The killing on 21 March 1960 by South African police of 69 peaceful protesters, with 180 injured, in the ‘Sharpeville Massacre’ led to the United Nations setting that date as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
This year, as we commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, we see Israel resume its terrible genocide against Palestinian children, women and men in Gaza, and continue its brutal occupation and oppression on the West Bank. We remember Nelson Mandela’s words, “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestine.”
Palestine’s freedom is still incomplete, but we take strength from the resilience of the Palestinian people, even as we took strength from those suffering oppression, when we were supporting the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
Just as Sharpeville exposed to the world that state violence was the South African government’s only response to the peaceful decades-long campaign by the African National Congress for human rights and against racist apartheid, the world sees and is horrified by state violence by Israel against Palestinians campaigning for an end to occupation and a right of return to lands dispossessed during the Nakba.
It shows the importance of keeping alive the lessons from the past. We therefore make no apologies for showing again this short 3-minute video about the atrocity and major international changes it provoked, first shown on 21 March 2022.
Brian Filling, Chair of the NMSMF and Honorary Consul for South Africa in Scotland explained: “The video covers Scotland’s links to significant events in the anti-apartheid struggle and we are proud to show it again as we mark the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre this year.
“Our videos have moved many people to donate to help complete our campaign for a statue of Nelson Mandela in Nelson Mandela Place Glasgow, and its associated education programme. We thank them and hope that support continues because we are nearly there. Donate to our campaign here.
“Within 10 days of the massacre, the United Nations condemned the atrocity and called on South Africa to abandon its apartheid policy. It declared that apartheid violated the UN Charter, and in 1966 named 21 March as UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.”
Scotland’s anti-apartheid movement gave huge support to the freedom struggle over the years with practical help, boycotts, campaigning, a year-long picket of the South African Consulate, the renaming of the consulate’s address as Nelson Mandela Place, and the 30,000 strong Freedom March.
Glasgow was the first in the world in 1981 to award Mandela the Freedom of the City, with Aberdeen, Dundee, and Midlothian also granting freedoms when he was still a political prisoner. Glasgow’s action had a world-wide effect and kick-started 2,264 mayors from 56 different countries signing a declaration to the UN in 1981 demanding his release. Mandela famously visited Glasgow to receive the Freedoms of nine UK Local Authorities in 1993 and said they: “Made us realise that the world hadn’t forgotten us.”
Flagging up the need to remain alert to racism and today’s rising concerns, including the genocide in Gaza, Brian Filling added: “A permanent memorial to Nelson Mandela will not only remind Scots of their proud history of solidarity with the South African people, but it will also educate future generations to stand up against racism, apartheid and prejudice wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head.