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{SPEAKER name="Freda Brown"}
imperial aim.

[00:00:05]
We are convinced that this meeting in Rwanda and the coming WIDF council meeting in Moscow

[00:00:12]
will decide on further activities on national and international levels

[00:00:19]
to strengthen the campaign of solidarity with the women and the people of Southern Africa.

[00:00:26]
We should urge that the thirtieth anniversary

[00:00:31]
of the Proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

[00:00:36]
in December this year be used to focus attention

[00:00:41]
on the struggle against Apartheid.

[00:00:44]
Let us ask, what is Apartheid?

[00:00:48]
It is the degrading policy of institutionalized,

[00:00:53]
racist domination and exploitation,

[00:00:57]
inflicted by a minority regime in South Africa.

[00:01:03]
It is a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations

[00:01:08]
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

[00:01:12]
It rests on the disposition, the plunder,

[00:01:17]
the exploitation, the social deprivation of the African people

[00:01:23]
since 1652 by the colonial settlers and their descendants.

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It is a crime against the conscience and the dignity of humanity.

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Millions of Africans are being forced to leave their homes.

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Special laws restrict their freedom of movement,

[00:01:46]
thus denying the elementary human rights to the great majority of the population.

[00:01:54]
And violating the inalienable right to self-determination

[00:02:00]
of the people of South Africa.

[00:02:02]

This inhuman policy has been enforced by the most ruthless of [[loud noise]].

[00:02:10]
Separation is one of the basic policies of the racist regime in South Africa.

[00:02:18]
The 4.3 million whites, that is,

[00:02:22]
16 and a half percent of the South African population,

[00:02:27]
have been allocated 87% of the country’s territory,

[00:02:34]
including all the industrial and urban areas

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and the most fertile lands.

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On the other hand, less than 13% of the country

[00:02:47]
has been allocated by the racists

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as reserved for the African majority,

[00:02:54]
of the 18 and a half million people,

[00:02:58]
that is more than 70% of the South African population.

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As a rule, these areas, the so-called “homelands” or “Bantustans”

[00:03:11]
are made up of the most barren, infertile, and least industrial developed areas.

[00:03:20]
The Bantustans are in fact reservoirs of cheap labor.

[00:03:26]
Most African men are compelled to go to the white areas as migratory workers.

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Half the African labor force in the urban area consists of migratory workers,

[00:03:42]
who have to live in single-sex hostels that are little better than prisons.

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These men are not allowed to bring their families.

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Their wives are prohibited from settling in the towns

[00:03:59]
in order to prevent the so-called “Africanization” of the white areas.

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The Africans have no political rights whatever, outside the reserves.

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They are defenseless before the arbitrary action of the police.

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Under the laws passed by the racists, they are strangers in their own country.

[00:04:25]
This is brutally and cruelly stated by Minister Vorster.

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And I quote from the House Assembly debates in April 1968,

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and he said: “We need them to work for us.

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But the fact that they work for us can never entitle them to claim political rights.

[00:04:51]
Not now, nor in the future, nor under any circumstances.”

[00:04:57]
But he will be shown soon how wrong he is. [[Applause]]

[00:05:13]
One expression of this enslavement is the Pass Laws.

[00:05:17]
Every African aged 16 and above, whether male or female,

[00:05:23]
must always carry his pass with him

[00:05:26]
and immediately produce it on demand.

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These pass laws have made criminals of millions of Africans

[00:05:36]
and continue to do so at an alarming rate of 2,000 every day.

[00:05:43]
This is from [[?]] Richards quoted in the Daily News in April ‘76:

[00:05:49]
“During 1969 alone, 4,000 African mothers and their babies

[00:05:58]
were detained in prison for these Pass laws.”

[00:06:03]
There are laws in South Africa excluding Africans from certain occupations,

[00:06:10]
reserving the well-paying jobs for the whites.

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Under the terms of the Apartheid laws, no black person may be put in charge of whites.

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73% of all fuel workers are white.

