Apartheid agony continues despite latest ‹reforms'

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of the revolutionary climate in the coun- structed, was anno AN INJURY TO ONE CY IS AN INJURY TO ALL National roundup of April 20 actions Bankers skating on thin ice. See pp. 4-5 and Berkeley. Before long, sit-ins and occupations of university buildings had spread to dozens of campuses across the country.

Spreading occupations, daily and twice-daily demonstrations, mass-planning meetings, all-night vigils, class boycotts, growing and active support from (continued on page 8, in “Mobilization for Peace, Jobs & Justte San Francisco April 20”)

The South African government has announced two "reforms" of the detested apartheid system in an effort to stave off the effects of what President Pieter Botha called "a drastic escalation See FORUM pp. 7-9 of the revolutionary try."

On April 15 the decision to repeal sections of the 1949 Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Act, the first two in a series of legal linchpins on which apartheid is constructed, was announced. These acts, which prohibited marriages and all sexual relations between whites and nonwhites, have been the basis for more than 17,000 prosecutions since 1949.

A few days later President Botha announced that some Black residents in white areas who, until now, have been classified as transients will be allowed to become permanent dwellers in South African cities. This decision represents an ever-so-slight retreat from the Nationalist government's statutory definition of Black workers as migrant laborers with no right to live in white areas and no status as South African citizens.

The structure of apartheid This situation for Blacks was accomplished through such legal ploys as the Population Registration Act of 1950, which required a rigid racial classification of all non-white South Africans, and the Group Areas and Urban Areas Acts. These acts eliminated the right of Blacks to own property anywhere except in the 10 bantustans-or "homelands"-to which all Africans are assigned on the basis of ethnic and language heritage.

The bantustans comprise only 13 percent of the land area of South Africathe poorest, most arid, and least productive land—while the Blacks who are assigned to live there make up 70 per(continued on page 2, in “Columbia sit-in sparks U.S. protests”)

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Dafond fie USA BIGOTRY HAR representatives on a working committee that would oversee divestment. The university will only offer the students a chance to argue their case before the trustees.

During the three-week sit-in, many New York citizens offered their support. ACTION Closing news date: April 25, 198: