Global solidarity around the cause of the Palestinian people is gaining ground, with some observers drawing parallels with the SA experience.
SA was able to galvanise world opinion against apartheid, especially through the assiduous networking of the ANC’s leaders and cadres, as well as the work of progressive activists from around the world.
Global solidarity has a long and fine pedigree. For example, in 1851 Italian revolutionary leader Giuseppe Mazzini said: “If on any spot of the world some glaring wrong should be done ... then other nations are not absolved from all concern in the matter simply because of large distance between them and the scene of the wrong.”
Three great moments of international solidarity preceded that of SA. The Spanish Civil War that followed Gen Francisco Franco’s coup d’état of July 16 1936 against the six-month old left-wing Republican alliance government of the Popular Front, saw progressive forces uniting in the anti-fascist struggle, through direct armed action. At its peak it involved about 35,000 combatants in the form of international brigades hailing from Europe, the Americas and Asia.
The anti-apartheid movement was the next major case of international solidarity.
During their wars against the French and then the US until 1973, the Vietnamese received support from several socialist countries, workers’ organisations, national liberation movements and nascent global movements for peace and justice. Huge crowds took part in anti-war campaigns and demonstrations, especially in the US, with millions of young people refusing to be drafted into the war. In 1967, the People’s International Tribunal, led by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, concluded that the US had committed a crime against humanity in Vietnam.
The September 11 1973 coup d’état in Chile, carried out against the democratically elected, socialist government of Salvador Allende, sparked an international solidarity movement against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which lasted until his departure in 1990. The world responded quickly to the regime’s violence and repression, securing its diplomatic isolation, pushing for the release of political prisoners and supporting the continued political struggle of Chile’s Popular Unity alliance.
Several multinational and multilateral bodies played crucial roles in these struggles and later on in SA’s anti-apartheid efforts. Amnesty International, which was launched in 1961, had roots in anti-fascist solidarity and espoused an internationalist citizen advocacy that was apolitical and non-partisan. In May 1961 it issued its initial call for the release of prisoners of conscience throughout the world.
Human Rights Watch, founded in 1978, has been issuing an annual report on the state of human rights in about 100 countries, providing succour to many struggling people, and has been criticised for its efforts by several governments. Its April 2021 report accused Israel of apartheid, calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians, becoming the first major international rights NGO to do so.
The anti-apartheid movement was the next major case of international solidarity. The UN played a pivotal role, with several countries such as India, the Soviet bloc, social democratic parties and the Southern African front-line states. The campaign also saw the largest grassroots movements, spanning just about every corner of the world.
The Palestinian people are facing a similar opposition from right-wing forces that the SA struggle faced when, for example, Nelson Mandela was described as a terrorist, or defending apartheid was described as being in the interest of the West and Christian values. Cecilia M Bailliet, the UN Human Rights Council’s independent expert, argues that “repression of international solidarity with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists is often based on mischaracterisation... as promoting terrorism and/or anti-Semitism”.
The words of 92-year-old anti-apartheid activist Audrey Coleman echoes the sentiments of millions of workers, political movements, entertainers and human rights organisations in SA and across the world: “We came back from the brink in SA fighting for peace and democracy. As Jews we must now stand up for the same in Israel and Palestine.”
• Abba Omar is director of operations at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.