The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
AMANDLA, the Xhosa and Zulu word meaning power, was repeatedly responded to with “Ngawethu” – “the power is ours” – at The Liberation Movement’s (TLM) UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination event that commemorated South Africa’s Sharpeville massacre of peaceful protesters 65 years ago.
The upraised clenched fist that accompanied the defiant words symbolises solidarity and support which was a key symbol of the black South African liberation movement.
A dozen British-based South Africans joined many other community and trade union activists at the central London event on March 21 that had a decidedly internationalist outlook.
Among the speakers was Finland’s first black woman member of parliament, Bella Asha Maria Belaynesh Forsgren, a leading Green League politician, who could not attend in person but sent a moving video message.
The charter emerged from a profoundly democratic process where people across South Africa answered ‘What kind of country do we want?’ — but imperial backlash and neoliberal compromise deferred its deepest transformations, argues RONNIE KASRILS
RONNIE KASRILS pays tribute to Ruth First, a fearless fighter against South African apartheid, in the centenary month of her birth
The plan is to stigmatise and destabilise South Africa in preparation for breaking it up while creating a confused and highly racialised atmosphere around immigration in the US to aid in denying rights to non-white refugees, explains EMILE SCHEPERS



