Support the MPLA

THE FORD administration disclosed last week that it has promised up to $50 million to FNLA and UNITA, the "anti-communist" coalition in Angola. The announcement only made official what's been going on for over a year: the United States is interfering once again in a Third World country's struggle for self-determination, ignoring the lessons of Vietnam. In support of this aid, Kissinger and the State Department have waged a propaganda campaign in the press and in the U.N., justifying Western involvement in Angola as a necessary balance to Soviet aid to the MPLA.

Despite Soviet aid, the MPLA does not possess over-whelming military superiority in Angola. The U.S. and other Western powers have been arming FNLA/UNITA through Zaire and the CIA for more than a year, giving them all the latest military equipment including Mirage jets capable of bombing the MPLA capital from the Zaire border.

And contrary to the State Department's allegations, the MPLA is by no means a tool of Soviet diplomacy. Unlike FNLA and UNITA--both tribally based organizations--the MPLA's real concerns are for socialist development in Angola. The MPLA has already built broadly based popular institutions in the areas under its control, bringing in its wake education, health care, and participatory democracy.

Angola possesses some of the richest natural resources in black Africa, including oil, diamonds and coffee. And western imperialism means the continued exploitation of these resources by multinational corporations like Gulf Oil, which currently controls Angola's oil deposits. Soviet "imperialism," on the other hand, is largely concerned with strategic opposition to American power in the south Atlantic. While it is regrettable that the MPLA--the only Angolan party dedicated to protecting its country from foreign exploitation and economic domination--must depend on Soviet aid to survive and perhaps allow the Soviets to construct a military base in Angola, the massive effort of western imperialism to destroy the MPLA leaves it no choice.

For years, western unity against communism in Africa has been the rallying cry of racist South Africa. South African forces fighting alongside FNLA/UNITA have penetrated 200 miles into Angolan territory. And these forces aim to protect South African investments in Angola, and to eliminate black Namibian revolutionaries operating from Angolan bases. But more importantly, South Africa seeks to prevent the formation of a ring of hostile black states on her borders. Western support for FNLA/UNITA thus contributes directly to the preservation of apartheid in South Africa, a system from which many American firms profit.

The alleged threat of Soviet domination in Angola fails to justify the escalation of American aid to FNLA/UNITA. Furthermore, American involvement in Angola shows a disturbing disregard for the dangers of maintaining unpopular, counterrevolutionary regimes in Third World countries, dangers clearly illustrated in South Vietnam. FNLA/UNITA are little better than tribal factions, willing to surrender their country's wealth to foreign powers in order to further their limited interests. The MPLA, with its avowed goals of socialist development and democracy, represents the brightest hope for the Angolan people, and deserves the support of all who wish to see a free and independent Africa.