President

At the first SGM of this term it was moved that the next SRC be postponed so that students could attend a picket outside the South African Consulate. In the debate which followed one student "claiming" to speak for the silent majority of students said that students did not really care about apartheid any more. It had become a "boring" issue.

Last week a well-attended forum debated debated the question of throwing out the Consulate. Many of the students there looked far from bored — some even seemed concerned. Similarly a well - attended picket outside the consulate also expressed the deep feelings of abhorence that people felt against the apartheid system.

The constant news of shootings of peaceful protesters often including children, of "accidental deaths" of torture, of repression and starvation on the bantustans, means that it is difficult for the apartheid issue to become boring.

But there is another reason why the apartheid issue is of relevence: the events of last week on Bastion Point, where the Government used the armed and judicial forces of the state to throw the people of Bastion Point off their ancestral land.

In South Africa Apartheid is straight-forward and blatant. The white ruling class completely and openly control the lives of the blacks. In New Zealand it is more subtle. The Government, the courts, and the state forces the small white ruling force have combined to remove the people on Bastion Point, all under the banner of democracy and the laws of the state.

This Government uses racism to divide New Zealanders so that a small section of the population can profit. Examples of this this in recent years are the dawn raids on over stayers, which meant in reality that anyone that was not white could be asked to justify his/her presence in New Zealand. We must fight against racism wherever we find it — in South Africa or New Zealand.

Lindy Cassidy