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And as a rule, the whites enjoy incomes five and even ten times those of Africans.

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Even when virtually the same type of work is involved,

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there is a large gap between the earnings of the two groups of workers.

[00:06:47]
Since the- The situation of the African woman is even worse.

[00:06:53]
The racist rulers consider the African woman as a slave of slaves.

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Only a very few African women - young girls, single women without children from the reserves - are able to find jobs.

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In 1970, this was the case with only 17% of the female Bantustan population.

[00:07:21]
They are forced to accept particularly degrading positions of employment and the lowest of wages.

[00:07:29]
As a rule, they work as domestic servants - washerwomen, cooks, nursemaids - in white households.

[00:07:39]

Or as agricultural workers on white farms and plantations.

[00:07:45]
Or in the factories on the border areas.

[00:07:48]
That is, on the border outside the reserves.

[00:07:52]
These women are often arbitrarily dismissed from their jobs,

[00:07:59]
then reemployed at the same factory,

[00:08:02]
but not at the wages they were earning at the time of their dismissal,

[00:08:08]
but reduced to that of the unqualified beginner.

[00:08:13]
The overwhelming majority of African women

[00:08:17]
in urban areas are viciously exploited for low wages.

[00:08:23]
They live in overcrowded conditions, mostly in primitive huts,

[00:08:29]
often without electricity, gas, water, or storage.

[00:08:35]
The African woman who comes from the reserves,

[00:08:39]
has permission to work in the white areas,

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are as a rule, housed also in single-sex hostels,

[00:08:48]
where mothers are deprived of the right to be with their children,

[00:08:53]
because African children are, in the eyes of the racists,

[00:08:58]
absolutely useless and should therefore be sent to the reserves.

[00:09:04]
The policy of Apartheid, and particularly migratory labor,

[00:09:10]
one of its economic pillars,

[00:09:13]
makes it impossible for the overwhelming majority of African women

[00:09:20]
to live normally and legally with their husbands,

[00:09:23]
the fathers of their children, except for two weeks annual leave.

[00:09:29]
The result is ripped families, uprooted children,

[00:09:35]
bigamy, prostitution, homosexuality,

[00:09:39]
drunkenness, malnutrition, and, a high infant mortality rate.

[00:09:47]
Shortage of jobs and extreme poverty results in illness and early death.

[00:09:55]
Today, almost 80% of the African population lives in extreme poverty.

[00:10:04]
Diseases like kwashiorkor, scurvy, cholera, beriberi,

[00:10:10]
gastroenteritis, tuberculosis, all the results of malnutrition,

[00:10:16]
are widespread and are the common cause of high rate of infant mortality.

[00:10:23]
Life expectancy of the African in South Africa

[00:10:27]
is about 35 for men and 40 years for women.

[00:10:33]
In fact, probably even younger.

[00:10:37]
Comparable figures for whites are 65 and 72 years.

[00:10:43]
Infant mortality rates of African children is amongst the worst in the world.

[00:10:51]
A report from [[S. Verison?]], quoted in the Sunday Tribune

[00:10:56]
on June 27, '76, says that 75 children,

[00:11:02]
African in color, die every day

[00:11:06]
from the lack of proper and adequate food.

[00:11:10]
Another report estimates that 20% of all children born alive

[00:11:16]
die before reaching the age of one year.

[00:11:20]
And almost 30% die before their second birthday

[00:11:25]
because medical care is totally inadequate.

[00:11:31]
[[Wisterkoff?]] Scott, in a study of child malnutrition in Soweto district in '76 said

[00:11:38]
"There is only one doctor for 44,000 Africans.

[00:11:45]
For the whites, the ratio is 1 in 400.

[00:11:50]
And in a report of WHO, it says that every 30 minutes,

[00:11:57]
2 black children die in South Africa."

[00:12:00]
A report by the United Nations, in June 1977,

[00:12:06]
under the title "Implication of Apartheid on Health and Health Services in South Africa,"

[00:12:15]
gives the following figures for infant mortality per thousand births.

