March 25, 1985
The Voice
Page 3
EDITORIAL
Did you know that many students enrolled at FSU
are non-voting members of the Student Government
Association (SGA)? You say to yourself, “Who
Cares?” Don't stop reading this editorial until you
realize that the SGA plays an important role in the
functioning of your university. And that is the most
important part, the SGA exists only for you--the
students at FSU.
Some of the most important, but often unknown
functions of the SGA deal with student involvement.
Your SGA wants to make university (college) life as
interesting as possible for you, it attempts to attain this
goal by sponsoring social and cultural events to
enhance the opportunities of growth and development
for all of you.
SGA gives students a chance to get a look at the
democratic process, while at the same time, it gives
students a way to get involved with their school and
enjoy extra activities to go along with the studying
ahead of them.
In addition, your SGA is a member of the University
of North Carolina Association of Student Government
(UNC-ASG), and works closely with that association
to promote positive change throughout the university
system. Knowing all these things, a knowledgeable
person Uke you will want to become a voting member
of SGA. No matter which curriculum you are enrolled
in, there is a place for you in the SGA. Elections will be
held March 26 and 27. If you don't run, at least vote!
Get involved, it's the best way to stay interested in
school.
If at any time during the remainder of the year you
have questions about SGA, or if you just want to talk,
stop by the SGA office located in the Student Center.
The SGA invites you to get involved.
Who Profits From Apartheid?
“Along The Color Line"!March
By Dr. Manning Marable
South Africa is not simply a
police state which denies
democratic rights to the
overwhelming majority of its
people. It is not just a racially
segregated society, in which 3
million Black children suffer
from malnutrition, and in
which infant mortality rates per
thousand live births are 13 for
whites and 90 for Africans. It is
not solely a place where
percapita spending on
education is $1,115 for whites
and $170 for Blacks; and where
doctor/patient ratios are 1:330
for whites and 1:19,000 for
Africans. It represents in its
totality a renegade, fascist
state, a government lacking in
basic human decency, a regime
which views all people of color
as permanently inferior. Its
grotesque character and
Hitlerian social system would
hardly seem the place in which
historically oppressed people
would find any reason to
cooperate, much less gain
profits from.
And yet the great irony is
1985-Part Two of a Two Part Series
that the one nation which
maintains the closest ties with
the political encomy of
apartheid, other than the U.S.
and the United Kingdom, is the
state of Israel. The February,
1985 issue of Israeli Foreign
Affairs documents an
extraordinarily close relation
ship between Tel Aviv and
Pretoria. Jane Hunter, a
Jewish progressive, notes that
Israel's claim of $83 million in
exports to South Africa does
not include “polished
diamonds, Israel's top export
at $1 billion a year, which are
imported from DeBeer's
Central Selling Organization;”
“military transactions,
probably several hundred
million dollars annually;” joint
undertakings such as Iskoor, “a
marriage of the South African
Steel Corporation and Koor, a
corporation owned by Israel's
Histadrut that conducts much
trade with South Africa.”
Conversely, South African
firms provide 35 percent of all
non-U.S. foreign investment in
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%
IS-
Israel.
The military links between
Israel and apartheid are even
more striking accordning to
Hunter. South Africa has
purchased Israeli attack boats
“equipped with ship-to-ship
Gabriel missies, Dabur Coastal
patrol boats and Kfir jet
fighters, radar stations,
electronic fences, infiltration
alarm systems, night vision
apparatus.” South Africa is
instrumental in the defense
posture of the Israeli state as
well. Apartheid firms help
Israel to improve its own
modest steel industry; they are
helping to bankrole “develop
ment of Israel's fighter bomber
for the 1990's, the Lavi.” Such
extensive ties help to explain
why some American Jewish
leaders were reluctant to
become involved in the Free
South Africa Movement
demonstrations this winter.
But the fact that “Israelis have
trained South Africans in
everything from naval
construction to counterin
surgency techniques” must be
addressed by Americans who
maintain unquestioned
support for Israeli's policies,
while at the same moment offer
moral condemnations of the
brutalities of the apartheid
regime.
Black Americans are not
immune from criticism on these
grounds. For nearly a decade,
the Reverend Leon Sullivan
has pushed the so-called
“Sullivan Principles” concept,
which sets racial standards for
U.S. firms doing business with
apartheid. In theory, the
signatories of the Sullivan
Principles attempt to humanize
the barbarism of the system by
promoting desegregated
workplace facilities, mandated
equal pay for jobs, and training
non-whites for “supervisory,
administrative, clerical and
technical jobs.” But according
to Sullivan's own annual
reports, progress along such
lines is at best marginal. In the
1983 report, it was noted that
white employees filled 94
percent of all new managerial
posts, and that non-white
workers “lost ground steadily
in clerical - administrative
programs over the last three
years.” About three fourths of
all unskilled workers in firms
signing the Sullivan Principles
were Africans, while only 0.3
percent were white. Two
percent of all managers were
Black, 97 percent were white.
Clearly, the strategy of reform-
from-within makes about as
much sense as trying to
convince Hitler passively to
give up fascism.
There are also hundreds of
Afro-American artists and
athletes who have performed in
South Africa during the past
decade, obtaining huge fees to
entertain white audiences.
Their presence legitimates the
regime, providing tactical
support and comfort to the
opponents of Black freedom.
Just a short list of these
entertainers includes: Tina
Turner, Aretha Franklin,
Eartha Kitt, Johnny Mathis,
Stephanie Mills, Della Reese,
Betty Wright, the Staple
Singers, Ray Charles, and
Nikki Giovanni. Throughout
the U.S., Blacks have
organized to boycott the
performances and records of all
artists - Black and white - who
have profited from apartheid.
The system of tyranny in South
Africa is crumbling, and within
the next decade will fall before
the forces of democracy. What
we do inside the U.S. can speed
up that inevitable process.
The Voice
Editor Genevieve M. Wilson
Managing Editor Michael Gaddy
Business/Advertising Manager Margaret Phillips
Margie Council
Sports Editor Marion Crowe
Layout Editor Lisa Harley
Feature Editor Howard R. Jones
Rachel Asbury
Jackie Autry
Michele Ballard
Demetria Berry
Krystal Bryant
Vivian Clarke
Garret Davis
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
Deatrice Patterson
Wesley Person
Wanda Smith
Phyllis Thompson
Terry Wingate
Jeffrey Womble
Cathy Wooten
Annette Smith
Diane Harris
Advisor Dr. Loleta Wood Foster