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LETTER FROM SOUTH AFRICAN ANARCHISTS

FROM APARTHEID TO THE ANC

 We greet you from South Africa. We  have  recently  taken  steps
which  (we  hope)  will  lead  to  the formation of revolutionary
anarchist movement which, as far as we know, will be the first of
its kind in South Africa to operate openly.
 Given our lack of experience, we are putting together an  appeal
for  help.  We  have  need of advice, written information and, if
possible financial aid. We hope that you can help us  or  contact
us.  What  follows  are  some  of  our  reflexions on the current
situation.
________________________________________________________________________
Contact the group by writing to:  Renato and Elli, PO Box  51465,
Raedenem       2124,       Johannesburg.       South      Africa.
________________________________________________________________________

 It  is certain that the biggest advance to have been made is the
raising of the ban  on  political  parties  including  groups  as
infamous as the ANC.
 In essence the concept of freedom of  expression  is  relatively
new  here.  The  last  40  years  were controlled by the National
Party. Everything, from its christian  education  policy  to  its
secret  police,  was  used  to  suppress  and oppress. It is only
recently that its armour has begun to crack. With  any  franchise
it  still  has three or four years of power in front of it before
it disappears, in the same way, though perhaps less mysteriously,
as so many of its numerous enemies have done.
 As anarchists, the threat represented by the National Party  for
us  is less great than the coming dictatorship (and we must think
of the future) that the ANC will construct.
 Since its beginnings, the ANC has clearly  shown  that  it  will
just  as  happily  sell  out its ideas as its followers to obtain
power. When the ANC made its first political reappearance in  the
political  arena,  it  allied itself openly with the SA communist
party. But threatened with being marginalised by big business  it
has quickly embrassed capitalist ideas.
 Today, whilst Mandela relaxes in his 250 000  dollar  house  and
thinks  of  his daughter's 10 000 dollar marriage, his 'brothers'
sleep in shanties of corrugated iron. And whilst the latter  take
the bus or walk forty kilometers to work Mandela gets into one of
his two Mercedes Benz. But this is the stuff of politics. And for
such  people,  meglomaniacs  in  search of riches, the ANC is the
ideal organisation. But only for them.
 Here's the question: who, apart from the ANC, represents the  SA
people  in  this  farce which some have proclaimed a 'democracy'?
Certainly not the ineffective  and  stodgily  liberal  Democratic
Party,  which  represents the ideology of the wealthy in the free
market.
 On the other hand we hope not to have to suffer the  extreme  of
the  White Right of the Afrikaner Weestand Beweeging (AWB) or its
black equivalent such as the Azanian Popular Liberation Army (Pan
African Congress).
 If there is a place where the need for an anarchist solution can
be  felt  it  is  here  in  South Africa. Whatever the future our
movement will come  up  against  serious  problems.  How  can  we
approach the coloured population which distrusts us? The National
Party has made sure that it will be impossible to put our message
across  on  the  streets without running the risk of prison terms
under the ridiculous pretext of 'treason'. In addition  there  is
our  lack  of finance and experience. Fortunately in the midst of
all this we have the hope of eventual  triumph.  Otherwise  South
Africa  is destined to continue to be the puppet of the countries
in the North whilst living conditions continue to deteriorate.

LML 13/4/94.























































