CLIMB ON BOARD THE MANDELA BANDWAGON: SANCTIMINOUS PIFFLE REQUIRED

You need a strong stomach these days if you are to hear all the hypocritical self serving guff being spouted by right wing politicians, ‘celebrities’ and the terminally sanctimonious. To listen to David Cameron outside 10 Downing Street lauding Mandela, “a hero for all ages,” you could be forgiven for forgetting that here was a man who had once visited South Africa, all expenses paid, as part of a lobbying firm that had been contracted to undermine sanctions.[1]

Mandela and I fighters for justice
Of course in undermining sanctions he was knocking at an open door, the Tories had always bent over backwards in decrying sanctions and providing moral support for the Apartheid regime.

I was there, a bit player its true, fifth protester from right on back row, but still I remember the hostility and venom of the right wing of the Tory party and newspapers like the Telegraph and writers such as Peregrine Worsthorne. For the young who are now being given the impression that everyone supported the struggle it may come as some surprise to find out that the Anti Apartheid movement faced bitter opponents, not only in South Africa but here in Britain. Here are some of the arguments we faced:-


  • South Africa is a tribal country, if the white man allows majority rule the country will be torn apart by civil war.
  • The blacks are not ready to rule they will destroy South Africa.
  • The ANC is a communist front. Mandela is a terrorist and communist fellow traveller. Majority rule will end in misrule and a communist one party state.
  • It’s none of our business. (Heard Norman Tebbit still spout this line as recently as yesterday).
  • White Europeans simply do not understand the finer nuances of Apartheid and the ‘homelands’ policy. These things seem unpleasant to us but are necessary to hold the fragile racial balance together.

I could go on. The important thing is to resist the current attempt to re-write history. As I say I was a very small player and I am not even especially proud of the little I did, common humanity demanded nothing less. I could have done more. But the Anti Apartheid movement was not full to bursting point; we were, to coin a phrase, not all in it together. It faced determined, powerful and well resourced opposition, not least from so many on the right now queuing up to demonstrate their lifelong affinity with the struggle, crocodile tears streaming down their cheeks

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