Henry Isaacs, permanent Pan Africanist Congress representative at the United Nations, provided the highlight of the HART regional conference held in the Union Hall on Saturday 21 March. He warned of the danger of the New Zealand Anti-Apartheid Movement being outflanked by the Pretorian regime: "Even if every apartheid law was repealed tomorrow, it wouldn't make any difference to the economic position or political rights of blacks."

About 200 people attended the conference, from New Zealand's central regions from Nelson up to Palmerston North.

Much of Henry Isaacs speech content was similar to that he gave in the Union Hall the previous Thursday. He outlined the necessity to support the Black liberation movements of Azania (a word meaning Black Nation, used by the Black South Africans to describe their country), and warned against opposing the tour solely because of the abhorrent laws which help to maintain the apartheid system.

Face Changes Maintain Power

Apartheid extends beyond laws. Apartheid is the scheme within which the continued exploitation and oppression of the Azanian people occurs. He stated there was a possibility of some of the apartheid laws being revoked, but this would not mean an end to the liberation struggle. The face of apartheid may change, but its essential character will remain the same. The South African government will manuoevre, as it has done in the past, to maintain its position of power, and to cotinue its exploitation of the Azanians. While this minority rule persists, there will be no justice in South Africa.

Soviet Splitting Tactics

Isaacs affirmed the need to support the Black nationalist movements as a whole and was critical of the Soviet Union support for only the ANC, while ignoring the other legitimate liberation organisations.

He also outlined a probable economic agreement between southern African states to reduce their present economic reliance on the Pretorian regime. This would allow the calls for economic boycotts to be far more effective than they have been to date. The biggest threat to the boycott comes from western imperialism, especially multinational corporations with interests in South Africa.

He reaffirmed the necessity to prevent the Springbok tour taking place. This would be a further step towards the international isolation of South Africa. It will aid in weakening the structure of apartheid, and thus contribute, in a small way, to the liberation fight. He ended by saying that victory and liberation of Azania is inevitable. It is only a question of when.

Tour Definitely Stoppable

The morning session of the conference was taken up with speeches by Trevor Richards, and the two fulltime National Organisers Pauline McKay and John Minto. Trevor affirmed that the tour is indeed stoppable. He highlighted the fact that the degree of anti-tour sentiment is higher at this stage of the campaign than in any other previous campaigns, even 1973 when Norman Kirk cancelled the proposed tour. There is every possibility that this tour will meet the same fate. It depends largely on the time and energy people are prepared to commit to this end.

Pauline and John outlined the campaign situation nationally, and gave some details of resolutions passed at the Auckland regional conference. The one point of dispute with the northern conference resolutions was on the question of a national petition. A resolution supporting this had been narrowly passed there. However it was overwhelmingly rejected by the Wellington conference. Reasons given were that it would require a large deployment of resources away from the May 1 mobilisation preparations and would be of doubtful effectiveness anyway, no matter how many signatures were attained.

The early afternoon session had been put aside for activists. It consisted of a series of workshops, run by specialists in particular areas. They were designed to pass on skills to as many people as possible. The skills were those regarded as being vital to the running of a campaign. The specific workshops included media relations, publicity, legal aspects, drama, and political strategies. The general feeling was that these were of value and most people gained something appreciable from them.

New Ideas Not Forthcoming

My main complaint is that any new spectacular ideas for the May 1 Mobilisation failed to appear. Perhaps, on reflection, it is indicative more of the degree of experienced, talented people within HART: The New Zealand Anti-apartheid Movement, rather than of any failure to grasp opportunities. The conference served to consolidate people in their conviction that the proposed '81 Springbok tour can, and must, be stopped. No effort, time, or energy will be spared until this end is achieved.

Campbell Duignan