would create “chaos” in the welfarenstate is no more compelling than thenstatement of the scholar who, thoughncorrect, had lost an argument with anRoman emperor: “I am not ashamednto be confuted by the master of fiftynlegions.” When a conservative SupremenCourt held that a nationalnincome tax was unconstitutional, thenAmerican people in 1913 ratified thenSixteenth Amendment. Why shouldnthey be denied a similar chance tonconstitutionalize —or reject — thenshaky underpinnings of the welfarenstate?nCuriously, Bork — the obedientnagent of Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacren— does not discuss two outrageousnpieces of judicial activism, Myers v.nUnited States (1926) and Curtiss-nWright (1936), which, although neitherncan be squared with “originalnmeaning,” are today used by RepublicannPresidents to justify the extensionnof arbitrary presidential power overnfederal agencies and foreign policy.nOne gathers that these “transgressionsnof the past,” too, would be forgiven;ninsistence on “original meaning”nmight constrain a Haldeman, annErlichman, or an Ollie North.nThe examples Bork gives of hisnmethod, then; suggest that he wouldnhave been inconsistent in applying it.nEven so, his approach is an immensenimprovement on the even less principlednpractices he criticizes. If we evernreach the point at which the excessivenflexibility of Bork’s originalism is thenmajor problem with the judiciary, wenwill have ample reason to be gratefuln— and we will have Bork the critic ofnjudicial activism largely to thank.nMichael hind writes from Washington.nBOOKS ON CASSETTESn^ The Conservative Classicsn5** Unabridged Recordingsn^ Purchase & 30 Day Rentalsn^ Books by Buckley, Gilder,nSowell, Muggeridge, PaulnJohnson, Friedman, Hayek.nTocqueville, Kirk, Mises,nPodhoretz & scores of others.nCLASSICS ON TAPEnP.O. Box 969, Ashland, OR 97520nt^ For Free Catalog, CallnPduljctosonnCteisraanilyn1 (800) 729-2665n34/CHRONICLESnNot Simply Blacknand Whitenby Allan C. BwwnfeldnPrisoners of a Dream:nThe SouthnAfrican Miragenby Leo RaditsanAnnapolis: Prince GeorgenStreet Press;n^ 467 pp., $25.95nWhen the South African governmentnwas committed to perpetuatingnapartheid into the future, therenwere few in the West calling for economicnsanctions. Only as South Africanhas embarked upon reform — an end tonthe pass laws; an end to bans on blacknworkers joining labor unions; integrationnof sports, hotels, restaurants — hasnsuch a campaign been mounted. Indeed,nthe Johannesburg Sunday Times,na sharp critic of apartheid, asked in an1985 editorial: “How has it happenednthat, at a time when serious reform isnfinally being introduced in South Africa,nthe country is facing a rising crescendonof overseas criticism, and economicnsanctions have been introducednby America? . . . Perhaps it is becausenreform is seen by the well-organizednanti-apartheid lobby round the world asna threat to its existence? Perhaps thenwhole campaign is [sic] more to donwith America’s internal politicalnmaneuvering.-. . . Whatever the reasons,nit remains a fact that reformistnSouth Africa is facing a barrage ofncriticism and activist opposition asngreat, if not greater, than at any timenduring Nationalism’s three-decadenmarch through the age of apartheid.”nA larger reason for the anti-SouthnAfrica campaign at the present time, sonProfessor Leo Raditsa argues in thisnthoughtful and comprehensive book, isnthat the African National Congressn(ANC) and its militant allies fear thatndemocratic reform will succeed inntransforming South,Africa into a genuinelynequitable society before they haventhe chance to impose a totalitarian,nMarxist-Leninist regime upon thencountry along the lines of Ethiopia,nMozambique, and Angola.nWhat first attracted Leo Raditsa, anmember of the faculty of St. John’snCollege in Annapolis, Maryland, tonnnthe subject were five days of hearingsnin March 1982 conducted by the Subcommitteenon Security and Terrorismnof the Senate Judiciary Committee,nchaired by Senator Jeremiah Dentonn(R-AL) and devoted to the question ofn”The Role of the Soviet Union, Cuba,nand East Germany in Fomenting Terrorismnin Southern Africa.” Nine witnessesnappeared, all black Africans,nmost of them former members of thenANC or the South West Africa PeoplesnOrganization (SWPO); their testimonynand the accompanying documentsnmake it clear that, in Dr. Raditsa’snwords, “The ANC, SWAPO, thenSouth African Communist Partyn[SACP] and the other terrorist organizations,nand the Soviet and EasternnEuropean agents active in southernnAfrica, dread most of all rebellions andndefiant but politically innocent blacksncaught in their organizations who wantnchange and transformation but not thendestruction of the South African government.nThey show that these terroristnorganizations will do anything tonbreak these blacks who love their countrynand their parents.”nAll available evidence, Raditsanpoints out, shows that the ANC isnclearly a Marxist-Leninist group that isnfinanced, supplied, and trained by thenSoviet Union and its satellite states.nThe ANC is in close alliance with thenSACP, which is largely white. In annarticle entitled “The Two Pillars ofnOur Struggle: Reflections on the RelationshipnBetween the ANC and thenSACP,” Sol Dubla, writing in ThenAfrican Communist, notes that, “Todaynthe ANC and the SACP arenembraced in the common front ofnliberation.” Dr. Yussuf Dadoo servednas both chairman of the SACP andnchairman of the ANC National ExecutivenCommittee.nAnd the same is true of SWPO.nMoscow hopes to achieve the communizationnof Namibia, Raditsa argues,nthough this terrorist group whose leader,nSam Nujoma, has expressed, contemptnfor free elections, declaring thatnSWPO seeks only to come to power.nHe openly declares: “SWP0 willnestablish political connections with allnthe countries who wish to do so, butnabove all with friendly countries, suchnas the Soviet Union and the GermannDemocratic Republic.” And undernSWPO, he has pledged, free enter-n
January 1975July 26, 2022By The Archive
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