21 March 1988
I want to express my appreciation to you, Mr. Chairman, for your kind words, and I am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to address this gathering and to take part in this forum for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Today we commemorate the twenty-eighth anniversary of one of history's most horrifying incidents of racist brutality, the massacre of 69 innocent men, women and children in Sharpeville, South Africa.
We commemorate the Sharpeville massacre not only because it was a major event in the history of apartheid. We remember Sharpeville because we must never forget the sacrifice of its martyrs nor our continuing responsibility to carry on their unfinished struggle for freedom and human rights in South Africa.
We are here today to say that we will remember Sharpeville and that we will not rest until all freedom-loving nations withdraw their support of the apartheid regime. We are here to say that we are committed to the liberation of South Africa because, as Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We are here to say that people of goodwill all over the world are rising up against apartheid. We are on the move now, and we will not be turned around.
We cannot be deceived by those who say that we should wait and be patient because things are getting better for South Africa's black majority. We cannot be fooled because we know that murder, torture and repression have continued unabated in South Africa. Thousands of black children, many of whom have been tortured and brutalized, continue to languish in South African gaols with no contact with their parents.
By making peaceful protest impossible the Botha Government is making violent revolution inevitable. As non-violent alternatives are eliminated the people of South Africa will have two choices: total subjugation or armed struggle. Like freedom-loving people everywhere, they cannot be expected to choose the former, although I hope and pray that non-violence, peaceful alternatives will continue to be pursued.
A great tragedy is in the making for the industrial democracies as well as South Africa, for if we fail to take decisive action at this crucial juncture in the struggle against apartheid we will forfeit all credibility as champions of freedom and human rights. If we choose to do nothing, we become complacent partners in repression with the apartheid regime and we do a disservice to the soul and spirit of freedom, for which the United Nations must forever stand.
Nearly all of South Africa's anti-apartheid leaders are united in calling for all-out international divestment and trade embargoes in support of their freedom struggle. Even though it might mean short-term economic hardship, Archbishop Tutu, the Reverend Allan Boesak, the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC) leaders Oliver Tambo, Nelson and Winnie Mandela and the leaders of all the major black trade unions have supported comprehensive economic sanctions against South Africa.
The time for decisive international action against apartheid is long overdue. The United States and other democratic nations now have no alternative to instituting comprehensive economic sanctions against South Africa. We must now provide the moral leadership that will encourage South Africa's trading partners to accept responsibility for the suffering caused by the apartheid system, from which they have reaped massive profits.
Today we call on people of goodwill all over the world to join with us in this historic struggle. We call for a global campaign of economic withdrawal and political isolation of the Pretoria regime until apartheid is permanently dismantled and a genuine, multi-racial democracy based on the principle of one person, one vote is firmly established.
We are not here to tell the anti-apartheid movements in South Africa which is the best way to win their freedom. But we know that we in the international community can be serve their struggle through a co-ordinated campaign of political isolation and economic withdrawal, which is the cutting edge of organized non-violence.
Let the word go out from the United Nations today that anti-apartheid movements all over the world are going to build a mighty international coalition against apartheid. We are going to keep on marching and educating our fellow citizens and lobbying for stronger world-wide sanctions against Pretoria. We are going to keep on demonstrating at consulates and embassies of the apartheid regime and we are going to fight apartheid and racism wherever we find it and for as long as it takes.
With this faith, and in this spirit, together we shall overcome!