mandela
-
Mandela Eulogies: Reinventing His Disturbing Legacy By Stephen Lendman
They infest world governments. They run America. They inflict enormous harm. Mandela exceeded the worst of South African apartheid injustice. He deserves condemnation, not praise. White supremacy remains entrenched. Extreme poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, malnutrition, and lack of basic services for black South Africans are at shockingly high levels. They’re much worse than under apartheid. Continue reading
-
The African National Congress: The Rise and Tragic Fall of a Revolutionary Movement By Anthony Monteiro
Black “rule” in South Africa is illusory. “White supremacy without the obvious hand of white people is the form of social and political control, which replaces legal apartheid.” The revolution was derailed. “The road from the Freedom Charter, to the Morogoro Consultative Conference, to the 1994 elections, to the murder of 34 miners at Mirikana… Continue reading
-
Mandela and Cuba: another memory hole By Alex Doherty
Recognition of the role of Cuba in aiding the ANC whilst the western powers backed apartheid is hardly serviceable in maintaining the conventional Cold War narrative. Hence the media’s impressive avoidance of the context of the Castro-Obama handshake and its significance. Continue reading
-
Madiba – The Rebranding of a Freedom Fighter – Part 2 by Akwesi Shaddai
One noticeable absence from Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was the former President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. Arguably, had he not been murdered at the instigation of the West in 2011, it is likely that Gaddafi would have been honoured with an opportunity to commemorate his comrade. Indeed, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison in… Continue reading
-
Media Lens: The Media’s Hypocritical Oath – Mandela And Economic Apartheid By David Edwards
What does it mean when a notoriously profit-driven, warmongering, climate-killing media system mourns, with one impassioned voice, the death of a principled freedom fighter like Nelson Mandela? Continue reading
-
Chavez vs. Mandela: Why did the media scorn one and mourn the other? By Hassan Reyes
For those many who identify with a progressive or liberatory politics, 2013 will be remembered as a year where two recognized leaders of the Left passed away. Continue reading
-
CIA and Mandela: Can the Story Be Told Now? Agency's role in Mandela capture still mostly not news
Back in 1990, FAIR (Extra!, 3/90) noted that the media coverage of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison failed to mention there was strong evidence that the CIA had tipped off South African authorities to Mandela’s location in 1962, resulting in his arrest. So with coverage of Mandela’s death dominating the media now, can the story… Continue reading
-
Nelson Mandela: Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Blair – Tributes of Shameful Hypocrisy By Felicity Arbuthnot
Accusing politicians or former politicians of “breathtaking hypocrisy” is not just over used, it is inadequacy of spectacular proportions. Sadly, searches in various thesaurus’ fail in meaningful improvement. The death of Nelson Mandela, however, provides tributes resembling duplicity on a mind altering substance. Continue reading
-
NYT Takes Mandela's Death as a Chance to Mock His Fight to Free His Country By Jim Naureckas
Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote his paper’s obituary for Nelson Mandela (12/6/13). As you might have guessed, it glosses over the CIA’s role in helping the apartheid government catch Mandela (Extra!, 3-4/90): “Upon his capture he was charged with inciting a strike and leaving the country without a passport” is all… Continue reading
-
Shimon Peres on Mandela and Apartheid: Now & Then By Adam Horowitz
Now: The world lost a great leader who changed the course of history. On behalf of the citizens of Israel we mourn alongside the nations of the world and the people of South Africa, who lost an exceptional leader. Then: In November 1974, Shimon Peres came to Pretoria to meet secretly with South African leaders.… Continue reading
-
Nelson Mandela’s years in power: Was he pushed or did he jump? By Patrick Bond
The death of Nelson Mandela, at age 95 on December 5, 2013, brings genuine sadness. As his health deteriorated over the past six months, many asked the more durable question: how did he change South Africa? Given how unsatisfactory life is for so many in society, the follow-up question is, how much room was there… Continue reading
-
The Legacy of Nelson Mandela: A Dissenting Opinion By Jonathan Cook
Let me start by recognising Mandela’s huge achievement in helping to bring down South African apartheid, and make clear my enormous respect for the great personal sacrifices he made, including spending so many years caged up for his part in the struggle to liberate his people. These are things impossible to forget or ignore when… Continue reading
-
Terry Bell's 'Right to Fight' download
Now available for download (as pdfs – below) is this selection of 17 years of Inside Labour columns, illustrated by 19 Zapiro cartoons that summarise developments between the watershed years of 1996 (the SA Constitution) and 2012 (Marikana). [Brilliant cartoons by Zapiro. WB] Continue reading
-
Terry Bell’s ‘Right to Fight’ download
Now available for download (as pdfs – below) is this selection of 17 years of Inside Labour columns, illustrated by 19 Zapiro cartoons that summarise developments between the watershed years of 1996 (the SA Constitution) and 2012 (Marikana). [Brilliant cartoons by Zapiro. WB] Continue reading
-
Nelson Mandela’s Final Battle: Dying With Dignity By Danny Schechter
As thousands of South Africans hold prayer sessions outside “his” Pretoria hospital, and with the world media still on an escalating ‘death watch,’ inside, there’s been a clash among and between family members, government officials trying to control and spin health information, and, even, doctors who have been cited, wrongly, in court battles about his… Continue reading
-
Mandela's greatness may be secured, but not his legacy By John Pilger
When I reported from South Africa in the 1960s, the Nazi admirer Johannes Vorster occupied the prime minister’s residence in Cape Town. Thirty years later, as I waited at the gates, it was as if the guards had not changed. White Afrikaners checked my ID with the confidence of men in secure work. One carried… Continue reading
-
Obama in South Africa: Political and Media Disconnect By Michael Shaw
If anything, we need to understand these protest images in S. Africa more in terms of current and similar photos from Brazil and Turkey. The public, in other words, is more sensitive these days to when they’re being patronized. Continue reading
-
How the ANC's Faustian Pact Sold Out South Africa's Poorest By Ronnie Kasrils
A veteran of the South African freedom struggle and its Black-led government says the African National Congress’ soul “was eventually lost to corporate power: we were entrapped by the neoliberal economy – or, as some today cry out, we ‘sold our people down the river.’” Continue reading
The New Dark Age 