[The following is a translation of "Racistas Blancos Intensifican su Acción Terrorista," which appears elsewhere in this issue.
[Since July 20, when this article was written, additional incidents of white racist violence against the Angolan people have been reported. According to an article in the July 30 Le Monde, at least 300 African civilians were killed or wounded during confrontations with white extremists in Luanda during the last two weeks of July.
[An August 10 Reuters dispatch in the New York Times reported two more persons killed and nineteen injured in a Luanda suburban clash. Troops moved in, allegedly to restore order, and arrested 143 persons, of whom only two were white.
[Another development since the article was written was the Portuguese government's August 10 announcement of a two-year plan for the independence of Angola. The plan calls for the formation of a provisional government once a cease-fire has been signed in Angola. This government would include whites along with members of all liberation movements and would preside over a series of parliamentary steps culminating in general elections at the end of two years.
[A London Times dispatch printed in the New York Times August 25 stated that the MPLA (Movimento Popular para a Libertação de Angola - People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola) and the UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola - National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) had reached an unofficial peace with the Portuguese army.
[The only independence group reported to have opposed the two-year plan and to have continued fighting is the Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (FNLA- National Front for the Liberation of Angola). According to the dispatch, the group has staged eight raids on coffee plantations in the Carmona region of Angola in recent weeks, along with two full-scale attacks on the Portuguese military. Portuguese army sources estimate that 5,000 members of the organization are still fighting.]
Angola is a country with a population of six million Blacks, half a million whites, and several hundred thousand mestizos.
There are three liberation movements fighting to win independence of Angola from Portugal, the main one being the MPLA.
Faced with the perspective that independence might be granted to this colony, white racists have intensified their activity against the Black population since April 25 and are doing everything possible to prevent an independence that will not maintain a white government.
For quite a while now the white Partido Cristão Democrático de Angola [PCDA- Christian Democratic party of Angola] has been utilizing tribalism to divide the Black population.
Portuguese Minister of Interterritorial Coordination Almeida Santos was in the Angolan capital May 26. He was met by a proindependence demonstration of 20,000 persons, the majority of whom were Black.
But there was also a counterdemonstration of whites, mainly businessmen and taxi drivers, who insulted the minister.
A few days later a white businessman killed a Black for having shouted, "Long live General Spinola!"
April 25 produced no change whatever among Angolan authorities, who, in a more or less underhanded way, defend the actions of the white racists.
On July 11 a white taxi driver was found dead near a Black neighborhood. This served as the pretext for unleashing terrorist actions against the Black population.
Groups of whites, mainly taxi drivers and businessmen, marched on the official radio station in search of Norberto Castro, and on the Studios of the North looking for Sebastián Coelho. These two radio announcers were accused by the whites of having incited the Blacks. At the Studios of the North the whites broke windows and abused the secretaries, but they could not find Coelho, who had fled in time.
Later they marched on Cazenga, the neighborhood where the taxi driver had been found dead. Armed with grenades, pistols, clubs, and other weapons, they began to attack all Blacks passing in vehicles. Then, when they were dispersed by police, they marched to another neighborhood- Cuca- to continue the same kind of action. White authorities ac- 1126
knowledged three deaths and thirty or forty wounded, all of them Black.
On the morning of July 13, friends and family of the dead went to the hospital to claim the bodies. Then they conducted a march of protest and mourning, carrying the bodies through the main streets of Luanda, until they were stopped by the police, who seized the bodies from them.
In view of the fact that the actions of white terrorists continued with the approval of the white police, on July 15 a column of 5,000 Black soldiers and officials was formed. They marched on the military headquarters to ask that they be permitted to protect the Black communities. General Franco Pinheiro was forced to accept this request. Meanwhile, Black civilians who had accompanied the soldiers and who were arrested en route, were being attacked by the police.
On the same day, there were many incidents in Black communities where the population responded to attacks by burning down the stores of white businessmen.
Also that day there was a general strike of Black workers, as a sign of mourning and protest. In spite of the strong police repression, the strike was a success. Strike pickets were prevented from being present at workplaces, so they stationed themselves on the outskirts of the Black neighborhoods.
During the afternoon the burial of five victims of white terrorism took place. The funeral march left from the Liga Nacional Africana [ African National League] and was accompanied by more than 20,000 persons, many whites among them. There were banners of the liberation movements in Angola and the other colonies, and singing of the MPLA anthem and religious songs in the Kimbundu dialect.
Earlier, family members and other Blacks at the Liga Nacional Africana had repudiated the attitude of the government council in compensating the families and paying for the funerals, saying that such an attitude was "an offense to the dignity of the Angolans" who want "protective measures and not alms."
The bank workers union is demanding that reactionary whites be expelled from Angola.
In Luanda there was a plenary meeting of students, teachers, and administrators from all secondary schools and universities, which agreed to call three days of academic mourning, with the occupation of all schools, to demand the immediate arrest, trial, and expulsion from the country of all who were implicated directly or indirectly in the crimes.
In addition, university students have agreed to demand the resignation of government bodies, banning the representative organizations of the university from entering relations with the Angolan government as long as the provisional government of Portugal and the Armed Forces Movement do not explicitly put into practice anticolonialist measures.
The repression has taken different forms:
It is reported that more than 100 Blacks have been assassinated.
Radio programming has been placed under government control and union assemblies have been suspended.
Governor General Silvino Silveiro Marques says, "We are now passing from a peaceful situation to one that I would characterize as urban or suburban guerrilla warfare." He says the police are being harassed and that those who question the impartiality of the assertion are also agitators and will be punished.
In Lisbon, Almeida Santos offers the opinion that these are 'insignificant racial conflicts."
Angolans say that the government is pledged to smash their protests and for that reason is giving a free hand to the racist and ultrarightist parties. They point out that the curfew acts to prevent Blacks from moving freely and facilitates their capture by white terrorists.
Concretely they denounce RUA [Resistência Unida de Angola- United Resistance of Angolal, which is made up of white commando groups organized to carry out terrorist acts, as initiator of the events. They indicate that this paramilitary organization has offered money to some Portuguese officials to stay in Angola after independence is granted. RUA has support in the press and radio, the armed forces, and the various police apparatus.
In addition, Angolans are of the opinion that the latest events have strengthened the unity of the Black population and heightened its desires for independence.