tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/anti-apartheid-movement-19545/articlesAnti-Apartheid Movement – The Conversation2023-04-03T13:57:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024482023-04-03T13:57:39Z2023-04-03T13:57:39ZTanzania-South Africa: deep ties evoke Africa’s sacrifices for freedom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517946/original/file-20230328-16-hrrcio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, left, hosts his Tanzanian counterpart during a state visit in March 2023.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan recently paid a <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/speeches/opening-remarks-president-cyril-ramaphosa-during-official-talks-state-visit-tanzanian-president-samia-suluhu-hassan%2C-union-buildings%2C-tshwane">state visit to South Africa</a> aimed at strengthening bilateral political and trade relations. As the South African presidency <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/press-statements/president-host-her-excellency-president-hassan-tanzania-state-visit">noted</a>, ties between the two nations date back to Tanzania’s solidarity with the anti-apartheid struggle. </p>
<p>This history is an important reminder of the anti-colonial and pan-African bonds underpinning international solidarity with southern African liberation struggles. It’s also a reminder of the sacrifices many African countries made to realise continental freedom.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Tanganyika">Tanganyika</a>, as Tanzania was known before independence in 1961, was the first safe post for South Africans fleeing in the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960">Sharpeville massacre</a> on 21 March 1960, when apartheid police shot dead 69 peaceful protesters. The apartheid regime <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/origins-formation-sharpeville-and-banning-1959-1960">banned liberation movements</a> shortly thereafter. </p>
<p>Among those who left South Africa to rally international support for the liberation struggle were then African National Congress deputy president <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-anc-is-celebrating-the-year-of-or-tambo-who-was-he-85838">Oliver Reginald Tambo</a>, Communist Party and Indian Congress leader <a href="https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/people.php?kid=163-574-661">Yusuf Mohammed Dadoo</a>, and the Pan Africanist Congress’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/nelson-nana-mahomo">Nana Mahomo</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/peter-hlaole-molotsi">Peter Molotsi</a>.</p>
<p>Not many people will know that on 26 June 1959 <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-128;jsessionid=5715EBDE3CC6DEEF837F2753FC3A4D39">Julius Nyerere</a>, the future president of Tanzania, was among the speakers at a meeting in London where the first boycott of South African goods in Britain was launched. Out of this campaign, the <a href="https://www.aamarchives.org/">British Anti-Apartheid Movement</a> was born a year later. It spearheaded the international solidarity movement in western countries over the next three decades.</p>
<h2>Liberation struggle bonds</h2>
<p>Tanzania’s support for South Africa’s liberation struggle needs to be understood as part of its broader opposition to colonialism, and commitment to the achievement of independence in the entire African continent. In 1958, Nyerere <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/panafrican-freedom-movement-of-east-and-central-africa-pafmeca/A08CAFDC63C736384E47D52AA94191E2">helped establish</a> the Pan African Freedom Movement of Eastern and Central Africa to coordinate activities in this regard. This was extended to the Pan African Freedom Movement of Eastern and Central and Southern Africa at a conference in Addis Ababa in 1962. Nelson Mandela <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/1962-nelson-mandela-address-conference-pan-african-freedom-movement-east-and-central-africa/">addressed the conference</a> with the aim of arranging support for the armed struggle in South Africa. These efforts eventually led to the creation of the <a href="https://www.africanunion-un.org/history">Organisation for African Unity (OAU) in 1963</a>.</p>
<p>In February 1961, James Hadebe for the ANC and Gaur Radebe for the PAC opened an office in Dar es Salaam representing the <a href="https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/sacp/1962/pac.html">South African United Front</a>. It was the first external structure set up by the two liberation movements. Their unity was short-lived. But, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital, grew into a centre of anti-colonial activity after independence from Britain in December 1961. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man with a serious look on his face rests his chin on his left shoulder. His watch shows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518130/original/file-20230329-20-z2y2c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518130/original/file-20230329-20-z2y2c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518130/original/file-20230329-20-z2y2c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518130/original/file-20230329-20-z2y2c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518130/original/file-20230329-20-z2y2c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518130/original/file-20230329-20-z2y2c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518130/original/file-20230329-20-z2y2c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Julius Nyerere was a staunch supporter of the movement for Africa’s independence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William F. Campbell/Getty Images)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At independence, Tanzania faced a shortage of nurses as British nurses left in droves rather than work for an African government. On President Nyerere’s request, Tambo arranged the underground recruitment of 20 South African nurses (“the 20 Nightingales”) to <a href="https://www.jamboafrica.online/clarence-kwinana-the-untold-story-of-the-20-nightingales-a-contribution-never-to-be-forgotten/">work in Tanzanian hospitals</a>. The remains of one of them, Kholeka Tunyiswa, who died on 5 March 2023 in Dar es Salaam, were repatriated to South Africa for reburial in <a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/news/remains-sa-nurse-tunyiswa-repatriated/">her home city of Gqeberha</a>, Eastern Cape.</p>
<p>In the early 1960s, Tanzania was the southernmost independent African country from which armed operations could be carried out into unliberated territories in southern Africa. Its capital was chosen as the operational base of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41394216">OAU’s Liberation Committee</a>. The committee provided financial and material assistance to liberation movements. Its archives remain in Tanzania. </p>
<p>In 1963, the ANC officially established its Tanzania mission, with headquarters in Dar es Salaam. A military camp for guerrillas of its armed wing, <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-1098?rskey=uSBACj&result=1">uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK)</a>
, who had returned from training in other African and socialist countries, was opened in Kongwa. The Tanzanian government donated the land. </p>
<p>Also stationed there were the armies of other southern African liberation movements – <a href="https://www.saha.org.za/collections/the_mafela_trust_collection_7.htm">ZAPU</a>, <a href="https://www.aluka.org/struggles/partner/XSTFRELIMO">Frelimo</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41502445">SWAPO</a> and the <a href="https://www.tchiweka.org/">MPLA</a>.</p>
<p>In 1964, the PAC also moved its external headquarters to Dar es Salaam after it was pushed out of Lesotho. It <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0018-229X2015000200002">established military camps</a> near Mbeya and later in Mgagao, and a settlement in Ruvu. Both the PAC and the ANC held important conferences in Tanzania, in Moshi in 1967 and in Morogoro in 1969, respectively. These led to internal reorganisation and new <a href="https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/anc/1969/strategy-tactics.htm">strategic positions</a>.</p>
<h2>Hitches in the relationship</h2>
<p>In spite of Tanzania’s support for the liberation movements, their relationship was not without its contradictions or moments of ambivalence. </p>
<p>In 1965, for example, the ANC had to move its headquarters from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro, a small upcountry town far from international connections. The Tanzanian government had decided that only four members of each liberation movement would be allowed to maintain an office in the capital. This reflected Tanzania’s anxiety over the growing numbers of revolutionaries and trained guerrillas it hosted. </p>
<p>In 1969 Tanzania, Zambia and 12 other African countries issued the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45312264">Lusaka manifesto</a>, which was also adopted by the OAU. It expressed preference for a peaceful solution to the conflict in South Africa over armed struggle. There were also rumours of ANC involvement in an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/13/archives/tanzanian-treason-trial-entering-third-week.html">attempted coup against Nyerere</a>. In this climate, the ANC had to evacuate its entire army to the Soviet Union. Its soldiers were allowed back in the country a couple of years later.</p>
<h2>Lived spaces of solidarity</h2>
<p>In the 1970s, ANC headquarters moved to Lusaka, in Zambia, and uMkhonto we Sizwe operations <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-1098?rskey=uSBACj&result=1">moved</a> to newly independent Angola and Mozambique. But Tanzania remained a significant place of settlement for South African exiles. </p>
<p>In the late 1970s and 1980s, additional land donations from the Tanzanian government enabled the ANC to open a school and a vocational centre near Morogoro. The Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Mazimbu and the Dakawa Development Centre were set up <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/education-in-exile">to address the outflow of young people</a> from South Africa following the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">June 1976 Soweto uprising</a>. Its other aim was to counter the effects of <a href="https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?kid=163-581-2">Bantu education</a>, a segregated and inferior education system for black South Africans. </p>
<p>These became unique spaces of lived solidarity between the ANC and its international supporters. They accommodated up to 5,000 South Africans. Some of them died before they could see a liberated South Africa. Their graves are in Mazimbu. Besides educational facilities, the camps included an hospital, a productive farm, workshops and factories. They were all developed with donor funding.</p>
<p>Tanzanians, too, contributed to these projects through their labour. Many Tanzanian women became entangled in South Africa’s liberation struggle through intimate relationships, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2014.886476">marriage and children</a>. Thanks to these everyday social interactions, Tanzania became “home” for many South African exiles. The ANC handed over the facilities at Somafco and Dakawa <a href="https://www.conas.sua.ac.tz/historical-sites">to the Tanzanian government</a> on the eve of the first democratic elections in 1994. But these personal and affective connections live on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arianna Lissoni does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ties between the two nations date back to Tanzania’s solidarity with the anti-apartheid struggle.Arianna Lissoni, Researcher at History Workshop, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1649802021-07-29T12:24:59Z2021-07-29T12:24:59ZWhy Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the West Bank rattled Israel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413284/original/file-20210727-12-53z9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=306%2C355%2C7873%2C5101&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israelis have long had a sweet tooth for Ben & Jerry's. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelBenJerrys/36fca80a45eb400890010fe0c7955700/photo?Query=ben%20&%20jerry%27s=&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=142&currentItemNo=10">AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2018, I was living in Israel while researching a book about the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Israels-Securitization-Dilemma-BDS-and-the-Battle-for-the-Legitimacy/Olesker/p/book/9780367551674">country’s fight against groups that challenge its legitimacy</a>. </p>
<p>Every Wednesday, a new batch of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream arrived at my local supermarket, and I would snap up as many tubs of vanilla as I could. By Thursday, there’d be none left. Clearly, Israelis love their Ben & Jerry’s – <a href="https://finance.walla.co.il/item/3442683">which makes up about 75%</a> of the premium ice cream market in Israel. </p>
