Mandela was warned not to meet Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn’s antiapartheid efforts during the Eighties were snubbed by Nelson Mandela, as they were “hindering” the campaign, it has emerged. The Labour MP was famously arrested at a picket outside the South African embassy. But Mr Mandela’s advisers warned him against meeting the protest group.
JEREMY CORBYN’S anti-apartheid efforts were snubbed by Nelson Mandela, as they were “hindering” the campaign in South Africa, it has emerged.
The Labour MP was famously arrested for his participation in a picket outside the South African embassy which demanded Mr Mandela’s release from prison during the Eighties.
But later efforts to arrange a meeting between Mr Mandela and the ultra-left splinter group that planned the fouryear protest outside the South African embassy repeatedly failed.
A book claims that the City of London Anti-apartheid Group (CLAAG), of which Mr Corbyn was an active member, asked to meet Mr Mandela in 1990. Despite staging a 1,408-day picket to campaign for his release, Mr Mandela’s African National Congress party advised him against meeting Mr Corbyn’s cohort as they were not part of the mainstream Anti-apartheid Movement.
Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-stop Picket Against Apartheid, written by academics Gavin Brown and Helen Yaffe and published in February, described Mr Corbyn as a “sponsor” of the CLAAG’S “non-stop picket”. The authors, who both participated in the demonstration, confirmed CLAAG tried and failed to get recognition from Mr Mandela and other ANC leaders for the controversial demonstration.
The book says that when it was announced that Mandela would visit London, several members wrote to ask him to meet those who maintained a fouryear non-stop picket for his release.
“The meeting never happened (and, as far as we know, many of the letters received no acknowledgement or reply). These letters were part of a political campaign to gain Mandela’s (retrospective) approval for the non-stop picket in the face of long-standing opposition from sections of the London ANC.”
It perhaps explains why Mr Corbyn never appears to have been photographed with Mr Mandela – a source of deep regret according to those close to the Islington North MP. He did go on to meet Mr Mandela twice, but as part of a parliamentary delegation when he visited Westminster as president in 1994. The Daily Telegraph today reveals the truth behind Mr Corbyn’s much-publicised picketing outside the embassy. It follows a false claim in The Guardian last month that Mr Corbyn “served on the national executive of the AAM”.
In fact, he was a member of CLAAG, which declassified Special Branch files state was under observation even inside the House of Commons during an AAM meeting because they were “a front for a violence-prone Trotskyist group known as the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG)”.
The RCG’S mouthpiece, the newspaper Fight Racism, Fight Imperialism poured vitriol on Labour. Matters came to a head at an AAM meeting in 1984 when a “City” slate of 13, including three Labour MPS, one of whom was Mr Corbyn, stood for the national executive and were all defeated.
News of the internal split was reported by Seumas Milne, then a Guardian journalist and now Mr Corbyn’s director of strategy, pointing out that it had “antagonised the ANC”.
A senior figure in the anti-apartheid movement who did serve on the AAM national executive, said: “Jeremy Corbyn was never on the national executive.” The figure, who wished not to be named, added: “His followers try to project him as the saviour of the cause but he was actually very disruptive in the AAM. The dedicated people who took part in the 24/7 picket outside the South African embassy were mostly ultra-left Trotskyists who caused constant aggravation and segregation within the movement. Corbyn and John Mcdonnell went on these events – not the mainstream marches and demonstrations the AAM organised.
“His supporters and Momentum tweet that he was this major figure in the AAM and that he practically released Mandela single-handedly. The reality is that he was aligned to ultraleftists who were seeking to do their own thing and didn’t mind if it set back the anti-apartheid cause. They were more of a hindrance than a help.”
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: “While members of the Conservative Party were calling for Nelson Mandela to be hanged, Jeremy was campaigning against the racist apartheid regime.”