use the
‘oil weapon' should not be
considered idle and
rhetorical. The British
Petroleum Company was
banned from operating in
Nigeria and had its
Nigerian assets nationalized
in 1979 on the ground that
it had been selling oil to
South Africa.
Dr. Okadigbu, barely
concealing his anger,
described Reagan
Administration policy as
“retrogressive” and
expressed particular
disquiet about the proposed
tour of the South African
rugby team. A ban on U.S.
athletes at international
sporting events would be
"a step in the right
direction,” he declared
J A Y I ] / /
' ' ! | Ldj
I AM ARE. MY •
|V£ TAKE FROM THE Pooß Tb THE RfcH.
Going Places
By Philip Waring
Mayor Young Saves Detroit
I have a warm spot for
American cities. Although
they are headquarters for
our banking, finance,
government, health care,
education, entertainment
and culture, they have
experienced over the past
25 years large outflights of
business, industry, retail
trade and whites, etc. This
has left many problems for
hard working mayors and
municipal staffers in
keeping head above water.
Let’s look at Detroit,
our fifth largest city, which
was destined for
bankruptcy, so they
predicted, "Heck no,” said
its gutsy mayor, Coleman
Young. This column will
highlight how his
leadership, one short year
helped rescue the "Motor
City.”
What were its major
problems? There were
many: (1) Its auto industry
misqued in not designing
smaller and more efficient
cars, being overtaken by
foreign imports, (2) millions
in tax dollars were lost to
Detroit and (3) many
industries moved either
overseas or to the Sun Belt.
Detroit was faced with a
$l9O million deficit.
What did Coleman
Young, former World War
II air force hero and state
senator, do at this
juncture? (1) In a super
effort, honed by his own
years in the Michigan
legislature, he persuaded
that body to enact a new
law which would allow
Detroit to expand its city
income tax, (2) Mayor
Young then sold the city
electorate in approving a
raise in their individual city
income taxes, (3) The next
* feat was almost an
impossibility. The municipal
workers and their unions,
despite great reluctance,
voted to freeze their own
salaries. Who has ever
heard of municipal workers
and their union agreeing on
this? And (5) he was
successful in getting ten cf
Detroit's largest banks to
loan and help underwrite
There has been
growing concern and action
in this country about the
content of Reagan's.
policy. The Philadelphia
Chapter of the Coalition of
Black Trade UnionistsOhas
initiated a South African
Support Project to support
progressive faces there
politically and materially.
They have rallied around
the case of 71-year dd
Oscar Mpetha, who has
been detained since last
August at Capetown Prison
long-range financing. Thus,
it should be noted that
Coleman Young achieved
the impassible through
guts, leadership and ability
to generate reason and
cooperation among
individuals and
A new
chapter in the annals of
political and municipal case
history has been written.
His job was much tougher
than New York’s or
Cleveland’s which faced
similar problems. And it is
good to note that Mayor
Young was the recipient of
the Spingarm Medal for
1981. Last year this column
pushed for Maynard
Jackson, to no avail.
Another Look At
The HRC Audit
While this is public
knowledge and well may be
"old hat,” I still would like
to comment: Last month
I was invited as a press
representative to attend a
Human Relations
Commission board meeting.
Here were some of the
highlights: (1) The HRC
said that their ongoing
fiscal records had been
regularly submitted to the
city-county government for
inspection, (2) Their special
EEOC account had been
properly audited by an
outside firm and was later
submitted to city-county
government for inspection,
(3) Their fiscal records and
files had been open, ready
and made available to the
county auditor. Several
board members said that
they had inspected this. (4)
One board member who,
was an accountant said that
he had inspected the full
package, found the
accounts in good order and
"Clean as a hound’s
tooth.” Members pointed
out that the public must be
aware that even after an
audit there could be critism
as to methods or philosophy
used. This is a difference
often found between and
among auditors,
accountants and even
CPA's all over the land.
regime calls the "Terrorism
Act.” He and other labor
leaders were arrested after
strikes in the industrialized
Capetown area threatened
to shut down several
plants. Mpetha is also the
former leader of the
Capetown branch of the
African National Congress
(ANC) -the spearhead of
the liberation tnovement
and is suffering acute
harassment because of
this.
Transafrica is
Walking With Dignity
By Al Irby
U.S. Reaction Gives Joy To South Africa
This column pointed
out last week that South
Africa was on a war
rampage against Namibia's
freedom fighters. That
action was naturally a
prelude to the raid on
Angola.
The South Africans
contend that their
operations are routine and
needed to counter a larger
buildup of forces by the
South West Africa’s
People’s Organization
(SWAPO). That mushy jive
may be true, but the
obvious point is that the
only way to stop the
fighting across the Angolan
borader is to bring about
an internationally
acceptable political soluti on
in Namibia. The SWAPO
insurgents are fighting for
the independence of their
country and are not going
to give up until that goal is
achieved-anymore than did
the freedom fighters in the
Zimbabwe struggle.
However high its losses,
SWAPO has manged to
keep replenishing its forces,
and will go on doing so.
Cuban Troops Maybe The
Ace In The Hole
The South African
action is regrettable in
another respect. Besides
perhaps driving Black
African leaders to turn
toward, the Communist
bloc and also making the
Cuban troops more relative
to the issue, Angola most
certainly will not ask the
Cubans to leave under the
present condition. And a
settlement of the Namibia
problem willnot be reached
without Angola’s
cooperation.
