Prexy Nesbitt, a Chicago-based anti-apartheid activist, delivered this talk at the 41st International Convention of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America in Cleveland, Ohio addressing labor, business, and imultinational corporate capital. 13 pages

Nesbitt, Prexy

English

Columbia College Chicago: Digital Commons

Columbia College ChicagoDigital Commons @ Columbia College ChicagoRozell 'Prexy' Nesbitt Writings and Speeches Rozell "Prexy" Nesbitt Anti-Apartheid Collection9-15-1976Talk to United Electrical, Radio and MachineWorkers of America, 41st International ConventionPrexy NesbittColumbia College ChicagoFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/nesbittwritingsPart of the Arts and Humanities CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Rozell "Prexy" Nesbitt Anti-Apartheid Collection at Digital Commons @ ColumbiaCollege Chicago. It has been accepted for inclusion in Rozell 'Prexy' Nesbitt Writings and Speeches by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons @ Columbia College Chicago. For more information, please contact drossetti@colum.edu.Recommended CitationNesbitt, Prexy, "Talk to United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, 41st International Convention" (1976). Rozell'Prexy' Nesbitt Writings and Speeches. 8.https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/nesbittwritings/8Talk to U.E., 41st International Convention Cleveland, September 15, 1976 Mr. Chairman, Officer of the U.E., Brothers and Sisters of the U.E., Friends, Companeros from District Council I am honored to address you this morning. On August 25 this year Rowland 1 Evans, and Robert Novak wriote in the following in a washPost article called "Last Hope for Rhodesia": 11 It may be too much to hope that any sensible plan still has time to win political backing, given the racial passions in Southern Africa today. But without it, the outcome is racial war which could send its sparks far beyond Rhodesia. That is why cool-headed officials in Washington are willing to study anything (emphasis mine) with even a slim chance of averting the catastrophe" In the Boston-based Xion Science Monitor a day later (August 26, 1976) appeared an article entitled "Black Power: Can , South Africa Control It? 11 It said that what was happening today in South Africa was black power (pure and simple) black political power for a reversal of the present order with "black power across the length and breadth of the land." I want to stand before you and say unequivocally that these newspapers and many other media today are guilty of blatent and utter distortion. What is happening in Africa today-regardless of what David Chancellor, Brinkley-Huntley or any other overnight Africa experts might say - is not a race war. It is not a fight of black versus white. It is instead the drive of a people to capture their own destinies, to own and control their own resources regardless of how sought after they are by whatever number of insatiable , multinational corp~rations or predator nations. And, on one critical level the present drama in Southern Africa reflects a struggle between labor and multinational corporate capital. What is happening in Africa today at this moment in the Kissinger shuffle . is not a desire to "avert a catastrophic clash of the races." It is instead a desire to prevent from coming topower in three remaining key regions, Rhodesia , (Zimbabwe), Southwest Africa (Namibia), and South Africa, African governments which will be dedicated to preserving Africa and her resources for the benefit of the masses of the African people and not giving new flags, anthems and Mercedes Benzes to benefit the General Electric companies, the Westinghouses, the Dart Industries, the Motorolas and the Honeywells, and a few of the indigenous elite. Some points being presented to us are utter and abominable fabrication. For example, the armed struggle in Rhodesia. "The Lone Ranger" is no'b going there to keep a war from breaking out. War has been a reality in Rhodesia since 1967 and the attacks in Wanki_ Valley by members of Zapu. Our government is not misinformed, it knows that (relate story of Columbia University class with "game 3 . parks rangers" freshly back speaking about the Wanki_ invasion). Kissinger is performing his dance routine in Africa now:::-: as part of an effort to keep the transfer of power from taking place. "Superboy" is there not out of concern for world peace, or for the future of white "Rhodesians,* "The Kiss II dances today in Africa to put in power a government which will keep the door open for U.S. investment and trade. Then speak Let us be clear and fair ad ho~ on future of Black Af rican Leadership, e. g . , Jesse Jackson But l et us back up a l itt l e and l ook at some har d f acts and speaking to the o I C's August 31, 1976 Kissinger said .