Unfinished Business

Nelson Mandela’s birthday is a day of celebration in South Africa. Ramasimong Phillip Tsokolibane, leader of LaRouche South Africa, released the following statement on this occasion. Mandela’s clan name, “Madiba”—mentioned at the end of this statement—is a widely used term of endearment.

“Our father, Nelson Mandela, had a rich and full life, accomplishing much, not only for our nation, but for all of mankind. His was an exceptional life, one full of struggle and hardship, but whose reward was the creation of this nation, not for black people, or for any race, but for all of us, whose common destiny he sought to define.

“But Mandela’s hope for our better future was not confined to his beloved country. His heart was universal, as was his concern for all of mankind. He realised, like the great American President Abraham Lincoln, that no man or woman can be free if any among us are enslaved. And, while nations could be declared free, neither that nation nor its people could be truly free and human if they are forced lived in poverty and the enforced backwardness of modern economic slavery. Our father sought to free not only our people from this ‘slavery without chains’, but all of Africa as well. But here he needed partners, and it was in this that he was betrayed, including by the governments of Europe and the United States, who honoured him as a great man, but who refused to launch the economic projects and provide the needed assistance to lift our people and Africa out of backwardness and poverty. This was not Mandela’s failure, but a failure of global leadership, especially of the United States, whose very birth came in the fight against the British imperial system that still enslaves most of the world through economic imperialism.

“Today, we must find inspiration from our father’s vision of a new and just economic order founded on human progress, and re-dedicate ourselves to its realisation. We should do this knowing that a dying, British-dominated system of imperialism, slavishly followed by a corrupted government of the United States, finds itself challenged by a new emerging system that places the progress sought by Mandela ahead of financial and monetary profits for a class of super-rich oligarchs. Mandela has finally, and at long last, found his allies in the nations of the BRICS alliance, in which South Africa plays a major role along with Brazil, India, and the great global powers, Russia and China. Their power lies not in force of arms but in the marshaling and deployment of credit on behalf of development, especially for nuclear power. As Pope Paul VI famously said, “the new name of peace is development.”

“So, on this anniversary our leader’s birth, let us honour his memory by dedicating ourselves to his mission. We must end, once and for all, the British imperial system of economic slavery, whose savage fury has recently been unleashed against the brave Greek people who dared to challenge its authority. This we will do with the help of our BRICS allies, steering this troubled world safely onto a new course of history.

“This is not a partisan issue, but a human one, that speaks of our love for mankind and its possibilities for the future on this planet and beyond. We aim high. Madiba would have it no other way.”

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