Prisoner observes End Amerikan Apartheid Month: Apartheid South Africa history Each month this year, MIM is focusing attention on a different aspect of Amerika's war against the oppressed through prisons. March is End Amerikan Apartheid Month, which we are using to "remind young activists that an apartheid system was legal and official ten years ago in South Africa, and that major Amerikan corporations invested in South Africa then -- supporting the Apartheid system."(1) Here we print an Illinois prisoner's contribution to End Amerikan Apartheid Month -- a review of research into Amerikan technological trade with the Apartheid Republic of South Africa (RSA). Apartheid was the system of legal segregation that required Azanians (Indigenous South Africans) to show their "passes" whenever they traveled in their own country. Apartheid included limits on how many Azanians could live in cities, and separated Blacks in Bantustans, so-called "homelands." Because a 15 percent white minority ruled Apartheid South Africa, its laws included strict restrictions on speech. Those who were too vocal in opposition to the government or its policies could be banned -- barred from actions including being quoted in a publication or speaking with more than one persyn at a time. MIM's predecessors, RADACADS, had their beginnings organizing opposition to Apartheid and investments in South Africa from within the United Snakes.(2) MIM draws a parallel between Apartheid South Africa and today's bourgeois-democratic United $nakes because even compared to Apartheid's horrendous record of fascism and repression, Amerika imprisons more Blacks. Amerika also financially backs the former Apartheid regime, whose leaders remained in power even after the 1994 presidential election of Nelson Mandela as part of the so- called reconciliation in the country. Since 1994, the South African government and its allies have attempted to sweep the memory of Apartheid under the rug, without fundamentally changing the political and economic balance in the country. As MIM wrote in the Summer of 1999: "Blacks make up 95% of those in poverty, and 70% of all black children are in poverty. Sixty-five percent of blacks are considered poor, but only 1% of whites are. Housing continues to be in short supply for Blacks. Mandela promised to build a million homes, but so far construction has begun on only 600,000."(3) Automating Apartheid U.S. Computer exports to South Africa and the arms embargo by NARMIC/American Friends Service Committee (AFSC),1982 107 pp. reviewed by an Illinois prisoner This is a very informative book concisely written which gives the reader a detailed account of the issues, conditions and situations the groups labeled Black, Colored, Indian and Mixed experienced under Apartheid. Automating Apartheid examines these conditions through the lens of U.S. corporations' computer-technological invasion, which subverted the international arms embargo against South Africa by exporting commercial technology easily applied to military production. This book should be analyzed in mirror-image of what the oppressed nations are facing in Apartheid North America -- the belly of the imperialist beast.(4) Automating Apartheid describes the continuous u.$. military and corporate interaction with South Africa. Computer technology assisted the South African military in securing u.$. corporate investments and maintaining economic stability in the region for u.$. corporations that exploit the masses, extracting surplus value. The u.$. corporations invested in hostile land takeovers that left millions of Azanians, Indians and other oppressed nationals constantly displaced. The oppressed were made squatter- nomads by "concentrated effort." These corporate policies led to starvation, disease and death. These are the same u.$. corporations that continue winning the support of middle-class whites and other middle classes and working class strata by either deceptive "humanitarianism" disguised television advertisements and/or worker wage increase as the acceleration principle facilitates. Computer technology -- hardware and software -- was a central weapon of the Apartheid regime. This is an important point for those who would involve themselves in academic and theoretical mathematic or engineering pursuits. These systems enabled the efficient deployment of South African troops and police/paramilitary forces. MIM is pleased to see this application documented so clearly in the AFSC publication, as we have consistently pointed out that there is no neutral science under imperialism. There is only science that serves the bourgeoisie, and science that serves the proletariat. When this book was written, South Africa's military was in a state of permanent semi-mobilization with a total active-duty force of 86,000 soldiers and 260,000 on active reserve. The army was then the largest military branch accounting for 80 percent of military personnel [we do not have comparable figures for the RSA military today]. Soldiers were trained primarily for guerrilla war and the army prioritized "lightness" and ability to strike quickly. The air force was designed primarily to cover and support ground troops engaged in counter-insurgency operations, the navy was oriented chiefly to coastal defense.(pp. 40-1) Automating Apartheid presents historical insight into the struggle against South African Apartheid -- including boycotts against u.$. corporations that were investing, trading, aiding and abetting in the international genocidal crimes against oppressed nationals within South Africa. The book also (unintentionally) points toward the necessity of national self-determination through armed struggle and socialist revolution as in China under Chairman Mao Zedong in the period of 1949-1976 and not "reformism" as under Mandela and neo-colonial puppet successor Mbeki who treats armed struggle as a way to the bargaining table and not a means for genuine liberation from colonial rule.(5) MIM adds that we review such publications of pacifist organizations like the American Friends Service Committee because we wish to draw attention to all positive forms of struggle against imperialism and militarism. We have much unity with the AFSC's tactical approach to Amerikan militarism despite significant disagreement over the need for armed revolutionary struggle and socialism. We have tactical unity in exposing the clear war-mongering application even of "non-military" technology. Trade as described in this review is one of the united snakes's key means of subverting military blockades against its allies. Notes: 1. "Under Lock & Key 2000 Campaign Calendar," MIM Notes 201 1 January, 2000. 2. What is the Maoist Internationalist Movement? 2nd Edition. 3. "South African elections usher in new stage of neo- colonialism," MN 189. 4. MIM does not call the United Snakes government an Apartheid regime for the same reasons that we do not call it fascist. To affix these labels to Amerika would be an ultra-left error -- one of taking our material conditions to be worse and therefore closer to objective revolutionary conditions than they are. At the same time it would be rightist, as such labeling denies the righteous proletarian rebellion against bourgeois democracy. Because this country retains the trappings of free elections and mass participation in politics and government, it is not fascist. The international proletariat will demonstrate that proletarian dictatorship is far more just than the current dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. 5. MIM Notes 9, 23 February, 1985.