Posts under ‘Africa’

Mandela the revolutionary

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

“Mandela may or may not be forgotten, but he will certainly be distorted, starting now.” As I write, the obituary portraits are being updated and given the requisite spin. For official politics it will be Saint Mandela, the liberal hero. For the hard right it will be Mandela the terrorist, the man who waged a […]

Exploitation, solidarity – and a tale of two films

by Conrad Landin.

Seeing two films dealing with exploitation in the developing world made me think of the trajectory of British documentary maker Nick Broomfield. His first film –Who Cares? – focused on the slum clearances. We never see Broomfield’s face in the feature – back then he used cinéma vérité – interspersing the comments and narratives of […]

Will we adapt to a multipolar world, or face endless war?

by Jenny Clegg.

Ten years ago this week, 100,000 American troops were assembled in Kuwait as the US and UK were poised to strike, the neocons driving them on to “seize the unipolar moment”; the UN Security Council was split; and at London’s biggest demonstration ever, the crowds had heard Tony Benn’s call: “Another world is possible”. Ten […]

ANC, Sinn Fein: when radicals move right

by David Osler.

There was a time when the African National Congress and Sinn Féin were bruited as progressive or even revolutionary forces by the bulk of the left, and equally vehemently repudiated as repugnant men of violence by most of the right. Thirty years ago, our side used to stage sit-down protests outside South Africa House and […]

South Africa: from Sharpeville to Marikana

by David Osler.

MORE than 50 years after the event, the very name Sharpeville still remains inextricably associated with the mass murder perpetrated in that Transvaal township on March 21 1960. The official inquiry into the massacre – in which 69 died and 180 were injured – laid the blame on rookie constables opening fire on an unarmed […]

Royal Wedding Special No 2: Tyrants on the guest list

by Jon Lansman.

The royal wedding is not a state occasion, or so it was claimed to justify the non-inclusion of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Perhaps that is just as well, since Westminster Abbey would have contained many more tyrants if it was. Neverthess the guest list still contains seven “royal” tyrants who are expected to attend […]

Côte d’Ivoire: another UN success

by Mark Seddon.

If anyone imagined that the act of intervention by itself is always enough for the United Nations to emerge unscathed, one only need to look at the chequered history of the various UN attempts to hold the line in post colonial Congo-Kinshasa, better known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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