•• We are the worlds' strongest and technologically most advanced military establishment. Toda y we. are at peace for the. first time in over a decade. No America n is in combat anywhere in the world~:. In Africa we can, if we will participate in a new birth of independence and racial peace;2we can, if we will, help shape a- new international dedication to Africa's economic de velopment , .. 11 *Ta l k on _! _he signi f i c ance of a $2 bi l l ion dol l a r plan to suppor t white Rhodesian racism, cash guarantees to those who would stay and to those ~~a would go for them to move to South Afr~ ca or Australia!!! l l 4 covert operations/month over last 10 years 2. racial peace= growing #s of Klu Klux Klans, Amer. Nazi Parties, especially within urban police departments gain some strength from some cold history •••. Africa has some 33 countries, all of which were (except Ethiopia and Liberia) until the late 1950's, lf l.u;_<?pean colonies. Southern Africa is a particular sub area. It is made ~P of S.Afr., Namibia, Rhodesia, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Lesothoe, Swaziland and Botswana. I would include also Zaire and Tanzania as a part of this It is best thought of as all being the labor reserve, the labor transit comp, for the Witwaters ___ Industrial complex, also known as the West's "Industrial Workshop". For almost all of those countries economics and political and social relations are based around sending people, usually men, but not limited to men, to work in the mines, factories and farms of the Republic of South Africa or its younger sibling in crime - Rhodesia. Mozambique - struggling to lessen its inherited dependency - sends over 200, 000 annually. Malawi, until recently sent nearly 60°/4 of its male labor force. Indeed a whole wing of South Africa's industrial structure was the WENELA. And WENELA viewed the whole of Africa as its potential cheap labor reservoir -its storefront day labor center. This region (known as Southern Africa (distinguishable from South) is very rich in national resources. From diamonds, coal and gold to titanium, platinum and uranium to agricultural products like c;;,...otton, coffee and sisa.l Quote Thompson, Butler book 353-354 Let us look briefly at South Africa, the workshop - Sketch Briefly Read Vorster Quote on Black s control, control, control, is the vicio1us game for the b lack worker in South Africa then read Opt __ 2 _ Nat Sec Memo 39 US companies involved as pillars of apartheid GE the locomotives and the banks (record figures on the bank loans) US Foreign Policy in Africa in two lights US F-0reign Policy in context of successfull nat lib struggles situation today finish with quote from to 6th Pan African congress the clarity the Africa lib movements give to all of us struggling today urge specific actions, give context of of labor -------movement to perform its international duty It is not a question of whether or not we - the USA and American people - want to get involved in this fascist state, South Africa We are involved. Militarily, politically, economically, on the cultural level, the USA is one of the pillars along with France, West Germany, Britain and Japan supporting the South African apartheid system. Our Pentagon is subtly weaving S.Africa into the so-called free worlds' defense network against so-called Soviet aggression in the Indian Ocean. Our Pentagon is presently pressing the Transkei - one of several fraudulent sch }1 e ~ called Bantustans which pose as South Africa having created them as independent states. Our Pentagon is proposing construction 6f a naval base in the Transkei. 0 There are some 500+ U.S. companies directly involved in the economy of South Africa through subsid iaries, branches, etc.etc. American Cy _______ , Ampex, Amco, ARCO, AVCO, Boeing, W~stinghouse Burlington, Chrysler, DuPont, Ford, GM, Firestone, Essa, GE, Honeywell, ITT, IBM, Litten Industries, Polaroid, Union carbide, Dart and Xerox, Kennecott, cartex, Mobil and Shell and others are some of the principals who invested in 1973 an estimated $1.24 billion in the or racist economy which earned at a 17% profit ratep More expansion approx $462 mil, is planned, carter alone is now doing a $134 million expansion of 1/3 of the orig facilities. The invest are assisted by the US Dept of the Treasury which gives them total deduction from their US taxes for any taxes they pay to the South African gov't. Our presence is also reflected in bank loans whi ch in the last 2 years