BY T.J. FIGUEROA
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -"Moral authority dictates that we should not abandon those who helped us in the darkest hour in the history of this country," said South African president Nelson Mandela. "I am not going to betray the trust of those who helped us." Speaking at a joint press conference with U.S. president William Clinton in Cape Town, South Africa, March 27, Mandela was referring to White House attempts to pressure the South African government to break ties to the governments of Cuba, Iran, and Libya.

Clinton visited Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Botswana, Senegal, and Rwanda from March 23 to April 2. The aim of this tour was to expand the penetration of U.S. finance capital on the African continent, deal blows to Washington's European rivals, and assert U.S. military power south of the Sahara.

The stops in Senegal and Rwanda highlighted Washington's success to date in asserting its dominance against the former colonial ruler there, Paris. The Uganda visit served to bolster support for the U.S. government in its campaign against nearby Sudan. The Botswana leg was ostensibly to highlight Washington's approval of that country's economic policies. But there are also widespread reports that a major air base is under construction in that southern African nation - and that it may be used as a U.S. military base in the future.

The White House staged a variety of events, photo opportunities, and conferences at which Clinton pushed a new trade bill and issued platitudes on slavery. He addressed the same themes at a sitting of South Africa's parliament in Cape Town.

But the attempt to dictate trade on Washington's terms drew sharp rebuke from the South African government, which hosted Clinton on a state visit.

A small army of 1,000 officials, politicians, businessmen, bodyguards and journalists accompanied the president, complete with a fleet of stretch limousines imported from the United States, an air armada of 15 military cargo planes, and several helicopters. This imperial display prompted not a small amount of irritation by people on the streets of Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Debt trap for African countries
The devastating social conditions for working people in Africa are the legacy of colonial rule, neocolonial capitalist regimes, and imperialist oppression. The combined Gross Domestic Product of the nations south of the Sahara is today equivalent to one-fifth that of France. Half the population of 600 million lives on less than $1 a day; more than half the population has no access to potable water; and more than a third can't get health care. Ninety out of every 1,000 children die before they reach the age of five. These conditions are reinforced by the tribute that the African peoples must pay to Wall Street in the form of loan repayments and interest. The debt of African governments to imperialist banks stands at $235 billion.

The situation is so bad that the Paris Club of capitalist governments has agreed to some debt relief. Asked about this in Cape Town, Clinton said that in order for there to be relief, governments must introduce policies "that will produce better results in the future.... If you just had uncritical 100 percent debt relief, other people would be reluctant to loan money in the future because they'd think they'd never get any of their money back."

Africa trade bill
Clinton made a centerpiece of his trip promotion of the so- called U.S.-Africa Growth and Opportunity Bill, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but has not yet gone to the Senate. The bill aims to promote U.S. access to African markets. Africa currently accounts for only 1 percent of all U.S. exports and 2 percent of imports, and receives less than 1 percent of U.S. overseas investment. It also comes at a time that the European Union is negotiating its own trade treaties with African governments.

The bill would expand by about 50 percent the number of products from Africa eligible for duty-free import to the United States. It calls for a plan for a U.S.-sub-Saharan Africa "free trade" area, which would help to muscle out capital from Europe and Asia. And it authorizes debt relief for those countries that meet with Washington's conditions for qualifying.

These conditions include trade "liberalization," protecting U.S. intellectual and other property rights, reducing "high import and corporate taxes [and] controlling government consumption," removing curbs on investment, and privatizing state-owned companies. The last condition would allow for growing U.S. ownership of the national patrimony of countries in Africa. Under the legislation, the U.S. president would also "certify" that African governments are complying with austerity programs imposed by the International Monetary Fund.

The bill `is not acceptable' to S. Africa

ANC government officials have stressed their objections to trade imposed under these conditions.

In remarks broadcast over Radio France International as Clinton was flying into Cape Town, South African deputy president Thabo Mbeki criticized components of the bill. Washington's "trade, not aid" formula, Mbeki said, "is wrong." He emphasized later that these remarks specifically concerned countries to South Africa's north, where a cutoff of aid would have bad consequences.