<p>Still, even I was surprised by the ferocity of the Israeli reaction to <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/palestine-statement">Ben & Jerry’s announcement</a> on July 19, 2021, that it would no longer sell its ice cream in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. Many Israelis <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/digital/internet/article/b11qeme000">on my social media feed</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/likuduk/status/1417363134839468040">were outraged</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/19/ben-jerrys-israel-west-bank/">Politicians condemned</a> Ben & Jerry’s as “anti-Israel” and urged American lawmakers to sanction the South Burlington, Vermont-based company. Some states <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/texas-gets-involved-in-israels-fight-with-ben-jerrys-over-west-bank-boycott.html">are already preparing to do just that</a>. </p>
<p>Could it be that the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement – which <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/faqs#collapse16231">targets the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza</a> – has finally found Israel’s soft spot? </p>
<h2>What is the BDS movement?</h2>
<p>The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as the <a href="https://bdsmovement.net">BDS movement</a>, began in 2005. That’s when 170 Palestinian civil society organizations called for an economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel for its <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-178825">violation of international law</a> and <a href="https://www.btselem.org/topic/settlements">Palestinian rights</a>, as well as its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. </p>
<p>The movement, which soon included a loose network of activists based all around the world, also urged companies, universities and others to divest from Israel and countries to sanction it.</p>
<p>Inspired by the <a href="https://www.aamarchives.org/campaigns/boycott.html">success of the global movement to end apartheid</a> in South Africa, the BDS campaign seeks to enlist academics, countries, companies and others in its effort to punish and isolate Israel. Its biggest gains so far have been in getting some <a href="https://amchainitiative.org/academic-associations-endorsing-academic-boycott-of-israel">academic groups</a> and <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/us-churches-advance-effective-solidarity-palestinian-freedom-justice-and-equalit">churches</a> to support its boycott.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A protestor in the foreground holds up a sign that reads 'no pride in apartheid' while others carry signs such as free Palestine during a protest outside the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Israel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The BDS movement says it was inspired by the anti-apartheid protests against South Africa in the 1980s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelEurovisionSongContest/81537dbadab24fa19466b3f3e82a314d/photo?Query=boycott,%20divestment%20and%20sanctions&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=39&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Oded Balilty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Minimal impact on Israel</h2>
<p>But the BDS movement appears to have <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/israel/gdp">had little impact</a> on Israel’s economy or its diplomatic standing. </p>
<p>One reason for this is that Israel <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/162679">has faced boycotts</a> since before it even became a state in 1948. As a result, its <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/01/26/how-much-does-bds-threaten-israels-economy/">economy has become adept</a> at producing high-quality, cutting-edge and specialized products for export, making boycotts less effective because trade partners can’t easily substitute goods from other countries. </p>
<p>Israel has also successfully lobbied some countries and lawmakers to condemn boycotts against it. In 2019, for example, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-bds-israel/germany-designates-bds-israel-boycott-movement-as-anti-semitic-idUSKCN1SN204">German Parliament designated the BDS movement as antisemitic</a>. And U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has said it <a href="https://eurojewcong.org/news/communities-news/united-kingdom/queens-speech-includes-measures-to-stop-council-boycotts/">plans to pass a measure to curb boycotts against Israel</a>.</p>
<p>In the U.S., some are boycotting the boycotters. <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/anti-bds-legislation/">Thirty-five states have passed anti-BDS laws, executive orders and resolutions</a> since 2005. These typically limit state authorities from doing business with anyone who is actively boycotting Israel and prevent state pension funds from investing in BDS-linked companies. Officials in Florida and Texas <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/florida-texas-threaten-ben-jerrys-032000298.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJmB4NRzk29KpIYOonj7Zp3jViWAnlZmeoxFxWakSonqEcrzfDE7SiGZj5-Z8JjMxu4g7mHuHBIZ033PtvQv0FbtSjMpeEEbyjmOPuu8bG0SRR7osua-qsCMqHsKdT5sDf427bfMXBjNTj0N-8xoqwj1EBE_UFt4vKf1fNuAFldJ">have already threatened</a> to add Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, to a blacklist of businesses that are ineligible for investments. </p>
<p>One of the main reasons why the anti-apartheid movement succeeded in isolating South Africa in the 1980s is that it convinced major companies, such as <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-18-mn-11241-story.html">Coca-Cola</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/c0d9a736cc6fbd382d00adfaf7d82895">Pepsi-Co</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/7b9a662a5728d811aa5bbc8c19c224a1">Reebok</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/25/world/ford-completes-divestment-in-south-africa.html">Ford</a>, to stop doing business with the country. </p>
<p>While French telecom group Orange <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-orange-partner-comm/israels-partner-comms-to-terminate-orange-brand-license-agreement-idUSKBN0UJ1GB20160105">ended its licensing agreement</a> with an Israeli company in 2016, few other big companies have embraced the movement. In 2018, Airbnb said it would remove the listings of properties in Israeli settlements, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/world/middleeast/airbnb-israel-west-bank.html">but reversed itself a few months later</a> after a flurry of anti-discrimination lawsuits were filed against it.</p>
<p>But despite the lack of substantive economic or diplomatic impact, I believe it would be a mistake to label the BDS movement as a failure. Rather, Ben & Jerry’s decision hints at a watershed moment in the BDS campaign. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="remove a cloth that was covering a cardboard cutout of a new ice cream flavor, Justice ReMix'd, in a cup" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have been outspoken in their support for some social causes and often turn them into ice creams. Here they unveil Justice ReMix’d, which contains cinnamon and chocolate Ice cream with ‘gobs of cinnamon bun dough and spicy fudge brownies.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BenJerrysJusticeRemixdFlavorHighlightsCriminalJusticeReform/479aa06025bb428497385eb95f302378/photo?Query=ben%20&%20jerry%27s=&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=142&currentItemNo=26">Eric Kayne/AP Images for Ben & Jerry's</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shifting views of Israel</h2>
<p>The company, <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us#1timeline">founded by Jewish friends</a> Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in 1978, <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about">has long embraced a liberal social mission</a> – which it frequently <a href="https://psmag.com/news/the-history-of-ben-jerrys-progressive-politics">expresses through its ice cream flavors</a>, such as <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2018/02/social-mission-flavors">Save Our Swirled</a> and <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/flavors/justice-remixd-ice-cream">Justice ReMix’d</a>. Even after Unilever bought the company in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s <a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ben-jerrys-got-bought-without-selling/">remained independent</a> in pursuing its progressive values. </p>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/palestine-statement">statement announcing the shift</a>, Ben & Jerry’s said selling ice cream in the West Bank and Gaza “is inconsistent with our values.” Cohen and Greenfield <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/opinion/ben-and-jerry-israel.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage">defended the company’s decision</a> in an op-ed in The New York Times on July 28, 2021. </p>
<p>While I don’t doubt the company’s values were behind the decision, I also believe something else was at work: Israel is losing the battle for public opinion.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/350393/key-trends-views-israel-palestinians.aspx">Israel currently has a net favorability</a> of just 3% among Democrats and voters who lean Democratic, down from 31% in the early 2000s. Among liberal Democrats, Israel has a net unfavorability of 15%, as more of these voters express support for Palestinians. The trend is especially strong with younger Americans, who are much less supportive than their older counterparts. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://criticalissues.umd.edu/sites/criticalissues.umd.edu/files/UMCIP%20Middle%20East%20Questionnaire.pdf">separate 2019 poll</a> found that, although most Americans had never heard about the BDS movement, 48% of Democrats who were familiar with it said they support it. And almost three-quarters of all respondents of that survey said they opposed laws that punish people for engaging in a boycott.</p>
<p>During the anti-apartheid fight, big companies didn’t join the movement until <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/protest-divestment-south-africa.asp">public opinion</a> began to seriously shift in response to vibrant grassroots activism, typically led by college students.</p>
<p>Ben & Jerry’s has faced a <a href="https://vtjp.org/boycott-ben-jerrys/">similar campaign</a> from pro-Palestinian activists for years. The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396">fighting in Gaza in May 2021</a> that left <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/gaza-strip-escalation-hostilities-10-21-may-2021">253 Palestinians and 12 Israelis dead</a> seems to have accelerated the pressure as <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/boycott-israel-no-ben-and-jerrys-is-boycotting-social-media-671245">social media activists bombarded</a> the company with demands to boycott Israel. This prompted a 20-day silence by Ben & Jerry’s on social media, followed by the new policy just a few weeks later. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A blast of smoke and debris rises from a building that was just hit by an Israeli missile strike in a densely populated area of Gaza City" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israel airstrikes demolished many buildings like this one in Gaza City during its fight with Hamas in May. The conflict may have been a factor in Ben & Jerry’s decision.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelGazaWarCrimes/9cb16eada82f45a5aa0d6cdc23ccbfb8/photo?Query=gaza%20AND%20may&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=4320&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Hatem Moussa</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shared values</h2>
<p>In other words, public sentiment among a group of U.S. voters – including many American Jews – who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/29/will-divisions-over-israel-fracture-democratic-party/">used to be stalwart supporters of Israel</a> has shifted, and they are increasingly turning their backs on the Jewish state. </p>
<p>For instance, while most Americans <a href="https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/americans-favor-two-state-solution-more-israelis-and-palestinians-do">support a two-state solution</a> that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories it occupies, the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/05/14/this-is-what-the-death-of-the-two-state-solution-looks-like/">Israeli government</a> and <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/2021413_new_all_population_israeli_palestinian_survey">its citizens</a> increasingly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/11/what-do-israelis-think-about-settlements-turns-out-age-matters">do not distinguish</a> between Israel and the territories it has occupied since 1967. </p>
