4 i . OPINION . ,,, Page 4 Friday, December 1, 1989 The Michigan Daily Understanding the meaning of South Africa's recent reforms: No time for celebration f by Solidarity In the last two months, the South African regime has integrated four neigh- borhoods and opened once all white beaches; allowed a rally sponsored by the outlawed African National Congress (ANC) and released some of the ANC's most prominent figures, including Walter Sisulu. New South African President De Klerk is being hailed as a reformer, and appears poised to assume a perestroikan mantel as the African Gorbachev. But the clothes don't fit, and the main- stream media's adulation of De Klerk notwithstanding, he is no reformer, let alone a visionary. Rather, he is a man who, under enormous economic and polit- ical pressures, gives ground as slowly as possible in an effort to save what he can of white privilege. De Klerk's concessions take place in the context of a strong resis- tance movement to apartheid at home and of a crippled economy, itself the conse- quence of sanctions against the regime won by anti-apartheid activists abroad. The resistance movement, spearheaded, by the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), is a vi- tal force in South African politics. Their boycott and general strike during the 1988 municipal elections, followed by another general strike and almost daily protests leading up to this past September's elec- tions exposed yet again the racist and ex- clusionary nature of a regime that contin- ues to deny the majority of its citizens the right to vote. De Klerk was elected with the support of just 6 percent of all South Africans. This narrow base of support underscores his isolation from a population that con- tinues to demand basic human and social rights, despite efforts to repress its upris- ings in the early 1960s, in 1976, and in 1985. Meanwhile, international sanctions have isolated South Africa still further, both diplomatically and economically. South Africa itself admits that real income is 15 percent lower than it would be without sanctions. Real growth is down to under 2 percent. Moreover, the price of gold - a key component in the country's economy - has been slumping. And to top it off, South Africa owes the international bank- ing community $8 billion by next June, $3.6 billion in 1990-1991, and $1 billion a year thereafter. Or perhaps we should say would have owed. For in the same week that Sisulu was released, the banks struck a deal with South Africa whereby it must pay only $ 1.5 billion of its debt over the next four years. In exchange for a small token re- form gesture, that is, De Klerk has just earned four more years of breathing room for apartheid, even as the banks prepare to turn the screws tighter in countries such as Argentina and Venezuela. De Klerk will take full advantage of that breathing room unless we support Black South Africans as they struggle to asphyx- iate his regime. Even as he released Sisulu, De Klerk was in the process of closing down the New Nation, an anti- apartheid newspaper edited by Sisulu's son. Even as he "allows" large protest marches that would otherwise happen anyway, his government proves all too willing to continue shooting and killing demonstrators, as it did yet again in Port Elizabeth this past weekend. And even as he proclaimed his willingness to discuss lations," a withdrawal of all troops from the townships, and universal suffrage, "exercised through one person one vote on a common voters role." These precondi- tions, accepted by the Organization of African States and the Non-Aligned Movement and expected to be accepted by the U.N. during its special session on South Africa in December, are not nego- tiable, for the very good reason that ele- mentary human freedoms are every human being's right. But even fundamental rights - should Black South Africans get them - will mean little unless production is organized and shared in South Africa in a radically 'Even as [De Klerk] "allows" large protest marches that would otherwise happen anyway, his govern- ment proves all too willing to continue shooting and killing demonstrators, as it did yet again in Port Elizabeth this past weekend.' not certain of your life or anything else." To alleviate such suffering, white South Africans will have to surrender their eco- nomic privileges as well as their political ones - and we will need to demonstrate consistent and strong solidarity with the ANC and COSATU as they continue to insist on the necessity for armed struggle until a political and economic redistribu-' tion of power takes place. This support will be especially crucial in the immediate future, as changes in Soviet foreign policy and the ongoing opportunism of U.S. for- eign policy place increasing pressures on the ANC to compromise its socialist prin- ciples. Given South Africa's enormous dispari- ties, capitalism without apartheid cannot.,. solve the country's problems any more than can De Klerk's plan to end petty apartheid while protecting the institutional mechanisms of white power. Both of these compromised "solutions" substitute rhetoric for substance. A genuinely free. South Africa will require transformations worthy of the words that clothe them. Solidarity is a non-sectarian and inde: pendent