@!sinner69! 559414 wrote:
Rest In Peace , Tata.
You made my life take a turn in the late 80’s. And made me aware of solidarity and the fight for a better world. For that I am grateful and deeply thankful. I never stopped my fight. I am still struggling along in hope that the light will shine at the end of tunnel. As I feel we are in dark times now. I think of you and I know the tide will turn sooner or later.
Farewell, Nelson.
At least he outlived Thatcho, and also Plessey Telecommunications and ICL (who supplied a lot of kit to ZA which was also used for surveillance of dissenters in many Commonwealth / Empire countries). This was the first “high tech” civil war, although the Internet wasn’t yet well known, it was such things as getting access to telecommmunications, portable radio equipment (broadcast receivers, scanners and two way radios) and using music to capture the spirit of ZA freedom fighters that found its way to “youth market” radio stations right under the noses of those in power in the Global made a big impact on the way this conflict developed.
Mr Mandela was as much a hero as Ghandi and Churchill rolled into one – unlike Ghandi, “non violent” resistance was not an option – the rest of Europe was at peace and economically dependent on resources/labour produced by ZA.
TBH even Ghandi was really only making it clear to the British that if they did not give back India, many South Asians might decide to take the side of Hirohito and Hitler instead! But the ZA white minority régime had powerful supporters and as it had European roots, its presence divided Europe too. What annoyed many folk far more than his skin colour was a life long commitment to socialism and social democracy, although in reality no more radical than the life a European could hope to enjoy in the 1980s.
Recently a middle aged white South African of liberal views was interviewed for the community radio station (East Anglia’s long standing cultural links to both UK and NL mean many ZA refugees of all colours ended up here), and until I heard his interview I had forgotten myself how heavy things were as recently as the 1990s. I’d go so far as to say Nelson Mandela may have even saved Europe, as the goings on in his small country distracted the superpowers from those aspects of the Cold War closer to home (during which Europe could easily have gone up into radioactive ash at some points during the first part of youth for those of us who grew up in the 80s)
However winning a war is relatively easy, winning a peace is harder. Although even the Middle European Establishment had to begrudgingly accept Mr Mandela was a legitimate leader of a sovereign, independent nation, he was punished for this by a lot of capital flight, all the power in the diamond mines etc was clawed back to England and Holland and those in ZA today still have a fight on their hands. it was still a revolution achieved with less bloodshed than could have happened, and I am still amazed that any part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission worked at all!
