USA and the apartheid
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-10-20Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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A FEW months ago, Socialist Organiser drew attention to plans being made by the USA to site Cruise missiles in the apartheid state of South Africa.
Now a new American pamphlet, 'Stop the Apartheid Bomb' underlines the grim fact that the apartheid rulers have themselves now developed a nuclear bomb, with the assistance of the Us government and major US corporations.
It points to the deliberate cover-up by the Carter adminis. tration of a South African nuclear test in September 1979, and of the last-minute cancellation of a nuclear test in the Kalahari Desert as long ago as August 1977.
As the force controlling one of the world's principal sources of uranium — the Rossing mine in South African occupied Namibia - the Pretoria regime has not only drawn massive revenues, but also obtained technical assistance from the British and US imperialists and multinational firms.
The allegedly 'peaceful' cause of demeloping nuclear energy has been the flimsy pretext beneath which the development of the apartheid bomb has gone forward. South Africa's first research reactor, SAFARI I, was completed in 1965, and supplied with weapons-grade uranium by the USA until 1976. A South African built research reactor, SAFARI II, was completed in 1967.
And in 1975, with US West German assistance, a pilot uranium enrichment plant was built, amid South African b opes of becoming a major export er of enriched uranium in the 198 0s.
The promotion of these pro jects is no error on the part of successive US administrations. They share the Pretoria regime's view of South Africa as a frontline force against 'communism' _ the revolutionary struggles of black Africa.
But the episode also underlines the reality of nucléar power programmes. As nuclear critic Amory Lovins points out and the pamphlet quotes:
'Nuclear reactors are essentially bomb factories that produce electricity as a by-product"
The pamphlet calls for action against imports of Namibian uranium, and against firms complicit in the nuclear arming of South Africa. This should also be taken up by trade unionists in Britain.
A Class Fighter pamphlet 10p 10p plus postage from Sickert Court, Lon Jon N1 2SY.
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