Salim Vally, a leader of the Worker’s Organisation of South Africa (WOSA) spoke to the National Educational Convention of Socialist Action in the United States in August 1997. Here we print part of his speech.
ANC - Imperialism's Junior Partner!
Recent world events have shown again that the ANC is nothing less than the loyal servant of imperialism and monopoly capitalism. The arms industry for example has enjoyed special protection from the government. Weapons continue to be the second largest manufacturing export.
We saw an obscene spectacle when Nelson Mandela went to Indonesia and promised the dictator, Suharto, arms for external purposes. Suharto’s regime of course has been responsible for genocide.
A third of the East Timorese population has been killed by the same regime. And in the 1960s that regime was responsible for the death of some half-million left wing activists.
The last few years have seen South Africa’s mining bosses increase their investments overseas not only in sub-Saharan Africa where their exports have been rising at the rate of 50 per cent a year since 1991 but also in Ghana, Mali, the Indian Ocean islands off Africa, Chile, Australia and many other countries.
A subsidiary of Anglo- American has even been buying breweries in the Czech Republic and Poland.
South Africa’s ability to act as a broker in the talks aimed at settling the civil war in the former Zaire symbolised the country’s new role in the imperialist pecking order. This was an attempt to block the ability of the masses in Zaire to take power from the tyrannical Mobutu regime.
In South Africa at the time, the government openly acknowledged the fact that these manoeuvres were calculated to protect South Africa’s vested interests in Zaire.
South African mining companies for example have an interest in Shaba Province where there are large copper deposits. In addition South African agribusiness has plans to export its know-how northwards.