| tion. Since then I have been to
ris™® UN where I was invited to
hafpeak on the International Day of
Solidarity with Political Prisoners
atu South Africa.
rhe have taken the opportunity to
ciSS through Toronto where I
ouf Pe to help mobilize support for
nut Struggle through the offices of
© ANC and through the Cana-
ns Concerned About Southern

f of Cal prisoners and_particu-
ithtly to Petition the UN demand-
1 MB the trial of our 12 comrades in
4 lotia be stopped along with
af er mass trials underway.
tic! Thi The Pretoria Twelve
se S trial is the most important
ti ih the 1963 Rivonia trial where
ak Son Mandela and others faced
ice death sentence. The regime
a pe Sought to legally murder
n fy fadership of the national
1”.’€Ment. These comrades were
Under the Sabotage Act
pat Bonareed with high treason.
, a there was a tremendous
ov SUrge of international solidarity
) d 4 demand Nelson Mandela

Od of the well-known ‘‘Free
Cla” campaign. We believe
Were saved from the gallows
Be due to the international
i@’*Ssure, both at the mass level
0 d at the governmental level,
{. *tthe level of the UN because
IS the time that the UN
Pted a resolution demanding
$ [Etslease of political prisoners in
t ie Africa, for the first time.
48 € entered very dark days
iti © then when the movement
ty ie some crushing blows at
hi eos of the enemy. But the
t¥“\ has continued working in

i

arent Mandela (top photo) and
an Nat Sulu, leaders of the Afri-
{ Onal Congress, both now

Ving:
U 9 life j
| n Island. mprisonment on Rob-

Others be freed. That was the -

al Ll SS SSS SS all an

ON.

the country, under whatever dif-
ficult circumstances.

We have reached a phase
where the movement is on the up-
surge. There is mounting anger on
the part of the people. The pre-
vailing mood that I have witnes-
sed among the people, on my re-
lease, is one which can only be
described as a contempt for death
at the hands of the enemy.

Numerous trials are going on,
and the racist regime is becoming
frantic in its efforts to crush the
liberation movement.

The enemy has no doubts that
in this period of uprisings, it sing-
les out the ANC as the real treat.
This is to be seen in the severity of
the sentences that it is imposing
where evidence indicates that a
person is a member of the ANC.

We have just passed through a
trial, which ended’ in July, in
Pieter Maridzburg where 10 of our
men were on trial. Five of them
were from Robben Island, having
previously served sentences from
8 to 10 years. The judge sen-
tenced the ex-Robben Islanders
to life imprisonment. He said that
those of the accused who were
from Robben Island both while
serving sentence and subsequent-
ly, had shown no remorse and had
gone back to an active struggle
after their release. He said that
they were ‘‘a danger to society’’,
and it was his duty to “‘protect
society’’. These ex-Robben Is-
landers were singled out by him
for special severity.

In the Pretoria case, there are
11 men and a woman on trial. The
state evidence alleges that they

are activists of the ANC, some of’

them trained guerillas who had
entered the country, had worked
in the mass movements, in the
Black Consciousness movement,
the South African Students As-
sociation, the SSRC Soweto and
in the direct underground
machinery. Some are charged
with having thrown hand gre-
nades at the South African police
forces. Others are alleged to be
members ‘of committees of the
ANC inside the country. _

Significantly, six of the men
have served on Robben Island.
Some of them have served up to
12 years. One of them, served the
12 years in the same section as
myself.

It is clear the state is looking for
a major conviction and the pro-
secution has already passed the
death sentence in this particular
case. The state has just closed its
case and the trial is at its defense
stage now. :

Besides that, in my view, this
trial is going to be of tremendous
significance in understanding the
present period. The enemy in
South Africa and various interna-
tional forces aré working to iso-
late the ANC just as they are
working in the whole of Southern
Africa to try and rob the fighting
forces from gaining victory.

In Zimbabwe, the tenor of
events and pressures is to isolate
the Patriotic Front which has
created the present situation by
its fighting forces, and search fora
third force which it can install to
accommodate exploitation by
imperialism. :

In Namibia, the same exercise

is being carried out. The aim there
is to isolate SWAPO and to see
that power passes into the hands
of people who have not fought for
freedom, but those who would be
accommodating to the interests of
imperialism.

In South Africa, the ANC has
long been seen by the imperialist
forces as a threat to imperialism
and in particular in South Africa
takes the form of suggesting that
the present upsurge and revolt of
our people is an isolated event
which is separated and distinct
from the struggle being waged by
the ANC. It is also being sug-
gested, consistently in the enemy
propaganda, that Nelson Mande-
la, who is in prison, is out of touch
of the situation.

All these maneuvers are aimed
at, first, dividing the Black forces,
and the liberation forces and sec-
ondly isolating the ANC.

