11th March, 1982
Press Release from the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania,
Mission to the UK and Continental Europe,
212 Church Road,
London NW10.
BRITISH ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT PRACTICES APARTHEID ON LIBERATION MOVEMENTS
Once again, some influential members in the National Committee of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) are misusing this otherwise potentially useful organisation to pursue interests that are inimical to the interests of the people the organisation is supposed to be supporting – the oppressed Black people of South Africa (Azania).
This time they are using the conference on Southern Africa – The Time to Choose (11-14 March).
Many other events have in the past been organised by the AAM in the form of meetings, rallies, demonstrations, conferences etc., and these have been used by these elements within the AAM to divide our people in pursuance of their own interests.
At all these events, only one liberation movement is allowed to put the case of the oppressed people of South Africa in the form of the keynote speech; in spite of the fact that the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations organisation both recognise the PAC and the ANC, alongside SWAPO of Namibia.
A multiplicity of disjointed reasons have been given for the exclusion of the PAC. A few of them we mention below, accompanied by our own comments:
Since there are many movements in South Africa, there is not enough time for all of them to speak.
It is dishonest for the AAM to advance this reason because it normally does not recognise other movements except one. The own publications omit mention of them. Anyway, all the other movements in Azania recognise that the PAC and the ANC are their liberation movements and are quite prepared, though consultation, to be represented by them. No approach was made to the PAC by the AAM for us to consult on who, in case of lack of sufficient time, should represent us on the platform.
The ANC is more well-known
Where? In Azania, or in exile? We used to hear the same things about ZANU and ZAPU.
The liberation movements, themselves, do not want to be placed on the same platform.
The PAC takes its cue from the Organisation for African Unity where we are placed on the same platform. It would be ridiculous for us to agree to that kind of treatment at the OAU and refuse it elsewhere. We have never done so. We always welcome being with our brothers and sisters on any international platform. We also take our cue from our own people in Azania, who do not have such complexes. Zeph Mothuping, a member of the PAC National Executive and Winnie Mandela belonged to the same organisation The Black Parents Association and tackled together the same problems of oppression.
The PAC is not active.
Who is to determine that – the people of Azania or foreigners?We used to hear sugh things from the AAM in regard to ZANU too!
The PAC is racist?
On whom has the PAC practised racism?
It has no Whites in its leadership.
ZANU did not have whites either. Does that have anything to do with building up a non-racial society after independence?
All these explanations, of course, are not the real explanation. As in the case of ZANU, the real explanation is that the PAC, for refusing to be dictated to by that superpower, has been rejected by the Soviet Union. The elements in the AAM that try to isolate the PAC take their cues from that quarter, just as they used to in regard to Zimbabwe, where they ignored ZANU during Chimurenga.
That the divisive elements in the AAM seek to isolate the PAC, the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania and other mass movements is obvious also from their publications. Nowhere do any of these organisations appear in their publications. Khotso Seatholo, the President of the South African Youth Revolutionary Council, is standing trial for his life, charged under the Treason Act, which has a death penalty, yet the AAM is reticent about publicising this. Put this against the AAM’s wide publicity for ANC activists – it is a scandal that they have not done anything about Khotso.
Do these individuals really support the struggle in Azania, or do they simply want to prepare a way for control in Azania of a foreign nature?
Sadder still is the fact that they use well-meaning people for the promotion of their dubious activities, people who would want to have nothing to do with the division of the Azanian people. These individuals in the AAM, to grace their dangerous pursuits with respectability and decency, bring to their events prominent public figures, MPs, top clergy, respectable leaders of British political parties and, indeed, the United Nations.
The people of Azania want unity, and their best friends are those who help create conditions for this highly desirable unity, also sought by the Organisation for African Unity. Setting us against each other by using positions of advantage, an advantage emanating from finance and other diplomatic factors is the greatest disservice anyone can accord the oppressed people of Azania who want peace after freedom from apartheid.
