New stage opens in fight for Black majority rule in S. Africa

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'Inis victory can give new impetus to the The conservative Inkatha movement, headed aunch a mass mobilization to overthrow invited to participate in negotiatio pecifically outh Aircan treedom movement to re- by Chiet ałsna Buthelez Freedom for Nelson Mandela was an- those in the Black Consciousness movenounced by President F. W. de Klerk on Feb. ment, have been pointedly denied a welcome. 11. It came on the heels of a series of re- De Klerk enforced his divide-and-conquer tacforms, including the easing of press restric- tics with the cynical charge that "all sorts of tions, desegration of public beaches and people," including "radicals of the far left," other facilities, lifting banning orders against might threaten the life of Nelson Mandela! penalty, and releasing some political prison- "Gorbachev of southern Africa?" ers. De Klerk said recently that he felt vindiOn Feb. 2, De Klerk informed parliament cated in his reform measures—despite oppoThe cry "Free Nelson Mandela" has now become a victory chant. For the 27 years he spent in prison, Mandela never let down his defiance of the white-supremacist regime in South Africa. Mandela's personal struggle was an inspiration-indeed, it became the major symbol—for anti-apartheid fighters everywhere.

apartheid and establish Black majority rule. some individuals, suspending the death that close to 40 anti-apartheid organizations, including the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) would be unbanned.

"Walk through the open door," De Klerk told his adversaries, "Take your place at the negotiating table."

The government laid out the welcome mat to several other groups besides the ANC.

But some left-wing organizations, such as sition among whites on the far right-because South Africa's image had improved around the world.

International sanctions demanded by the anti-apartheid movement have helped deepen the country's economic crisis. And the gov: ernment has been further shaken by disclosures that it supported a secret "hit squad," responsible for dozens of political assassinations.

Thus the De Klerk regime was gratified when, scarcely a week after Mandela was freed, Britain announced it was ending its ban on new investments in South Africa. President Bush said that he also would weigh proposals to roll back U.S. economic sanctions.

De Klerk is becoming known as a man that leaders in Washington and London can "do business with." In that respect, his reputation as the "Gorbachev of southern Africa" (a phrase coined by former British foreign (continued on page 16) ered themselves supporters of the revolution, but could not vote for six more years of economic austerity-and, besides, they saw no credible alternative."

An incorrect balance sheet Following the election, the U.S. media asked numerous pro-Sandinista solidarity activists to explain why the Sandinistas lost the election. They said that the Sandinista defeat was due exclusively to the criminal war policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations, which had worn down the Nicaraguan masses and forced them to turn to Chamorro out of desperation.

There is, of course, much truth to this statement. The U.S.-sponsored contra war and economic embargo were consciously aimed at wearing down the revolution and undermining popular support for the government. Billions of dollars in damage and lost income, on top of the tens of thousands of dead and injured, became an unbearable burden on the Nicaraguan people and on an economy already devastated by Somoza's tyranny and by a bloody revolutionary upheaval.

But this explanation is incomplete. For one, it leaves out the complicity of the Democratic Party politicians in Congress. These alleged supporters of peace and democ(continued on page 5)