MOBILIZA TON for PEACE, JON Naomi Tutu-Seavers

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Socialist Action/May May Gong Edgardo 'Garcia and Naomi Tutu-Seavers joir Nov. 1 pre-conference reception hands at Mol vilizatior The following are excerpts from the presentation by Naomi Tutu-Seavers to the panel on the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Tutu-Seavers is the daughter of Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu. She is also the chairperson of the Bishop Tutu Refugee Fund.

Today I wanted to say a couple of things. One is kind of nice, and that is to say thank you to the labor unions, the churches, all the people who have worked in this coalition, for the work that they have done in bringing the issue of apartheid to the forefront in this country.

Another thing that I want to say, however, is that while we are exceedingly grateful for the support you have given us, I would also like to issue you a challenge.

In fact, I'm not the one issuing it. Rev. Falwell issued it. He came back from South Africa and said he was going to raise $1 million for apartheid. I was hoping some people in the solidarity movement interest on that debt. And who gets that interest? The big banks, the big insurance companies, their managers and their shareholders, the rich and the super-rich.

The interest paid on the national debt, and most state and local government debt too by the way, is their bread and butter, their profit, their guaranteed annual income. And the higher the interest rates, and the greater the debt, the more they get.

These are the folks that spent most of my lifetime railing against that very federal debt. Some of you may be old enough to remember when President Kennedy's federal deficit was $3 billion, and all the rightwingers and fiscal conservatives wanted to impeach him for that kind of a debt.

Now 1 know why they were so damned upset. In their book a mere $3 billion is small potatoes. They think they're doing all right now with $387 million a day. Is it therefore a small wonder that so many capitalists from around the world have quit investing in the production of hard goods and utilitarian services, and quit investing, in many cases, in their own economies and developing economies around the world?

They can make a bigger and quicker buck by simply buying a piece of the U.S. debt. And that's why the United States is now indebted to more off-shore capitalists and foreign interests than ever before in our history. Our foreign debt is now lårger than that of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and the other debt-ridden countries of the world.

In the meantime, those who are buying into the U. S. debt and the military buildup had better hope that they are buying a piece of the world's economic locomotive and not a chunk of its caboose.

I don't know how much longer the jury's going to be out before we find out which is which. This year 51 cents of every federal income tax dollar collected will go to pay would say, "Jerry, for every dollar you raise, we in the solidarity movement will match it and double it."

There are over 750,000 South African refugees living in surrounding nations. And most of these people are between the ages of 18 and 24. These people are young people forced to flee the oppression of apartheid.

And they are not only living in exile, trying to survive day to day. They are also trying to prepare themselves for a free South Africa. And we do all know in this room that South Africa will be free.

The only questions that we now ask are how and when. Dennis Brutus talked about a time when he was on Robben Island, and said to one of the guards, "Can you people really believe that you are going to be able to hold us in bondage forever?" This guard said to him, "The Americans will never let us fall."

The message that you have sent through your solidarity actions to the people in my for military goods-past, future.

Bankrupting Soviet economy?

When Mr. Weinberger and Mr. Shultz, the Bechtel boys, get talking, they're often heard saying that by escalating this arms race, we will wind up bankrupting the Soviet economy. I've asked them about this point blank and been told "yes."

Bankrupt the Soviet economy? Our chronic and long-term unemployment right now is running at an official rate of 10 million, and in reality, a rate of 15 million. And very few of these people have any access to health care or hospital care, or any other kind of the emoluments of a normal life.

Currently less than a third of all of those who are unemployed are receiving unem -ployment compensation because the social budget has been whacked so badly to pay for our military budget.

Twenty-five million senior citizens go to bed every night anxious and insecure about their social security payments, wondering if they'll have enough to pay for the de"The warfare state doe welfare. It heaps welfa ductibles in health care co-insurance schemes. Medicare payments have been in -creased and services cut to help pay for the military budget.

This administration crows that the ranks of poverty have decreased by 1 million, but they forget to tell you that this is after an increase of 10 million during Reagan's first