<p>The rhetoric of Israeli politicians condemning companies like Ben & Jerry’s that join the boycott of settlements – such as calling it a <a href="https://twitter.com/yairlapid/status/1417169814867484676">form of antisemitism</a> or <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/citing-ben-jerrys-snub-herzog-says-israel-boycotts-a-new-kind-of-terrorism/">equating it with terrorism</a> – makes the problem worse. In my own research, I found that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Israels-Securitization-Dilemma-BDS-and-the-Battle-for-the-Legitimacy/Olesker/p/book/9780367551674">it validates and perpetuates</a> the illiberal image of Israel that the BDS movement paints. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/01/why-ben-jerrys-speaks-out">interview in January</a>, Christopher Miller, Ben & Jerry’s head of global activism strategy, said the “strongest bond you can create with customers is around a shared set of values.”</p>
<p>That’s why I believe Ben & Jerry’s is likely to stay the course – and why more American companies will follow suit. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 109,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronnie Olesker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ben & Jerry’s decision to no longer sell ice cream in the occupied territories comes as Israel continues to lose the support of a group of Americans who once were stalwart allies.Ronnie Olesker, Associate Professor of Government, St. Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1419382020-07-13T14:39:31Z2020-07-13T14:39:31ZThe ANC insists it’s still a political vanguard: this is what ails democracy in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346377/original/file-20200708-19-x1jtcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The post-apartheid system of participatory democracy is generally considered to have failed. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A common claim of the governing African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa is its commitment to participatory democracy: the involvement of citizens in decisions about issues that affect their lives. It is a principle and a system, primarily at the local government level, that has been institutionalised alongside representative democratic government.</p>
<p>The country has a prominent history of popular participation in the struggle for democracy. Under the largely ANC-aligned national liberation movement, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/107/429/589/79989?redirectedFrom=PDF">mass participation and popular control</a> characterised the struggle discourse. South Africans have shown, as opponents of apartheid and as free citizens, their desire to engage government.</p>
<p>Yet the post-apartheid system of participatory democracy is generally considered to have failed. This is evident in the <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/12155">weaknesses of institutionalised mechanisms</a> and the growth of informal channels such as <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/247170/pdf">protests</a>. Citizens still lack influence in governance processes.</p>
<p>With this in mind, I set out to examine the roots of this policy failure. My findings are published in a book, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030257439">The African National Congress and Participatory Democracy</a>. </p>
<p>It examines the ANC’s understanding of participatory democracy – first as a liberation movement, then as a government since 1994. It seeks to show how the failure of participatory democracy can be linked to the ideas that underpin it.</p>
<h2>A precedent for participation</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/african-national-congress-anc">Founded in 1912</a> by a small group of educated, middle class Africans, the ANC grew into a mass movement in the 1940s. It later became an exiled underground organisation from 1960, <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-anc-is-celebrating-the-year-of-or-tambo-who-was-he-85838">after its banning by the apartheid regime</a>. In exile, its roots in African nationalism merged with Marxist-Leninist ideology. </p>
<p>It draws on these intellectual traditions, but has always been a <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/sites/default/files/ANC%20Today%20%289%20Nov%29.pdf">“broad church”</a>. There has never been a singular, uniform understanding of participation within the ANC. Instead, during the struggle, multiple traditions and approaches to popular participation emerged.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, as the struggle heightened, one of these ideas took form in the “people’s power” movement. Rooted in local, informal structures of self-governance, it represented for some participants a form of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9780470674871.wbespm167">prefigurative</a>, participatory democracy, built from the bottom up.</p>
<p>From 1990, with the onset of talks to end apartheid, and after the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-african-general-elections-1994">first democratic elections in 1994</a>, some of this inspiration was woven into public policy. This was often through participation of civic and labour movements in formulating policy. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/governmentgazetteid16085.pdf">1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme</a> emphasised people-driven development. This ethos informed the <a href="http://www.cogta.gov.za/cgta_2016/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/whitepaper_on_Local-Gov_1998.pdf">1998 White Paper on Local Government</a> and legislation that established municipal ward committees as key forums for citizen participation.</p>
<p>But new ideas and influences also emerged – from development theory, governance discourse and international best practice. They can be seen in various consultative mechanisms, such as ward committees and <a href="https://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/docs/localgov/webidp.html">municipal development planning</a>. </p>
<p>Some discomfort has arisen between an impetus for managing the public sector efficiently and allowing citizens to participate. But South Africa’s public policy on participation does allow for some popular influence. </p>
<p>Separately, though, the ANC as a movement has a distinct discourse about participation. </p>
<h2>The political vanguard idea</h2>
<p>Emerging from its dominant intellectual heritage, the ANC’s very identity as a mass movement is rooted in the notion that it exists as a political vanguard. Associated with the ideas of Vladimir Lenin, the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp1514">vanguard party</a> is a vehicle led by an enlightened, revolutionary leadership through which the people can be led to freedom.</p>
<p>The adoption since 1994 of a largely market-oriented economic strategy makes this discourse meaningless at a policy level. Yet the narrative continues. </p>
<p>ANC documents, statements and commentary still refer to the governing party as “a vanguard movement”. For example, its discussion document on organisational renewal, presented at its most recent policy conference in 2017, stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ANC has to operate as a vanguard movement with political, ideological and organisational capacity to direct the state and give leadership to the motive forces in all spheres of influence and pillars of our transformation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why is this a problem for participatory democracy? </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346361/original/file-20200708-3991-w0otyw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346361/original/file-20200708-3991-w0otyw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346361/original/file-20200708-3991-w0otyw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346361/original/file-20200708-3991-w0otyw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346361/original/file-20200708-3991-w0otyw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346361/original/file-20200708-3991-w0otyw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346361/original/file-20200708-3991-w0otyw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vanguardism holds that a dedicated movement – or party – is needed to give ideological, moral and intellectual leadership through a process of “conscientisation”. A vanguard views itself as a true representative, able to interpret the popular will. The people must not only see the vanguard’s objectives as in their best interests. They must also see leadership by that vanguard as essential for those interests to be secured. It implies a fundamental connection between the people’s collective needs and the leadership of their vanguard organisation. </p>
<p>An active role for the people is a critical component of vanguardism. But the movement must guide participation. It’s not the form of participation that’s usually associated with democracy. But the ANC understands it as being the same as participatory democracy.</p>
<h2>Vanguardism versus participatory democracy</h2>
<p>The challenge for South Africa’s democracy is that the very existence of vanguardism prevents citizens from being empowered. It keeps the party dominant. It also contains what the political theorist Joseph V. Femia, in his book <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/4548330/marxism-and-democracy">Marxism and Democracy, p.136)</a>, said was an important tension in Marxism generally, between a desire for </p>
<blockquote>
<p>political control from above and popular initiative from below.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This can be framed as a tension between vanguardism and participatory democracy.</p>
<p>Twenty six years since the end of apartheid, South Africa has reached a critical point in its democracy. Popular <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-must-offer-more-than-promises-to-win-over-south-africans-109788">disillusionment with the ANC</a>, <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/dominance-and-decline/">failures in government performance </a> and the <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-01-31-these-provinces-had-the-most-service-delivery-protests-in-2019/">rise of popular protest</a> are evident. But certain ideas continue to influence the way democracy is practised. </p>
<p>The ANC has been found wanting as a leader of society. <a href="https://www.sastatecapture.org.za/">Rampant corruption and abuse of office</a> have marred its claim to the rightful leadership of South Africa’s people. It was inevitable that citizens would lose faith in formal political processes. </p>
<p>The difficult path from liberation movement to governing party is well-trodden in Africa. Liberation struggles across the continent were conducted in the context of state repression. Political organisations were not free to operate openly. </p>
<p>But the requirements of underground operations and of unity in struggle are different to those of democracy. Organisational traditions focused not on empowering citizens but on maintaining movement hegemony do not allow democratic influence and agency to flourish.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030257439">The African National Congress and Participatory Democracy: From Peoples Power to Public Policy</a> is published by <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp">Palgrave Macmillan</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141938/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Brooks received funding from the Leverhulme Trust for the doctoral research on which this article is based. </span></em></p>The challenge for the deepening of South Africa’s democracy is that the very existence of vanguardism prevents the realisation of empowered citizens.Heidi Brooks, Senior Researcher and Associate, Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic ReflectionLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1007702018-08-02T13:51:18Z2018-08-02T13:51:18ZHow resistance led to London’s Selous Street becoming Mandela Street<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229957/original/file-20180731-136652-pag00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nelson Mandela garnered much support from the UK during apartheid in opposition of the then government's stance.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently attended the opening of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/24/nelson-mandela-the-centenary-exhibition-review">“Nelson Mandela: The Centenary Exhibition”</a> in London. It was one of many global events to celebrate <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography">Mandela’s</a> 100th birthday and his legacy. </p>
<p>What shouldn’t be forgotten is that establishment support for Mandela and the struggle he represented was not unanimous during the apartheid years. For example, under Margaret Thatcher the British government supported Pretoria and secured Britain’s economic and political interests in the region. </p>
<p>Yet a <a href="https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/politics-of-race-in-britain-and-south-africa/">network</a> of organisations and activists, anti-colonial groups, students, trade unionists and anti-nuclear groups on the left offered <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137008909">support</a> for the struggle. Local authorities – in big cities such as London as well as smaller towns such as Ipswich and Chatham across the UK – were part of the mix of anti-apartheid protests. Located between government and grassroots organisations, local authorities paved the way for an official rejection of apartheid. </p>
