The corporate media will have much to say about Nelson Mandela over the next days. They may not mention that Mandela was a revolutionary, political prisoner and member of the African National Congress (ANC), which the US identified as a “terrorist” organization. Mandela was arrested for engaging in acts of sabotage against the White Supremacist South African Apartheid government. Read a tribute by Bishop Tutu in honor of Mandela .

One aspect of Mandela’s history is that while President of South Africa, he and the ANC did cave to the pressure of international finance and adopted neoliberal economic policies, which is the theme of Patrick Bond’s great piece. http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/06/the-mandela-years-in-power/

Jeff Smith, GRIID, contributed to this post.