“This country is aligned against the legitimate demands of oppressed peoples.”
—Flyer distributed by the Committee on Southern African Liberation (COSAL), 1971
Transcription:
END U.S. INVESTMENT IN RACISM
A revolution is growing in Southern Africa, as African peoples fight to throw off the bonds of white racist oppression. The people are rebelling against conditions like these:
- In South Africa, Whites earn on the average sixteen times more than Blacks.
- There are only a thousand university places for Blacks, and nearly 50,000 for Whites-- yet Blacks outnumber Whites three to one.
- In Angola, 400 years of Portuguese "civilization" have produced a life expectancy of 28 years, an infant mortality rate of 60%, and an illiteracy rate of 98%.
The United States has not learned the lesson of Vietnam. Again this country is aligned against the legitimate demands of oppressed peoples. Behind the facade of supporting an arms embargo against South Africa, the U.S. contributes to and exploits that oppression:
- U.S. investments in South Africa, reaching $1 billion, earn a profit of 22%, twice the profit of most investments abroad. Low-paid Black labor makes that profit possible.
- In Mozambique and Angola, U.S.-supplied NATO weapons are used against African liberation movements and African civilians.
- In Angola, Gulf Oil's taxes pay the costs of the war against the freedom movements, costs that are passed on to you, the consumer.
The COMMITTEE ON SOUTHERN AFRICAN LIBERATION is committed to helping African peoples in their struggle against the oppression of racist regimes. We are engaged in or planning the following programs;
Education and Publicity: Through films, speakers, radio and television programs, articles, and demonstrations, we are trying to focus the public's attention on the plight of non-White peoples in Southern Africa and on U.S. complicity in their oppression.
Action: We are collecting money, clothing, books, and supplies to be send to guerrillas and other opponents of the regimes in Southern Africa. We are trying to bring pressure on U.S. corporations to withdraw their economic support from these regimes.
Date: 1971
Attribution: Flyer, 1971, Social Protest Collection, BANC MSS 86/157 c, Box 27:26, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.