------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
SOUTH AFRICA TAKES CLEAR ANTI-WAR STAND By Andre Powell and Johnnie Stevens Statements strongly critical of the United States by the former and current presidents of South Africa continue to reverberate as the mobilizations for Feb. 15 international protests against war with Iraq gain momentum. Former president and political prisoner Nelson Mandela's said in a speech on Jan. 30: "All Bush wants is Iraqi oil. Why are they not seeking to confiscate weapons of mass destruction from their ally Israel? "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the U.S. They don't care for human beings. Fifty-seven years ago, when Japan was retreating on all fronts, they decided to drop the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed a lot of innocent people. Some are still suffering the effects of those bombs." He continued: "Those bombs were not aimed against the Japanese, they were aimed against the Soviet Union to say, 'If you dare oppose what we do, this is what is going to happen to you.' Who are they now to pretend that they are the policemen of the world? To want to decide for the people of Iraq what they should do with their government and their leadership? "I am happy that the people of the world--especially those of the United States--are standing up and opposing their own president." These words from such a revered figure as Mandela have drawn the ire of the U.S. government and its corporate-controlled media, some of which tried to take credit for his freedom by falsely stating that the United States supported anti-apartheid sanctions. Just to set the record straight, the United States held out as long as it could on sanctions against the racist apartheid state. It finally honored them only because of the peoples' struggle, the same kind that now fights to stop Bush's oil war. South African President Thabo Mbeki has also called on his country and the inter national community to put the brakes on a U.S.-led military invasion of Baghdad. He said, "War would be devastating, not just to Iraq but also to the whole of the Middle East and to other countries." Both Mandela and Mbeki, however, have supported United Nations inspections in Iraq. Mbeki is chair of the newly formed African Union that represents the economic interests of 32 countries. On Feb. 4 it condemned the U.S. and British war threats against Iraq at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African National Congress is organizing South Africans to participate in a Stop the War coalition. Protest marches are scheduled for Cape Town and Johannesburg on Feb.15. On Feb 19, protesters in the capital of Pretoria will march to the U.S. Embassy. The South African Communist Party has signed the Cairo Declaration against the war on Iraq and in solidarity with Palestine, which was adopted on Dec. 18 at an international meeting chaired by the first president of Algeria, Ahmed Ben Bella. The Congress of South African Trade Unions says: "Global and civil society has rightly concluded that what drives Bush in Iraq are the oil interests of the large U.S. corporations that bankroll his administration. Bush's inability to provide credible leadership to the American people, particularly his hopeless performance on the economy, is yet another reason for a fresh military campaign." The trade union confederation concluded: "COSATU, our government, the people of South Africa, and all progressive people across the world stand united in declaring: No blood for oil." [Powell and Stevens were members of an International Action Center delegation at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.] - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
