Mandela's Socialist Failure

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by Slavoj Zizek | New York Times | Click HERE to read article

It is all too simple to criticize Mandela for abandoning the socialist perspective after the end of apartheid: did he really have a choice?

(Edit by Graham: Guardian headline is better: ** If Nelson Mandela really had won, he wouldn’t be seen as a universal hero)

“Two key facts remain obliterated by this celebratory vision. In South Africa, the miserable life of the poor majority broadly remains the same as under apartheid, and the rise of political and civil rights is counterbalanced by the growing insecurity, violence and crime. The main change is that the old white ruling class is joined by the new black elite. Second, people remember the old African National Congress that promised not only the end of apartheid, but also more social justice, even a kind of socialism. This much more radical ANC past is gradually obliterated from our memory. No wonder that anger is growing among poor, black South Africans.”