I am delighted that Sir Patrick Wright, former head of the Diplomatic Service, has confirmed that Margaret Thatcher did support apartheid. There has been a polite media airbrushing of this aspect of Tory history. For the first two years of my life in the FCO I spent every single day trying to undermine Thatcher’s support for apartheid. As I published last year of the FCO’s new official history:
Salmon acquits Thatcher of actually supporting apartheid. I would dispute this. I was only a Second Secretary but the South Africa (Political) desk was just me, and I knew exactly what was happening. My own view was that Thatcher was a strong believer in apartheid, but reluctantly accepted that in the face of international opposition, especially from the United States, it would have to be dismantled. Her hatred of Mandela and of the ANC was absolute. It is an undeniable statement that Thatcher hated the ANC and was highly sympathetic towards the apartheid regime.
By contrast the Tory FCO junior ministers at the time, including Malcolm Rifkind and Lynda Chalker, shared the absolute disgust at apartheid that is felt by any decent human being. The Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe was somewhere between these two positions, but very anxious indeed not to anger Thatcher. South Africa was an issue in which Thatcher took an extreme interest and was very, very committed. Not in a good way.
British diplomats were almost banned from speaking to any black people at all. Thatcher favoured the Bantustan or Homelands policy, so an exception was made for Gatsha Buthelezi, the Zulu chief who was regarded as anti-ANC and prepared to oppose sanctions and be satisfied with a separate Zulu “homeland” for his Inkatha movement and essentially accept apartheid exclusions. That may be unfair on him, but it was the policy of the UK government to steer in that direction. Our Consulate General in Johannesburg was permitted to talk to black trades unionists, and that was our main angle in to the black resistance movement. These contacts were made by the excellent Tony Gooch and Stuart Gregson, and before them the equally excellent Terry Curran, then my immediate boss in London. Neither Terry nor Tony were “fast-track” public school diplomats. None of those talked to black South Africans at all.
I flew off the handle when I discovered, when dealing with the accounts of the Embassy in Pretoria/Capetown (a migratory capital), that the British Ambassador, Patrick Moberly, had entertained very few black people indeed in the Residence and the vast majority of Embassy social functions were whites only. In 1985 most of the black people who got in to the British Ambassador’s residence in South Africa were the servants. I recall distinctly the astonishment in the FCO that the quiet and mild-mannered young man at the side desk had suddenly lost his rag and got excited about something that seemed to them axiomatic. Black people as guests in the Residence in Pretoria? No, Craig, I was told, we speak with black people in Johannesburg. Different culture there.
Wright’s account collaborates mine both in general and in detail, eg on being banned from any contact with the ANC. Eventually we managed, as a tentative first step and unknown to No.10, to arrange a meeting, ostensibly by accident in the margins of a conference, between myself and a brilliant young man from the newly launched trades union federation named Cyril Ramaphosa. I wonder what happened to him? 🙂 I was the recipient of his justified ire at Tory government policy.
Tories who actively supported apartheid are still very influential in the Tory party, notably the St Andrews Federation of Conservative Students originating group, including Michael Forsyth. Even David Cameron’s contacts with South Africa in this period are a very murky part of his cv. It is important the Tories are not allowed off the hook on this. The moral taint should rightly be with them for generations.
Only what you’d expect from Thatcher. I’m a bit more concerned about what the Tories are currently doing to Scotland. The situation’s worryingly starting to resemble Madrid’s autocratic approach to Catalonia.
Sure, Scotland’s being singled out for worse treatment by the Tories than other post-industrial and disadvantaged regions of Britain.
It’s up to these British regions of England to do something about it then. Nothing delegitimizes Scotland’s quest to restore independence.
English regions of Britain?
They’ll vote for a new, pro-human government for the country, not declare independence from it.
You can’t be pro-independence and pro-human? Ghandi seemed to have thought it was possible.
But then Ghandi was a bit of a dick. TBF nothing I have heard quoted from Thatcher comes close to the racism of Ghandi.
Britain isn’t a country
The Kingdom of Scotland is supposed to be an equal partner in a union with the Kingdom of England. You describe it on a par with sub-national units; a region indeed! No wonder we get hacked off.
Apartheid underlies the Tories, i.e. Mrs May’s interpretation of the Brexit referendum. There is no evidence whatsoever that the British people are opposed to immigration per se. I believe they are opposed to immigrants being granted special priveledges that are not available to them. Jobs are advertised in Poland which are not advertised to the UK population. Is that a level playing field? Asians frequently do work on their properties without submitting their work to local Building Control inspection. Is that a level playing field?