<p>Their legacy of resistance is worth revisiting for two reasons. Firstly, because this form of politics is often overlooked when we concentrate on the demonstrations, sanctions and concerts in Mandela’s name. And secondly, because it could be seen as a precursor to contemporary movements calling to <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/permanent-removal-of-uct-rhodes-statue-gets-green-light-20161031">remove statues</a> commemorating the colonial past in South Africa and <a href="https://rmfoxford.wordpress.com/">in the UK</a>. </p>
<h2>Act of protest</h2>
<p>From the early 1980s, local governments in the UK began renaming streets, housing estates and community centres after Mandela as an act of protest – both against apartheid and the British government.</p>
<p>In August 1981, the City of Glasgow awarded the imprisoned Mandela the <a href="https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/daughter-nelson-mandela-thanks-glasgow-14935979">Freedom of the City</a>. That year, the Lord Provost of Glasgow also initiated a Declaration of Mayors for the immediate and unconditional release of Mandela and all other political prisoners in South Africa. The campaign led to 2264 mayors from 56 countries <a href="http://psimg.jstor.org/fsi/img/pdf/t0/10.5555/al.sff.document.nuun1982_18_final.pdf">signing the declaration</a>.</p>
<p>On the 20th anniversary of Mandela’s arrest on August 5, 1982 the United Nations Special Committee on apartheid called for an expansion of the campaign. On the heels of this call, came an initiative by the Greater London Council to rename Selous Street, home to the offices of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement in London, Mandela Street. </p>
<p>In the application to the Director-General of the Council in March 1983, it was explained that renaming the street was,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a particularly public and enduring way of honouring Mr. Mandela and of demonstrating support for the cause for which he is fighting. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>My <a href="http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/blcas/aam.html">research</a> at the Anti Apartheid Movement Archives at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University shows many objections to this proposal.</p>
<h2>Resistance</h2>
<p>The street was quite small and entirely commercial. A survey from 1982 listed seven commercial firms, one charitable organisation, some council offices and a garage. </p>
<p>A letter from the council’s valuer and estates surveyor shows that there was apprehension about renaming the street. It could, the surveyor argues, harm local businesses because “deliveries and new customers” would get confused by “incorrect information on maps”.</p>
<p>Some businesses did write to the council pointing out that they faced additional expenses such as having to order new stationary as well as advertisements. </p>
<p>The Post Office also objected. Its representative argued that the initiative confer “additional work, inconvenience and confusion” and that all records, maps and postcode books would need to be updated. Would it not be better, the official suggested, to name a future street after Mandela rather than an existing one?</p>
<p>A last challenge to the street’s name <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/110642/britain-far-right-austerity-daniel-trilling-eu">came from</a> the far-right group the National Front in 1988. The group distributed pamphlets calling for “British names for British places!” It proposed renaming Mandela Street after a different Nelson - Horatio Nelson. No action was taken.</p>
<p>A more personal appeal came from Commander GMB Selous who informed Camden borough’s director of planning and communications that his family “were slightly horrified” by the initiative. He pointed out that Henry Courtney Selous, after whom the street had been named, was the renowned painter of “The Opening of the Great Exhibition by Queen Victoria” from 1851, and his brother was a known dramatist. As a family, they would be,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>absolutely horrified if a link with England’s history should be removed at the whim of people who are, after all, visitors within our normally peaceful shores.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This was a misleading description of the anti-apartheid movement, a British organisation peopled with volunteers mostly of British descent. Commander Selous also forgets to mention his most famed ancestor, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Courteney-Selous">Fredrick Courteney Selous</a> who was an imperial explorer of South Africa, assistant to Cecil Rhodes and game hunter. Frederick Courtney’s exploits in South Africa and in Zimbabwe were hardly peaceful.</p>
<p>Commander Selous wrote a similar account in a letter <a href="http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/16th-july-1983/19/the-selous-story">published in The Spectator on 16 July</a>.</p>
<p>Reports in the press about the initiative, and the objections to it, caused a stir. To avoid this criticism, the council promised small grants to cover advertising and stationary costs. It was also agreed that the street sign would retain the older name in addition to Mandela’s. The change was approved in time to celebrate <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/mandela-nelson-65th-birthday-winnie-suzman-itn-archive">Mandela’s 65th birthday</a>. </p>
<p>The following year, the Greater London Council strengthened its commitment to anti-apartheid protests. In January 1984 it presented its own anti-apartheid declaration to a delegation from the UN. The statement declared London an “anti-apartheid zone”. </p>
<p>The street naming controversy exemplifies the tensions over the attempt to inscribe Mandela’s nonracial politics on the ground in the UK. It shows the power of local government to shape politics and mobilise change, even in opposition to national government. </p>
<p>The controversy also shows how the built environment can be used as an effective tool of education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tal Zalmanovich receives funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Research Council grant agreement 615564</span></em></p>From the early 1980s, local governments in the UK began renaming streets, housing estates and community centres after Mandela as an act of protest.Tal Zalmanovich, Postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the ERC funded project APARTHEID-STOPS that studies the transnational circulation of anti-apartheid expressive culture., Hebrew University of JerusalemLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/957362018-05-04T10:49:12Z2018-05-04T10:49:12ZBoycott China and avoid a trade war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217621/original/file-20180503-138586-1kwi1o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China hopes to make more microprocessor chips in China, which makes it a great industry to lead a boycott.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. and China are locked in negotiations both sides say they hope will avert a painful trade war. </p>
<p>The Trump administration has threatened to impose a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-22/what-s-intellectual-property-and-does-china-steal-it-quicktake">series of tariffs</a> unless China agrees to limit <a href="http://time.com/5230353/donald-trump-china-tariffs-100-billion-chinese-goods/">what he calls</a> “its illicit trade practices.” The Chinese government, for its part, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/business/china-trump-trade-talks.html">appears unwilling</a> to accede to his demands and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/06/china-us-tariffs-trump-country-midterms">has offered some retaliatory trade sanctions</a> of its own. </p>
<p>The ostensible reason President Donald Trump is willing to risk a trade war is because <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactives/campaign2016/donald-trump/on-china">he argues</a> – justifiably – that U.S. companies have been taken advantage of by their Chinese counterparts for decades, required to hand over lucrative intellectual property in exchange for access to China’s growing middle class. </p>
<p>Tariffs, however, aren’t the answer to that problem, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x5dB33oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> in <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/The-Economics-of-International-Trade-and-the-Environment/Batabyal-Beladi/p/book/9781566705301">international economics</a> and the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351784696">design of international environmental agreements</a> shows. Rather, if Trump really wants to achieve his stated aims, he should put American businesses on the front lines of his strategy and call for a boycott of China. </p>
<h2>Doing business in China</h2>
<p>If that sounds preposterous, consider the origins of this escalating conflict. </p>
<p>Its seeds can be traced back to the opening up of the Chinese economy as a result of reforms introduced by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-reforms-chronology-sb/timeline-china-milestones-since-1978-idUKTRE4B711V20081208">Deng Xiaoping in 1978</a> and the zeal of American – and more generally Western – companies in taking <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-western-companies-can-succeed-in-china-65291">full advantage</a> of new business opportunities in this gigantic market.</p>
<p>However, in many instances in the past four decades, the presence of mandatory technology transfer policies and foreign ownership restrictions have meant that market access has been granted only to Western firms <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-22/what-s-intellectual-property-and-does-china-steal-it-quicktake">willing to play ball</a>. In addition, there is now considerable evidence that Chinese businesses, often with the participation of government officials, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/china-us-intellectual-property-trump.html">have been conducting cyberattacks</a> on American companies to steal their intellectual property. </p>
<p>The Trump administration <a href="http://ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_Update_2017.pdf">estimated</a> that this theft of American intellectual property costs US$225 billion to $600 billion annually.</p>
<p>And since companies are already on the front lines of this fight, with the most to lose, it makes sense that they’re the ones to lead the counter attack. </p>
<h2>A boycott by firms</h2>
<p>So how would a boycott work? Importantly, the U.S. couldn’t do it alone. </p>
<p>American companies, like everyone else, want to make money in the <a href="https://www.marketmechina.com/china-can-penetrate-billion-strong-market">one billion person</a> market that is China and hence it would not make sense for them to unilaterally withdraw. By doing so, they would be giving up valuable market share to their rivals. For example, if a top U.S. luxury car seller such as <a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20180105/RETAIL01/180109836/cadillac-behind-china-nears-sales-peak">Cadillac</a> were to unilaterally boycott the Chinese market, then it would be giving up valuable market share to other rivals. </p>
<p>The key point is that many of those rivals are in Europe and <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/german-paper-china-steals-volkswagen-patents">have also been used and abused</a> by Chinese companies and hence have a similar interest in finding a way to prevent them from stealing any more of their intellectual property. </p>
<p>If all Western luxury car makers jointly boycotted China, then this would be equivalent to acting as if a Chinese market didn’t exist. Clearly, profits would take a hit in the short run, but the long-term objective of ensuring that Western companies do business on a level playing field would be met.</p>
<h2>Cars and chips</h2>
<p>Also, a boycott wouldn’t have to involve more than a few industries to be effective. Specifically, the focus would need to be on industries that China, through its <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/why-does-everyone-hate-made-china-2025">Made in China 2025 scheme</a>, would like to dominate. Two strong examples are cars and computer chips. </p>
<p>China has been trying to develop a domestic automobile industry since the early 1980s, an effort <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43107062?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">that has largely failed</a>. But now, under the Made in China initiative, it is seeking to become a leader in electric vehicles. </p>
<p>However, it needs Western automakers to continue to <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/11/ford-is-going-to-launch-a-new-brand-of-electric-cars-just-for-china">operate in China</a> and conduct research on battery technology and on electric vehicles in order to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-02-01/the-breakneck-rise-of-china-s-colossus-of-electric-car-batteries">achieve this goal</a>.</p>
