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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 13. 1964.
"Principles the Issue in S.A. Boycott"
"Principles the Issue in S.A. Boycott"
It doesn't matter a damn to South Africa whether we buy her goods or not. That's why we in New Zealand can forget the problem of who gets hit most by a boycott and take a hard look at the principles involved.
It is a matter of principle. South Africa is the only country in the world which promotes racism as a conscious policy. To ignore this and continue dealing with South Africa as if it was just like any other country is, implicitly, to condone the system and the suffering which it causes. To go further than this, to profit from exploitation and oppression—and this is what trading with South Africa rather than other countries involves—is grossly immoral. It is to become an accessory to the crime, as culpable as buying stolen goods knowing they were stolen, or living on the earnings of prostitution.
Because it is a matter of principle we cannot plead economic expediency as justification for maintaining our trade relations. On the contrary, the greater our profit, the deeper our guilt.
We cannot trade with South Africa without compromising our integrity. That is why we, both individually and as a nation, must boycott South African goods.