The Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation celebrated Nelson Mandela International Day on 18 July at a packed Civic Reception hosted by Glasgow City Council in the iconic Banqueting Hall in the beautiful City Chambers.
Thanks go to Glasgow City Council for hosting the event, to Vice Chair Janis Carson for her update on the progress of the statue, and to the Whistlebinkies for their wonderful musical interlude. Thanks also to everyone who came along and to all those who have supported the cause.
The event made over £500 for the Nelson Mandela Memorial statue and work. Please continue to support us. Donate to our campaign here.
Brian Filling, Chair of the Nelson Mandela Memorial Foundation welcomed guests and gave the following fascinating and passionate speech, recognising the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter and praising South Africa’s support for Palestine, in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice on the charge of genocide.
Nelson Mandela said that South Africa would not be free until the people of Palestine were free. He said and I quote, “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
By its support for the Palestinian people the South African government, despite all of its problems, is continuing that tradition.
“Good evening Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends
On behalf of ACTSA Scotland and the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation may I thank the Lord Provost for hosting this civic reception on Nelson Mandela International Day and Bailie Carroll for his welcome. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Scottish Government for their support for the event.
70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter
This year is the 70th anniversary of the South African Freedom Charter adopted by the Congress of the People on 26 June 1955 at Kliptown just outside of Johannesburg.
Following the end of the Defiance Campaign of 1952, of which Nelson Mandela had been Volunteer -in – Chief, ANC called a conference. From this an Action Council was set-up. Its composition was significant in that it served as the first truly non-racial forum for the planning of joint political work.
The National Action Council published a “Call”. The essence of the Call was crystalised in the phrase, ‘Let Us Speak of Freedom’, asking people everywhere to collaborate in setting the terms of what became the Freedom Charter. This provided the agenda for thousands of meetings up and down the country.
Joe Slovo, wrote, and I quote:
“Literally tens of thousands of scraps of paper came flooding in – a mixture of smooth writing-pad paper, torn pages from ink-blotched school exercise books, bits of cardboard, asymmetrical portions of brown and white paper and even the unprinted margins of bits of newspaper.”
All of these bits of paper were separated and collated and then divided into various categories of demands. From this the Freedom Charter was drafted.
It was a statement of core principles characterised by the opening demand “The People Shall Govern”. The Freedom Charter was presented to the delegates over the two-day Congress of the People.
The Freedom Charter opens with the words:
“We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people.”
The Freedom Charter then lays out the requirements for a free and democratic South Africa beginning with the chapter entitled “The people shall govern!”
On the second day of the Congress the proceedings were suddenly disrupted by the police armed with sten guns. An officer took the microphone and announced that they were investigating high treason and were searching for subversive documents.
The people responded by singing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and adopting the Freedom Charter. The police took the names of all those present before they were permitted to leave.
Mandela, as he was banned, had watched the gathering from beyond the crowd. He commented:
“I knew that this raid signalled a harsh new turn on the part of the government.”
He also wrote, “Though the Congress had been broken up, the charter itself became a great beacon for the liberation struggle.”
Mandela was correct on both counts. The following year the apartheid police arrested 156 people from all over the country and charged them with high treason. The key document in support of the charge was the Freedom Charter. The “Treason Trial” lasted four years when eventually the last group of accused were acquitted.
The trial was partly designed to remove the leaders of the liberation movement from active struggle. However, because it brought together the leaders from across the racial divide and from across the country it welded them together and served as the organising and unifying centre of the people.
It was an unintended consequence of the actions of the apartheid state.
The Freedom Charter captured the hopes and dreams of the people, and it became a great beacon for the liberation struggle throughout the ensuing decades until the end of apartheid on 27 April 1994.
The Constitution of a free South Africa is largely based on the Freedom Charter.
Land Question
The South African Parliament in 2024 passed a law, the Land Expropriation Act, in order to bring the land issue into line with the constitution. The ACT allows the government to expropriate unused and underused land.
In South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past, land distribution was grossly unequal on the basis of race. This is still the case, despite the ending of apartheid, with whites owning some 70% of the land while being a minority of 7% of the population.
As you will know US President Trump has signed many Presidential Executive Orders. One of these Executive Orders is entitled, “Addressing the Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa”,
It wrongly claims that the Land Expropriation Act enables the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.
This is a distorted interpretation of the Act.
This false narrative of a land grab and genocide against white farmers and the encouragement by the US to give whites refuge in the US was instigated by Elon Musk while he was in the Trump administration before falling out with the President.
It should be noted that Elon Musk has South African origins as do others who are still in the Trump administration.
Following the Executive Order, 59 Afrikaners were flown by charter plane funded by the US to take up residence in America.
This stands in stark contrast to the blanket ban on all refugee admissions, hostility to asylum claims and deportations currently being carried out by the US administration.
Palestine
As you will all be aware the South African government took Israel to the International Court of Justice charging it with genocide over its actions against the Palestinian people particularly in Gaza.
The United States under the Biden presidency characterised the charge as “meritless” and attacked South Africa for bringing the charge.
However, based on the evidence presented, the Court found the charge plausible. Since the findings of the ICJ, the United States has ramped up its criticisms of South Africa.
Trump’s Presidential Executive Order I referred to earlier goes on to say and I quote:
“South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel of genocide in the International Court of Justice…
The United States cannot support the government of South Africa and its undermining of United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests.
…It is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation:
(a) the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and
(b) the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”
Of course, the real genocide that is happening is that of Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza not that against white farmers in South Africa.
Trump and the US are not only in denial about that but are also complicit in the Israeli crimes….. as is Britain, it should be added.
It must be assumed that the actions of the US are intended to destabilise South Africa and stop its support for Palestine.
ANC’S non-racialism policy
When the National Party came to power in 1948 in South Africa they took the then racial discrimination under colonialism to a whole new level called Apartheid.
Israel was founded in the same year, 1948, and it undertook the first Nakba (meaning “Catastrophe”) which led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians. Israel was a firm supporter of Apartheid South Africa from its foundation until the end of apartheid. Israel is the new apartheid state.
Nelson Mandela said that South Africa would not be free until the people of Palestine were free. He said and I quote, “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
By its support for the Palestinian people the South African government, despite all of its problems, is continuing that tradition.
Opposition to racism was spelled out by Nelson Mandela in his statement from the dock at his trial before being jailed for 27 years.
A quote from his statement can be seen on the plaque in the foyer of the City Chambers. The plaque was unveiled by Denis Goldberg, one of the Rivonia trialists along with Mandela, on the 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandela being awarded the Freedom of the City of Glasgow on 4 August 1981.
The quote from Nelson Mandela reads,
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.