What the Tories refuse to do is to address the realities on the ground. They see an opportunity to scrap centuries of Human Rights and Welfare legislation through the process of repealing the EU legislation in which it has been enshrined. The rights it has taken centuries of protest to obtain will no doubt appear word for word back in UK Law, but access to our hard-earned rights will have been circumscribed by new clauses which in effect negate the rights in practise.
The significance of the Tories having historically supported Apartheid is that the Tories want to create a colourless apartheid for their own populations, whereby our rights are brought down to the level of second-class citizens. Those in the managerial classes of UK society will retain the priveledges of free movement , free speech, and freedom of choice in employment, but the working classes will have those rights removed. Last week I was forced to signed a document which gave a recruitment agency sole right s to represent me to the company that was hiring me. In other words I had no right to represent myself. That is slavery and it’s coming to a place near you, like your son or your daughter , soon.
I’ve been reading this site almost since it started, that is the single best post I’ve ever read here. Cheers!
Thank you Wolsto much appreciated.
Yes, but Tory affinity for white supremacy has been airbrushed out of history. Instead, it’s the most anti-apartheid/anti-racist figures in the Labour party – people like Corbyn and Livingston – who are depicted as racists.
Hence why the media could affect surprise at the Tories allying with extreme loyalist bigots back in June. The reality is Theresa May and virtually all her MPs became Conservatives when the party regarded Nelson Mandela as a terrorist and apartheid South Africa as an ally. Allying with the DUP was as natural for them as it would be abhorrent to virtually every other mainstream political party in western Europe.
Plenty of the Tories’ counterparts in the US, people who went on to be leading lights in the far-right projects in the Republican party, were themselves supporters of apartheid. We know how closely Thatcher and Regan shared a view of the world.
https://www.thenation.com/article/meet-conservatives-who-campaigned-apartheid-south-africa/
I recall reading about a Conservative society student union leader who – at a Student Union meeting – praised apartheid, denounced Mandela and said this “terrorist” was in jail where he belonged, before being hauled off stage, dragged to the exit and thrown out. It was no secret that they (conservative students) thoroughly supported apartheid. Little wonder they support similar regimes today.
The National reporting that Theresa May’s Downing Street Burns Supper was really a cash for access exercise, with most of the non-politician guests – all the politicians were Tory – being big Tory donors.
Also the haggis was demoted to starter, instead of main course. And in defence of the event a Downing Street spokesperson said it was in celebration of “the UK poet Robert Burns”.
The Burns Supper from Tory hell.
I started at St Andrews in 1979 and for some reason (probably because my parents, whom I liked, voted Conservative and I had never questioned their beliefs) I joined the Conservative Society march through the streets one Friday evening during Freshers’ Week. At the end of the march they actually burned effigies of Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe! (They no doubt would have liked to burn the real thing.) The talks with Lord Carrington were going on at that point. So I have seen at first hand what the St Andrews Conservative Club is like.
Were Kate and Wills members? 🙂
Credit to them for spotting that Mugabe was an a***hole in 1979.
No, at that stage they would only have known he was trying to overthrow a racist, anti-democratic government. That enraged them so much that they burned him in effigy. 1979, so these people are all probably still among us. A sobering thought.
The britnat media stirring up a fake row about the SNP and flags to distract attention from their ongoing coup plans for Scotland. The number of civil servants at Mundell’s Scottish Office has risen exponentially. The media are compliantly not reporting the devolved powers grab. While Corbyn’s rancid crew say nothing except that Scotland must hard brexit and they won’t support any indyref2.
There is cross party agreement at Holyrood after yesterday’s debate that the Clause 11 power grab of the EU Withdrawl Bill is unacceptable. With even arch-unionist Tory Murdo Fraser declaring that Clause 11 is incompatible with the devolution settlement.
If the House of Lords doesn’t amend the bill in favour of devolution then the Scottish Government will bring forward a continuity bill to safeguard devolution. The Tory Government might end up taking it to the biased UK Supreme Court, knowing they’ll likely get the result they want there.
However it goes,the union between England and Scotland is falling apart more and more.