total over 500 million dollars. Banks like Citicorp, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Chase ignore UN passed sanction against regimes like South Africa and instead are bankrolling the system of modern day slavery which exists there. Thus, Uncle Sam the Pusher Man in the Vietnam War becomes Massa Sam the slaveholder in the context of South Africa. And a similar pattern exists in Rhodesia. In essence, then South Africa and Rhodesia are prime examples of the cheap labor paradises which are talked about in .... v ____ _ convention's resolution on "the menace of the multina1i:.ional 11 where it points out that over 1 million American jobs have been lost in the last 5 years as the multinationals relocate in parts of the world where they can get cheap wage-slave labor 13A on GE GE in South Africa a Corporate Int joint ventures, subsidiares, sales 5 divisions 600 million in overseas sai es SA for GE manufacturers household appliances annual sales 20 million minimum 55 millions in turnovers huge plant near Jo'burg 1,500 employees March 71 463 salaried white managers min 30.5¢ /hour Africans 750 = African 43.9¢/~ 46 .5 /hour remainder= colof ed and Asian colored range to 59¢ 1.46¢/hr unskilled whites 1.60-1.80/hr artisans 7 Talk to U.E. Cleveland Sept 15, 76 On US Foreign Policy US Foreign Policy in Africa today must be viewed in two different lights. One is a subtle tinted, well shaded set of verbal deceptions, approximations and untruths. - This is what is said: it is what the daily papers present to the American working people. The other is the naked, glaring, white light of what is actually being done. It is likeable to the fact that the US state dep't or the chief executive can on the one hand piOlllil.y and wordily denounce "the loss of human rights in Chile" (beeause of the very regine which it brought into the world) And on the other hand in practice it can give 2 billion$ to support and maina ain the same fasci:ist military regime. On the one hand from time to time the 1. b US spokesmen decry - through its renown humanitarian spokesmen like Robert Macnamara, President of the World Bank, - statistics like 1 out of every 300 men, women, and children having been assasinated in Chile since the coup. On the other hand in the same 3 years since the coup the US has let 400 refugees and their families settle (while in a shorter period we settle 120,000 Vietnamese, [parallel to our policy of accepting white South Africans and difficulty for South African refugees]) other con text era of nat lib struggles successful ones 1 There is however another way in which us Foreign Policy, governmental us corporate involvement, should be viewed. That is that this is the era of the successful national liberation struggle. Vietnam, Cambodia, in Africa-Mozambique, Guine Bmssau, and Angola mark areas where a peoples 's national force have struggled for independence from colonia.l shackles and for ending exploitation and mastery over their own resources and destinies. It is in this way that the gov't keeps getting us into s i tuations where it, (rather we,'cause its our sons, brothers, grandsons, doing the marching through booby-trapped unfamiliar and hostile lands) is on the wrong side and ends up playing a hopeless and costly game of catch-up. Never be mist~ken - we were nto so involved in the Angola situation because of the communist (Soviet or Cuban) bogeymen. We began being involved there in 1960-61 when under the Kennedy Admin., then head of the c.I.A. Dulles selected Holden Roberts (FNLA head) him. It was not a civil to be our man in Ang©la and began bankrolling xiulMx*•*•xaxi•••••~•K-war. we were WxD~xU~ involved through the US mercenaries, our bankrolling the vicious forces of UNITA, FNLA, our jointly ma.naged airlifts with the South Africans, we were involved as those who would stop the thrust of genuine African 1 iberation ./a thrust we too know for all of us want to not live in misery but to control our own creative e apabilities, our own lives and nto have them run by some MNc.