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Mr. Schechter tells Paul Jay that under tremendous external pressure, the ANC gave up its plans to nationalize the mining sector
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Baltimore. And we’re continuing our series of interviews on Reality Asserts Itself with Danny Schechter, the author of the new book Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela.
I’m going to read a little section from the book.
“It was Mandela, too, who had crafted what was called the ‘M Plan’ (for Mandela), to prepare contingencies for the movement being forced underground. Ronnie Kasrils, who became a commander in the MK armed struggle, and later an intelligence minister, worked alongside Mandela when he was underground. He recalled: ‘He was a man of defiance. He led the masses in militant active struggle, and he led us in armed struggle. This is conveniently forgotten under the olive branch of Mandela the Saint. If one has to understand him in total, you’ve got to look back to the man who with his colleagues, with his contemporaries, created this ANC, led our people through chapters of struggle, and then at a crucial point when nonviolent struggle became an impossible way to change the system, putting his head together with others, including with young people and the rank and file, was saying, “We’ve got to find another way, and now we need to rise up with weapons.”‘”
Now joining us in the studio to discuss his book and Nelson Mandela is Danny Schechter. He’s a journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker. His films include Plunder: The Crime of Our Time. He’s currently working on a new documentary film called The Making and the Meaning of Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom. He’s written about fifteen books, including many about Mandela, and including the book I just quoted from, Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela.
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