[00:12:21]
For whites in South Africa in '71 it was 20 per thousand.

[00:12:28]
For Africans it was 95 per thousand.

[00:12:33]
And for Africans in Transkei-Bantustan it was 216 per thousand.

[00:12:40]
We believe we must take the opportunity, both to be the preparation for,

[00:12:47]
and during International Year of the Child,

[00:12:50]
to arouse the world to take action on behalf of the children of Southern Africa.

[00:12:57]
We must make their plight widely known,

[00:13:02]
and their courageous struggle supported.

[00:13:05]
The decade of the year '70 by the World Congress held in ‘75,

[00:13:11]
will hold an international conference in the International Year of the Child in 1979,

[00:13:19]
and in the preparation of the reports and of the conference,

[00:13:24]
we will ensure that the women, the children, the people of Southern Africa

[00:13:30]
will have the opportunity to speak to the conference and, through that conference,

[00:13:36]
call for solidarity in their struggle for their freedom, independence, and their basic human rights.

[00:13:44]
The aim of education of African children under Apartheid

[00:13:50]
is to give them just sufficient knowledge to become wage slaves and low paid.

[00:13:57]
And, in addition, it will support connections and direct them

[00:14:02]
as regarding the whites as masters and themselves as servants.

[00:14:07]
Whereas education is free and compulsory for white children,

[00:14:14]
books and other teaching aids do not have to be paid for,

[00:14:19]
African parents must pay for their children’s schooling,

[00:14:23]
for all books, for teaching aids, for uniforms.

[00:14:28]
And in addition, they must contribute financially to the cost of building schools.

[00:14:35]
The South African racist regime spent only 29 Rand

[00:14:42]
per African pupil in the ‘73-‘74 year,

[00:14:47]
but 495 Rand for the white pupil.

[00:14:52]
Child labor among Africans is widespread.

[00:14:56]
It is not unusual for boys and girls aged 8 or 10 years

[00:15:03]
to work for white farmers.

[00:15:06]
They get still lower wages than the adults

[00:15:10]
and are less able to defend themselves against the intense exploitation.

[00:15:18]
It is impossible to measure the cruel toll

[00:15:22]
taken on black men, women, and children

[00:15:26]
through the violence, persecution, and rapation.

[00:15:30]
The children grow up in an atmosphere of hopeless insecurity,

[00:15:37]
denied the simple continuity of family life.

[00:15:41]
Protest and attempt to bring about a change from Apartheid

[00:15:47]
are inhibited by the fear of the Bureau of Social Security

[00:15:52]
enforced by informers and agents.

[00:15:56]
Arrest carries with it terror of social isolation and brutal torture.

[00:16:04]
According to reports, around half a million people are detained in Vorster prisons,

[00:16:12]
98% of them Africans.

[00:16:15]
Killing opponents of Apartheid has become quite legal.

[00:16:21]
Of 48 persons known to have died in detention

[00:16:26]
while under interrogation by the security police

[00:16:31]
up to the end of ‘77,

[00:16:34]
38% were officially said to have died by suicide,

[00:16:40]
12% are said to have died by falling down stairs,

[00:16:46]
others by falling out of high windows in the interrogation building,

[00:16:51]
and 26% are said to have died of illness.

[00:16:56]
But the ANC estimates that the number is in fact much higher.

[00:17:03]
But despite all the brutal fascist terror of this minority regime of South Africa,

[00:17:10]
the women, the people, and even the children -

[00:17:15]
and you’ll hear it from the congregations -

[00:17:18]
are daily demonstrating their courage, their determination,

[00:17:23]
and their willingness to die in the fight for freedom.

[00:17:27]
As early as 1913, women at Mangaung, in South Africa,

[00:17:35]
successfully fought against the extension of special permits

[00:17:41]
which restricted their free movement.