By dividing the liberation movement, the AAM is practising apartheid and causing a great deal of harm. [ENDS]
Press Release from the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania,
Mission to the UK and Continental Europe,
212 Church Road,
London NW10.
BRITISH ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT PRACTICES APARTHEID ON LIBERATION MOVEMENTS
Once again, some influential members in the National Committee of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) are misusing this otherwise potentially useful organisation to pursue interests that are inimical to the interests of the people the organisation is supposed to be supporting – the oppressed Black people of South Africa (Azania).
This time they are using the conference on Southern Africa – The Time to Choose (11-14 March).
Many other events have in the past been organised by the AAM in the form of meetings, rallies, demonstrations, conferences etc., and these have been used by these elements within the AAM to divide our people in pursuance of their own interests.
At all these events, only one liberation movement is allowed to put the case of the oppressed people of South Africa in the form of the keynote speech; in spite of the fact that the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations organisation both recognise the PAC and the ANC, alongside SWAPO of Namibia.
A multiplicity of disjointed reasons have been given for the exclusion of the PAC. A few of them we mention below, accompanied by our own comments:
Since there are many movements in South Africa, there is not enough time for all of them to speak.
It is dishonest for the AAM to advance this reason because it normally does not recognise other movements except one. The own publications omit mention of them. Anyway, all the other movements in Azania recognise that the PAC and the ANC are their liberation movements and are quite prepared, though consultation, to be represented by them. No approach was made to the PAC by the AAM for us to consult on who, in case of lack of sufficient time, should represent us on the platform.
The ANC is more well-known
Where? In Azania, or in exile? We used to hear the same things about ZANU and ZAPU.
The liberation movements, themselves, do not want to be placed on the same platform.
The PAC takes its cue from the Organisation for African Unity where we are placed on the same platform. It would be ridiculous for us to agree to that kind of treatment at the OAU and refuse it elsewhere. We have never done so. We always welcome being with our brothers and sisters on any international platform. We also take our cue from our own people in Azania, who do not have such complexes. Zeph Mothuping, a member of the PAC National Executive and Winnie Mandela belonged to the same organisation The Black Parents Association and tackled together the same problems of oppression.
The PAC is not active.
Who is to determine that – the people of Azania or foreigners?We used to hear sugh things from the AAM in regard to ZANU too!
The PAC is racist?
On whom has the PAC practised racism?
It has no Whites in its leadership.
ZANU did not have whites either. Does that have anything to do with building up a non-racial society after independence?
All these explanations, of course, are not the real explanation. As in the case of ZANU, the real explanation is that the PAC, for refusing to be dictated to by that superpower, has been rejected by the Soviet Union. The elements in the AAM that try to isolate the PAC take their cues from that quarter, just as they used to in regard to Zimbabwe, where they ignored ZANU during Chimurenga.
That the divisive elements in the AAM seek to isolate the PAC, the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania and other mass movements is obvious also from their publications. Nowhere do any of these organisations appear in their publications. Khotso Seatholo, the President of the South African Youth Revolutionary Council, is standing trial for his life, charged under the Treason Act, which has a death penalty, yet the AAM is reticent about publicising this. Put this against the AAM’s wide publicity for ANC activists – it is a scandal that they have not done anything about Khotso.
Do these individuals really support the struggle in Azania, or do they simply want to prepare a way for control in Azania of a foreign nature?
Sadder still is the fact that they use well-meaning people for the promotion of their dubious activities, people who would want to have nothing to do with the division of the Azanian people. These individuals in the AAM, to grace their dangerous pursuits with respectability and decency, bring to their events prominent public figures, MPs, top clergy, respectable leaders of British political parties and, indeed, the United Nations.
The people of Azania want unity, and their best friends are those who help create conditions for this highly desirable unity, also sought by the Organisation for African Unity. Setting us against each other by using positions of advantage, an advantage emanating from finance and other diplomatic factors is the greatest disservice anyone can accord the oppressed people of Azania who want peace after freedom from apartheid.
By dividing the liberation movement, the AAM is practising apartheid and causing a great deal of harm. [ENDS]