Vanessa Beeley, just returned from Syria posting on Off-Guardian. Well worth reading.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/01/23/post-your-comments-here/
The Scottish Government’s study on the effects on Scotland of brexit show the stark difference between the costs of hard brexit and the more cushioned single market membership brexit.
The report, the quality of which was praised by widely respected Labour veteran and former MSP Malcolm Chisholm, shows that hard brexit will cost the Scottish economy £12.7 billion per annum. Whereas a brexit that retained single market membership for Scotland – the arrangement non-EU Norway has – would reduce costs to £4 billion a year. Still hefty, but less than a third the cost to Scotland of hard brexit.
Corbyn though persistently trumpets the lie that being out the EU also means out the single market. Despite the glaring evidence to the contrary. Non-EU Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein all having single market status. He autocratically tells Scotland we’re brexiting and that there’ll will be no Labour support for a Section 30 Order to have a second independence referendum. And how hard would he fight to retain the Scotland and Wales devolution settlements? Not very much, if at all.
Single market = subsidy for private speculators. Is that what the Snats live for, a land fit for nabobs?
Being out the single market will cost tens of thousands of Scottish jobs. Is that what the Corbynites live for, ordinary people walked over in pursuit of ideological purity?
Being in it hasn’t done much for jobs. How many hundred thousand have gone since 1973?
PS I’m not a Liarbour supporter.
You’ve mixed it up with Westminster.
So membership has made no difference to employment; it follows that departure won’t either.
Corbyn has publicly blamed the Westminster government for underfunding in NHS Wales.
Funny how he never blames Westminster for underfunding NHS Scotland.
In the 1980’s I thought music had a very positive influence in achieving good political change, and this is an excellent example. Not so easy now, but at least some are trying, even if it means they can no longer get widely published.
“Mandela concert at Wembley 1988”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNpfJu1CVyc
Tony
You may care to read what Robin Renwick, former UK Ambassador to South Africa (and later to the United States) had to say about this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/11403728/Margaret-Thatchers-secret-campaign-to-end-apartheid.html
Mr Renwick is a monstrous old right winger with an extremely selective memory.
Cameron’s murky past. So Craig did that visit of his with others, including D. Kelly take place, and was the reason for them being there the one that’s been alluded too over the years?
Or, was it just bollox.
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So it is. I guess it’s a very common Afrikaner surname. Springbok teams always seem to have at least one player called Botha.
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Thank you for those comments – much appreciated.
Paul Edmundson,
Re the video I posted above of the Free Nelson Mandela concert in 1988 at Wembley Stadium, Margaret Thatcher was in power at the time, and I am almost certain, she could have prevented this event broadcast live across the World if she felt so inclined..but she didn’t..she allowed it to go ahead.
Maybe at the time, we actually lived in a Democracy, and the UK Government really did not approve of Apartheid.
So what is approved for a similar potential anti-Apartheid music event by The UK Government at such a prestigious location, this summer 2018 broadcast live across The World?
Will Theresa May approve? It’s a bit hard to do it from Palestine.
Tony
While we are on the subject of Lady Thatcher and apartheid, perhaps we could mention that she was not a lady. She was an intimate friend of the paedophile and necrophile Jimmy Savile of the BBC. That same BBC that uses its flagship Women’s Hour programme to make Apartheid against the male of the species.
Feminism does not mean freedom of women to exercise their private parts against the terms of contracts they maintain in law with other human beings which involve the safety and custody of children. In the Middle East , Egyptian women do not see feminism as a contravention of their commitments to Islam, nor in Syria, nor in Kurdistan.
I suspect that in the non-pluralistic Muslim societies like Saudi Arabia and Iran feminism may mean defiance against the rules imposed by clerics in contravention of the rights of women laid down by the religion of Islam.
certainly the husbands are in clear breach of the rights of women by becoming sexually involved with their foreign maids without marrying them. Their vast wealth compared with the poverty of the maids doesn’t create a master slave relationship in any shape or form. I f the men are breaking the rules , why no the women?
Women’s hour daily trots out the Western feminist tripe that males are “offenders” for becoming angry at their womenfolk exercising sexual freedom. It must be obvious that if you poke a human being in the highly emotional centre of his sexual being by exercising permissiveness, then as a human he or she is going to become angry. It isn’t at all obvious that you poke a human being in a weak spot and he/she will retain the equilibrium of a saint.