\ Just as in 1964 when we put together airlifting Belgian troops and mercenaries into the /0 Congo after Belgium had mailed to contain the liberation forces hea de d by Patrice Lurnumba who we killed so, too, when Portugal and or the puppet armies of FNLA, UNITA failed to contain the MPLA we stepped in with our co-mobsters the South African Government and an international set of mercenaries. But the effort failed. So today with the failure of our allies South Africa, the Lone Ranger with his silver bullet has begun his precarmpus, overt intervention into Southern Africa. It is not just a fomlish dance step, this gov't has taken a step which, as professor Immanuel Wallerstein called it is "a magnum step towards our sending troops into Southern Africa 11 The situation today is simple and clear. In uranium-rich SWA or Namibia the people led by the SWAPD are conducting a successful war for their freedom and genuine independence. In Rhodesia or Zimbabwe too, the Rhodesian African people-and some whites and indians Note White evacu-Zimba.bweans all - there the struggle is further along and the white supremacist government is in desperate trouble - clearly losing the ation protracted struggle. And in South Africa itself a most historical rate (not a color war) thing has happened - forces have been let loose which are aiming at changing the whole thing the 150,000 people, regular wor k ing people, like you and me out in a three day general strike / most significant ~hing especially in South Africa's condition <? I/ incredible lesson to the rest of uae struggling f or t the right to not live in misery or live alcoholized or live doped into a stupor. They are providing lessons, too, on how to reconstruct social relations in a society so as to end the oppressive _________ _ in which most women live; but above all, they are providing lessons on how to create, a new mode of production in which our lives are based on our running our own creative capabilities, our own destinies not some multinationals time clock, some array of trapped computer run bureaucrats, a tiny elite of the super-rich, being the be-all, end-all to our right to b e able not only to work and not be in the unemployment line but to work prodµctively and creatively. Story of s _____ Machel's "I relate to you not because you are black, but because you are oppressed." Story of Amil __ Cabral's comrade I am a guest at this convention. I am pleasured and honored to be such for the UE is known throughout the world as a fighting union. For this reason I wish to make some concrete suggestions. And because the us labor movement has largely been silent - and must counter forces see article like the manipulated AFL CIA's, oops! AFL CIO's African American the "AFLCIA Gov on Labor center (dominated by Irving Brown) And because the labor Safari in Af':t. ica" in mag movement must meet its historic responsibility, I suggest that the UE counter-Spy 1?-to 1. F.irst to define/itsiunembership and to the general public a position on southern Africa that is oriented to a democratic, pro-national independence policy. This position would clearly define itself ___________ in opposition to Kissinger, rather than being a set of pressure tactics operating within the framewe~k that he has posed. 2. Push for recognition of the Peoples Republic of Angola through 1 the US delegation to the UN and for normalize economic and political relationships with Mozambique. 3. \" q\ ,.1?,1 repea 1 t he t B¥rd Amendment that sanctions the importation of chrome from Rhodesia. Fully support the UN sanction boycott of Rhodesia. ~ 4. Recognize the Zimbabwe liberation movements as the legitimate political expression of the black majority. 5. Urge immidiate independence to Namibia in accordance with the UN's policy. Recognition of SWAPO as the legitimate political expression of the black majority 6. Work for immediate full political rights to all in South Africa. Support to allggroups in South Africa that work for this demand. Demand the civil liberties of political prisoners and persecutees, _ grant them political asylum in the United States. I} 7 •. Work to minimize u.s. economic and diplomatic intervention in ! southern and .central Africa so as to keep the U.S. from trying to i dominate the nations of this area. Specifically, cut runilitary and related foreign aid to Kenya and Zaire. 8. Press for a set of domestic demands for America that would also be in opposition to southern Africa.n involvement, e.g. demand of major international banks that they not invest in South Africa, but use the funds for investment in redlined areas in American cities. 9. Financially support the underground SACTU recalling that trade unionism is illegal for blacks in South Africa. (letter from SACTU and this in line with resolution in getting contacts with working people) Again, I am grateful to have been a part of this convention. I hope that I have said some things that are worthwhile and which help us all to move forward. 

Talk to United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, 41st International Convention

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Talk to United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, 41st International Convention

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