Anti-War Coalition Press Statement
Tuesday 1st July 2003
12 noon

The Anti-War Coalition condemns the disgraceful statements
and actions of
the African National Congress (ANC), South African
Communist Party (SACP)
and Democratic Alliance (DA) with regards to the Bush
visit.

The ANC and SACP claim to be marching against the war on
July 4th, while
hosting the chief warmonger, George Bush just days later.
The DA openly
supports Bush and the war. The DA's pro-Israel and America
policies have no
benefit in reality for the poor of South Africa and are
just as foolish as
their current proposal to employ another 150 000 police to
arrest the
millions of South Africans who have found themselves
jobless and starving
since the American led GEAR policy was introduced.

But at least the DA is openly pro-Bush and pro-capitalist,
unlike the ANC
and SACP who have promoted a false image of themselves as
opposing the war,
whereas they have sold weapons to the American and British
forces, and are
now preparing to lick the boots of Bush. The ANC has
supported the American
war in Iraq in the following ways:

* The ANC allowed three British and American warships to
dock at Durban
harbour in January for repairs en-route to the Persian
Gulf. These warships
were carrying massive amounts of military equipment that
was used against
the people of Iraq just two months later.

* The ANC facilitated FIVE contracts between the
state-owned arms
manufacturer, Denel (Pty.) Ltd and the British and American
militaries. This
included the sale of 125 laser guidance sights for US
Marines artillery
systems, over 300 hand-held laser rangefinders for British
soldiers, and
R225 million worth of shell-casings for small and medium
calibre ammunition
that was used against British soldiers.

The ANC's public relations strategy around the war directly
contradicts
their actions, which are pro-war and which have contributed
to the deaths of
thousands of Iraqi civilians. This is the same duplicitous
PR strategy
employed by the ANC when they claim to have provided
housing, water and
electricity to the poor whereas in fact they have evicted
10 million people
from their homes since 1994.

There are pensioners in poor communities like Thembelihle,
Soweto,
Chatsworth and Khayelitsha who have been arrested and
jailed for trying to
remain in their homes when eviction forces come to take
them out. SACP and
ANC political figures have publicly and unlawfully ordered
the arrests of
activists from anti-eviction social movements, directly
flouting the
independence of the judicial process. And currently, the
ANC is trying to
force unconstitutional apartheid-style anti-Terrorism
legislation on the
country, which would outlaw any anti-War or pro-poor
organisations and
activities.

The poor of South Africa did not vote for a government who
would bring back
laws declaring any dissenting voices as terrorists. We did
not vote for the
return of detention without trial and the indiscriminate
banning of
organisations. We did not vote for landlessness, evictions,
electricity and
water cut-offs and arms sales to an international terrorist
like Bush. We
did not vote for a government who would contribute weapons
to occupying
forces to kill thousands of Iraqi and Palestinian and East
Timorese people,
while at the same time claiming to be anti-War.

For all these reasons, the Anti-War Coalition's countrywide
Anti-Bush
marches on July 5th and July 9th are also marches against
the ANC's support
of the war and welcome of Bush, against the ANC's anti-poor
policies at
home, and against the ANC's apartheid style anti-terrorism
laws.