<p>Thus if Western car companies and particularly those actively conducting research in battery technology jointly agreed to stop competing in China, that would send a strong message to Beijing. Either China could try to go it alone with no Western collaboration or it’ll have to realize that systematically strong-arming companies will not help it attain its goals. </p>
<p>A second example of an industry in which a Western boycott would be effective is microprocessor chips. This is because China <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-chips-exclusive/exclusive-china-looks-to-speed-up-chip-plans-as-u-s-trade-tensions-boil-sources-idUSKBN1HQ1QP">is still significantly dependent</a> on imports despite operating a few notable supercomputers that use solely home-made chips. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-next-target-u-s-microchip-hegemony-1501168303">Almost 90 percent of chips</a> used in China are either imported or produced domestically by foreign companies, so a boycott would force the government to sit up and take notice. </p>
<p>For a boycott of this sort to work, it is important that American officials not attempt to go it alone, making it seem like a purely China versus U.S. spat. Successful boycotts follow a “strength in numbers” logic.</p>
<p>And this is where the Trump administration enters the fray. It could use its diplomatic muscle to enlist the governments of like-minded allies – particularly the European Union – to get their companies in key industries to join the American-led boycott. This could be part of a wider effort to credibly and collaboratively communicate to China that it needs to play fairly. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/opinion/america-china-trump-trade.html">recently noted</a>, the “last thing Beijing wants is a U.S.-E.U. united front demanding it play fair.” </p>
<p>Not only would this selective boycott make it harder for the Chinese government to achieve its <a href="http://english.gov.cn/2016special/madeinchina2025/">Made in China 2025 dreams</a>, it would also anger consumers, who are <a href="https://www.marketingtochina.com/5-reasons-chinese-like-buy-imported-brands/">increasingly hungry</a> for Western goods – something the leadership <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1878363/give-chinese-greater-access-foreign-consumer-goods">is well aware of</a>. </p>
<p>And in contrast to tariffs, such a campaign would likely have no adverse impact on American consumers. </p>
<p>One important caveat: This course of action, like imposing tariffs, would probably do little to reduce the threat of intellectual property theft by Chinese hackers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Chinese government is hoping to make more high-tech products in China by 2025.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ng Han Guan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Would a boycott work?</h2>
<p>When we think of a boycott, we usually imagine consumers avoiding a particular product. Such boycotts have had <a href="http://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/about/news/2017/king-corporate-boycotts.html">varying levels of success</a>. </p>
<p>A corporate boycott of a nation is much less common. To the best of my knowledge, a corporate boycott of a nation along the lines suggested here has not been attempted before. Historically, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_boycotts">boycotts</a> against a nation have typically been designed to persuade consumers to not purchase products from a nation, such as the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/when-boycott-began-bite">anti-apartheid movement</a> or the more controversial <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds">boycott of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>What I am proposing is a country boycott by companies located in multiple nations and hence it is not possible to directly gauge the likelihood of success based on past actions</p>
<p>That being said, vigorous diplomacy by like-minded nations sharing a common objective has yielded positive outcomes in as diverse and difficult cases as the <a href="https://www.state.gov/e/oes/eqt/chemicalpollution/83007.htm">1987 Montreal protocol</a> to reduce ozone-depleting substances and the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33521655">2015 Iran nuclear deal</a>. Similarly, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel has demonstrated how businesses across nations can take joint action to achieve a common objective, with <a href="http://energyfuse.org/opecs-history-of-oil-market-management-its-complicated/">mixed success</a>.</p>
<p>Might China retaliate? Perhaps, but the costs would be high if the U.S. were to successfully organize a boycott involving companies in several dozen countries. More likely, it would find accommodation a much more palatable option in the face of a united front. </p>
<p>The recent tariffs aside, Western businesses and nations need to stop treating China with kid gloves, which I believe they have been doing for years. A boycott would be a good start – and wouldn’t risk a trade war.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amitrajeet A. Batabyal has received funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, the Giannini Foundation for Agricultural Economics and the Charles Koch Foundation.</span></em></p>If companies in key industries collectively shunned the Chinese market, that would force China’s leaders to take notice, with less risk of blowback.Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774892017-06-05T16:38:07Z2017-06-05T16:38:07ZHow divestment campaigns can change the rules in a profit-driven world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168961/original/file-20170511-32607-1cgksvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spanish activists protest against retailers using factories in a building in Bangladesh which collapsed, killing more than 600 people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Albert Gea</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We live in a globally integrated economy where national governments are often unwilling or unable to control corporations. How then can governments, trade unions or environmental groups protect people and environments from exploitation or abuse? What mechanisms might prevent the proverbial <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/race-bottom.asp">“race to the bottom”</a>? </p>
<p>Strong institutional mechanisms for restricting corporate power rarely cross national borders. So activists working on global issues have increasingly turned to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122414540653">“shaming movements”</a> – broad public campaigns that seek to punish unethical corporations by urging people to reject tainted products or profits. </p>
<p>Shaming campaigns generally take the form of consumer boycotts. Individual consumers are asked to avoid specific products or brands. Divestment campaigns, which call on individuals and institutions to sell or dump their shares in a particular company or industry, are another method. </p>
<p>Shaming movements have a long history. In the late 18th century, British abolitionists refused to drink tea sweetened with <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Bury_the_Chains.html?id=YYsGlsSGRy8C&redir_esc=y">sugar</a> grown on slave plantations. During India’s independence struggle in the 1930s, Mohandas Gandhi urged his countrymen to boycott <a href="http://www.history.com/news/gandhis-salt-march-85-years-ago">commercially-produced salt</a> rather than pay British taxes. </p>
<p>Half a decade later activists boycotted <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/121/4/1196/2581604/Milking-the-Third-World-Humanitarianism-Capitalism">Nestle chocolate</a>. They were protesting the company’s reckless promotion of infant formula to the world’s poorest women. And the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s showed that divestment campaigns could focus global attention on international issues, pushing powerful companies and even governments to change their behaviour. </p>
<p>The rise of globalisation, coupled with increased corporate power, has seen ever more calls for consumer boycotts and divestment campaigns. But do they work? The answer is neither a simple yes nor an outright no. </p>
<p>Consumer boycotts and divestment campaigns have certainly been successful in attracting attention to global issues. In some cases they have forced profit-seeking companies to adopt new norms. But the challenge for activists today is what to do once the shaming has succeeded. Will companies actually adhere to these new norms, or will they simply return to business as usual?</p>
<h2>Fickle consumers and voluntary agreements</h2>
<p>Over the past 30 years most global brands have shifted to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09692290.2013.873369">global supply chains</a>. This involves outsourcing production to different suppliers around the world. There have been repeated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/oct/28/ethicalbusiness.india">scandals</a> about working conditions and environmental degradation among those suppliers – scandals often highlighted by transnational “shaming campaigns”.</p>
<p>The threat of “shaming” has prompted many brands to voluntarily adopt corporate codes of conduct, promising to respect national labour laws and basic safety codes. Global brands began to hire <a href="http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/the-myth-of-the-ethical-shopper/">factory monitors</a> to assess working conditions at supplier factories and certify that goods are ethically produced.</p>
<p>But do these voluntary corporate monitoring schemes really change the treatment of workers or the environment? Increasingly, the answer appears to be “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Limits-Private-Power-Comparative/dp/1107670888">no</a>”. Even corporations which boast about a strong commitment to social responsibility can easily <a href="http://casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/seidman">overlook</a> suppliers’ violations. This sometimes happens with the complicity of factory monitors. </p>
<p>When a scandal occurs, the threat of a consumer boycott may prompt global brands to act. But once the world’s eyes turn away, the commitment to ethical production tends to fade. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168958/original/file-20170511-32588-v22umx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168958/original/file-20170511-32588-v22umx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168958/original/file-20170511-32588-v22umx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168958/original/file-20170511-32588-v22umx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168958/original/file-20170511-32588-v22umx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168958/original/file-20170511-32588-v22umx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168958/original/file-20170511-32588-v22umx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Now that the world’s attention has turned away, many brands have failed to fulfill post-disaster pledges to help the families of Rana Plaza’s dead and injured workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Andrew Biraj</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bangladesh’s 2013 <a href="http://www.globallabourrights.org/campaigns/factory-collapse-in-bangladesh">Rana Plaza collapse</a>, which killed over 1000 workers, is a tragic reminder. Despite clear evidence that “codes of conduct” and even national building codes were being violated, brands continued to rely on suppliers who regularly endangered their workers. The disaster and accompanying scandal prompted <a href="https://business-humanrights.org/en/the-accord-on-fire-and-building-safety-in-bangladesh">loud promises</a> from companies around the world. Consumers were assured that Bangladeshi factory conditions would be transformed. </p>
<p>But many of those post-disaster pledges remain <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/04/30/525858799/4-years-after-rana-plaza-tragedy-whats-changed-for-bangladeshi-garment-workers">unfulfilled</a>. Workers in Bangladesh’s garment industry remain vulnerable and unprotected. </p>
<p>This raises real questions about voluntary monitoring schemes, prompting many activists to explore <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100250150&fa=author&person_ID=5324">new mechanisms</a> that might subject multinational brands to legal controls or regulatory mechanisms. </p>
<h2>Divestment: challenging global rules</h2>
<p>Successful divestment campaigns have a different dynamic from consumer boycotts. Instead of urging individual consumers not to buy particular brands or products, these campaigns mobilise local communities to put pressure on institutional investors. </p>
<p>Universities, municipalities or pension funds are urged to reject profits from specific locations linked to amoral activities, or from controversial industries such as tobacco, fossil fuels or private prison companies. </p>