[00:17:44]
On the 9th of August in ‘56,

[00:17:47]
20,000 women marched to Pretoria in protest against the Pass laws,

[00:17:54]
and the evils of Apartheid.

[00:17:57]
This date is now honored and has become South African Women’s Day.

[00:18:02]
We warmly greet the courageous women of South Africa

[00:18:07]
who have dedicated their lives to the cause of their country.

[00:18:12]
We salute Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, who are now banned.

[00:18:18]
Women like Florence Matomela, who died in prison due to lack of medical care.

[00:18:24]
And Dorothy Nyembe who is serving a 15-year jail service.

[00:18:29]
We are proud of the courage displayed by the youth and the children of South Africa

[00:18:36]
in the Soweto Uprising, and Mamelodi, in Langa, in Gugulethu, and Athlone.

[00:18:43]
They symbolize the courage that the South African people

[00:18:48]
and their determination to crush the fascist regime.

[00:18:53]
And the slogans that they shout, the words they inscribe on their banners, are not new.

[00:19:01]
They are the same ones that their parents used under the ANC:

[00:19:06]
“Amandla Ngawethu” - “Power to the People.”

[00:19:12]
We pledge to intensify our solidarity action

[00:19:16]
for the immediate and unconditioned release of those in prison,

[00:19:22]
detained, restricted, or exiled for their opposition to Apartheid.

[00:19:28]
The South African racist regime is only able to continue its regime of murder and plunder

[00:19:37]
because of the support it receives from its Western trading partners -

[00:19:42]
the USA, Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Israel, and Japan -

[00:19:51]
because of the 10,000 million in foreign capital invested there,

[00:19:58]
and the massive trade it conducts with its Western partners.

[00:20:04]
In Security Council, the guilt of the West is exposed by the vetoes

[00:20:11]
of the USA, Britain, France, in opposition to the African proposals

[00:20:18]
supported by the Socialist countries for the imposition of economic sanctions.

[00:20:25]
The International Anti-Apartheid Year provides the opportunity

[00:20:31]
for the intensification of the campaign to sever all links

[00:20:36]
with the evil, brutalized regime of Apartheid.

[00:20:40]
It took 14 years of continually increasing pressure

[00:20:46]
before the Western three in the Security Council

[00:20:51]
were forced to accept world demands for the imposition of the arms embargo.

[00:20:58]
As the crisis in South Africa mounts,

[00:21:02]
let all progressive humanity pledge that it will not tolerate

[00:21:08]
or delay, but demand immediate imposition of economic sanctions.

[00:21:14]
The threat of the Apartheid regime in South Africa

[00:21:19]
is not directed alone against the South African people.

[00:21:25]
It has been exposed as the bastion of racism and colonialism in Southern Africa

[00:21:33]
and is a menace to all independent African states,

[00:21:38]
to world peace and security.

[00:21:40]
It has continued to illegally occupy the territory of Namibia,

[00:21:47]
extended Apartheid, and rapidly miti-, militarized Namibia.

[00:21:53]
They are using the northern borders of Namibia for acts of aggression

[00:21:58]
and subversion against neighboring Angola, Zambia, and the South African army

[00:22:05]
and its UNITA and Chilean mercenaries.

[00:22:09]
Its support of the illegal Smith minority regime,

[00:22:14]
its growing military integration with NATO countries,

[00:22:19]
and in particular, great collaboration between the Federal Republic of Germany

[00:22:26]
and the South African regime in constructing a uranium enrichment plant

[00:22:33]
and nuclear reactor in South Africa,

[00:22:36]
and a new role of order to South Africa

[00:22:40]
in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean areas,

[00:22:44]
are all matters which should cause grave concern

[00:22:49]
to those who desire to ensure world peace and security.

[00:22:55]
We women have to accelerate action,

[00:22:59]
together with other peace loving forces in the world,

[00:23:04]
for the complete isolation of the South African minority regime.

[00:23:10]
We should hold protest demonstrations at the South African embassies and the diplomatic missions,

[00:23:17]
particularly in countries whose governments are involved in collaboration with the South African regime.

