[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Another Brutus video on reparations

[Patrick Bond]

http://africaaction.typepad.com/justafrica/2008/10/dennis-brutus-d.html

Meg Hathaway

2 October

Dennis Brutus Decries Corporate Injustice in South Africa

Last Friday, I sat down for an intimate brownbag discussion here in 
Washington, DC with Dennis Brutus, an outspoken social justice activist 
who gained renown in the 1950s for his heroic work against racisim and 
apartheid. An ex-political prisoner in Robben Island, poet, and 
political writer, Brutus was in exile from his home country of South 
Africa between 1966 and 1990. In 1987, he was the first non-African 
American to receive the Langston Hughes Award. Brutus has long been 
involved in the Jubilee movement and speaks around the world on the 
current injustices of the international financial institutions and their 
policies in the Global South.

His main focus last week was the lawsuit now in play in a U.S. federal 
court against two-dozen banks and corporations that had conducted 
business in apartheid-era South Africa. In 2002, the Khulumani Support 
Group, representing South African victims of human rights abuses, filed 
this suit for reparations, contending that the corporations' dealings in 
the country furthered the apartheid system, making these businesses 
complicit in the human rights abuses of the regime. The suit was filed 
in the U.S. under the Alien Torts Claims Act, which holds U.S. companies 
and individuals responsible for crimes committed against foreigners abroad.

Both the U.S. and South African administrations oppose the lawsuit and 
its premise of corporate reparations, maintaining that it would 
challenge South Africa’s sovereignty. A deeper underlying interest for 
their opposition, however, may be fears that the lawsuit would damage 
the foreign investment friendly business climate that officials from 
both governments have keenly promoted in South Africa since the end of 
apartheid.

Dennis discusses the corporate apartheid reparations lawsuit (via 
jobidooda):

Over the course of the talk, Dennis couldn't avoid commenting on the 
dramatic current political events currently sweeping across South 
Africa. He described how South Africa has followed neoliberal economic 
policies since Nelson Mandela accepted his nomination for presidency in 
1994. Arguing that “there is no difference in policy between the two 
emerging [Mbeki and Zuma] factions of the ANC” he questioned whether the 
current splits in the ANC are based on any ideological or substantive 
differences, or merely personal loyalty. New ANC president Jacob Zuma 
has not come out with any radical new policy initiatives, and in fact 
has assured businesses and international institutions alike that there 
will be no change in policy whatsoever once he is in power. The same can 
be assumed of South Afirca's interim president, Kgalema Motlanthe, who 
Zuma handpicked for office to replace Mbeki last week.

Brutus mentioned as well that to a degree, the rival MDC and Zanu-PF 
parties in Zimbabwe face similar problems in distinction between policy. 
Once the dead-lock over the cabinet posts of Robert Mugabe and Morgan 
Tsvangira's power-sharing agreement is broken, will Zimbabwe's economic 
policy look any different. Many argue, after all, that it was the 
structural adjustment plans implemented by the IMF that began to break 
down Zimbabwe's economy in the first place. If Tsvangirai's plan to go 
back and walk that road again?

Check out more inspiring poetry by Dennis Brutus at his website, or his 
thoughts on the importance of the next U.S. Treasury Secretary in this 
video interview with Jubilee USA Network below.