socialist organization of activists committed to building social movements and the Left in the United States. DnP_ Black voting rights, De Klerk has made clear that he wished to preserve "minority rights" - a euphemism for white privi- lege. Amidst these maneuvers, anything less from the United States than full support for the ANC's list of preconditions for ne- gotiations is not enough. The ANC calls for a release of all political prisoners, a suspension of the 1986 "emergency regu- more equitable way. Two-thirds of all Black South Africans earn less than is re- quired for subsistence. The infant mortal- ity rate has consistently been estimated at between 94 and 124 per 1000 births during the 1980s. Unemployment is over 20 per- cent, and as high as 50 percent in areas where Blacks are concentrated. As one poor woman near Cape Town puts it, in such a situation, "you suffer - you are Ir Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Where the optimism of a murdered Salvadoran Jesuit went wri !.{ 111U lVM 1 "r U.S. undermines peace r"zx: Vol. C, No. 61 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, M! 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. Choices for distribution requirements: From 1,504 to442 DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS were begun by the college of LSA in order to guarantee a broad liberal arts education. Courses carrying humani- ties, social science, and natural science distribution were designed to help stu- dents appreciate fields outside their area of specialization. For four years, the LSA curriculum committee has been reviewing designations with a view toward narrowing these requirements. A subcommittee directed by Political Science Professor Lawrence Mohr pre- sented Associate Dean Meiland with a set of recommendations designed to make distribution "more coherent." They proposed to end an "anarchic system" in which "almost everything counted toward distribution" and said changes would "make it easier for stu- dents to choose." Beginning last year, departments had to justify a course's distribution desig- nation according to new guidelines set by the college. Despite vehement ob- jections from many faculty, all depart- ments eventually complied and the courses carrying distribution credit have dropped from 1504 to 442. The policy does not affect LSA stu- dents first enrolled before Fall 1989, who will continue to have credit awarded according to the list published in the old (1988-89 and earlier) LSA Bulletins. It is this year's first year stu- dents and their successors who must use a shorter list published in the cur- rent (1989-90) edition. There is an ap- peal procedure by which a student who really wants a course to count can fill out a permission form from the appro- priate department, have it signed, re- turn it to the LSA counseling office, and wait for a reply. If the student's CRISP date hasn't passed already when it arrives, and if he or she has the time and inclination to deal with that kind of hassle just as finals are coming up, then there's no problem. The policy really runs into difficulty in the way its guidelines affect the phi- losophy behind a distribution require- Another danger is what Psychology Professor Lorraine Nadelman calls the "multifaceted, ambiguous" nature of the guidelines. The curriculum commit- tee can call any class it likes fundamen- tal and a 1986 memo from the Anthro- pology Department warns them that, "It is all too easy to assume that hu- mankind's important achievements are those of our own tradition." In an an- gry letter to Associate Dean Meiland, American Culture Professor James McIntosh protests what he calls "an especially unfair and wrong-headed" tdecision to deny American Studies 410 (Hispanics in the United States) social science credit and adds that excluding courses devoted to minority perspec- tives "would not only threaten enroll- ment in these courses but would also encourage undergraduates not to dis- tribute their education in courses specifically devoted to perspectives different from those in the dominant culture in the United States." The De- partments of Women's Studies and of Afro-American and African Studies have been required to exclude over 70 classes from humanities and social science credit. Clearly, the drive for "coherence" is leading to uniformity and limiting choices available to stu- dents. It's clear the policy was not moti- vated by concern for students. Students don't need more rules which impose convenience on them; they need to have the kind of options open to them which a "diverse" university is supposed to provide. Student representatives to the curriculum committee are outvoted nine to three and its tactics are blatantly un- democratic. Departments were pres- sured with a moratorium on distribu- tion designations until they concluded their negotiations with Professor Mohr. Associate Dean Meiland permitted only committee members he knew would defend his policy to discuss it with Dean Steiner. The meetings are closed in order to protect members from being "hounded" by students and observers from The Michigan Daily are excluded out of fear that "early reporting of is- sues" would "alarm students before by Franz Schurmann, Pacifica News Service Only a few months ago, Father Ignacio