Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2006/04/21/divestiture_will_cripple_blacks.php
Friday, April 21, 2006
Originally Published April 20, 1981.
Mrs. Lucy Mvubelo is one of South Africa’s most prominent black labor leaders. She is the General Secretary of the 15,000-member National Union of Clothing Workers and Vice President of the Trade Union Council of South Africa. Born in Johannesburg in 1920, she has been active in the labor movement all of her adult life. Since 1953, she has held prominent positions in the National Union of Clothing Workers, during which time the membership has increased more than tenfold, a significant achievement during a period of great difficulty for organized black labor. Her union is now the largest black trade union in South Africa.
From 1959 to 1964, Mrs. Mvubelo was appointed to the Women’s Section of the International Labor Organization to represent black women workers. She was elected to a second five year term, but was prevented from continuing in office when South African participation in the ILO was terminated in 1964. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the multi-racial Women for Peace movement. In April, Mrs. Mvubelo will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Social Science, honoris causa, from Rhodes University of Grahamstown. Lucy Mvubelo is convinced that foreign investment offers the best hope of economic progress for South African blacks, both because it increases the demand for workers and because of the influence of foreign-based companies.
THE DARTMOUTH REVIEW: Mrs. Mvubelo, do you think apartheid is beginning to change in South Africa?
LUCY MVUBELO: The apartheid laws have failed dismally. A healthy and growing economy saw to that. The emergence of the Afrikaner businessman has ensured apartheid’s permanent demise. Black workers are valued assets, educated and trained black workers even more so. Laborers are no longer in demand for things machines can do. We are not faced with the practical considerations which led to the French Revolution or those which brought the Communists to power in Russia. We are not in the static status situation of peasants or serfs.
TDR: As you see it, what is the most important question facing South Africa at the present time?
LM: The most urgent and pressing problem in South Africa at this time is the political accommodation of the urban blacks.
TDR: Do urban blacks consider themselves primarily to be members of particular tribes, such as the Zulu or the Tswana, or do they view themselves as South Africans who desire the equal rights of citizenship with those of other races?
LM: This is an important distinction. To consider the position of the urban blacks is really to consider the situation of Soweto, the apartheid-created black city on the outskirts of Johannesburg, a city with a population of over a million black persons from every black ethnic group in South Africa, as well as its neighboring countries. The inhabitants of Soweto are thus anything but a homogeneous society, yet they have much in common. Soweto is urbanized, industrialized, Christianized, and totally dependent on the economic structure controlled by the white man.
TDR: Are you saying that urban blacks, such as those in Soweto, have formed a new community which has replaced the previous tribal identity and loyalties which Soweto residents had when they first came to the area?
LM: Yes, this is certainly now the case. The divergent groups of Soweto have been molded into a society that gives prominence not only to its politicians, but also to a variety of other people. The inhabitants of Soweto have much in common, but theirs is a dependent society. It is dependent for political rights on the white Afrikaner government and for its economic well-being on English-speaking whites.
TDR: What, then, do the urban blacks of South Africa think about their future?
LM: The urban black, whose responsibility it is to decide the future political and economic advancement of blacks in South Africa, is faced with the question of whether equality is to be achieved by evolution or revolution, or by the mythical process of the outside world boycotting South African trade and the disinvestment of foreign capital.
TDR: Are there any circumstances under which you think that revolution would be an appropriate means for achieving black equality in South Africa?
LM: Revolution as a means of gaining political power can only become a popular concept in a situation which is static and devoid of the future hope of change and the solution of problems. It requires a state of affairs in which a man can have no hopes for himself or for his children. But today’s situation in South Africa is neither static nor sterile.
TDR: Many opponents of apartheid in the United States, including many black Americans, have urged a boycott of South African goods as a way to improve race relations in South Africa and push that country to racial equality. What do you think of this approach?
LM: Those in our country who urge a boycott of South African goods and the disinvestment of Western capital are simply a small fringe of desperate revolutionaries. They realize that the basic condition from which revolution can arise does not exist, thus the world must create it. Who will suffer? Clearly the greatest hardships would fall on my people, the black people. They will be the first to lose their jobs. They will be left to die of starvation. They will be the first to be killed in a revolution.
TDR: What do you see as the way to bring black South Africans into a position of equality with whites?
LM: Clearly, there is only one solution, and that is by way of evolution, by negotiation, and utilization of all opportunities which arise, by cooperation when necessary and resistance when necessary.
TDR: Has evolution accomplished much so far?
LM: It has accomplished a great deal. Remember, in 1948, with the election of the present South African Nationalist Government, there was the beginning of a concerted effort to keep the black man in his place. His very slight voting power was destroyed. Wherever possible, he was reduced to the status of laborer. Job reservation measures excluded blacks from most trades and professions. A never-ending list of laws was passed to keep the black man down. But all of these efforts are crumbling, or have already crumbled. South Africa has a new Prime Minister and a definite new direction is being taken. Full trade union rights have been granted to blacks. Training facilities are now available. Job reservation is dead. The Group Areas Act is regarded as applying only to residential areas, and neutral business areas will be created in which any businessman can operate.
TDR: You believe that a boycott or a policy of disinvestment would slow down the pace of change?
LM: There is no doubt about it. Large scale unemployment, although affecting mainly the blacks, can also affect the whites, and the old story of jobs for whites will once again become a major issue. Repressive laws will again be demanded.
TDR: How would South African blacks view a withdrawal by American business?
LM: American culture has had a tremendous influence in South Africa, not only on whites but even more so on blacks. The black man sees in the situation of the American Negroes a comparable situation. We feel a common sympathy for Americans. It is still good business in South Africa for a label to say, “Made In U.S.A.” Your withdrawal from the South African scene can only be to your own disadvantage. It will be seen as a surrender to the revolutionary philosophies of the East and a lack of faith in the very democratic capitalistic system which you represent.
TDR: Not long ago, Jesse Jackson visited South Africa and called for an end to U.S. investment in the country. Did you meet with Mr. Jackson?
LM: I had an appointment with Jesse Jackson and waited for three hours but he never appeared. He didn’t meet the black in the street while he was there. He met only the affluent, and the radicalized intellectuals. I called his hotel many times but was never able to get through to him. We are angry about his call for disinvestment. Before he made such a statement he should have met with black workers—those who would be affected. He called for disinvestment, then he left—he went home. Many blacks said, “Who called on him to speak for us?” Imagine him telling business to withdraw. What will happen to the people who lose their jobs? His only alternative is a war and revolution he will not have to fight.
TDR: Do you believe that outside observers understand the problems which South Africa faces in all of their complexity?
LM: The answer is no. Too many critics are simplistic. They must consider the vastness of our problem: The blacks are divided into nine groups, with thousands more having come in from other states; our whites divided into English- and Afrikaans-speaking, and originating from every conceivable European nation; we also have in our midst considerable numbers of Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, and Malays from the Far East, and Turks, Syrians, and Lebanese from the Middle East. Just as diverse as our people are, so diverse are their religious beliefs. “How to solve our racial problems?” is the foremost question of every thinking South African, and to all of us one answer has been dismissed: Violence. There are still advocates of violence. As you well know, violence has become a lucrative world-wide phenomenon. So, regrettably, we will have our own IRA, Bader-Meinhof, or Black Panther movement. Whatever it may be, it will remain a minority, even in South Africa.