<p>Divestment campaigns make collective, institutional demands. In doing so, they prompt community discussions about whether specific business practices – and profiting from them – can be ever be considered acceptable. They mobilise global support for new norms, reshaping collective understandings. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Loosing-Bonds-Robert-Kinloch-Massie/dp/0385261675">anti-apartheid divestment campaign</a> offered a remarkably successful example. Students, church groups and trade unions called on local institutions to sell any shares tied to apartheid-linked companies. </p>
<p>Communities around the world were forced to debate the morality of profiting from investments that involved businesses operating under apartheid, accepting the system’s legalised racism. </p>
<p>Corporate boards spent hours debating the moral and financial value of their South African ties. Corporate directors faced questions about apartheid from their children over the dinner table. As public pressure mounted, banks and multinational companies cut once-profitable ties, and pushed national governments to impose mild sanctions on South Africa. And in South Africa itself, business leaders who feared international isolation began to support a transition to democracy. </p>
<p>The power of divestment campaigns is that they stigmatise both immoral behaviours and those who would profit from them. It’s a strategy that often infuriates business leaders, as it can push policymakers to rewrite the rules of ordinary capitalism.</p>
<p>The anti-apartheid campaign, as well as the pro-Palestinian <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/">Boycott Divestment and Sanctions</a> (BDS) movement and today’s surprisingly effective <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13549839.2015.1009825?needAccess=true">fossil fuel divestment movement</a> show the power of this approach. </p>
<h2>Shaming is only the first step</h2>
<p>To be truly successful, “shaming movements” must move beyond mobilising public opinion to reach a point where national governments or international agencies are forced to adopt and enforce new norms, both within national boundaries and beyond. </p>
<p>This means that transnational activists must ensure that new mechanisms are designed to protect communities and environments. </p>
<p>Shaming may be a first step in challenging global corporate practices, but it is only a <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1eEADQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA351&dq=Naming,+Shaming,+Changing+the+World+Gay+Seidman&ots=RIxWbeJiEp&sig=mHo1tsdbu2pSFX9-_fPwAPljkHQ#v=onepage&q=Naming%2C%20Shaming%2C%20Changing%20the%20World%20Gay%20Seidman&f=false">first step</a>. </p>
<p>Increasingly, we need to think harder about what comes next. How do we create global institutions to protect all of us from what the great political economist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/09/economics-creditcrunch">Karl Polanyi</a> might have called the ravages of “savage capitalism”? How do we prevent the drive for private profit from destroying the communities and the environment on which we all rely?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gay Seidman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“Shaming campaigns” have been successful in attracting attention to transnational issues like inhumane working conditions and environmental degradation. But shaming guilty corporations is only the first step.Gay Seidman, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/704882016-12-19T14:11:26Z2016-12-19T14:11:26ZTrump’s threat on climate change pledges will hit Africa hard<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150340/original/image-20161215-26068-v1kxhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President-elect Donald Trump's stance on climate change is very different to Barack Obama's. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Kevin Lamarque</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, publicly questions the existence of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/07/trump-scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency">climate change</a>. He, and presumably Trump himself, opposes President Barack Obama’s environmental initiatives to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.</p>
<p>US withdrawal from these agreements would imperil Africa. It is the region least responsible, most vulnerable, and least able to afford the cost of adapting to global climate change. Southern Africa is already suffering effects of global warming rates <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/article604096.ece">twice as high as the global average</a>.</p>
<p>If Trump forsakes US support for the <a href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php">2015 Paris Climate Accord</a>, endorsed by 193 members of the United Nations (UN), as well as Obama’s bilateral climate <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/03/fact-sheet-us-china-cooperation-climate-change">agreement with China</a>, the resultant rise of global warming and extreme weather events will wreak havoc throughout Africa. Global social media will amplify the human dramas and dangers of forced migrations, viral epidemics and related deadly conflicts as credible evidence of global warming’s impact continues to accumulate. China and the US are the world’s <a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-14/dirty-deeds-worlds-biggest-polluters-country">biggest emitters of greenhouse gases</a>.</p>
<p>So it is incumbent on African governments, individually and with the <a href="https://www.au.int/">African Union</a>, the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/">UN</a> and civil society networks globally and in the US, to pressure the Trump administration to keep US commitments.</p>
<h2>The outlook isn’t good</h2>
<p>Trump’s personal convictions about the threat and causes of global warming remain obscure. Several of his key cabinet appointees’ views are less so. And the cabinet hasn’t had this concentration of representatives from the old Republican corporate and military establishment since <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/ronaldreagan">Ronald Reagan</a> governed in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Most are ideologically conservative, older, white, Christian men hostile to government regulation, including those related to the environment. </p>
<p>Reagan succeeded in overturning <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/jimmycarter">Jimmy Carter’s</a> early attempts to promote clean energy and other <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=7561">environmental reforms</a>. </p>
<p>Today, the consequences for Africa of such reversals could be catastrophic.</p>
<p>The nomination of <a href="https://theconversation.com/rex-tillerson-and-the-new-transnational-oligarchy-70367">Rex Tillerson</a>, ExxonMobil’s chairman and CEO, to become the next Secretary of State is of immediate concern to environmental scientists. This is particularly the case given ExxonMobil’s history of concealing the <a href="https://www.washintonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/10/who-is-rex-tillerson...">truth about global warming</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-15/donald-trump-formally-annouces-rick-perry-to-lead-energy-depart/8121876">Governor Rick Perry of Texas</a>, nominated to become Energy Secretary, is another proponent of reliance on fossil fuels. The climate effects of these have caused major disruptions to communities in Africa. The drought plagued and conflict prone weak states of the Sahel are <a href="http://www.oecd.org/swac/publications/47234320.pdf">especially vulnerable</a>. Meanwhile the better known legacy of environmental damage by US and other oil companies in the Niger Delta continues to cause hardship and conflict. </p>
<h2>Lessons from the past</h2>
<p>Mobilising popular opposition to US actions that are hurtful to Africans is never easy. But here too an analogy to the Reagan years may be instructive. In 1986 bipartisan majorities in Congress <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2010/09/house-overrides-reagan-apartheid-veto-sept-29-1986-042839">overrode Reagan’s veto</a> of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. This imposed sanctions on South Africa, with conditions requiring national liberation for their removal.</p>
<p>Curbing global warming for the benefit of Africa and humanity might seem less urgent than ending apartheid in the 1980s. And were international sanctions to punish the polluter they would be against the US. Yet in other ways comparing the global anti-apartheid movement to one seeking freedom of relief from global warming may be similar.</p>
<p>Popular and bipartisan opposition to apartheid took many years to coalesce. But a popular and powerful president was finally overpowered. Global warming already has 64% of the US public “worried/care a great deal” according to a <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/190010/concern-global-warming-eight-year-high.aspx">recent Gallup poll</a>. </p>
<p>Trump won the White House narrowly in America’s archaic electoral college and <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/why-electoral-college-landslides-are-easier-to-win-than-popular-vote-ones/">lost the popular vote</a> by a greater margin – 2.8 million – than any US president. </p>
<p>Although Africa has never been among the US’s foreign policy priorities, public support development and humanitarian assistance have enjoyed broad public support, not only among liberals and those who voted for Trump’s opponent. Major programmes to benefit Africa’s people in public health, agriculture, clean energy, and education have been rare examples of <a href="http://www.time.com/4487397/bipartisan-success-congress/">bipartisan support</a> in an otherwise mostly dysfunctional US Congress. A campaign to help Africans adapt to climate change could resonate publicly and politically in ways that would benefit America as well, as with the anti-apartheid movement.</p>
<p>Passing even popular legislation takes time. The 1986 anti-apartheid bill was first introduced in 1972. By contrast, global warming relief for Africa is on a fast track. In 2014, Barack Obama committed the US to make a major down payment of $US 3 billion as part of a special $100 billion programme for African and other low income countries seriously affected by climate change caused by the US and other <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/us/politics/obama-climate-change-fund-3-billion-announcement.html?_r=0">global polluters</a>. </p>
<p>Trump and his team appear poised to rescind this commitment. Successfully opposing such a decision would be an early big victory in what is shaping up to be a major test for Trump’s leadership at home and abroad.</p>
<h2>African leadership</h2>
<p>African leadership of this campaign is essential. South Africa is in a good position to speak with conviction. It is one of the countries most seriously affected by climate change and is also home to Africa’s leading climatologists. </p>
<p>But to stand up to the unilateral fact-free flailing of Trump and his climate change denialists will require more than evidence.</p>
<p>Global warming raises a moral imperative to help those of us who are most vulnerable, least responsible for contributing to it and most in need. For these reasons we should all draw inspiration and be driven by the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/10/stremlau.mandela/">“stubborn sense of fairness”</a> that the late Nelson Mandela credits his father for instilling in him.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John J Stremlau is affiliated with Wits University. </span></em></p>If Trump forsakes US support for the 2015 Paris Climate Accord as well as Obama’s bilateral climate agreement with China, the resultant rise of global warming will wreak havoc throughout Africa.John J Stremlau, Visiting Professor of International Relations, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/659792016-10-05T07:29:09Z2016-10-05T07:29:09ZRemembering Sol Plaatje as South Africa’s original public educator<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139433/original/image-20160927-14618-7iac11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sol Plaatje never stopped learning, nor teaching.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/flowcomm/13902788208/in/photolist-nsKpmb-nbxpmu-nbxqyY-6MtoQj-6n9wpR-nqZmNo-nbx5o9-nsKGCW-nuNE4F-nbxkbx-nbxkFv-nt584A-nt2pST-nbxmPc-nbxikv">Flowcomm/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7894">Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje</a> was born 140 years ago in what is today South Africa’s Free State province. When he was 40 years old, he published <em>Native Life in South Africa</em>, his great expose of the ruinous effects of the 1913 <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/natives-land-act-1913">Natives’ Land Act</a>. This legislation almost completely stripped black South Africans of the right to own land.</p>
<p>Plaatje, known as Sol, came from a family that had been associated with Christian missions for three generations. He was also a proud member of the Barolong clan and treasured his African identity and culture. He lived through times of tumultuous change in South Africa, including the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/second-anglo-boer-war-1899-1902">Anglo Boer War</a> and the creation of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/union-south-africa-1910">Union of South Africa</a>. </p>
