*Oliver Tambo and the masses freed Nelson Mandela!*
As the country marks the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from the gallows of apartheid jails, we should pay an emphatic homage to Oliver Tambo for his sterling role and contribution in rallying the masses and the international community against the heinous and brutal system of apartheid using Mandela’s as a pictogram of the struggle of the oppressed people of South Africa. Tambo was a revolutionary who spoke of yesterday and today – one of those giant trees whose roots take hold and grow more and more as our nascent democracy goes by. Tambo takes hold and grows unstoppably – not underneath, but over our struggle for a better life for all – and he will grow every year and every day in the minds of our people, our leaders and his organization the ANC, for his revolutionary efforts so that we could be free. We see him grow in the parades of our masses for which he loved dearly, the recitals, popular songs and slogans, and solemn tributes at his monuments. The connections are tangible between the ideas and actions of Tambo – the revolutionary who fomented the people’s war and the ideas and actions of the men and women who triggered the democratic breakthrough of 1994 which ushered the ANC to the corridors of power and influence. They are all the thesis and synthesis of the fact that when required by the situation, the people organize and create the revolutionary vanguard to carry out their historic tasks. Tambo’s concept of the need for the ANC to organize, fight, attack and lead the revolutionary struggle serves as an inspiration for our ANC-led Alliance to lead the Revolution and the building of a just and an equal society in our country: the homeland of the man who thought and acted as a visionary, the man whose ideas fertilized those of the generations who followed, the man who was not a lone voice crying out in the wilderness, but the ideas and actions that encountered multitudes. There are three conceptual cores that intertwine the National Liberation Movement as led by the ANC and the vanguard party – the SACP: the revolution as a process that is guided and organized; the indispensable participation of the masses in that process, and the threat posed by imperialism and global capitalism to the future of the peoples of our country and the world. Tambo’s love for his country, his struggle for its freedom, his ideas and actions, and his infinite example are an enduring inspiration without any foreseeable end; he is and will be a revolutionary for all time. ****Castro Ngobese**, National **Union** of Metalworkers of **South Africa**, National Spokesperson, ANC and SACP Member* -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
