People often ask why it is so difficult for the left to come together. If we look at the way a small grouping of very sectarian leftists with an axe to grind against Communists have so shamefully used the death of Nelson Mandela to spread all these lies and slanders against Mandela, the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions we get a glimpse of where our problems with lack of unity come from.
The slander being used is that Mandela made some kind of "secret agreement" with those who imprisoned him that he would tolerate "privatization" and a continued "free market capitalist economy" while pushing a neo-liberal agenda which ignored the plight of all the impoverished people of South Africa.
Not one piece of paper nor one single person has been brought forward to verify any of this. Yet, these very dishonest and self-serving movement wreckers keep harping on this.
Were there those in the ANC, the South African Communist Party and COSATU who betrayed the movement? Of course; this is obvious and they left behind a long paper trail--- one of these is Thabo Mbeki, who became the President of South Africa after Mandela.
Mbeki and his little group who make no bones about being neo-liberals were responsible for disrupting the ANC, SACP and COSATU. They, for the most part, have left these organizations to start their own organizations--- and this is what they should have done in the first place; this would have been the honest thing for them to have done--- but, as we all know, there is no honesty among these kinds of very selfish hypocrites.
But, Mandela remained true; there is not a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise. The very worst that can be said about Mandela which has been acknowledged by one of his closet friends and comrades is that he was "too cautious."
Is "caution" the same as betrayal; it depends. Sometimes it can be but not in this situation that Mandela was brought into. He took a sober assessment of the situation in South Africa and the balance of forces in the rest of the world and I can only assume to know what was on his mind as he looked around him and saw socialist governments he was counting on for help falling, he saw a well trained and well armed opposition inside of his country and he steered a course that was one of caution while trying to bring the infighting within the ANC, SACP and COSATU to an end... too much for an elderly, experienced, revolutionary leader to be saddled with... so he proceeded with caution. Smart thing to have done in my opinion.
And, by the way, there has been nothing stopping all of Mandela's super-revolutionary, ultra-leftist critics from nationalizing the banks, mines, mills and factories in South Africa since most of them are foreign.
But, here in Minnesota, when we called for legislation to bring the closing St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant under public ownership to save 2,000 good-paying decent jobs--- wouldn't you know it, these super-revolutionary, ultra-leftist critics of Mandela sat on the silence hurling their exact same kind of anti-Communist lies and poisoned vendetta against myself and others, including the few Democrats who brought forward the legislation to save the plant--- why? Because public ownership at this time was "unrealistic."
Ironically, it is the Ford Motor Company's South African Division that these super-revolutionary ultra-leftists expected Mandela to nationalize!
These kinds of people sicken me as much as Obama, Bush and Clinton with their sanctimonious response to Mandela's death.
If one can state that Mandela made secret deals behind the backs of the South African people, they should be able to bring forward some kind of evidence. Anyone can fabricate these kinds of lies if you don't have to have any evidence to prove what you are saying.
We all know the African National Congress' "Freedom Charter" has not been implemented; not yet.
But, had it been implemented in full, based on the past experiences I have had with these people making up these lies about Mandela, they wouldn't have appreciated or liked the way nationalization of the mines, mills and factories would have been carried out since it would have involved a great deal of bloodshed. And these people would have cried great big crocodile tears just like they did for the Russian Czar and his family and all these great "freedom fighters" Castro has locked up in Cuba which they call "political prisoners"--- all 87 of them.
We need a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace & Prosperity.”
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We need a “*21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace & Prosperity*.”
The time has come to fulfill the dreams and promises that were intended to
be part ...
11 years ago
