South Africa: A Place Weeping

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Dandelion Salad

by New Frame
Johannesburg, South Africa
June 6, 2021

The social devastation of mass unemployment renders South Africa a non-viable society for millions. Something must give.

Unemployment in the United States peaked at 24.9% during the Great Depression. On the eve of Adolf Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, unemployment in Germany was at 24%. The protests that launched the Arab Spring in 2011 were ascribed, in part, to what the International Labour Organization called an “extremely high youth unemployment rate of 23.4%”.

John Pilger: Vietnam, Cambodia, South Africa and the Plight of the Working Class

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See video below

Dandelion Salad

with John Pilger

goingundergroundRT on Dec 4, 2017

In this episode, we speak to the legendary journalist John Pilger looking back at decades documenting human rights abuse, wars and corruption.

Chris Hedges: Hage Geingob, From Resistance Fighter to President of Namibia

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See video below

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Sept 24, 2017

President of the Republic of Namibia, Dr. Hage Geingob, discusses how his country, which achieved independence from neighboring apartheid South Africa in 1990, is now fighting for justice and economic emancipation from global banks, corporations and foreign governments seeking to extract the developing country’s natural resources.

Newly Discovered 1964 MLK Speech on Civil Rights, Segregation and Apartheid South Africa (must-read/listen)

Dandelion Salad

Updated: Jan. 18, 2016; added the full video speech

I highly recommend listening to the entire speech on the audio player below or reading the entire transcript. ~ DS

Image via Cocoabiscuit

Democracy Now! on Jan 19, 2015

On Dec. 7, 1964, days before he received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, King gave a major address in London on segregation, the fight for civil rights and his support for Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. The speech was recorded by Saul Bernstein, who was working as the European correspondent for Pacifica Radio. Bernstein’s recording was recently discovered by Brian DeShazor, director of the Pacifica Radio Archives. Today is the federal holiday that honors King.

The Radicalization of Martin Luther King + MLK: Where Do We Go From Here?

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Dandelion Salad

Repost from Jan. 20, 2013

The Radicalization of Martin Luther King

The Real News Network ·Jan 20, 2013

Anthony Monteiro: Obama’s presidency has nothing to do with the legacy of King, it’s actually the opposite.

Nelson Mandela: Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Blair: Tributes of Shameful Hypocrisy, Part 2 by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
December 18, 2013

Nelson Mandela’s life, included violence and controversy but he “walked the walk” paying the price of twenty seven years in jail for the racial equality he fought for South Africa. For all the country’s complexities, imperfections and astonishing betrayals(i) the concept of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission surely averted a cycle of vengeance which would have dwarfed the country’s continuing turbulence.

Apartheid Gone, But Social and Economic Inequality Still Exists by Joel S. Hirschhorn

by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
December 18, 2013

Earlier this year I had the great pleasure to visit South Africa. Compared to most Americans, the passing of Nelson Mandela brought tears to my eyes many times as I recalled being in many of the places being shown on countless news shows.

Nelson Mandela: Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Blair: Tributes of Shameful Hypocrisy by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
December 6, 2013

Accusing politicians or former politicians of “breathtaking hypocrisy” is not just over used, it is inadequacy of spectacular proportions. Sadly, searches in various thesaurus’ fail in meaningful improvement.

The death of Nelson Mandela, however, provides tributes resembling duplicity on a mind altering substance.

The Eternal Rebel: Ronnie Kasrils by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
June 24, 2013

Apartheid never died in South Africa. It inspired a world order upheld by force and illusion by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

By John Pilger
Global Research
http://johnpilger.com
September 20, 2012

Image by thatmelgirl via Flickr

The murder of 34 miners by the South African police, most of them shot in the back, puts paid to the illusion of post-apartheid democracy and illuminates the new worldwide apartheid of which South Africa is both an historic and contemporary model.

In 1894, long before the infamous Afrikaans word foretold “separate development” for the majority people of South Africa, an Englishman, Cecil John Rhodes, oversaw the Glen Grey Act in what was then the Cape Colony. This was designed to force blacks from agriculture into an army of cheap labour, principally for the mining of newly discovered gold and other precious minerals.

John Pilger: Apartheid Did Not Die (1998)

Dandelion Salad

With John Pilger

Image by United Nations Photo via Flickr

John Pilger

John Pilger was banned from South Africa for his reporting during the apartheid era. On his return thirty years later with Alan Lowery, he describes the extraordinary generosity of a liberated people, but asks who are the true beneficiaries of a democracy – the black majority or the white minority? Won the Gold Award in the category of ‘Film & Video Production: Political/International Issues’, Worldfest-Flagstaff, 1998; Certificate for Creative Excellence (third place), U.S. International Film & Video Festival, Elmhurst, Illinois, 1999.

Marikana, where the ANC’s chickens came home to roost by William Bowles

by William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
26 August 2012

Image by aminaelahi via Flickr

The African National Congress (ANC) won a resounding victory in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994 with a host of promises that it would improve the lives of the Black majority (85% of the population). And whilst there have been gains in some areas, overall, most Black South Africans are materially worse off now than they were under Apartheid.

Noam Chomsky: Apartheid Israel

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Dandelion Salad

TVSBSC on May 5, 2011

Noam Chomsky speaks at Clark University, Worcester, MA (USA). April 12, 2011.

Franklin Lamb Detained

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

http://radio786.co.za
Friday, 25 February 2011

Franklin Lamb, the guest at the Radio 786 Gala dinner scheduled for tomorrow has been detained in Lebanon. Lamb was arrested earlier this evening by General Security in Lebanon where he was supposed to board a flight for his trip to South Africa.

A Tribute to David Coetzee (1943-2010) By William Bowles

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By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
7 July, 2010

Many years ago, actually I think it was 1985, I was on a trip to London from New York and having discovered as it were a few years earlier, the online world of FidoNet, I was anxious to spread the word to the comrades. A year before I’d started New York Online (1983-92) that I ended up running on my first Macintosh computer and was busy networking independent journalism to the planet from my loft in Brooklyn.

In any case, I was in London trying to get the Morning Star newspaper online, or at least using email and I met with the then foreign editor of the Star, David Whitfield who was less than impressed with my vision but who nevertheless introduced me to David Coetzee, an exiled South African journalist who published a weekly digest on Southern African affairs called SouthScan – A Bulletin of Southern African Affairs. The meeting with David changed the entire trajectory of my life, in fact, I doubt I would be sitting here now writing this were it not for meeting up with David.