This day. 45th anniversary of the Soweto uprising

Signal contribution of the courageous South African students | ISAAC SANEY

The famous Soweto uprising of youth and students which began on June 16, 1976, led to a renewed wave of resistance amongst black South Africans.

Originally published on June 16, 2016

On June 16th, 1976 in the African township of Soweto, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, apartheid South African police massacred 176 Black students, wounding more than 700. The Soweto uprising remains to this day the signal contribution of the infinitely courageous South African students’ movement for justice and social transformation everywhere.

Mandela: We admire the achievements of the Cuban Revolution

Speech by Nelson Mandela, Moncada Day Rally, Matanzas, Cuba, July 26, 1991

After 27 years of imprisonment by the racist/fascist apartheid system, Nelson Mandela chose Cuba as one of the first countries outside of Africa and the first Latin American country to visit. During that visit he delivered the following speech outlining Cuba’s decisive contribution to the South African liberation struggle.

Biography of Nelson Mandela, 1918–2013

Government of South Africa

Early Years 

A young Nelson Mandela during his days as a lawyer.

ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA was born in Mvezo, a village near Mthatha in the Transkei, on July 18, 1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Henry Mgadla Mandela. His father was the principal councillor to the Acting Paramount Chief of the Thembu royal house.

Rolihlahla literally means “pulling the branch of a tree.” After his father’s death in 1927, the young Rolihlahla became the ward of Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the Paramount Chief, to be groomed to assume high office.

Mandela: Madiba is gone – The struggle continues

Nelson Mandela addresses a jubilant mass rally of 100,000 people in Soweto, February 13, 1990, two days after his release from 27 years of political imprisonment by the racist apartheid regime of South Africa, his freedom the result of sustained political action and armed struggle in South Africa.

By ISAAC SANEY

Historic march by 20,000 women in Pretoria against the racist pass laws, August 9, 1956, today commemorated as Women’s Day in South Africa. The women chanted the phrase “wathinth’ abafazi, wathinth’ imbokodo” which translates as “you strike a woman, you strike a rock.”

TML (Dec. 7) – ON THURSDAY EVENING DECEMBER 5, Nelson Mandela died at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa. The life of the man known to the anti-apartheid movement as Madiba spanned almost the entire existence of the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC was founded under British colonial rule in January 1912 and it was within it that Madiba would play many leadership roles. The ANC provided the umbrella under which all those opposed to white minority rule, from revolutionary communists to trade union activists to dispossessed township youth, came together and worked out a program of struggle aimed at achieving black majority rule.

In Memoriam – Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela passes away

July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013

THE Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sends its deepest condolences to the family of Nelson Mandela, to the people of South Africa and to the African National Congress at the sad news of the death of Nelson Mandela. Mandela passed away on December 5 at his home in Johannesburg at the age of 95. South African President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela, “the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,“ adding that he “passed on peacefully.” Mandela played a legendary role in the anti-colonial struggle of his people and in ending the cruel apartheid regime. He became the first black president of South Africa. He remained true to his principles and, to the end of his days, he continued to stand with all those who helped South Africa win freedom. “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,” Zuma said. “Our thoughts are with the millions of people who embraced Mandela as their own and who saw his cause as their cause…. This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.” Mandela will be accorded a state funeral, Zuma said, and national flags will be lowered to half-mast.

The notion of the ‘Jewish state’ as an ‘apartheid regime’ is a liberal-Zionist one

The charge of apartheid serves as a diversion | GARY ZATZMAN

Poster of the Halifax Symposium on Palestine, March 15-16, 2003.

The cause of Palestine consists of the restoration of the national rights of the Palestinian people and enabling the Palestinians to exercise their right of self-determination in their own territory. Theirs is the territory illegally mandated to Great Britain by the League of Nations in 1920-21 and subsequently “partitioned” by the United Nations in 1947 to establish a so-called “Jewish state” enclave for the Zionist movement. Enabling the Palestinians to exercise their right of self-determination in their own territory means implementing the Palestinians’ right to return to their lands and to be restored in the property/properties that were taken from them in the course of acts of conquest by the Zionist movement, and in clear cut violation of international law, during 1947-48 and again in June 1967.