04) MANDELA'S LEGACY

 

People's Voice Editorial

 

            As this issue of PV goes to press, the towering leader of South Africa's liberation movement remains in critical condition in a Pretoria hospital. Nelson Mandela has faced many powerful adversaries during his 94 years, inspiring new generations to take up the cause of human freedom. To those who focus only on the poverty which still faces the majority of black South Africans 20 years after "Madiba" became the first post‑apartheid president, we reply that without his courage and wisdom, the fight for real change would have been even more difficult.

 

            Nelson Mandela was one of the true visionaries of the 20th century. Born into a society which denied any semblance of human equality to non‑whites, Mandela overcame enormous obstacles, becoming one of the first black lawyers in South Africa, and also a transformative leader of the African National Congress Youth League and then the ANC itself. With his colleagues and comrades, Mandela explored every strategy to overcome the apartheid system through non‑violent means, from mass mobilizations, to strikes, to legal cases. The ANC's brilliant use of a wide range of tactics helped to win the vast majority of the people for the transition to armed struggle. When that time arrived, Mandela was jailed for 27 years for his role in creating Umkhonto we Sizwe, "the spear of the nation." Even from a prison cell on isolated Robben Island, he played a critical role in the liberation movement, helping to unite a broad spectrum of democratic forces, from Communists to liberal reformers, against the white supremacist system. Mandela's unifying strategy steered South Africa through those dangerous years, avoiding the nightmare of a bloody internal war.

 

            Yes, the hopes of those who crafted South Africa's "Freedom Charter" remain far from completion. But Nelson Mandela and his legacy belong to all those who carry on the struggle for a world free from racism, war, violence and oppression.

 

 (The above article is from the July 1-31, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)