LAST WEEK Maggie Thatcher gloated over the 'tiny, tiny' concessions she made: the Commonwealth conference over sanctions against South Africa. Even as she spoke, Benjamin Moloise murdered by the government, denied even the right to a funeral.
sanctions is simple and sordid. nothing to do with defending freedom and democracy. It has nothing to do with reforming apartheid. It is because British investors have more money in South Africa than any other country in the world. They profit directly, to the tune of billions of pounds, from the misery, oppression and brutality which the racist regime inflicts on South Africa's black majority.
companies have blood on their hands.
ABOUT directly off the backs of South Africa's black workers. They employ more than 350,000 people and they own about f5bn worth of investments.
We list some of them below.
African one-fifth of what white workers do. To put this another way: these firms pay, per month, £3-400 less to their black workers than they would pay if apartheid did not exist. That means each black worker boosts their profits by anything £5000 per year.
household names. Next time you buy chocolate from Cadbury's or Rowntrees, Schweppes, or food from Reckitt and Colmans, a razor blade from Wilkinson Sword, car parts from Lucas or Chloride, or any other of the host of household products sold here by champions world freedom and democracy list.
Company Barclays Standard Chartered Lonrho BTR (includes Dunlop)
Courtaulds Unilever (includes Brooke Bond)
General Electric Company Shell British Oxygen British Petroleum British-American Tobacco Great Universal Stores British Insulated Cables Babcock Guest, Keen and Nettlefold Rowntree Mackintosh Blue Circle Industries Grand Metropolitan Burmah Oil Wilkinson Sword Reckitt and Colman Chubb and Son Thorn EMI Plessey George Wimpey •Beecham Groun Hawker Siddeley Legal and General Group Source: Labour Research Coats Patons Rank Xerox Chloride Group Lucal Industries.
Tarmac Johnson Matthey Midland Bank Prudential Assurance.
Norwich Union Smiths Industries Play dead, The reason Maggie Thatcher opposes It has ALAN FREEMAN looks at how British RO 1200 British firms make their money Their profits are understandably enormous.
up to These firms are among Britain's best-known For drinks from of - remember this Shell implements apartheid. Said their public relations officer: 'When we find are capable of looking after and RESTAURANT TOILETS on to their apartheid profits.
USA regarding treatment of multinationals.
These firms have therefore taken many steps conceal what , thev and prevent outside bodies finding out how they collaborate with apartheid.
The most blatant and well-publicised are straight sanctions-busting operations. One of these came to light when anti-apartheid activists and Southampton dockers unearthed a container en route for Durban containing milling machine for repairing and servicing military aircratt. It came the Berox Machine Tool Company who sold it to Atlas Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary the South African Armaments Cor poration. breached How they cover up THATCHER'S OPEN refusal to take action against apartheid is only one of the ways British bosses cling Firms with a stake in apartheid are fully aware of practice which are applied by the EEC and the black workers by and their British counterparts and assoclates. The collaboration has lasted to this day.
The consequence is that and s in terests can rake in the pro a Darlick. without declaring what they do. rOI example, Consolidated Gold Fields, the second largest mining corporation South Africa, claims is 'does not employ anyone in South Africa!' This is absurd. It was set up in South Africa It owns, for example, a 4 cent stake Gold of SA which employs 84,312 people in In the USA, multina tionals have admitted to :
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that their profits are threatened by the prospect of sanctions and by measures that already exist to try and regulate their functioning. These include codes