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From: rak1@magic.UUCP (Billy the Kid)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: The use of nonviolence.
Message-ID: <661@magic.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Feb-86 13:23:00 EST
Article-I.D.: magic.661
Posted: Thu Feb  6 13:23:00 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Feb-86 22:02:26 EST
References: <566@decwrl.DEC.COM> <495@whuts.UUCP> <265@spp1.UUCP> <1107@mmintl.UUCP> <1374@vax1.fluke.UUCP>
Organization: The Frontier Saloon
Lines: 51

> Frank Adams writes:
> >(By the way, the big problem in South Africa is not the "coloreds", who
> >are persons of mixed race, but the "blacks", who are the majority.)
> 
> I thought the big problems was the whites.[RANDY STIMPSON]

The 'big problem' in South Africa is not the whites, nor the "coloreds",
nor the blacks, nor the Asians. The 'big problem' is an economic one.

If apartheid were somehow dismantled in the RSA and if non-whites
were given an education comparable to what the whites receive today,
the privileged minority would have to compete with the 'others'
for the good things of life. Apartheid is a convenient way of
confining the nation's resources within the privileged minority.

This problem is as old as history.  Ancient war-like nations
such as the Hittites, Assyrians, Scythians and Parthians subjected
'other' peoples and derived economic benefit out of their subjection.
Prior to the Norman conquest of England, the Anglo-Saxons were a 
relatively free people. William the Conqueror distributed the 
Anglo-Saxon lands among his ethnic Norman friends, and the peasants
who worked on these lands were made the serfs of Norman barons.
No one would deny that the Norman warriors profited from the
take-over of England (their descendants still do!).

No privileged minority has ever given up its status willingly.
True democracy is recent invention, it has been won by considerable
violence in some cases. [Don't tell me that ancient Athens with its
slaves was a 'democracy'].

The 'others' in South Africa will be free only if it is economically
expedient for the privileged minority. This can happen if:-

(1)  No one does business with them.
(2)  The 'others' in South Africa create enough trouble and make
     it impossible for the government to function normally.
(3)  The Western nations [the USA included] provide military
     and  personnel support to the South African resistance.
     [We provide aid to the Nicaraguan and Afghan resistances,
      don't we?]

It's time we in America resurrected the tradition of Valley Forge
and provided help to freedom-fighters *everywhere*. It is a shame
to see freedom-fighters forced to seek help from the Soviets, when true
justice and freedom lie with America.

                                     -Billy the Kid
-- 
"I like a good, honest fight."
                             
                             -Billy the Kid