U.S. Anti-Apartheid Group Gets $25,000 From Church Council

The World Council of Churches’ controversial Special Fund of the Programme to Combat Racism has announced grants to 37 organizations, including $25,000 for the anti-apartheid Free South Africa movement in the United States.

The Free South Africa campaign, which spearheaded the anti-apartheid movement in the United States--including for nearly a year daily protests at the South African Embassy in Washington--was one of nine U.S. groups to receive funds.

The two largest fund recipients were the African National Congress, the outlawed South African nationalist group headed by imprisoned Nelson Mandela, which received $77,000, and the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO), the guerrilla group fighting to free the territory of Namibia from South African control, which received $110,000.

Established in 1969, the Special Fund has been one of the World Council’s most controversial activities because its funds, although monitored to ensure that they are used only for humanitarian purposes, have gone to a number of guerrilla groups in Africa carrying on armed fighting with white minority or colonial regimes.

SWAPO, for example, has long been one of the largest grant recipients and a chief target of critics despite the fact that it is recognized by the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity as the legitimate voice of the Namibian people.

Besides the Free South Africa movement, groups receiving the anti-racism grants included two in Southern California:

--Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, Los Angeles, $5,000, for efforts to fight the “rise in anti-Asian sentiment and racial violence.”

--Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Los Angeles, $5,000, to develop resource material for use in workshops and seminars on racism and development of a South Africa resource center.