Ellacuria, rector of the Central American University in San Salvador, spoke hope- fully of a possible end to his country's civil war. "We have to give Cristiani a chance," he said. To the army and the right wing, this Je- suit and his colleagues were "Communists." Within hours after the rebels of the Faribundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) attacked San Salvador, the army surrounded the campus. Within days, armed men in military uniform killed him, five colleagues, a cook and her daughter. But to many others at home and abroad Ellacuria was a thinker, passionately de- voted to his adopted country, and a sea- soned analyst of the Salvadoran political scene. In an August interview in the Managua journal Pensamiento Propio published by fellow Jesuit Xabier Gorosti- aga, Ellacuria remained optimistic about growing political repression. "Cristiani has no part in it, unlike Duarte," he insisted. Logic acquired in years of Jesuit train- ing, not sentiment, led him to the view that just maybe an end to the war could be worked out between the insurgent FMLN and the ARENA-dominated government. ARENA, the ruling party, consists of three factions, he noted in the interview. First is the "death squad wing," which dominated during the bloody 1980-82 period. But now, he argued, they are in the minority. The second "military" faction, headed by Col. Roberto D'Aubisson, is close to the Armed Forces who in turn are linked to the U.S. Embassy. Cristiani, Ellacuria claimed, had launched "a serious process of dialogue with the FMLN which had caused splits within his party." But, so far, he had the support of the High Command within the U.S. Embassy. The third "civilian" faction is headed by Cristiani, and it was the latter's aim to "turn them all into civilians." Cristiani had wanted to launch rapid business-led economic development in El Salvador - a program backed by the Bush Administration. If Cristiani's drive toward civilianization was one reason for hope, Ellacuria also laid out two others. He did not believe that an "insurrectional explosion about which the FMLN endlessly dreams" would come about. "This is perhaps (our) main divergence of view with the FMLN," he noted. Lastly, he spoke of the U.S. role which he saw as "the most decisive for Central America and the Salvadoran political pro- cess." He felt that there had been a posi- tive change from Reagan to Bush, and the Salvadoran Armed Forces would do noth- ing to undercut Cristiani. If Ellacuria had survived the attack on his life, he would undoubtedly be trying to figure out the flaw in his analysis. It began unravelling even before the current rebel Current U.S. policy was put together in 1984 when Christian Democrat Napoleon Duarte was elected president. That policy' consisted of three components: first, a commitment not to let El Salvador fall to leftist forces; second, a strategy to upgradd the Salvadoran Armed Forces to enable them to win a war against the FMLN; and third, consensus to end human rights vio- lations by the government and the right," wing. Yet Ellacuria believed the Bush Admin- istration was impressed by the peace pro cess launched by the Central American presidents. Like Cristiani, Bush may have been leaning towards something more than just "talks" with the FMLN. The key ob- stacle that may have pushed the White House back towards a hard-line stance was the Salvadoran Armed Forces. Convinced total victory was still possi- ble, the Armed Forces agreed only reluc- tantly to talk with the FMLN, and insisted that there be no negotiations. The FMLN, 'Many Salvadorans believe the U.S. is central to the country's destiny - "the key to the puzzle of the Salvadoran conflict," as Salvadoran writer Francisco Rivera put it.' offensive against the cities, when the FMLN announced on November 2 the suspension of peace talks with the gov- ernment. The FMLN said their move was made in response to the bombing on October 31 of the national workers union headquarters, in which ten top leaders were killed and many others injured. Yet until his death, Ellacuria believed in Cristiani's sincerity. Most likely, he would have blamed a shift in U.S. policy for undermining the thrust towards peace he had come to believe in. Not just Ellacuria but many Salvadorans too believe the U.S. is central to the country's destiny - "the key to the puzzle of the Salvadoran conflict," as Salvadoran writer Francisco Rivera put it. on the other hand, sure of their own strength, wanted negotiations and not just talks. Faced with intransigence in the gov- ernment and a toughening line in Wash- ington, they struck to show their power and force a breakthrough at the bargaining table. Ellacuria may have been right in his evaluation of Cristiani, but he overesti- mated Cristiani's power to deliver on the peace talks. More fundamentally, Ellacuria may have overestimated Bush's willingness and ability to push for a peaceful rather than a military solution to the Salvadoran conflict. The only factor now that could justify his optimism would be public outrage in the U.S. over his murder were to finally crack the five-year- old Congressional consensus on El Salvador. 0 4v:{SRi :"iYENNE M NEE 3 ei: :"i> E EE ::$> '.:: s s:r::i ;; :: :: ::i"iii=}:::::i : :: :i::;j:j :;:: : :::;.i:is :"" ':