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Page 2 The Yoke March 19, 1985 EDITORIALS The election is around the corner, and the -r candidates for office will be out to attack you. They will try everything to convince you to vote for them, so be prepared. Here are some pointers for the preparation of the attack: first when he asks you to vote for him, ask yourself these questions. What can he do for you? What does he stand for? Is he for the students, administration, or Fayetteville State University as a whole and why? And most of all if he loses, will he fade out of the picture or will he still stay close with the Student Government Association office to make sure things happen? The main problem with the former losing candidates for SGA office was the term “election” was defined as a popularity contest. The candidates were everywhere smiling and conversing with their fellow Broncos, and once the election was over, smiles turned to frowns and conversations turned to silence. You make sure you observe this candidate thoroughly because his true color does not really show when he tries to sway you on his side. So beware, and be prepared for the con artist, because that candidate's true color shows after the election. If he stays concerned and if he stays interested in the FSU community, he is your man; if he disappears, he was only in it for the popularity. Make sure your vote makes a change for the best instead of for the worst! Who Profits From Apartheid? Dr. JVlanning Along the Cotor Line (March 1985), Part One of a Two-Part Series South Africa is unquestionably the most immoral and repressive state on the face of the earth. Despite the Reagan administra tion's cozy and supportive relations with apartheid, dubbed “constructive engagement,” the reality of its tyranny is too monumental to obscure. Since 1967 over six and one-half million citizens have been arrested and tried for pass law violations; hundreds of opposition leaders have been crippled, tortured and even murdered by apartheid police; over one hundred laws restrict and censor the press; and since June 1961 fifteen hundred people have been “banned” by the government's Minister of Law and Order. The continuing nonviolent protests throughout the U.S., led by civil rights and religious leaders, has helped to highlight these brutalities, and has made President Reagan's support for this Nazi-like regime more difficult to justify. But larger questions remain. Who benefits materially from the existence and perpetuation of a state whose legal justification is white supremacy? Does the investment in U.S. corporations in the regime help or hurt American taxpayers and workers? Any analysis of the political economy of South Africa illustrates that the U.S. is decisive in the running of the racist government. American corporations control 70 percent of the South Africa computer market - in fact, an IBM computer runs the stock exchange in Johannesburg. OWK...YOU CAN BE BLACK, 55 College Press Service Goodyear and Firestone sell tires to the regime, which are used for police forces. Several multi national oil companies, including Exxon, Caltex and Mobil, have sold oil to South Africa in direct violation of the 1979 OPEC embargo. In all, about 20 percent of all foreign direct investment in South Africa comes from US firms. As of 1983, for example, Mobil Oil had $426 million invested inside the country, with 3,577 workers; General Motors, $243 million and 5,038 workers; Newmont, $127 millionand 13,535 workers; Union Carbide, $54.5 million and 2,465 workers. Control Data had $17.8 million in sales in 1983 inside South Africa, a paultry figure compared to IBM's sales of $262 million and workforce of 1,800. American banks, led by Chase Manhattan, Chemical, Bankers Trust, First Boston and Manufacturers Hanover, had outstanding loans totaling nearly $4 billion as of 1984. The reasons for U.S. corporate interest in South Africa are easy to explain. Despite the union membership of about 350,000 African laborers, the vast majority of the nonwhite labor force is unorganized. Strikes are illegal, and nonwhite union activism is viciously repressed. The majority of Black workers live in poverty. Even according to the biased statistics of the apartheid government, African households below the official poverty level include 62 percent in Johannesburg, 65 percent in Durban, and 70 percent in Port Elizabeth. Racial segregation lowers nonwhite labor costs. Using May 1983 figures, the average monthly wages in all manufactur ing firms was $1,290 for whites, $460 for Indians, $365 for Coloureds, and $320 for Africans. According to the Survey of Current Business, U.S. companies averaged 18.7 percent annual rates of return on capital investment between 1979 to 1982. Apartheid laws and the rigid regimentation of nonwhite labor reap their rewards. How does this investment affect Americans? Researchers for the Washington Office on Africa and the Civil Rights Department of the United Steelworkers of America recently prepared a brief study on this issue. For several years, the U.S. steel industry has experienced a state of rapid collapse. Between 1974 and 1982 domestic steel production declined by 50 percent. In 1983, the seven largest steel producers reported losses of $2.7 billion that year alone. Major industrial towns dependent upon steel productivity to generate jobs have had staggeringly high rates of joblessness. Simultaneously, the U.S. steel industry has ciphoned domestic profits and reinvested them in Third World nations where authoritarian regimes guaranteed a low wage, non- unionized labor force. Imports from foreign nations producing steel now exceed one fifth of the domestic market. And since 1975, U.S. imports of apartheid's steel have increased 5,000 percent. South African steel is largely produced by a state-owned firm, the Iron and Steel Corporation (ISCOR). All of the major U.S. companies which have experienc ed difficulties producing steel at home - ARMCO, Allegheny Ludlum, U.S. Steel, Phelps Dodge, and others - have invested millions into apartheid's industries. Recently, Chicago's Southworks steel plant, owned by U.S. Steel, laid off several thousand workers, on the rationale that U.S. workers weren't sufficiently productive and that the plant wasn’t making profits. Then local steelworkers learned that the steel beams used to build a new state office building in Chicago had been imported from South Africa - despite the fact that Southworks produces the identical steel beam. Even more outrageous was the fact that Continental Illinois Bank has loaned money to ISCOR, which had produced these beams. In short, Chicago laborers were giving their hard-earned wages to a local bank, which in turn financed a competitor which was stealing their jobs! There are dozens of similar examples. The Phelps Dodge copper mining corporation has a poor record on domestic labor relations, and has called for wage cuts from its workers. But in its mine in South Africa, Blacks earn under 40 cents an hour, and labor 60 hours per week. Investment in apartheid not only buoys the racist regime, and oppresses African workers - it also destroys jobs and neighborhoods inside the U,S, Wage labor cannot compete with slave labor. We have a direct moral and economic interest in cutting the corporate cords between the U.S. and apartheid. The Voice ^itor Genevieve M. Wilson Managing Editor. Michael Gaddy Business/Advertising Manager Margaret Phillips _ Margie Council Sports Editor Marion Crowe Editor ..Lisa Harley Feature Editor r, jones Rachel Asbury Jackie Autry Michele Ballard Demetria Berry Krystal Bryant •Vivian Clarke Garret Davis Advisor. Clifford Duncan Darvin Greene Lisa Harley Jackie Harris Lisa Herring Larry Hilton Shari Johnson Yolanda Johnson Anita D, Locus Charles Lyons Eric D, Majette David Oliver Beatrice Patterson Wesley Person Wanda Smith Phyllis Thompson Terry Wingate Jeffrey Womble Cathy Wooten Annette Smith Diane Harris Dr. Loleta Wood Foster
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