Britain. In Britain the Committee for
Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and
Guine joined forces with the Anti-Apartheid movement and other progressive organisations to form the Dambusters Mobilising Committee, which has been carrying
out a systematic campaign against British participation. There has been widespread support for the campaign to withdraw accounts from Barclays Bank; particularly among students and various organisations. Most recently the campaigners
have been attending shareholders' meetings of the companies involved such as
Barclays and ICI.
Canada. At the beginning of April, 75
people attended the Annual General Meeting of ALCAN, a company providing
12,000 tons of aluminium rod for Cahora
Bassa. As with previous cases in Britain
the Chairman had been forced to prepare
a statement in which he defended the company's actions. As the only grounds on
which he thought he might be forced to
withdraw were those of sanctions busting
he stressed that after intensive investigations in Portugal and South Africa, he
was satisfied that neither the cable nor
transmission lines would have connections
in Rhodesia! He also made the usual remarks about trade and industry bringing
about improved standards of living and
contributing to the social and political
progress' of the African people.
United States. It was learned in March
that the General Electric Company is
pressing the Export-Import Bank (an autonomous agency of the American government) to provide $55 million financing
for a transformer system that they want
to supply to Cahora Bassa. The American
Committee on Africa has prepared a detailed fact sheet on the project and the
company's involvement and has started a
campaign to put pressure on the Export-
Import Bank not to finance the transaction.
A similar operation to that against Cahora
Bassa is being waged in America against
the Gulf Oil Corporation, which has
gained a strong foothold in Angola. Several groups are involved but in particular
the Committee of Returned Volunteers
has produced a couple of excellent publications on Gulfs activities and the Task
Force on Southern Africa of the United
Presbyterian Church organised a confrontation at the Annual General Meeting.
In a detailed statement Task Force say
that Gulfs operations directly contribute
to the suppression of the Angolan people
in several ways. Firstly, Gulf payments
to the Portuguese government ($11 million in 1969) represent a significant percentage of the Angolan military budget.
Secondly, Gulf oil discoveries constitute
an incentive for continued Portuguese occupation. Thirdly, Gulf oil is an indespen-
sible strategic material to the Ibrtuguese
army.
The Committee for a Free Mozambique in
New York has launched a campaign to
buy transistor radios for use in the liberated areas of Mozambique. Black workers
have also been making an active contribution to the struggle. The actions of
black workers of the American Polaroid
received wide publicity when they forced
the company to cease selling film to the
South African government. Polaroid received yet another blow recently when
half its gift of $20,000 to the United
Black Appeal Group of Boston was immediately handed over to the OAU Liberation Committee.
Seen in isolation, all these activities would
not appear to have much effect on our
liberation struggle. Questioning directors
and officials at meetings is unlikely to
force them to withdraw from profitable
contracts. Capitalism does not exist to
be moved by moral arguments.   But this
work done by the solidarity groups is extremely important. Before they can hope
to mobilise support for our struggle, they
first have to inform people that it even
exists. Eighteen months ago most people
in Europe and North America probably
did not even know that Portugal had
colonies in Africa, let alone what they
were doing there. Now, as the result of
hard and persistant work by the increasing
number of support and solidarity groups
our fight is gradually becoming known in
such a way that is already causing concern to the Portuguese government, as
recent speeches and statements have indicated.
We have no illusions, and neither certainly have most of these organisations,
that their activities will drastically alter
the course of the war. Our freedom will
only come through our own military and
political efforts, and possibly that of the
oppressed Portuguese people themselves.
However, in raising the consciousness of
their peoples and providing us with as
much moral and material support as they
can, they can help to make our task
easier.
BUST
THE CABORA BASSA DAM
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