ABSTRACT: There is one truth for which the Radical Party has campaigned which the majority of people are only just beginning to recognise: Israel, despite everything, is an island of democracy in an arab world where human rights are brutally supresssed and considered to be blasphemous. In the horrific picture which the African continent represents, a picture of famine and dictatorship, South African perestroika potentially stands for the hope and affirmation of the rule of law and for the construction of a hypothetical federal system for southern Africa. It is a movement that defends human, civil and political rights everywhere in the world which is one of the principal objectives of transnational action. Democracy and rights, a life of rights is not only a luxury but a primary necessity, a condition that cannot be foregone, in the north and south of the world, to liberate the cities from violence, to end war, poverty and hunger and to construct a world of well-being and justice for all.

(The Party New, n.1, June 1991)

We support South African perestroika and so are even more committed to discovering the reality of the situation there.

There is a vast difference between the South Africa we have been told about for the last twenty years and the actual country that has developed in recent years. This is the result of the "white, northern hemisphere" view of the world.

Sure, we have all shouted our indignation, gone on anti-apartheid marches and fasted for the release of Nelson Mandela.

However, if we are unable to justify racial discrimination in political or ethical terms, neither should we bury our heads in the sand when faced with what may be an uncomfortable truth for many, but which is a truth all the same.

The many people who described South Africa as the evil empire harbouring the worst exponents of white racism and violence, have become strangely silent of late. This is especially true in the case of catholic organisations concerned with the Third World and the official parties of the left who imposed sanctions against South Africa and support for the ANC the jewel in the crown of their "foreign policy".

Readily accepted taboos and other popular misconceptions which are good for the conscience, are difficult to change, even when they have become outdated

But this is what needs to be done in the case of Frederick De Clerk.

We support his South African version of perstroika because South Africa has the lowest mortality rate in Africa, even amongst coloured people, who have employment rates and standards of welfare which are the highest in the continent. In the short term, as long as the reform process to give equal rights to all sections of the population continues, and is not halted by the in-fighting amongst the various factions, South Africa will be the only African country to have been founded on the principles of democracy and the rule of law.

We support these changes, noting that Soweto is a paradise compared to areas of other African metropolitan cities (excluding the exclusive ones which are home to dictatorial bureaucracies). It is a more hospitable environment than many European suburbs and human and civil rights are infinitely more respected ,there than in Mogadishu, Kinshasa or Addis Ababa. From Angola to Mozambique thousands of men and women come to queue to work in the South African mines.

We support South African perestroika because black leaders here will take power alongside whites, who are recognised in their own right to be "africans", by virtue of their ancestors who, from the year 1500 onwards, fled to South Africa to escape persecution. We support a country which has the capacity to overcome the threat posed by the extreme, violent and racist whites and the black hawks who are responsible for the ANC violence. The latter are to blame for the inter-tribal massacres that take place which are the principal cause of the deaths of coloured men and women in South africa. We support the only country which has the potential, on present rates of democratic progress to not only resurrect their own image and fortunes with pride, but also develop a continent gripped by the horrors of famine and dictatorship. Where should Europe, the future United States of Europe look, for leadership in this continent, which is linked to ours by virtue of being our geographical neighbour? Should we not be talking

to the one country that is hypothesising about an eventual politico-economic federation for the whole of southern Africa?

No. We do not support the people who have only recently discovered the camps for famine victims, underdevelopment, and the inter-ethnic, inter-racial difficulties. And it took an influx of immigrants into our cities, which could soon become invaded on a much larger scale, to bring the problem home. We do not support western governments who have financed and armed all manner of dangerous tyrants without demanding any committment to human rights in return. Neither do we support the western opposition parties whose encouragement to independence leaders and "national revolutionaries", masquerading as constructors of peace behind the barrel of a gun, is a temporary fad they soon grow tired of. We support non-violence and reform, and therefore South African perestroika, with conviction, because we support those who want to understand before they shout, those who do not think that injustice and suffering can only develop into more suffering and injustice.