US Congress votes for sanctions THE US Congress has finally adopted a series of severe economic measures aimed at South Africa. On Monday, September 29, the House of Representatives overrode the president's vote by 313 to 67. On Thursday, October 2, the Senate did the same by 78 votes to 21. So, a broad majority, including both Democrats and Republicans, gave the force of law to US sanctions against apartheid. All observers agree that this decision represents a significant defeat for Reagan in the field of foreign policy.
The White House's policy toward South Africa had been reduced to waiting for the "reforms promised by the Botha government." This approach, called "constructive engagement," has produced no substantial result. The last congress of the ruling Nationalist Party
SOUTH AFRICA "gross violations of human rights." (1)
This could refer both to a part of the Black movement and to the racist right. But where there is smoke, there is fire. The US Congress did not limit itself- to voting sanctions but also wanted to intervene in South African political life. That is why the bill that it has just passed called for a 40-million-dollar aid fund for South Africans "disadvantaged by apartheid," notably in the trade-union field, or in private enterprise and the development of the Black communities.
This reflects the same concern as that of the Urban Foundation, a South African liberal body that is conducting a very active policy in the townships, or that of the various US union bodies whose activism in South Africa is beginning to worry. the independent trade-union movement.
It is not hard to foresee what sort of use could be made of these funds, which pose restrictive conditions in the name of human rights and opposing violence. They are in fact an instrument for intervening in favor of "solutions" of the type represented by Buthelezi, the chief of the KwaZulu bantustan, or in favor of a moderate trade-unionism.
Before the end of the year, any new US investment will be banned. It will be impossible for the Pretoria government to place deposits in an American bank or to receive any American loans. All American purchases of South African businesses, all sales of computers to the official services and any export of petroleum products will be prohibited. Likewise, sales of South African gold coins or landings by South African Airways planes in the US will be banned.
Some of these sanctions can be bypassed, but some, by nature, cannot fail to be rigorously applied. These measures of retaliation can only be lifted if the following five conditions are met: lifting of the state of siege; release of political prisoners and first of all Nelson Mandela; legalization of the political parties; abolition of apartheid; and negotiation with the Black organizations.
According to the South African Trade Organisation, the sanctions will affect only about 5 per cent of total South African exports and about 15 per cent of commercial exchanges between the United States and South Africa. More significant, however, is the fact that this cut is going to be added on to the distinct decline in economic relations between the two
1. "Necklace" - executions by placing a tyre filled with gasoline around a person's neck and setting it alight. This has been done to collaborators by youth the mass movement and reciprocally by collaborators against progressive activists.
3 did not even dare diseuss certain had evoked a few weeks earlier. PETER BLUMER
The decision of the US Congress is thus quite indicative of the attitude of a growing section of the ruling class in the United States. Even among the conservative senators, Reagan's policy is now being challenged. The position taken by congress illustrates in a striking way the fear of seeing a more and more radical mass movement develop in South Africa.
It has become evident for a majority of US politicians that maintaining the apartheid system as such is a long-term threat to American interests and to capitalist interests in general. For a whole period, these people thought that Botha would be able to resolve the conflicts running through the South African white bourgeoisie.
The hope for a political recomposition within the Nationalist Party and using the South African liberal lobbies constitutional projects that Botha as a means of pressure came down finally to a vulgar poliey of waitand-see, dubbed with the pretentious name of "constructive engagement."
But Botha dragged his feet about committing himself to structural reforms, while the South African liberal current fissured and shillyshallied. The state of emergency did not, at the end of the day, push back the mass movement, and US imperialism is very much afraid that the movement will come out of this test stronger and better organized.
The international press has focused attention solely on the sanctions against South Africa. But there are nonetheless catches included that illustrate quite well the concerns of the US members of congress. For example, the "Anti-Apartheid Act" calls for banning US aid to any group engaged in (or supporting) "necklace" actions or any other action involving
SANCTU - In El National (Caracas). By PANCHO
Caw Syndicate.
countries that started three years ago. Between 1984 and 1985, exchanges were already down by 15 percent.
Moreover, the political significance of these measures will no doubt have greater weight. It is indeed difficult for the South African government to explain that the US Congress is a den of individuals who have decided to sacrifice South Africa to the "communists."
Thus, the coming weeks and months are going to be marked by sharp debates within the Nationalist Party and the liberal current over how to respond to these new facts.
The nationalist leaderships reacted first by making a show of counterattacking. Pik Botha, the minister of foreign affairs, talked about the possibility of stopping purchases of US cereals and halting the sale of certain metals, such as platinum and gold.
