ALEXANDER DEFENSE ANSWERS SOUTH AFRICAN SLANDERERS
The Cape Town witchehunt trial against one of South Africats foremost colored intellectual figures, Dr. Neville Alexander, and ten other defendants, is slowly grinding on, the verdict being expected before the end of March,
_ A new element in the case is the South African government's indications of concern over the widening defense movement in West Gormany where Dr, Alexander is known as a brilliant student at Tlibingen University from 1958 to 1961. Students, intellectuals and trade union-= ists have been collecting money for the defense and publicizing the case on a wide scale,
One of the high points in this campaign was the mailing of an open letter to United Nations Secretary General U, Thant signed by more than 1,000 prominent West German figures, Some 35,000 Deutsch~ marks ($s, 750] were collected to help the defendants meet legal costs.
The South African authorities have responded with a venomous attack in West Germany as well as in South Africa,
This move bears witness to the effectiveness of the defenso came paign in behalf of Dr, Alexander in West Germany and to the impact this is having upon wide layers of the South African population,
Dr. Alexander at the moment is being held at the forced labor prison on Robbin Island near Cape Town although sentence has not yet been pronounced, He was placed there to increase difficulties for the defense since his lawyer has to make time-consuming trips there between court sessions,
Despite the difficulties of his situation, Dr. Alexander has. not let the new move against his case pass by without responding, He has lodged a slander suit for 30,000 Rands [about $42,800] against Afrika Post, a South African monthly, which proclaims that it is dedicated to Fostering better relations between South Africa and Germany,
According to the February 12 Cape Times, Dr. Alexander's attorneys, Ress, Richmann & Go,., said that the claim for damages had been brought because of an article in the February issue of the magazine alleging that Dr, Alexander engaged in or advocated terrorist activi-~ ties when he was a student at Ttibingen,
Through such allegations, the stooges of the Verwoerd government hope to weaken tho defense movement in West Germany by frightening away liberal and religious student organizations which, while ready to fight against racial discrimination and segregation, might not want to help a defondant charged with "terrorist activities,'
The Gorman=African Student Association, an organization of German and South African students in South Africa which is under tho influence of the pro-Nazi Broederbond, the secret group behind the Verwoerd
_government, sent a lettor to the Verband Deutscher Studentenschaften Poonfederation of German Student Organizations], to which all West German. student associations belong, protesting ‘tthe campaign in favor . of Dr, Aloxander,
The letter said that it wanted to "inform!" the West German
students that Dr, Alexander is a dangerous "Communist" and "terrorist," who faces the death penalty not because of opposition to segregation but because of “conspiracy to overthrow the government by forces “sabotage; guerrilla warfare; conspiracy to commit murder3. con~ spiracy to commit robbery" and other heinous. crimes,
An extreme right-wing nationalist Wost German student associa= tion's paper called Deutschor Studenten Anzoiger has even put out a special. issue to “denounce™ the agi ators™ who have "organized the campaign in favor of Dr, Alexander." a
“The Cape Town correspondent of that papery one Dr. Peter Kleist was granted a long interview with Vorstor, the South African minister of justice, who showed him important "proofs" of Dr, Alexander's “oriminal activities." ..
“According to Vorster “- whose opinion the right-wing paper swallows hook, line and Sinker, of course -- Dr, Alexander is "potentially a mass * murderer ," Here is Vorster's "proof" for the assertion: Communism signifies preaching class struggle. Class struggle signifies the "physical destruction of whole layers of human beings," Since in Vorster's view, Dr. Alcxander is a "Communist," he is ipso facto a "potential mass murderer" }
This quotation from the Deutscher Studenten Anzeiger indicates what kind of thinking guides the administration of fastico today in South Africa.
In caso it seems unbelievable that South Africats ministor of justice could have really made such declarations, his background should be borne in mind, In 1942 he was interned by the British authorities as a proxNazi., As leader of the extreme right-wing organization Ossewa Brandwag, Vorster nevor hid his sympathy for Hite ler. He even attacked Verwoerd!s nationalist party for many yoars for taking "too mild" an attitude toward the "Kaffirs." Only such a fascist-minded obscurantist could identify the class struggle ~- a historical phenomenon described by conservative French and British historians many decades before Karl Marx -~ with "mass murder,"
. In fact, the real nature of South African justice is apparent in the :case brought against Dr, Neville Alexander, He is on trial for his life not because of the actual commission of any of the crimes he is charged with, He is actually being tried for allegedly distributing pamphicts and newspapers, and for organizing mcctings of -- a - students! scholarship and loan fund! That and the possession of such "monstrous" books as Karl Marx's Capital.
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- The scurrilous campaign waged by the partisans of South Africa's apartheid system against defense efforts for Dr, Alexander in West Germany have not met with the success its instigators hoped for, ‘Tho West German student groups have remained faithful to their humanitarian vision and have reaffirmed their solidarity with Dr, Neville Alexander,
The Ttibingen General Students Committee (representing all students at the university) started proceedings against the Deutscher Studenten . Anzoigor for slander, On top of the friendly interview with Vorster, e right-wing paper accused the students of collecting money for the Dr, Alcxander case under false pretenses!
At Marburg University, the student paper Sine Sine printed a slashing and most convincing answer to the Vorster interview, demonstrating from the very facts admitted by Vorster, that Dr. Alcxander is innocent of any crime under all the normal democratic practices of any civilized country.
The Horrenvolk "counterattack" in West Germany thus proved to bo something of a boomerang. The result of their activity was that still wider circles of students rallied to the defense of the South African colored and black fighters for frecdom against the barbaric system of race segregation and oppression in which their people are held under the fascist-like rulers of: their unfortunate country.