Nelson Mandela

Leila Khaled and Nelson Mandela 2006

Palestine liberation fighter Leila Khaled has described Israel’s occupation of Palestine as the “peak of terrorism”. This is why Zionist organisations want to stop her from speaking, writes Peter Boyle.

Kurds and their allies are demanding the release of Abdullah Ocalan — “the Nelson Mandela of Kurdistan” — who has been imprisoned by Turkey since 1999, reports Peter Boyle.

Veteran South Africa anti-Apartheid activist Sidney Luckett spoke to Green Left's Peter Boyle about the important link between South Africa's iconic freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.

'Mandela led fight against apartheid, but not against extreme inequality.' Patrick Bond spoke to Real News Network on December 5. Read the full transcript.

Nearly 50 years ago, in 1964, Nelson Mandela ― along with many other comrades in the struggle for the liberation of South Africa from racist white domination under apartheid ― was sentenced to life in prison. His statement to the court, made when he was facing the real threat of execution, remains a historic demonstration of defiance and resistance.

The death of Nelson Mandela on December 5 has focused attention once more on the global struggle against South Africa's aparthied regime. The heroic struggle of the Black population inside South Afica and the solidarity shown by ordinary people around the world was essential to winning Mandela's freedom and dismantling apartheid.

When I reported from South Africa in the 1960s, the Nazi admirer Johannes Vorster occupied the prime minister's residence in Cape Town. Thirty years later, as I waited at the gates, it was as if the guards had not changed. White Afrikaners checked my ID with the confidence of men in secure work. One carried a copy of Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela's autobiography. “It's very eenspirational,” he said.

On June 27, as Nelson Mandela was reported to be lying in hospital on life support, London-based activist and hip-hop producer Carlos Martinez released the track "Madiba’s Message".