<p>He transcended his own tribal and religious identities to embrace a vision of a common South Africa. He stood up against the forces of white supremacy and segregation and advocated for a united, inclusive nation based on justice, equality and the rule of law. All of this during the darkest of days and at great personal cost. </p>
<p>In honour of <em>Native Life’s</em> centenary, it’s worth revisiting Plaatje’s legacy as one of his country’s greatest public intellectuals. It’s also a good opportunity to reflect on how a man with only four years of formal schooling became a brilliant public educator who promoted a common and inclusive South Africanness. </p>
<h2>Early years</h2>
<p>Plaatje is best known as a leader of the South African Native National Congress, which later became the now-governing African National Congress (ANC). He was also a novelist and journalist. But many may not know that teaching was his first job – and enduring vocation.</p>
<p>He was just 14 or 15 when he was appointed as “pupil-teacher” at the Pniel mission station where he’d completed only three grades of school. He later finished another school year in the city of Kimberley.</p>
<p>Despite his limited formal schooling, Plaatje received what historian Tim Couzens <a href="http://www.oerafrica.org/FTPFolder/guyana/CCTI%20CD/CCTI%20CD/ukzncore2a/documents/core2a.insight.htm">described</a> as “the very best education”. His mother, grandmother and aunts steeped him in Setswana culture and oral tradition. They sparked his fascination with African history, folklore and proverbs, which he later evocatively captured in his 1929 novel <em><a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/mhudi/9780143185406">Mhudi</a></em>. It was the first English language novel published by a black South African. </p>
<p>A prodigious polyglot, Plaatje used the limited opportunities at Pniel to increase his repertoire. One day he overheard the missionary’s wife, Elizebeth Westphal, speaking English to a lady in the kitchen. He <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636726?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">said</a> to her “I want to be able to speak English and Dutch and German as you do”. She gave him extra lessons and introduced him to English literature and classical music. He mastered other South African languages as he encountered them. </p>
<p>During his brief time at school in Kimberley, Plaatje was exposed to a very diverse spectrum of children from the mining town.</p>
<p>The resident priest at the All Saints mission school <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sol-Plaatje-biography-Brian-Willan/dp/0869752529">described</a> the pupils as being </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cape Dutch [that is, “Coloured”], Bechuana, Zulus, Fingoes, Malays, Indians; and classified in order of creed …. Dutch Reformed, Anglican, Wesleyan, Independent, Roman Catholic; and in addition to Christians, Mahommedans, and Brahmin…‘ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This thriving polyglot, racially integrated, ecumenical and interfaith school community perhaps gave Plaatje an early taste - not realised in his lifetime - of what an integrated South Africa might mean and how South Africans might learn from each other.</p>
<h2>Lifelong and life-wide learning</h2>
<p>Plaatje was an indefatigable self-directed learner throughout his life. He practised lifelong learning long before it became a <a href="http://uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/LifelongLearning/en/LLPSCollection.pdf">policy buzzword</a>. In his various professions - post office messenger, court interpreter, journalist, politician, author, translator - he found and learnt from mentors, books and life experiences. He made the knowledge his own to share with others. Almost instinctively, he combined the role of public educator with everything else that he did.</p>
<p>In his first adult job in Kimberley as post office messenger, one of the few positions available to educated Africans in the Cape Colony, Plaatje learnt the importance of bearing the message from sender to receiver. From this he perhaps gained insight into the power and importance of the word in connecting people.</p>
<p>He continued this “in-between” role when appointed court interpreter in Mafeking in 1898. The job was about more than just translating. It involved mediating the world of the English and Dutch magistrates and prosecutors to African plaintiffs and vice versa. He made possible, through his voice and person and the virtue of listening, a dialogue between these worlds. </p>
<h2>A pioneer</h2>
<p>Plaatje was also a pioneer of African independent journalism. He launched and edited a number of newspapers such as <em><a href="http://hpra-atom.wits.ac.za/atom-2.1.0/index.php/koranta-ea-becoana-tsala-ea-becoana-and-tsala-ea-batho">Koranta ea Becoana</a></em> (1901-1906). These newspapers published articles in English and Setswana, targeting the country’s small minority of mission-educated Africans. His titles gave this group a public voice and educated them about current affairs. </p>
<p>Plaatje’s newspapers also attacked unjust laws and racial discrimination in the Cape Colony and later the Union of South Africa. He also wrote very widely in English medium newspapers like the <em>Diamond Fields Advertiser</em> and <em>The Star</em>, educating their white readerships about black experiences and perspectives. </p>
<p>Plaatje’s journalism gave him a national profile and he was elected as Secretary General of the newly formed <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/formation-south-african-native-national-congress">South African Native National Congress</a> (SANNC) in 1912. A response to the white-dominated Union of 1910, the SANNC united Africans across tribal, regional and language divisions. Later to become the ANC, it gave them a national political voice and identity. </p>
<p>Plaatje travelled to England as part of the congress’s delegation to protest against the Land Act. He joined a second delegation in 1919, where he visited North America as well. On these visits, he addressed hundreds of gatherings to present the “native case”.</p>
<p>His publication in 1916 of <em>Native Life in South Africa</em> was part of this campaign. This and his travels took his role as public educator to an international audience. Although these delegations were ultimately unsuccessful, they laid roots for the later anti-apartheid movement.</p>
<p>Plaatje returned from his travels disappointed by the failure of the delegations to effect change and heavily in debt. He resumed his journalism and travelled the country showing films – a novel technology – to black African audiences. These showed the progress that black Americans had made in politics and education. </p>
<p>Again, this was an effort to educate and connect people. But, in a rapidly urbanising and industrialising South Africa, Plaatje’s messages of educational self-help and moral improvement did not resonate as they once had. </p>
<p>In his final years he increasingly turned to literary concerns: a book about Setswana proverbs and folktales, and a translation of Shakespeare into Setswana. These works bear testimony to his profound and visionary engagement in a dialogue between the oral and the written, Setswana and English, the past and the present.</p>
<h2>A fitting tribute</h2>
<p>Plaatje died of pneumonia in 1932. His riches lay not in material wealth but in the range and depth of his contribution to society. </p>
<p>As his daughter Violet recited as his funeral:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For here was one devoid of wealth/But buried like a lord. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the greatest testament to these gifts, for a man who valued education and learning so deeply, is the living memorial just around the corner from his Kimberley house at 32 Angel Street: the brand new <a href="http://www.spu.ac.za/">Sol Plaatje University</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Rule does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How did Sol Plaatje, a man with only four years of formal schooling, become one of South Africa’s most brilliant and committed public educators?Peter Rule, Senior Lecturer, Adult Education, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/595462016-05-20T11:42:54Z2016-05-20T11:42:54ZThe time ‘the other Kennedy’ visited apartheid South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123036/original/image-20160518-6180-1aufxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">During his 1966 visit to South Africa, US Senator Robert F Kennedy met with ANC leader Chief Albert Luthuli</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shoreline Productions</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>“<a href="http://www.rfksafilm.org/">RFK in the Land of Apartheid: A Ripple of Hope</a>” was recently screened at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) with filmmaker Larry Shore on hand to discuss the film. The documentary chronicles American Senator <a href="http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/The-Kennedy-Family/Robert-F-Kennedy.aspx">Robert Kennedy</a>’s visit to South Africa in 1966, recording many historical moments around his short visit, including the defiant meeting with then African National Congress (ANC) President Chief <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chief-albert-john-luthuli">Albert Luthuli</a>, then under a banning order. Known by his initials, “RFK” was part of the famous <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/kennedys-politics/">Kennedy political clan</a>. He was assassinated in 1968.</em></p>
<p><em>The speeches Kennedy gave at the universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Wits may have faded from public memory or may no longer seem relevant. However, by recovering these images, the film succeeds not only as a record of the racial segregation of this society and the former “whites-only” universities at the height of apartheid, but acquires an added poignancy with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/feesmustfall">recent student protests</a> and ongoing calls for the transformation of the entire education system in South Africa.</em></p>
<p><em>Kenneth Kaplan, who teaches directing and writing in the Film/TV division at Wits University in Johannesburg, interviewed Shore, who is a Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies, Hunter College, New York.</em></p>
<p><strong>Why did you choose to focus on this particular event?</strong></p>
<p>I was a junior high school student in Johannesburg in 1966 when Robert Kennedy visited South Africa. Although I did not attend any of the events, I followed it closely in the liberal Johannesburg English-language newspapers like the <a href="http://global.britannica.com/topic/Rand-Daily-Mail"><em>Rand Daily Mail</em></a> and <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/the-star"><em>The Star</em></a>. The visit really amazed me, as it amazed many others. In high school and then at the University of the Witwatersrand I became really interested in American history and politics, which included an interest in the Kennedys.</p>
<p>I remembered the visit when I left South Africa in 1973 for the US and afterwards. My MA included a good dose of US foreign policy, and policy towards Africa and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/apartheid-and-reactions-it">apartheid</a> South Africa in particular. So I think I was always interested in US-South Africa relations and the connections between the two countries. I also teach about this stuff as a professor at <a href="http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/main/">Hunter College</a> in New York. This carried over when I became interested in documentary films.</p>
<p>I also liked the story because it opened up doors to other interesting stories that deserved to be told, like those of Albert Luthuli and the National Union of South African Students (<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/national-union-south-african-students-nusas">Nusas</a>), to name just two. I am very grateful and pleased that the film has been well received by South African audiences although my original primary audience was the United States. I always believed that it helps to tell a story about a foreign country to an American audience if it has an American connection. Robert Kennedy was that connection. </p>
<p><strong>What impact did the visit have and how did it shape relations between the US and South Africa?</strong></p>
<p>As a filmmaker you don’t want to overdo it or make more of it than is right. It was only a moment – but it was an important moment. I do think that the visit did have an impact in South Africa. It was the first time anyone important had come to the country from the outside world and said they were on the side of those who opposed apartheid. And it was someone important – a Kennedy and brother of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/johnfkennedy">President John F Kennedy</a>, who was popular in South Africa. He was not just a famous American.</p>