At the ANC national conference in December, Mandela sharply attacked the role of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), saying it was doing the bidding of Washington and not responding to South Africa's needs. As a result, USAID said it would "review" its programs in this country.

At the joint press conference with Clinton, Mandela was even more blunt, saying that "we have serious reservations" about the trade bill. "To us, this is not acceptable."

The legislation has also come under fire by protectionist forces in the United States who claim it will undercut "U.S. jobs." They include Randall Robinson of Transafrica and U.S. trade union officials. Peggy Taylor, legislative director for the AFL-CIO, complained that the bill's provisions on textile and garment trade would lead to "massive transshipments of Chinese products through Africa without attracting any new investment in the continent," reported the March 5 issue of the South African paper Business Day.

Clinton and Mandela also discussed Washington's objections to South African legislation on pharmaceuticals. The ANC majority in Parliament passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act late last year. It allows the government to shop on the world market for cheaper, generic drugs that can be provided at lower cost to patients at state hospitals and clinics. The Health Minister is also given rights to abrogate drug patents in the interest of providing medication. This has enraged the pharmaceutical monopolies, who claim their "intellectual property" is at stake.

"Pretoria could find itself deep enough in the U.S. dog house to be denied the `enhanced' trade benefits proposed" under the new legislation, wrote Simon Barber in the March 18 Business Day. South African officials say the law does not violate World Trade Organization rules and they will not withdraw it.

Cuba `gave us resources to win'
At the news conference with Mandela, a reporter asked Clinton about the recent decision of chemical company Sentrachem to cancel its contract to export pesticides to Cuba for use in the sugar harvest. This $20 million contract formed the bulk of South Africa's exports to Cuba, which totaled 77 million rands (about $15 million) in the first nine months of 1997. The South African government's official policy is to encourage trade with Cuba.

The U.S.-based Dow Chemical Co. bought Sentrachem last December. It ordered Sentrachem to break the Cuban contract to comply with the so-called Helms-Burton legislation, a component of the U.S. embargo against the revolution that aims to strangle the island nation economically.

Clinton said he had discussed it "briefly" with Mandela. "But the law is the law," he said.

In his opening statement to the press conference, Mandela forcefully defended South Africa's ties with Cuba, along with other governments not to Washington's liking.

"One of the first heads of state I invited to this country was [Cuban president] Fidel Castro. I have received in this country ex-president Rafsanjani of Iran. I have also invited [Libyan leader Moammar] Gadhafi to this country.... Not only did they support us in rhetoric, they gave us the resources for us to conduct the struggle and win. And those South Africans who have berated me for being loyal to our friends, literally, they can go throw themselves into a pool."

A reporter asked Mandela about the U.S. proposal for a military "African crisis response team," an initiative earlier shot down by the ANC government. "We did not discuss that one," Mandela replied. "Our attitude toward this question is very clear.... All that South Africa is saying is that a force which is intended to deal with problems in Africa, must not be commanded by somebody outside this continent. I certainly would never put my troops under somebody who does not belong to Africa."

It's not hard to fathom why.

As Clinton began his African trip, the local press picked up stories, based on reports by Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mark Bowden, of a slaughter carried out by U.S. troops during Washington's invasion of Somalia. According to Richard Dowden, writing in the March 27 Mail & Guardian, "U.S. troops slaughtered more than 1,000 Africans, many of them women and children blown to pieces or burnt in their homes by helicopter gunships. It happened on October 3, 1993."

Several small protests met the Clinton entourage here. The Friends of Cuba Society condemned U.S. hypocrisy as it continues its "immoral and inhumane blockade of food and medication to Cuba."

Pickets organized by the Muslims Against Global Oppression awaited Clinton's arrival in Cape Town, with signs denouncing Washington's designs on Iraq, and the "onslaught against Islam by the Zionists and their allies in the West, especially America."

More than a few people wrote to the newspapers about the trip. One such letter, published in the March 26 Johannesburg Star, said that "the visit by the United States president Bill Clinton brings to our land the leader of a country that poses, for future generations, the greatest threat to human rights and human dignity the world has ever known."  
 
 
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