For the moment, that is just big talk. South Africa's purchases of US wheat are relatively marginal, and the threat about mineral sales is more an attempt to push up prices in a situation of difficulty for South Africa's finances. On October 2, platinum went up by 41.6 dollars an ounce, topping 596.6 dollars. As for gold, the country's main export, a "political" price rise would not do an ailing economy any harm. Gold prices
The South African economist Duncan Innes explained recently: "Since every dollar's rise in the price of gold is worth about 200 million dollars to the South African economy if sustained for a year, a rise such as we have just seen from 350 to 420 dollars would bring in an extra 1.4 billion [thousand million] dollars. This is more than we could reasonably expect from direct foreign investments in a year. So even if sanctions cut off our supply of foreign capital, a gold price of around 420 dollars would still give us access to the kind of foreign exchange we will need to grow. But can gold remain at 420 dollars for a full year, which it has to do to earn us a full 1.4 billion dollars?" (2)
Among the liberals, the latest events are going to favor some regrouping. Already in September, it seemed possible that the two liberal parties — the Progressive Federal Party (PFP) and the New Republic Party (NRP) - might unite, given both parties' stagnating electoral. scores.
Moreover, the US sanctions are going to revive the debate in the white opposition between those who favor rapprochment with the United Democratic Front, and therefore may espouse the Black opposition's favorable view of a boycott of South Africa, and those - more in tune with the employers concerns - who think that disinvestment will not promote reform of the system.
The latter current obviously thinks that the Botha government is responsible for the present situation, and it is going to pound away on that theme more often. But these people also think that a sharpening of the economic crisis can limit the government's inclinations toward reform. The first reaction of the PFP parliamentary leader, Helen Suzman, was along those lines.
All the liberals alike, regardless of tendency, have great difficulty in laying out a clear strategy, inasmuch as they are running up against a white Afrikaaner majority that is not ready to follow them in supporting a rapid dismantling of the racist system. Recent partial elections have shown that Botha held the initiative, even electorally.
This government is going to try to use the US sanctions as a pretext to appeal for the defence of a "fortress besieged." In this context, the attitude taken by the South African big bourgeoisie is very quickly going to set the tone of the next parliamentary debates.
It is not certain that South Africa can muster the internal resources needed to overcome this new economic attack. Often cited is the example of the sanctions that the white regime of lan Smith in Rhodesia had to face in the 1970s. That country was in fact able to take advantage of the sanctions to build a modern industrial plant capable of substituting for goods formerly imported.
However, the South African case is quite different. On the one hand, the economy is more sophisticated and has much more ample resources. But Rhodesia, on the other hand, could count on its big South African neighbor to get around the sanctions. South Africa today does not have the backup to repeat that operation. Finally and most importantly the mass resistance movement is considerably stronger than it was in Rhodesia. Social agitation, strikes and confrontation are seriously affecting the health of businesses. Thus, given impetus also by several economic and political factors, the South African recession is going to continue.
It is, moreover, this recession -and not a moral point of view -that explains the substantial US disengagement from the country that has been going on for three years. Since 1982, more than 50 US companies have liquidated their holdings in South Africa, and companies such as Coca-Cola and General Electric have recently engaged in this withdrawal. In most cases, the American parts have been transferred to US investors, and in the final accounting US investment in South Africa has declined by half, falling today to 1,300 million dollars. A victory for the solidarity movement
These points must be stressed, because nothing could be more false than to think that the representatives of US imperialism have turned into sincere democrats, motivated by a deepseated urge to see social justice granted to South African Blacks.
However, this does not mean that these sanctions do not at the same time represent a victory for the solidarity movement in the United States, which over the last years has been able to step up its actions to make the US policy toward Pretoria indefensible.
The result has also to be credited to the South African movements, starting with the ANC and the trade-union movement, which have come out clearly for a boycott and thereby thrown a spanner into the propaganda arguing that the first victims of sanctions would be the Blacks.
ro The US measures are now going to favor actions by the anti-apartheid movement in Europe. There are no longer reasons why South African planes should continue to be allowed to land in London, Paris or elsewhere. But the new policy of a part of the imperialist bourgeoisie makes it more necessary than ever to clarify within the solidarity movements the underlying reasons for the big political maneuvers underway.
In this matter, the imperialists can only follow a vacillating policy, hesitating between their desire to put pressure on the Pretoria regime and their fear of a revolutionary explosion. A genuine solidarity movement can only be based on the workers' and anti-imperialist movement. Only a solidarity movement independent of official policies can highlight working conditions and repression in the Western firms operating in South Africa, actively support the unions, mobilize against the repression, and keep up the pressure to stop complicity with Pretoria. This is why the South African mass movement is now waiting for international support on the repression and the state of emergency.
2. •Weekly Mail, September 12, 1986.
International Viewpoint 27 October 1986 lad 13 mi