Published 12 February 201012 May 2010 · Main Posts ‘Only one man in a large army’ Jeff Sparrow It seems like just yesterday. Of course, in all the celebrations, no-one will raise the rather embarrassing fact that, throughout the Apartheid era, most Western governments entirely supported the racist regime’s assessment of the ANC leader as a dangerous criminal. Indeed, it was only in 2008 that the US removed Mandela from its terrorist watch list. Certainly, here in Australia, John Howard and most of the Liberal Party always opposed the ANC call for a cultural and economic boycott of South Africa, while desperately promoting all kinds of dubious collaborators as alternatives to Mandela. The victory over apartheid was, in other words, the result of mass action, not only in South Africa but here in Australia, too. This clip from NZ gives a taste of what that struggle involved. Which brings us to another Specials track. This one’s particularly relevant to Melbourne, where, in response to Ted Ballieu’s (!) acknowledgement of racial violence in the city, Education Minister Bronwyn Pike had this to say: Ted Baillieu has called Victorians racist, I’d like to ask Ted Baillieu to name those racist people, maybe it’s my next door neighbour, maybe it’s someone’s mum and dad, maybe it’s somebody’s friends. Yes, indeed. Maybe it is. Jeff Sparrow Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland. More by Jeff Sparrow › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 28 March 202428 March 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. First published in Overland Issue 228 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.