[00:23:26]
Demanding the immediate cessation of this support

[00:23:31]
and demanding immediate implementation of the UN resolution

[00:23:37]
on the mandatory arms embargo against South Africa,

[00:23:42]
and for me, to all collaboration in the nuclear field.

[00:23:48]
We also need to promote action for ratification and implementation

[00:23:54]
of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid,

[00:24:01]
which has so far been ratified by only 38 countries,

[00:24:06]
mostly the Socialist and developing countries.

[00:24:10]
Dear friends, the imperialist maneuvers in Southern Africa have increased.

[00:24:17]
Recently, only we have witnessed shuttle diplomacy,

[00:24:21]
and so-called peaceful solutions to settle the Zimbabwe conflict.

[00:24:26]
The latest Anglo-American initiative,

[00:24:31]
outside the United Nations framework, pursues a double strategy.

[00:24:37]
On the surface, these two countries appear to be engaged

[00:24:42]
in a search for what they call a peaceful solution,

[00:24:47]
while beneath the surface, they are acting in complicity

[00:24:52]
with both South Africa and Rhodesia in their aggressive adventures.

[00:24:57]
We support the correct position of the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe,

[00:25:03]
emphasizing that the responsibility for decolonizing Zimbabwe

[00:25:10]
lies squarely with the British as the colonial power,

[00:25:14]
and that meaningful negotiation must take place between Britain

[00:25:20]
and the Patriotic Front as the legitimate representative

[00:25:25]
of the broad masses of the colonialized people of Zimbabwe.

[00:25:30]
Any transfer of power must be complete and total.

[00:25:35]
There can be no question of neocolonialism in Zimbabwe.

[00:25:40]
The neocolonialism lends itself to manipulation

[00:25:45]
by those powers with vested political and economic interests in Zimbabwe.

[00:25:53]
Britain must prove her capability and her determination

[00:25:58]
after the successful conclusion of a constitutional conference

[00:26:03]
to effectively and promptly implement every agreement reached.

[00:26:08]
The Smith regime has to date murdered hundreds and hundreds of men, women, and children

[00:26:17]
under the pretext of fighting guerrillas of the liberation forces.

[00:26:22]
Over 6,000 are in detention in prison.

[00:26:27]
Villages in rural areas have been grouped into concentration camps,

[00:26:32]
ironically called 'protected villages'.

[00:26:36]
There are about 90 of these villages.

[00:26:40]
In the last two years the Smith regime has carried out numerous raids,

[00:26:46]
Mozamb- Botswana, Zambia,

[00:26:50]
murdering hundreds of men, women, and children.

[00:26:53]
A particularly brutal massacre was carried out in Zimbabwe, on the 6th of May last year.

[00:27:02]
About two hundred men, women, and children, attending a wake

[00:27:07]
at [[Guava?]] Village near Port Victoria were suddenly surrounded by the Smith forces.

[00:27:15]
People were machine gunned indiscriminately.

[00:27:19]
They were bombed by aircraft on the suspicion that guerrillas were in the crowd.

[00:27:25]
68 men, women, and children were killed.

[00:27:30]
We pledge to the women and the people of Zimbabwe that we shall continue our solidarity

[00:27:36]
with their struggle to destroy colonialism, racism, and fascism in their country.

[00:27:43]
Dear friends, at this moment, the United Nations General Assembly

[00:27:50]
is discussing the question of Namibia.

[00:27:53]
There can be no solution without the complete withdrawal of South Africa

[00:27:59]
and all its armed forces and the release of all political prisoners.

[00:28:04]
South Africa must respect Namibia’s territorial integrity,

[00:28:11]
and South Africa and the major Western powers

[00:28:15]
must recognize the United Nations Council for Namibia as the only legal authority.

[00:28:23]
We denounce the racist South Africa vicious maneuvers

[00:28:28]
and intrigues to legalize its illegal occupation of Namibia.