<p>South Africans were interested in American affairs and they believed Robert Kennedy was going to be the next president. And you had the feeling that this important person was going to do something about it when he went home. Or at least tell the world what was happening in South Africa and maybe something would happen. Like the <a href="http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/speeches/speechrfk.php">famous speech</a> he gave at the University of Cape Town, his visit was a “ripple of hope” and it was felt across the country.</p>
<p>His visit with Chief Luthuli was a big publicity boost for the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/organisations/african-national-congress-anc">ANC</a>, which in 1966 was in the depths of the deepest repression with <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/nelson-rolihlahla-mandela">Nelson Mandela</a> on <a href="http://www.robben-island.org.za/">Robben Island</a> and Luthuli banned to <a href="http://www.luthulimuseum.org.za/index.php/about/history-of-groutville-and-stanger-">Groutville</a> (a small town in the province of KwaZulu-Natal). The visit to <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/places/soweto">Soweto</a> and RFK’s meeting with various black South Africans was a lift for black South Africans.</p>
<p>It also was a source of encouragement for white liberal organisations and individuals within Nusas, liberal politician <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/helen-suzman">Helen Suzman</a> and others. I think that the visit to <a href="http://www.sun.ac.za/english/about-us/historical-background">Stellenbosch University</a> helped lay a few seeds for what later became the <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0018-229X2008000200004"><em>verligte</em></a> (enlightened) movement among Afrikaners. I don’t think the visit changed US policy towards South Africa directly at the time, but it was one of a number of things that began to bring attention to bear on South Africa – what was going on there and what could be done about it.</p>
<p><strong>What might we know about you and your life that you think led you to make this film?</strong></p>
<p>Well, as I said before, I have always been interested in US-South African stories. Certainly a part of that is because I am a South African-American. I have lived most of my adult life in America but I grew up in and have a lot of connections to South Africa. I kept that connection during my years in the <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/us-anti-apartheid-movement-helps-bring-change-to-south-africa/1900704.html">anti-apartheid movement</a> in the US and after the end of apartheid. When I became convinced that it was a good story, and would make for a good film, I realised that, as someone who understood and had lived in both countries, I was well suited to make the film. </p>
<p><strong>What are some of the creative challenges you faced making the film?</strong></p>
<p>I think one of the most difficult things about making a film about someone as famous as Robert Kennedy is to avoid hagiography – putting him up on a pedestal and making the visit appear more important than it was yet at the same time not denying its significance. How to find the right balance was a major challenge in making the film.</p>
<p>As with any documentary like this, I also faced challenges deciding what interviews not to use. I had lots of terrific interviews with important and interesting people but I had to leave some of them out and make tough selections.</p>
<p><em>The text above has been edited from an interview conducted by Kenneth Kaplan with Larry Shore following the recent screening of “<a href="http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/trailer.php">RFK in the Land of Apartheid: A Ripple of Hope</a>” at Wits University.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth Kaplan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fifty years ago US Senator Robert F Kennedy visited South Africa. A new documentary about RFK’s visit puts the spotlight on an important part of the country’s history.Kenneth Kaplan, Lecturer in Directing & Writing in Film/TV, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/462092015-08-18T04:41:50Z2015-08-18T04:41:50ZLessons that can be learnt from dockworkers who helped bring apartheid to its knees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92119/original/image-20150817-5110-161slyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dockworkers in Australia, pictured here alongside other trade union members in a march through central Melbourne, acted in solidarity with South African workers in the 1980s.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today’s complex global economy has brought new forms of worker exploitation. And globalisation has made workers ever-more precarious. For example, factory workers in Bangladesh toil long days in buildings that could very possibly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/world/asia/bangladesh-rana-plaza-murder-charges.html?_r=0">collapse</a> and kill them. Foreign guest workers in the Arab Gulf have no legal protections from physical <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/video-bahrain-slap-migrant-worker_55c39579e4b0d9b743db340a">abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Overwhelmed by the injustices they face, many workers feel helpless and apathetic. But the <a href="http://www.aamarchives.org/">Anti-Apartheid Movement</a> reminds us that ordinary people can make a difference in the fight for workers’ rights – even halfway across the planet.</p>
<p>The movement was one of the most impressive global social movements of the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/10/world-war-ii-after-the-war/100180/">post-second world war</a> era. What is often forgotten is that it was also a struggle by workers for workers.</p>
<h2>Global solidarity</h2>
<p>Among the workers who mobilised against apartheid were unionised dockworkers and seamen far from South African shores. In collaboration with <a href="http://history.msu.edu/people/faculty/peter-limb/">Peter Limb</a>, I <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/business/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/219341/Cole_Limb_abstract.pdf">researched</a> the history of Australian and American dockworkers’ mighty contribution to the global movement against apartheid.</p>
<p>Our research compares the transnational solidarity activism of maritime unions in Australia and the US. Strategically positioned, dockworkers exerted real influence on the South African state. They did this principally by refusing to unload South African cargo. In both places, their actions helped drive the local and national anti-apartheid movement.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92129/original/image-20150817-5127-1aywpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92129/original/image-20150817-5127-1aywpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92129/original/image-20150817-5127-1aywpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92129/original/image-20150817-5127-1aywpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92129/original/image-20150817-5127-1aywpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92129/original/image-20150817-5127-1aywpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92129/original/image-20150817-5127-1aywpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Release Nelson Mandela poster issued by the anti-apartheid movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wits University library/Reuters/Radu Sigheti</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In Australia, we examine the <a href="http://archivescollection.anu.edu.au/index.php/waterside-workers-federation-of-australia">Waterside Workers’ Federation</a>, the <a href="http://journals.publishing.monash.edu/ojs/index.php/ha/article/viewFile/ha100023/99">Seamen’s Union of Australia</a>, and related unions. In the 1950s, the two unions contacted the <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03446/05lv03498.htm">South African Congress of Trade Unions</a> through international labour and peace networks. Over the next three decades, they repeatedly responded to <a href="http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp796.pdf">appeals for boycotts</a> by South African unions and the country’s liberation movements, notably the African National Congress.</p>
<p>Thanks to a combination of politicised union leadership and grassroots activism, these organisations undertook numerous boycotts. They also raised and donated significant money to support people struggling in South Africa and in exile.</p>
<p>On the US side, we examined the <a href="https://www.ilwu.org/">International Longshore and Warehouse Union</a> (ILWU), especially <a href="http://ilwulocal10.org/">Local 10</a> in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto <a href="http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?id=65-258-3">students’ uprising</a>, some ILWU Local 10 members, predominantly Pan-Africanists and leftists, formed a rank-and-file committee to support the anti-apartheid movement as well as struggles in Mozambique and then Rhodesia. </p>
<h2>Hitting apartheid where it hurt</h2>
<p>Their greatest effort was an 11-day action in 1984 when they <a href="https://alethonews.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/">refused to unload</a> South African cargo. This action came hard on the heels of the apartheid state’s repression of striking black gold miners who belonged to the <a href="http://www.num.org.za/">National Union of Mineworkers</a>, notably the imprisonment of some leaders. </p>
<p>With the support of thousands from the Bay Area committee who rallied in solidarity, San Francisco longshore workers galvanised the region’s commitment to this cause and expanded the struggle.</p>
<p>This activism had a huge impact. Shipping remained an <a href="http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/50/304/32-130-1C09-84-Embargo_Apartheids_Oil_Secrets_Revealed%20opt.pdf">Achilles heel of apartheid</a> because the South African economy was both export-driven as well as dependent on foreign oil. Maritime unions fully understood this reality, so they boycotted the unloading of South African cargo. </p>
<p>They were also positioned to gather information on South African imports, particularly oil, and contribute to the squeeze on South Africa’s industrial economy by denying it oil. South Africa’s lack of oil is why the then-state-owned company <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Sasol">Sasol</a> invested so heavily in converting coal into oil, with all its attendant noxious and polluting <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26921145">side effects</a>.</p>
<p>Marine transport workers, part of one of the most heavily unionised industries in the world, contributed to the tightening of the noose around apartheid’s neck. After his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela singled out dockers, in both <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/photos-e6frg6n6-1225996392278?page=15">Sydney</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtiIkA2oGD4">San Francisco Bay Area</a>, for their contributions when he visited each country.</p>
<h2>The power of transnational solidarity</h2>
<p>This forgotten history of transnational solidarity in the anti-apartheid movement reminds us that workers, in our increasingly connected global economy, still possess power and exert influence.</p>
<p>For instance, in 2008 dockers in Durban <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2008-04-21-campaign-against-zim-arms-gains-momentum">refused</a> to unload weapons aboard a Chinese ship that were intended for Zimbabwe. The provincial leaders in the <a href="http://www.satawu.org.za/">South African Transport and Allied Workers Union</a>, whom I later interviewed, explained that they did not want to see the weapons used by the government to gun down Zimbabwean workers. </p>
<p>The Durban dockers also knew that many Zimbabwean workers had supported the liberation struggle in South Africa. </p>
<p>Dockworkers in <a href="http://www.iisg.nl/irsh/58-2-summ.php">San Francisco</a> and Sydney lifted their voices and downed their tools on behalf of the oppressed in South Africa. They showed that people had power when committed and organised. They also demonstrated a related lesson that is increasingly easy to forget: unionised workers can be central to the struggle for both labour rights and broader political change.</p>
<p>We can and must do the same on behalf of workers and others suffering today. While we might not have the power to boycott a ship, dockers provided a blueprint for action, a useable history for us to adapt to contemporary struggles. We can – as citizens, consumers, and particularly workers – exert political pressure, including in foreign lands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Cole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Anti-Apartheid Movement reminds us that ordinary people can make a difference in the fight for workers’ rights, even halfway across the planet.Peter Cole, Professor of History, Western Illinois UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.