NEW DELHI, India More than 500 Marxists, shouting slogans against the white minority government of South Africa, demonstrated outside the U.S. and British embassies Monday in rallies apparently based on misinformation.
They were protesting the hanging in Johannesburg last Friday of a black militant convicted for murdering a South African policeman.
Moloise, a supporter of the outlawed African National Congress fighting to overthrow the government of South Africa, was hanged despite worldwide appeals for clemency.
Joginder Sharma, secretary of the New Delhi unit of the Marxist Communist Party, claimed in a speech to the protesters that Bntain and the United States had not joined the appeals.
However, he was wrong. Both the United States and Britain, separately, and in conjunction with the U.N. Security Council and the
Common Market, issued several appeals to the South African government to grant clemency for Moloise.
“Moloise will not die by hanging. He is not the first martyr,” Sharma said in a speech outside the British Embassy. “We have come to express our anger. He was our leader.
Marxist lawmakers, students, professors and workers shouted, “Red Salute to Comrade Benjamin Moloise!” “Down with U.S. Imperialism” and “Death to the racist regime of South Africa!” as they marched to the embassies.
The demonstrators carried placards with portraits of Moloise and jailed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, convicted 20 years ago of plotting sabotage against the Johannesburg government.
More than 200 riot police formed a barricade outside the embassy buildings.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 25, 1985