[00:28:34]
These maneuvers find expression in the Turnhalle tribal talks

[00:28:40]
meant to fragment the country on a tribal basis,

[00:28:44]
and such schemes as a so-called “advisory council”
[00:28:49]
and then the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference,

[00:28:53]
all aimed at the perpetuation of South Africa’s colonial domin-, uh, domination over Namibia.

[00:29:02]
Faced with the solid resistance of the Namibian people,

[00:29:07]
led by their organization SWAPO,

[00:29:10]
the racist regime stepped up its brutal and fascist acts of oppression

[00:29:16]
against the men, women, and children of Namibia.

[00:29:20]
These include mass arrests, detention, imprisonment,

[00:29:26]
torture, intimidation, assassination, and execution of the SWAPO members,

[00:29:33]
such as the execution of Philemon Yanangolo on May the 31st in 1977.

[00:29:42]
We reiterate that all support for SWAPO


[00:29:46]
and the Namibian people struggling for their liberation and national independence.

[00:29:52]
And together with a campaign of moral and political support

[00:29:56]
for the liberation movements of Southern Africa,

[00:30:00]
we shall step up the campaign of material aid

[00:30:04]
which is a valuable contribution to their struggle.

[00:30:08]
Friends, the struggle against colonialism and oppression

[00:30:13]
is an essential part of women’s struggle for equality.

[00:30:18]
The peoples of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, the Cape Verde Islands,

[00:30:25]
San Tomé, Principe have defeated the colonial regimes,

[00:30:31]
and have joined the other independent African states

[00:30:35]
taking the road that can mean social progress and a happy life for their people.

[00:30:41]
But we must specially redouble our solidarity with San Tomé

[00:30:47]
where the imperialists are seeking to reestablish military bases.

[00:30:52]
Women in their organizations in these countries

[00:30:57]
have made and are making special contributions

[00:31:01]
to removing the remnants of imperialist, colonialist influence and exploitation

[00:31:08]
and advancing towards economic and social transformation.

[00:31:13]
The outstanding contribution of the Angolan Women’s Organization

[00:31:19]
to the struggle against illiteracy, they received the official recognition of UNESCO

[00:31:25]
in the form of the [[?]].

[00:31:29]
We continue our support for this wonderful work of our national organizations in the literacy field.

[00:31:37]
We’ve established literacy centers in Angola, Portugal,

[00:31:42]
Namibia with the support of UNESCO.

[00:31:45]
And we now plan to establish a literacy center in Mozambique,

[00:31:50]
as well as in cooperation with our national organization.

[00:31:54]
We propose to study the question of opening further cen-, centers

[00:32:00]
in cooperation with our national organization.

[00:32:03]
The problem of illiteracy,

[00:32:07]
which has a prominent place in the world plan of action for the decade of women,

[00:32:14]
is our permanent

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-12-28 19:45:50 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-12-28 21:59:54 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-12-29 13:51:26 Freda Brown is the speaker -- identified in Tape 1, side 1 of this series. At 00:04:25 -- Minister Vorster - name & spelling confirmed. Some names are hard to decipher. 00:05:43 -- [?] Richards; [00:11:31] [[Wisterkoff?]] Scott?? 00:10:04 -- kwashiorkor & beriberi - are African malnutrition diseases [00:12:33] Transkei - was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. 00:17:23 - Mangaung - district in S.A. 00:18:12 - Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph; 18:18 - Florence Matomela; 18:24- Dorothy Nyembe - names/spelling confirmed. [00:18:36] - Mamelodi, Langa, Gugulethu, and Athlone - names of towns confirmed- https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-youth-uprising-casualties 19:01- The South African slogan "Amandla Ngawethu" (Power to the People) - confirmed wikipedia 00:22:05] - UNITA - political party in Angola, backed by S.A. 28:34 & 28:49 - Turnhalle Constitutional Conference 29:33 - Philemon Yanangolo -- confirmed. [00:31:25] -- [[?]].