Unlike any other trial of the
present period, the Pretoria 12
trial is perhaps the most important
trial since the Rivonia trial. It is
the trial that gives anyone a
proper glimpse into the rami-
fications of the liberation move-
ments spearheaded by the ANC.
The real danger of the death sen-
tence makes it an especially im-
portant case, and trial around
which the world campaign for the
halting of political trials should,

‘we think, be centered.

So, under the demand, ‘‘Halt

‘the Trial of the Pretoria 12”, we

are calling on the world to halt all
political trials. Similarly, under
the demand of ‘Free Nelson
Mandela’, who is the leading
personality in jail, and this year
completes his 14th year in
imprisonment, we are demanding
the release of all sentenced politi-

cal prisoners and detainees.
Canada’s Position

I would like to say that expres-
sions by the Canadian govern-
ment of an anti-apartheid position
in opposition to racism in South
Africa have played an important
part just as the rest of world sol-
idarity action and sympathy with
our struggle have played in
sustaining our morale in prison.

I think it was while I was in
prison, that Prime Minister
Trudeau was elected, and the lit-
tle. bits that we heard raised
expectations in us that the Cana-
dian government would be mov-
ing even further in its condem-
nation of apartheid and its sym-
pathy with our struggle.

I came out of South Africa in
July of this year and in August
attended the UN World Con-
ference Against Apartheid at
Lagos, at which governmental
and non-governmental organi-
zations were present and at which
Western countries such as Cana-
da,-the U.S:A., Britain, France,

West Germany, some of the feat

ing supporters of the South Afri-
can system, some of the countries
which underpin and support the
racist regime for their own selfish
interests were present.

It was there for the first time

that I became acquainted in more

detail with the position of the
Canadian government. There is
no doubt that the Canadian
government is quite forceful in its

.condemnation of apartheid and

racial discrimination, but the gap
between its condemnation of the
system and its translation of this
condemnation to concrete steps is
an extremely wide one, and a dis-

- appointing one.

The position of the Canadian
government is unfortunate be-
cause we in South Africa insist
that the revolution of our people
be the work of our people them-
selves. We do not ask anybody
else to fight our war and to bring
about our liberation.

We recognize that the regime
exists not only in its own right but
because it is part of the imperialist
system. We believe that the re-
gime has survived this long be-
cause of that underpinning by the
imperialist system.

This gap was present in the re-
servations that the Canadian
government had to the Lagos de-
claration calling for invocation of
Chapter 7 of the UN charter and
the imposition of mandatory arms
embargo.

Nuclear Arms

South Africa has presently

been armed, and it is now known

‘ that it has nuclear capability. We

in the ANC have produced evi-
dence that this nuclear capability
has been developed with the as-
sistance in particular of the U.S.,
France, West Germany, and
Britain.

We have declared this is a
threat, not only to our struggle,
because their nuclear capability is
intended to blackmail the world.

We are fighting an unequal war
where the state and the minority
of whites control economic, pollit-
ical and military power in the
country and control the destiny of
the majority of the people.

Their command of the ‘eco-
nomic resources, military power,
and state power, immediately
places us at a disadvantage. Their
links with the imperialist system,
gives them added strength. This
puts the balance against us at.the
tactical level.

Our only strategic strength is
the fact that we have the majority

of the people. In this situation, in

order to try to redress the tactical
balance which is against us, we
are calling for international sol-
idarity around the slogan ‘‘Isolate
South Africa totally.’’ We ask for

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 28, 1977—Page 7

immediate, mandatory arms
sanctions against South Africa.

Canada’s Hypocrisy

: The Canadian government says
it is not supplying arms, but it re-
fuses to add its voice at the UN to
support a mandatory sanction.

Secondly, we are demanding,
as part of the campaign to isolate
South Africa, the end to eco-
nomic relations. I am aware that
Canadians have investments and
strong trade links with South Af-
rica, but again we can show con-
cretely that these trade relations
and investments only serve basi-

‘cally to prop up the system.

We are asking for mandatory

-economic sanctions .to be im-

posed against South Africa and
again the Canadian government
has reservations.

Our demand to the Canadian
government is also justified be-
cause anyone who works from the
position of the government is bas-
ically arguing that there is a possi-
bility of peaceful change. This ig-
nores the history of our struggle
which has its origins at the turn of
the century where we pursued a
non-violent path until 1961 inspite
of enemy reaction.

Our practical experience has
shown as early as 1961 that peace-
ful solutions were closed. Peace-
ful solutions essentially revolve
around the idea that you can per-
suade our oppressors and our rul-
ers in South Africa to abdicate
power.

Those who argue that peaceful
solutions are possible, have to
prove their case. And I believe
that there is no way to prove that.

“The main lessons ! have de-
rived from my 12 years in prison,”
Mac Maharaj said, ‘are that | be-
lieve no person can pass through
Robben Island without coming out
with a deeper insight into the
structure of racism in our system
which leads to the recognition that
it Is a system that cannot be
humanized by modifications ... It
must be overthrown in its
entirety.”