In fact one of the most
, hopeful developments under
the Carter Administration
was Angola's acceptance of
the idea of a demilitarized
zone along its frontier. But
the heightened fighting now
would rule out Angolan
agreement to such a plan.
The question the world
asks, (with the exception of
Reagan administration,) is
whether the government of
Pieter Botha and his
apartheid gang is really
prepared to give Namibia
its independence as called
Sundays,” which began
June 14. On these
Sundays, churches will post
detailed signs describing
the ravages of apartheid
and attempt to educate
their membership about
South Africa and how
events there affect us
here.
Across the country
there are numerous
committees and persons of
goodwill campaigning
against apartheid, the
vicious system of
for by ail freedom-loving
people Worldwide.
For years, the South
African “Bully Boys” have
stalled on the proposal for
"free and fair elections,"
supposedly worked out by
the five major Western
powers. Then President
Reagan and his aides
hunched a new initiative
on Namibia, and it looked
for awhile as if the plan,
- despite misgivings in the
West, had a sympathetic
ear in Pretoria. But that
initiative, too, has
disappeared, or was it just
a fake-belief in the first
place? The raid on Angola
was blue-printed with the
rash of visiting South
African officials to
Washington and New York
Haig and the other top
Reagan people gave the
Pretorian gang the green
light for a massive invasion
on Angola.
The Veto by The United
States
Last Week Enhanced
Russia
.... The veto in the United
Nations upholding South
Africa's incursion into
Angola, made the Soviet,
Union the champion of
Africa and the entire Third
World. Leading West
European governments
have begun acting., in
concert to secure the rapid
withdrawal of South African
forces from Angola and
relaunch diplomatic moves
to speed the independence
process in Namibia. After
initial hesitation while they
tried to determine the scale
an and nature of South
Africa’s brutal military
drive into Angola. Britain,
West Germany, and France
strongly condemned it as a
threat to the stability of
southern Africa.
Proud of Angolan Raid
The first thing most
whites in Cape Town and
other urban sections in
South Africa gained from
television, radio, and their
newspaper; reports is the
comfroting reassurance that
their Army and Air Force
can overwhelm any other
force anywhere near the
country’s border.
illegally in South Africa.
This is nothing new. During
the Cdd War Paul Robeson
and W.E. B. Dußob faced
severe government
persecution because the
aganization they led, the
Council on African Affairs,
which was a relentless critic
of the cozy relationship
between Washington and
Pretoria. Even before this,
at the turn of the century,
Afro-Americans responded
in masse to the call of John
Dube, a Black South
i.vnlv.d tn
Speaking Out
By Roosevelt Green
Replace Protest
With Planning
We, as you well know,
are living in critical
economic times. And
conditions will worsen
before they get better.
What can those of us who
care do about the poor and
oppressed humans in
America and the world?
One could begin by
recognizing that the rich
and super-rich are taking
America down easy street
which is paved with simple
answers to complex social
problems. Bankers, big oil,
utility companies and big
business in general are
serenading the president to
the tune of profit, tax cuts,
and the social programs
blues. It is an insensitive
fox trot to a disco sound of
the aged, the poor and
Blacks.
Rather than bed-time
for a monkey named
Bonzo, it is bedtime for
democracy, human rights
and human compassion.
The "milk of human
kindness" is being
exchnaged for the bananas
of profits and pretense.
A second step
requires preparation for
economic difficulties and
social unrest. Each of use
may have to learn to
become more individually
and collectiviely self-reliant.
We will always need a
strong federal helping hand
that we should not permit
becoming a crutch.
As for the social unrest
that is sure to come when
hunger pains and
joblessness trickle down to
Subscribe
To The
Augusta
Naus-Hteuteuj
campaigning in this country
against his government’s
racist policies.
Yet, anti-apartheid
organizers have long felt
the need to come together
under one roof, confer and
plot a co-ordinated, national
campaign against U.S.
South Africa coUaboration
a need urgently felt in light
of the dangerous turn of
Reagan Administration
foreign policy.
Cnsss eq neatly, Coretta
Scott King, Ossie Davis,
A* rnalMm rtl Rlarlr Ttade
the economically
disadvantaged, the scenario
now appearing in England
will show up cm the
American stage. The only
difference will be the
assortment of characters in
a different cast on a similar
stage.
More policemen with
military hardware and ...the
building erf more prisons is
the simple answer of the
misguided human misles
we call the rich and super
rich. Violence is certainly
not the answer for the
oppressor or the
oppressed. But it seems
always to be their response
to unfavorable conditions.
Becoming informed
consumers who are aware
of potical and economic
forces shaping our times is
another alternative. It is
useful to recognize that the
drama currently unfolding
on the stage of America
will not last always. The
ball will bounce back in
another direction once the
current crop of mis leaders
have reaped their due
harvest of economic
failures.
While we wait for the
"great bedtime” to produce
the coming "Awakening” it
would help if Black leaders,
concerned members of all
political parties, and the
“enlightened minority”
would substitute protest for
planning, rhetoric for
realism, and tearful operas
for organzing.
Harambee!!!!
Unfasfets, the National
Conference of Black
Lawyers, leese Jackson's
Operation PUSH, Randall
Robinson of Tren* Africa. a
host of religious and trade
union organizations and
numerous prominent
personalities have issued a
call for a massive
“Conference In Solidarity
with the Liberation
Struggles of the Peoples of
South. Africa” to take
place October 9-11, 1981 at
New York Chy’s Riverside
Church.