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From International Socialist Review, Vol.25 No.4, Fall 1964, p.98.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Editor:
April 15th, 1964, Dr. Neville Alexander and ten other non-white South Africans, including four women, were convicted in the Cape Supreme Court of “sabotage” and belonging to the militant “National Liberation Front” and sentenced to prison on Robben Island – South Africa’s version of an Auschwitz or Belsen Nazi concentration camp.
Ten-year sentences were given to Dr. Alexander, a doctor of philosophy and high-school teacher, one of the most brilliant graduates who ever went through Cape Town University in the Federal Republic of Germany; Don Davis, a minister; Marcus Solomons, a school teacher; Elizabeth van der Heyden, a school teacher; and Fikele Bam, an African senior law student at Cape Town University. Seven-year sentences were given to Lionel Davids, a clerk, and Gordon Hendricks, a student. Five-year sentences were given to Ian van der Heyden, a high-school teacher, Dulcie September, a teacher, Dorothy Alexander, a sister of Dr. Alexander and high-school teacher, and Doris van der Heyden, a librarian. These sentences are part of the fascist regime’s strategy to silence all the intellectuals in the nonwhite camp.
To make this trial possible on a fair basis, the friends and comrades of Dr. Alexander in West Germany at all Universities have made the case public and collected DM40,000 [$10,000] to assist and support him and his comrades. A special committee has been established at the University of Tubingen to organize this campaign.
Imediately after these savage sentences were given, his German colleagues again came to his aid, but to raise another sum of DM30,000 seemed to be beyond their possible power. Therefore they have appealed to students, friends and comrades in other countries to help Dr. Alexander and the co-accused to get a revision of their case, due to many “irregularities,” “breach of common law ... and privilege” in the past Cape Town trial.
Further, the organization of the movement has not gone beyond planning. No “sabotage act” has been committed. In the Rivonia trial in Pretoria, for instance, Lionel Bernstein (who has fled to Bechaunaland since) was set free having done more than any of these convicted, because he had only been busy constructing the “Mayibuye”-plan. Thus the chances of the sentences being put down or even repealed are very great.
Up to now, only DM4,000 could be collected here in West Germany. The total costs of revising the case, taking place in November-December 1964, will amount to DM45,000. Japanese comrades and profesors who knew Dr. Alexander have collected about DM1,000; and Defense and Aid, London, has sent 750 pounds to South Africa.
However, the bulk of the sum needed has still to be collected. In South Africa itself the families are starving due to the fact that the “bread-winners” are either in jail or under 90-day detention arrests. We ask for all posible support from your readers and other interested organizations. All contributions can be sent to me.
Fraternal and sincere greetings from us here in Germany in our struggle for peace, justice and humanity,
Franz J.T. Lee
74 Tubingen/Neckar,
Schwabstrasse 22,
Federal Republic of Germany
August 13, 1964
Editor:
In the article I wrote on Brazil, published in the last number of the International Socialist Review (Summer 1964), it is printed in the last paragraph that the investments of the USA reach $1,500,000. Evidently, there was a typographical error, since the investments of US capitalists in Brazil reach $1,500,000,000, that is, 1.5 billion dollars.
The total investment of the United States in Latin America in 1963 reached almost 10 billion dollars. The most important countries for investments in millions of dollars are:
|
Venezuela: |
|
3,000 |
|
Brazil: |
1,500 |
|
|
Mexico: |
1,000 |
|
|
Argentina: |
900 |
|
|
Chile: |
850 |
|
|
Panama: |
650 |
After Canada (the country that represents the largest colony of American imperialism), it is the Latin American continent which absorbs most American foreign investment.
Socialist greetings,
Manuel Sarmiento
Mexico
August 24, 1964
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