Chicago, IL – “We are busy building a new nation out of the embers of apartheid, and if we had sanctions and American companies withdrawing from South Africa it would devastate our country and create a total disaster,” said Naledi Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

The 15th BRICS summit took place in South Africa August 22-24 to discuss the expansion of the group of countries, and to counter the influence of Western countries like the U.S., France and Britain on developing countries.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the University of Minnesota chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Milwaukee, WI – May 15 marked the 75th anniversary of the Nakba. Over 250 community members and activists gathered in downtown Milwaukee to see Chief Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of the great anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, in commemoration of the tragedy in Palestine.

_A gigantic tree has fallen _

“…even in the deepest moments of our struggle for liberation Mama Winnie was an abiding symbol of our people to be free…”-- Cyril Ramaphosa, president of the Republic of South Africa.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following speech given by Cherrene Horazuk, representing the U.S. delegation to the WFTU Congress which is underway in Durban, South Africa.

Durban, South Africa – 1500 delegates from class-struggle unions from over 110 countries gathered in Durban, South Africa on Oct. 5 to begin the 17th Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). The WFTU represents 92 million workers in 125 countries.

_Quotes from Mandela on racism, armed struggle and communism _

Nelson Mandela, a leader of the South African struggle for national liberation, passed away today, Dec 5. Mandela led the African National Congress, and along with South African communists, founded the armed struggle group Umkhonto we Sizwe, After 26 years in prison, the national liberation movement of the African masses, supported by a broad international anti-Apartheid movement, won his freedom. The official racial segregation and discrimination of Apartheid was brought down and Nelson Mandela elected president of South Africa.

Fight Back News Service is circulating some quotes from the icon of the South African anti-apartheid movement. The following quotes are from Mandela’s 1990 speech at a Johannesburg rally to re-launch the South African Communist Party. Nelson Mandela: The ANC [African National Congress] is not a Communist Party. But as a defender of democracy, it has fought and will continue to fight for the right of the Communist Party to exist. As a movement for national liberation, the ANC has no mandate to espouse a Marxist ideology. But as a democratic movement, as a Parliament of the people of our country, the ANC has defended and will continue to defend the right of any South African to adhere to the Marxist ideology if that is their wish.

Durban, South Africa – Protesters flocked to the U.S. consulate here, March 22, on the tenth anniversary of the abduction of Dr. Siddiqui and her three children in Karachi, Pakistan.