unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/12/89)
South Africa in recent years.
In reply to a question, he said that even if South Africa managed
to circumvent certain sanctions, that would cost money. He
urged an embargo on technology, an area where the South African
economy was particularly vulnerable.
There were increasing numbers of whites who wanted to eliminate
apartheid; but there were also significant numbers who would not
even "sacrifice a tree in their garden" to get rid of
apartheid. International pressure had to remain on South
Africa.
JOHN VENDERVERKEN, General Secretary of the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), said that despite
the talk of reform in South Africa, nothing had changed: the
state of emergency declared four years ago remained in force and
the structures of the apartheid system remained intact. The
regime continued to use force to suppress even peaceful protests
and demonstrations. Its strategy in talking about negotiations
aimed at exchanging one form of apartheid for another.
Transnational corporations had a major influence on the future
of apartheid and could contribute positively to a peaceful
solution in South Africa, he said. However, many major
transnationals were not only unwilling to join and support the
international campaign for sanctions, but were willing partners
of the regime, and worked to support the current system. In
l988, the ICFTU had published a comprehensive list, exposing
those companies that claimed to have withdrawn while maintaining
their interests in the country through licensing arrangements or
franchising.
Where disinvestment had taken place, it had generally been a
policy aimed at protecting a company's financial interests with
little regard for workers' rights.
Efforts by transnational corporations to create an impression
that sanctions against South Africa would harm working people
had been rebutted forcefully by trade unions. Both the Congress
of South African Trade Unions and the National Council of Trade
Unions had stated clearly that they believed imposition of
sanctions was the last peaceful measure left to put pressure on
South Africa. But the terms of disinvestment should be subject
to negotiation with the trade unions concerned.
He said that the ICFTU called for:
--Extension of the arms embargo to include sales by South
African subsidiaries of transnational corporations;
--Tightening of the definition of arms sales to include all types
of equipment intended for use by South Africa's military,
security and police services;
--A ban on sales of machinery to South African arms-producing
companies;
--A ban on the purchase of South African-produced arms and
strengthened international monitoring to ensure compliance by
all major industrial countries;
--Ending of investment guarantees, export credits and all trade
promotion measures; a product by product programme to divert
import and export trade from South Africa; and prevention of new
investment in South Africa by transnationals.
He said there should be a programme of compulsory disinvestment
by transnationals -- including all those companies which had
been identified by the independent black trade union movement as
being in violation of internationally accepted standards of
labour practice culminating in the adoption of mandatory United
Nations sanctions to endorse the economic isolations of South
Africa.
MARION GRAFIN DUNHOFF, Editor and Publisher of Die Zeit, Federal
Republic of Germany, said that Bonn's South African policy was
that apartheid could not be reformed, but had to be abolished
and that dialogue must begin immediately with the legitimate
representatives of the South African people.
She said sanctions and disinvestment measures had existed for
years, but the effect on apartheid had been negligible. The
only sanctions that would be effective would be of a financial
nature, not based on trade. The Federal Republic of Germany was
opposed to economic sanctions to achieve political ends.
Asked why she did not believe that negotiations could not go
forward along with increased trade sanctions, Ms. Dunhoff said
she did not think that sanctions should be abolished, but that
they had not been very effective. She felt that black people
were more pragmatic than white people, who were more dogmatic.
Panel Membership
Members of the Panel of eminent persons on the public hearing on
transnational corporations in South Africa on Namibia are:
--Abdelatif Al-Hamad, Secretary-General of the Arab Development
Bank and former Minister of Finance of Kuwait;
--Canaan Banana, first President of Zimbabwe and former
Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe;
--Anatoly Gromyko, Director of the African Institute of the USSR
Academy of Sciences;
--Dame Judith Hart, member of the United Kingdom House of Lords;
--Kamal Hossain, former Minister of Law and Parliamentary
Affairs, former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh and an Expert
Adviser to the United Nations Commission on Transnational
Corporations;
--Mochtar Kusuma Atmadja, former Foreign Minister of Indonesia;
--Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature; lecturer and
teacher of the University of Ife (Nigeria);
--Lowell Weicker, former United States Senator from Connecticut;
--Flora MacDonald, former member of Parliament of Canada;
Secretary of State for External Affairs; Minister of Employment
and Immigration; Minister of Communications;
--Edward Seaga, former Prime Minister of Jamaica; and
--Francis Blanchard, former Director-General of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO).
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
---
Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-