Boycott Gulf! Angolan Oil and the Black Power Roots of American Anti-Apartheid Organizing. Issue 2 (25th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Parrott, R. Joseph
• Is Part Of: Modern American history. Volume 1:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 195
• Page End: 220
• Publication Date: 2018-05-25
• Subjects: Foreign Relations, -- African American, -- Liberalism and the Left, -- Social Movements and Protest, -- International Thought; United States -- History -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- History -- 20th century -- Periodicals; United States -- History -- 21st century -- Periodicals; 973.9005
• DOI: 10.1017/mah.2018.13
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2515-0456

Abstract

Abstract : In the early 1970s, the African American divestment and boycott campaign against Gulf Oil's operations in colonial Angola bridged the gap between Black Power and anti-apartheid, two movements generally viewed separately. The success of the Boston-based activist couple Randall and Brenda Robinson in educating and mobilizing African Americans against investment in colonialism—first with the Southern Africa Relief Fund (SARF) and later with the Pan-African Liberation Committee (PALC)—reveals how a leftist anti-imperial ideology linked the domestic concerns of black Americans with African revolutions. At the same time, the Gulf campaign's participatory tactics, moral appeals, and critique of the global economic system proved attractive beyond radical Black Power advocates, allowing the PALC to cultivate relationships with African American politicians and build alliances across racial divides. Randall Robinson later replicated this organizing model as the founding director of TransAfrica, which became the most prominent African American organization opposing apartheid in the 1980s.