What women’s hour does is promote apartheid against men. They must honour the marriage contract, while women have a right to do as they please. Not all women are Tories. Not all women are western feminists. a little bit of equality would be welcome . Don’t provoke men. Don’t label them once deliberately provoked as offenders. otherwise your sexual politics will be likened to the worst excesses of Tory colonial exploitation.
Utter rot – I listen to Women’s Hour quite regularly and have never heard anything that you’re describing. Nice work, though, in somehow shoe-horning a discussion about Thatcher into a baseless rant about Radio-4’s Women’s Hour.
Glen , you must have a stronger stomach than me then. Wall to wall man hate. Why are all offenders by BBC definition men?
Surely you didn’t miss the WH #MeToo edition , which featured a number of men claiming their molester at work was in fact female?
Woman’s Hour is a typical libfem diversion, one hour of parochial chat instead of equal representation on COMbbc. Easy doss if you’re in, nothing for the other 30,000,000 women.
@ Womens’ Lib was promoted by the CIA as a deliberately destabilising ploy, and as a method of increasing tax revenue (women out to work means more lovely (illegal) Income Tax. It also helps destroy the family, one of their aims.
By the way, why does Islam require women to cover their hair, or wear face coverings (I don’t know how much of that is actually required in the Koran), but not men? If lustful thoughts are to be avoided in men by covering of hair or face, would not the same to true of lustful thoughts by women against unveiled men? Or is it OK for women to have lustful thoughts, but not men?
This is a genuine enquiry, not just a dig at Islam. I have found Muslims very decent people when I have travelled abroad amongst them in their many countries.
Never mind Giyane. Thankfully the witch is dead. Sadly her ‘children’ are occupying one half of the green benches and another half of the red ones.
— something to make you laugh. Stupid predictive text put BUTANE instead of your name. Who invented it? Yanks I suppose.
Sharp Ears
Thanks for trying to make me laugh. I was trying to make a connection between 1789 the French Revolution and 1979 the year of Thatcher’s accession. Both are years of unreversable national self-destruction.
Sorry if I come across grumpy. I remembered today my great Craft Bookbinding tutor at the London College of Printing Arthur Johnson telling me that all Gold Finishers were grumpy because they stood up too long and got varicose veins, which appears to be a quite benign malady according to doctors I have recently seen.
I am in fact enourmously happy, with a new generation causing huge delight in my family , combined with the pleasure taking pot shots at Thatcherism as it becomes a caricature of its own essential spleen. I have survived continual harassment by Islamist nutters who are kept and tamed by our delightful intelligence agencies in the UK. Allah promises to protect those who come into His religion of Islam from over their heads and from under their feet. I feel very much under His protection.
The right wing Tories who are lacking a symbolic unfeeling sculpture in their very own image, a focal point for their increasingly fascist ideas, have just been given another chance at getting a second statue of Margaret to join the one inside the HoC.
They have been encouraged to submit another design of the Apartheid champion par excellence.
@ nevermind January 24, 2018 at 13:57
How about this? https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Medusa+statues+around+the+world&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=xcnE2V_azCaT7M%253A%252CGurQM9aACckUkM%252C_&usg=__BfqVXuOnes4kmwLyYUpR1pct1y4%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjestmOwvHYAhUpL8AKHUWSB5IQ9QEILTAB#imgrc=1jmpiI7Kqt1apM:
Should be OK, with a few tweaks to prevent plagiarism charges, and charges of over-glamourising Saint Thatcher.
Lying rampant about lion rampant and Sturgeon.
So who is surprised that the TORY PRESS is trying to redecorate the TORY PAST. It is reading one of Niall Ferguson’s histories. Hagiography is alive and well and living in what remains of Fleet Street.
Bert.
The Tories have always been a champion of the working man too, didn’t you know? They’ve always loved the environment, society’s downtrodden, frown on unearned, inherited wealth, and have great disdain for the trappings of class and privilege.
@ glenn_nl January 24, 2018 at 14:14
And, of course, they like dogs, and some of their best friends are Black (like Obomba, Papa and Baby Doc, Mobutu, Colin Powell etc.).
The Spanish king makes a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos and says that what happened in Catalonia was “an attempt to undermine the basic rules of our democratic system”. His definition of democracy must be whatever autocrats and imperialists want.
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There is a different account of Moberly’s views. According to Wikipedia, he tried to bring an end to apartheid. ?? Thatcher went in 1990.
