A very controvesial speaker was heard in the Union Hall last Tuesday, Michael Lapsley, a New Zealand priest who has lived in South Africa for the last 6 years and believes that armed struggle is the only solution to the problems faced by the Blacks of South Africa.

Michael Lapsely went to South Africa in 1973 as a student as became chaplin of the University of South Africa in 1976. Soon after the Soweto riots, because of his anti-apartheid activities, he had to flee South Africa for Lesotho, a tiny independent nation within South Africa. Lapsley believes that, the Blacks in South Africa have only two choices; either to submit or to fight. The urgent task facing the Black people is to overthrow apartheid and replace it with a government that represents the majority of South Africans.

According to Lapsley New Zealander have trouble making up their minds about South Africa because they hear contradictory opinions. We hear plenty from the South African government through their consulate which New Zealand continues to harbour. Seldom do we hear the voice of the black people in New Zealand.

When Lapsley went to South Africa he believed the most important thing about himself was that he was a human being. In South Africa he was treated not as a human being but as a white man. The colour of his skin determined what university he went to, what suburb he lived in, what movie theatre he went to etc.

No Hope for the "Peaceful Solution."

When he arrived in South Africa he believed there could be a peaceful solution to the injustice of apartheid. After the bloody suppresion of the Soweto uprising in 1976, he changed his mind. Film of the Soweto riots was shown on South African TV. The police were shown shooting school childen in the back as they tried to run away. Thousands of arrests followed the Soweto uprising.

Lapsley told us how he had to sit with both Black and White mothers as they were told that shock treatment had been given to their children — to their genitals and ears as a means of torture.

The Soweto uprisings dramatically changed the conciousness of the Blacks in South Africa. The liberation movement has a long history of peaceful opposition to apartheid through leaflets, petitions, strikes, etc. Many abandoned this method atter the Sharpville massacre in 1960 when 69 Blacks were shot during a peaceful rally against the pass laws. But many people, particularly Christians, maintained that change must come by non-violent methods. After Soweto even more people became convinced that the struggle would have to be a violent one, and more and more young Blacks are leaving South Africa every day to learn military training in the independent Black nations.

Lapsley said that South Africa belongs to all that live in it, Black and White. The whites in South Africa that realise that their freedom is tied up with the Blacks freedom are seen as brothers by the Black people.

The Economic Boycott - a Failure

Lapsley holds that there are two ways to destroy apartheid; one is the armed struggle, the other is the economic boycott of South Africa. People say that they are racist because they don't like Black people, but the real reason Blacks are oppressed is so they can be used as cheap labour.

Most of the economic activity in South Africa is undertaken by foreign companie. The real beneficiaries of apartheid are in Britain, United States, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and even New Zealand. Two New Zealand firms, South British Insurance and New Zealand Insurance, operate in South Africa, despite continued opposition from the New Zealand anti-apartheid movement. The Black liberation movement called for an economic boycott saying that although it would hurt them, it would underpin the whole foundation of apartheid. The west has claimed thay they couldn't support armed struggle on moral grounds, but their refusal to support the economic boycott exposes their very real support for apartheid.

The economic basis of apartheid is obobvious when one looks at the governments "homelands" policy. The government has removed thousands of Blacks to reservations (homelands) on barren waste lands. The homelands are for the people who are of no use to the South African economy -mothers, children, the elderly, and inform. The young, healthy (well, healthy enough to work) Blacks live in cramped single sex hostels in the towns. When they grow old, or become sick they are returned to one of the homelands to die.

Parallels in New Zealand

Lapsley then turned his attention to New Zealand saying that it was interesting to note signs of fascism in New Zealand - the eviction of the Bastion Point protestors, the accusation of treason against [unclear: Treve] Richards, are greeted in the South [unclear: Afr] can press with great delight.

Lapsely claimed that there is [unclear: somet] wrong with a government that [unclear: persell] Polynesians and forces them out, [unclear: while] the same time takes more white [unclear: South] cans into New Zealand than any [unclear: other ples].

Lapsley claimed that you can [unclear: judge] country by the way it treats its [unclear: most de] fenceless citizens. The New Zealand [unclear: go] vernment has singled out the [unclear: defenseles] for concerted attack - the [unclear: unemployed], to mothers, Polynesians etc. New [unclear: Zeal] could be a land of hope or a land of [unclear: dis] ter. The answer depends on us.

Lapsley quoted Thomas Burke [unclear: "For] to prosper all it needs is for good men [unclear: t] do nothing". Are we at university to [unclear: ge] a far better paid job than the majorirty [unclear: o] New Zealanders or are we going to [unclear: use t] opportunities university offers us to [unclear: figh] for a better society?

The Christian Dilemna

After his address the inevitable [unclear: quest] came — how can Lapsley reconcile [unclear: supp] for the armed struggle with his [unclear: Chritian] Lapsley replied that Christians [unclear: believe in] ving God as one loves their neighbour, [unclear: S] metimes the most loving thing to do [unclear: for] majority involves violence. If one [unclear: lives in] South Africa and does nothing, then [unclear: ob] jectively one is condoning mass [unclear: violence] Not only the violence of the police, [unclear: the] dreds that may die in detention, or [unclear: the to] tured; but the whole system of laws [unclear: tha] keep the Black people in submission [unclear: are] violent laws.

The liberation movement in South [unclear: Af] have tried peaceful means to change [unclear: the] stem and they have failed. Just as in [unclear: Wor] War Two good people took up arms to [unclear: de] feat the Nazi Government; only the [unclear: arme] struggle can smash apartheid and bring [unclear: pe] and democracy to the people of South [unclear: A]

The forum was organised by the [unclear: Stude] Christian Movement. It is one in a [unclear: series] be held every Tuesday. This Tuesday [unclear: Do] Brash, a member of the Government [unclear: Eco] mic Council, and strong supporter of [unclear: the] vernment's economic policies including [unclear: ec] cation cuts, will be speaking at the [unclear: Union] Hall at 12 midday. Come and listen and have your say.

Leonie Morris.