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Ruth Heloise First was an outstanding revolutionary, who through practical experience became focused on developing ideas to drive social action. Biographical tribute by her comrade and friend, Ronnie Kasrils, on the 38th year of her assassination.
My focus is on our struggles inside prison. These were struggles to improve the terrible conditions that were beyond any civilised standards. Even in the harshest conditions all the forces fighting the regimes, were united against a common enemy.
A member of the ANC's military wing, Denis Goldberg was sentenced with Mandela and spent 22 years in a whites-only prison - the only white member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to be arrested and sentenced for armed resistance to white-minority rule.
The ANC is in crisis as the “new dawn” stalls. But are other parties ready to drive the democratic project? The DA has lapsed into continued internal conflict. The EFF is not interested in debate. That, too, is unconducive to democratic life.
Reader Comments: Young Voters, New Voters; Barack Obama Nelson Mandela Speech; Uranium Danger, Tar Sands Explosion in West Virginia; Julian Assange; Immigrant Hunger Strikes; Kavanaugh; Israel's Jewish 'Nation State' Law; Cuban Revolution; and more..
Mandela was not just "a brilliant political tactician and legal mind, but also an exquisite writer," says reviewer Goff. These letters give us a man of high ideals whose "fight for survival" in prison adds Goff, "would have broken many of us."
In what has been described as his most significant speech since leaving office, Obama used the Nelson Mandela annual lecture in front of a 15,000-strong crowd in Johannesburg to warn 'the politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment' are on the move 'at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago'
It is time for Ramaphosa to take decisive steps. He does not have sufficient time left. The early months in office set the tone. He has taken important decisions. But this administration needs to develop a strong vision and communicate it.
On the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, Lynn Collins, British Trade Union Congress regional secretary, explains how his legacy will live on in Liverpool for generations to come.
One of the reasons why we need to recall Luthuli's life in this time of shameful and shameless greed is that he consciously emphasised what he called the "gospel of service". Even if the ANC chooses to neglect the memory and legacies of Luthuli we, the citizens of South Africa need to draw on these. Luthuli was the first non-racial leader in South Africa, the first African to have a following amongst whites.
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