‘From 1981 to 1984 Moberly served as British Ambassador to Israel, before serving as British High Commissioner to South Africa between 1984 and 1987, during which time he was closely involved in British efforts to bring about an end to Apartheid’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Moberly
I see he was’ Ambassador to Israel. 1981-4. Did he support Zionism like the current batch in Tel Aviv? Hope not.
Wouldn’t he have been Ambassador rather than High Commissioner – SA was out of the Commonwealth from 1961 to 1994?
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I believe the 1980’s would have been when Israel was cooperating with SA in the development of nuclear weapons.
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____
Lysias
That is correct. And who helped Pakistan to become a nuclear power?
Here is a very good analysis of the Tories and why they are in the worst disarray for 250 years, utterly split and devoid of ideas on how to get out of their malaise.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/uk-conservatives-face-brexit-crisis-under-may-leadership-a-1189484.html
nevermind
Your link article describes Boris Johnson’s true motivation for wanting out of the EU: – childish vandalism. While sympathising to a certain extent with the causes of his vandalism, forced encarceration at a stupid public school, his bottom musty have either been over or under -spanked as a small child because he has never learned how to direct his tantrums against the sources of his dissatisfaction, preferring instead to pick on the target which is least responsible for his inner sense of injustice, viz abroad.
Would it not be a great benefit to the Tory party and this country if he targeted the UK establishment instead? Or is that his underlying aim, to wreck the party of which he is second in command? Go for it Ideefix, bite with all your might and never let go until the bastards lose power to Corbyn for fifty years. Good boy!
~~~~~Thatcher favoured the Bantustan or Homelands policy~~~~~
Why not? She turned everywhere outside the SE of England into a Bantustan.
O/T but I rather liked this tweet sent to Liam Fox who is in Davos. He will never live it down.
https://twitter.com/clivewarwick/status/956190438771306496
PS Where’s Werritty?
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Doing well, after well after well in Nrth Yorkshire and for people who pay taxes elsewhere, MIG, but are commanding half of the North Yorkshire police force to protect their outrageous fracking operation from peaceful local protesters, thats what you and Barclays bank are supporting.
Fracking Ryedale and the Bowland shale, some say far too old to get much out of it, an operation that will not reduce already greedy energy prices, but pollute watercourses with chemicals, causes earthquakes and releases methane and other gases into the surroundings of wells is well into the test drilling stage.
This at a time when alternative energy production can feed our needs and a world that is increasingly walking away from fossil fuels as they are endangering a runaway climate process.
The Conservatives are more divided than ever and their annual gathering made that clear. the only idea emitting from it a poor presentation of rolling out driver less cars, went down like a lead balloon, is that the level of ambition?
Brexit has got them by the vitals, they are unable to provide the ‘best deal for Britain’, meat to the right wing hyena’s that have and are self servers first and foremost, Some 206 MP’s and Lords have an interest in the privatisation of the health service, 86% of those are Conservative vultures, waiting for the fragmented corps of an austerity ridden NHS to fall to pieces, so they can pick off the easiest bits and feed on taxes thereafter.
How many disabled and mentally ill benefit recipients have taken their own life under Conservative cuts? Is it over a thousand?
I’ll let somebody else explain some more reasons as to why you are wrong for patting yourself on the back, the list is too long and I have to cook tea.
Please spare us your
nevermind
This Tory fracking business has much the same masochism as the closing of the mines, it hurts the economy and the people at one and the same time. If there were no slime-bags like Nick Clegg to yank them out of their own disasters, they’ll be gone to oblivion for 2 or 3 generations for their evil crimes.
@ giyane January 24, 2018 at 21:08
Sure, fracking poisons the water table, causes earthquakes and pollution left, right and centre, but heck, think what it will do for Nestle shareholders, when the only drinkable water comes from bottles?
Paul Barbara
I think what you’re describing is the Tory head gasket blown. You can try changing the head, but more likely will need a new engine, Corbyn.
@ giyane January 24, 2018 at 22:21
Yes, Corbyn’s our best bet.
I’d be interested to know why you imagine fracking is bad and coal mining is good – both are means of extracting energy resources from the ground.
Straw man, there’s no statute of limitations on crimes against humanity.
