In Good Faith: Canadian Churches Against Apartheid

379 Pages·1997·2.442 MB·English

by  Renate Pratt

Comparative Ethics Series /
Collection d’Éthique Comparée :
Comparative Ethics Series/
Collection d’Éthique Comparée
As Religious Studies in its various branches has spread out in re-
cent years, it has met with a newly emergent discipline: Compara-
tive Ethics as the study of moralities as cultural systems, rather than
as the philosophical investigation of particular moral issues. To
study a morality as a dynamic whole in its social nature and func-
tioning requires a context in which other instances of a comparable
kind are considered. Moral action-guides and religious action-
guides have historically been brought together in mixed, moral-reli-
gious or religious-moral systems. The different paths followed by
moralities as cultural systems in the varying contexts demand com-
parative study.
The series embraces three kinds of studies: (1) methodological
studies, which will endeavour to elaborate and discuss principles,
concepts and models for the new discipline; (2) studies which aim
at deepening our knowledge of the nature and functioning, the
scope and content of particular moral systems, such as the Islamic,
the Hindu, the Christian and so on; (3) studies of a directly compar-
ative kind, which bring differing moral systems or elements of sys-
tems into relationship.
GENERAL EDITOR: Paul Bowlby Saint Mary’sUniversity (Halifax)
ADVISORYBOARD: Charles Adams McGill University (Montreal)
Ernest Best University of Toronto
Antonio R. Gualtieri Carleton University (Ottawa)
RogerHutchinson University of Toronto
PatrickKerans Dalhousie University (Halifax)
Jack Lightstone Concordia University (Montreal)
David Little University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
Thierry Maertens Université Laval(Québec)
Ronald W.Neufeldt University of Calgary
David Roy Bioethical Institute (Montreal)
Max T.Stackhouse AndoverNewton Theological
School (Newton Centre, MA)
COMPARATIVE ETHICS
Volume 4
In Good Faith
Canadian Churches
Against Apartheid
Renate Pratt
Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in
Religion / Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses
by Wilfrid Laurier University Press
1997
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Pratt, Renate
In good faith : Canadian churches against apartheid
(Comparative ethics series ; v.4)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88920-280-X
1. Apartheid−Religious aspects−Christianity.
2. Apartheid−Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Social
responsibility of business−Canada. 4. Social
responsibility of business−South Africa. 5. Taskforce
on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility.
6. Churchand industry−Canada. 7. Church and industry−
South Africa. 8. Christianityand politics−Canada.
I. CanadianCorporation for Studies in Religion. II. Title.
III. Series.
HF5388.P72 1997 261.8′5 C96-931980-0
©1997 Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion /
Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses
Coverdesign by Leslie Macredie using a photograph by Paul Weinberg
entitledSoweto Unrest,1985
∞
Printed in Canada
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Contents
Preface by Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu vii
Foreword by Roger Hutchinson ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part One 1975–80
1. Prelude to Action 7
2. Canadian Business Ties 23
Part Two 1981–84
3. Apartheid and the Canadian Government 65
4. From Acceptance to Unease: Canadian Corporate
Responses to Apartheid, 1981–84 97
Part Three 1985–87
5. The Struggle Intensifies 135
6. Canada’s Anti-Apartheid Initiatives, 1985–86 187
Part Four 1987–90
7. The Taskforce and Continuing Canadian Corporate
Involvement in South Africa 221
8. The Long Road Back from Sanctions, 1987 263
9. The Taskforce and the Abandonment of Canada’s
Sanctions Policy, 1988–90 291
10. Final Reflections 337
Selected Bibliography 347
Index 356
Preface
We have experienced nothing short of a miracle in South Africa as we have
seen apartheid disappear from the scene; as we have watched incredulous,
the long lines of South Africans taking part in their first democratic elec-
tions; the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first-ever democratically
chosen president of this new South Africa and the installation of a govern-
ment of national unity.
We have scored a spectacular victory over one of the most vicious systems
the world has known, as vicious as Nazism ever was. Its perpetrators had
sought to control every aspect of the lives of the victims of this totally evil
system and the perpetrators were not averse to using the most violent and
repressive measures to enforce their hegemony—there were bannings that
condemned people to a twilight existence as prisoners at their own
expense, when a gathering meant one other person and they were not per-
mitted to attend a gathering!—there were detentions without trial for
lengthy periods and people often died mysteriously in those detentions, as
in the notorious brutal murder of Steve Biko. People were incarcerated for
having had the audacity to imagine that they too were human beings with
inalienable rights—such as the Mandelas, the Sisulus and others. Many
others went into exile, and there was the constant harassment, the public
vilification of those who opposed apartheid. This was a powerful system
supported by many Western governments because the perpetrators were
White and the victims were largely Black and because this South African
government was smart enough to exploit the often strange obsession with
Communism by its declaration that it was the last bastion of Western civil-
isation against soviet communist expansionism.
vii
viii In Good Faith
The struggle against this powerful regime was rough, but we have
notched up our spectacular victory over the injustice and oppression of
apartheid. But our victory would have been totally impossible without the
remarkable and courageous support and commitment of many in the inter-
national community. We could not have made it without the imposition of
sanctions against the apartheid monster. It is a great privilege to be able to
say thank you very much to you all who supported us. Our victory is your
victory.
Renate Pratt’s book is a ringing account of how one group in Canada
struggled to galvanise Canadian public opinion to pressure business and
government to take a moral stand against apartheid. It was never easy to
do this. We can read what it cost the anti-apartheid stalwarts whose names
must be written in letters of gold in any authentic history of the struggle
for justice, peace, democracy and reconciliation in South Africa. I am
honoured to have been asked to write this short preface and to urge many
to read this fascinating account.
Goodness, justice, love, peace—these ultimately prevail against their
awful counterparts because this is a moral universe and God is in charge.
The Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu
Foreword
When the Centre for the Study of Religion in Canada received a grant from
the Lilly Endowment, Inc. to study the social justice activities of the
United Church of Canada and its ecumenical partners, a topic with obvious
relevance for our project was the Canadian churches’ role in the struggle
against apartheid in South Africa. Our initial hope was that Renate Pratt
would write a background paper and give the keynote address at a consul-
tation on this topic. It soon became evident that our modest request had
lured her into a major project. The book she ended up writing provides a
detailed reconstruction of the faithful witness of the Canadian churches
and the Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility against
Canadian support for the unjust and racist apartheid policies of the South
African government.
The way the story is told reflects the perseverance and scrupulous atten-
tion to detail that characterized the approach taken by the Taskforce in the
campaign against apartheid. The Centre for the Study of Religion in Can-
ada is grateful to Renate for this labour of love, and to the Lilly Endow-
ment for its contribution to publication costs. We share Renate’s gratitude
to Sandra Woolfrey and Wilfrid Laurier University Press for making publi-
cation both possible and a pleasant experience.
This rich account of the Canadian churches’ role in the struggle against
apartheid will appeal to readers with a general interest in the South African
policies of Canadian governments and corporations and in the public role
of the Canadian churches. It will also interest different types of specialists.
It speaks directly and concretely to issues such as the effectiveness of eco-
nomic sanctions, the ability of non-governmental organizations to influ-
ence public policies and the continuing relevance of religion in a so-called
ix