Winnie Mandela Turns 80, Vows to lead Marikana Campaign

What critics of Winnie Mandela would find difficult to deny is the immense imprimatur she had forged on South African politics and Black political thought throughout the world. Her struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid continues to inspire activists around the world. For decades, she provided leadership to the anti-apartheid and the Free Nelson Mandela movement. But Winnie is a tour de force in her own rightShe endured prolonged incarceration, torture and isolation at the hands of the apartheid regime. Mandela fought back with the same strident militancy and military spirit that Harriet Tubman brought to the struggle against white supremacy and the Confederacy.

The aftermath of the independence struggle posed new challenges for Madikizela-Mandela, in addition to her divorce from Nelson Mandela.  She opposed the ANC compromises with the former apartheid regime and the disarming of the armed wing of the ANC Umkhonto we Sizwe(MK) in 1994.  She openly criticized the abandonment of the Freedom Charter, a document that enunciated a set of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies.  This document, that captured the energy and commitment of the South African liberation movement, can be summed up by its opening demand: “The People Shall Govern.” The Charter was officially adopted on June 26 1955 at a Congress of the People in Kliptown. She openly exposed the acquiescence of the new Black South African petty bourgeois with white corporate interests and that of European and American economic interests.

“She endured prolonged incarceration, torture and isolation at the hands of the apartheid regime.”

Madikizela-Mandela was marginalized and betrayed during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In fact, she was excoriated, demeaned and humiliated concerning her political activities during the liberation struggle while the white murderers of Steve Biko and thousands of Black freedom fighters were exonerated in the name of national reconciliation and the delusional myth of a rainbow nation. The left wing of the ANC, such as represented by Chris Hani, was thrown under the bus while political opportunists capitulated to neo-liberal economic interest.

The Rainbow nation campaign was created in public relations corporate offices in the US and Europe. The goal was to distract Black folks in South Africa and the black world in general from the obscene maneuver by whites to retain economic power while offering high visibility political positions to Blacks. Recent political movements such as #Rhodesmustfall, which began March 9, 2015 at the University of Cape Town, gave rise to the #FeesMustFall movement with demands for free tuition in South African Universities and, recently, the #BringBackBraids movement led by young South African school girls who are refusing to straighten their hair in order to attend school. All of these movements are providing leadership to dismantle fundamental cultural and economic bedrocks of white supremacy.  These movements are built upon previous struggles and certainly inspired, in part by the courage of leaders, such as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

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