This cartoon takes some working out, especially one of the flags, but its pretty much spot on. Maybe Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett, or Mark Curtis, can explain the details. The only thing that some people may query (to some extent) – eg Justin Raimondo is one of the poodles
“I think, is why the memo and the underlying intelligence is so highly classified – the FBI/CIA factor in this operation is just a part of the whole. The involvement of “former” MI6 agent Christopher Steele argues in favor of British involvement. And of course it could be a mere coincidence that the head of the GCHQ – the British spy outfit – resigned shortly after the Steele story broke. And then again maybe not. And it’s not just the British, who have been conducting their own cold war against Russia since long before Russia-gate broke in this country. A number of other foreign intelligence agencies reportedly had a hand in all this, including the Ukrainians and the Estonians, whose virulent hatred of Russia and fear of Trump’s peaceful intentions toward Moscow were motivation enough.”
http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/The-AngloZionist-family-goes-for-a-stroll.jpg
Tony
Tony
Shades of the Turpin family in this cartoon.
giyane, its much deeper than that.
Good luck with your new job.
Bright Spark
Yes the Tory Party is the traditional party of race hate going back at least to Enoch Powell with, among other indications his “Rivers of Blood” speech. Since then this has continued through Thatcher to Theresa May’s “Go Home” poster-covered vans and undying support from all western countries for Israel’s apartheid. Can a leopard change its spots?
It seems to me, we are desperately few, in a world of lies and insanity, when hardly anyone cares enough to even speak the truth. However, it is completely brilliant to have two little boys under two living in our home. The youngest is so incredibly tiny. The midwife came around again today, to check Mum and Baby, and says they are both doing fine, so The NHS is still alive, not quite on its deathbed yet, whilst the Tory Government are trying to kill it, and turn it into The Abortion equivalent of what they have in the USA, run by Jeremy Hunt’s private companies and friends – to kill the poor first – for their profit, until we are all dead, and there is no one left to pay….
So there is some chance, that my wife and I might make February 1st in Frome, and if we do, we will stay for a couple of nights, cos we really like the band on the next night too.
https://cheeseandgrain.ticketsolve.com/shows?tags=music
“Frome Stop War presents ‘Syria, Lies & Videotape’ – Discover what the mainstream media never told you about the Syrian conflict with award winning journalist Eva Bartlett
Since 2007 Eva Bartlett has covered issues in the Middle East, mainly occupied Palestine and Gaza where she lived for three years, and more recently Syria which has been engaged in a 6 year battle for its existence under a foreign war of aggression.
Her early visits to Syria included interviewing residents of the Old City of Homs, which had just been secured from militants, and visiting historic Maaloula after the Aramaic village had been liberated of militants. In December 2015, Eva returned to old Homs to find life returning, small shops opened, some of the damaged historic churches holding worship anew, with citizens preparing to celebrate Christmas once again. She returned in the Summer of 2016, visiting Aleppo, Palmyra, Masyaf, Jableh, Tartous, Barzeh, Maaloula and Latakia. In October and November she returned to Aleppo gathering testimonies from Syrians liberated from the terrorist stranglehold of East Aleppo, which were in stark contrast to what we were told in our media.
This internationally recognised independent journalist will relate findings of her extensive travels in Syria and her discussions with Syrian citizens inside Syria with regard to this dreadful conflict.”
Nana & Grandad xx
Haha nice try to exonerate the USA role. Not even going down the road of the USA involvement in Mobutu (from Katanga days right up to Kabila) and Savimbi. It was also US expertise that enabled the SA security state to bring down Machel’s plane. Not will I mention the USA role in the inutterably tragic fate of Hani.
The USA and the UK were equal partners in grooming and perverting the exile tendency through the principal target Mbeki the Younger and as far as they could the internals through…umm, guess who… , yes, Ramaphosa (quondam gs NUM). The selfsame CR who betrayed his roots by turning into a classic Oligarch come ’94 and who is about to take up Mbeki’s cudgel (ignoring the Zuma interregnum).
To be fair to CR, he suffered by being not an antidemocratic exilist but a deeply democratic internal, so he was was always going to be struggling against the fate prescribed by the returning exilists. At the same time, there was much he could have done to redeem a bad situation in the 94-99 period.
Had he followed that path instead of the one he did, he could undoubtedly have been popular president no. 3 in 2009, following two terms of President Hani, who would have reversed the atrocious capitulation of the system to the US-WB dictates.
I’ve got that album. I think it’s called “50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong”. I listened to it and then there were 50,001.
‘…Many Still Active Tories…’, and, indeed, many still active Bliarites, do indeed still believe in and support Apartheid, in it’s present incarnation as the rogue, War Criminal Israeli regime.