Photo courtesy of South Africa The Good News

As 2013 comes to a close, the world is united in paying tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela, who passed away Dec. 5 at the age of 95.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark immediately praised Mandela in a statement.

“With the example he set, incalculable personal courage and true leadership, Mandela literally transformed his country. Largely because of him, South Africa’s transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy was peaceful. It’s easy to forget it could have been very different … Few people can claim a better legacy, or have made a more significant difference,” she said.

Politicians across Canada issued similar assessments. A public vigil for Mandela was set up at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The B.C. government made available an online portal where people could write their condolences. Even the Canucks game last Friday night observed a moment of silence before the national anthems.

This universal honouring of Mandela is heartening, yet simultaneously empty and potentially very misleading. It’s heartening because 30 or 40 years ago anti-apartheid activism was a marginal cause in Canada, confined to the progressive activists on the far left of the political spectrum. The change shows that activism works, that change is possible. But many of the tributes paid to Mandela are ahistorical, or very partial, stripping his life of its profound political content.

The truth is the real struggle of Mandela was incomplete. The racist apartheid regime was defeated, but economic inequality is worse than ever in South Africa. The whole reason Mandela spent nearly 30 years in prison was his commitment to a movement that advocated a multiracial democratic socialism. By today’s standards, at least, the Freedom Charter of the African National Congress was a radically socialist political program. By any standard of progressive governance, the ANC in power has largely failed the poor masses.

It’s not insensitive to observe that the mainstream’s eulogies for Mandela would be quite different if his government had pursued policies of radical redistribution and participatory democracy. Just look at Hugo Chavez – another popular, elected champion of the poor, who also went from prison to the presidency – whose death was greeted with silence or grave-dancing by the politicians of the West.

Whatever the real shortcomings of the ANC in power, and its adaptations to neoliberalism, Mandela understood that poverty is unacceptable.

“… overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom,” he said in a 2005 speech.

That brings us back to British Columbia. Christy Clark’s behaviour as Premier of this province could hardly be more antithetical to the values which motivated Nelson Mandela to risk his life and sacrifice so much of his personal freedom in the fight for collective freedom and equality. Premier Clark’s rhetoric is ‘families first,’ but her behaviour is ‘big business first.’ The whole philosophy of neoliberalism, which is treated as sacrosanct common sense by so many commentators, elevates economic selfishness and denigrates or ignores entirely concepts of collectivity and the public good. If we all really admire Mandela’s life, we should perhaps admire or at least acquaint ourselves with some of the ideas – including socialism – that informed his many of his actions and life decisions.

Some months, it seems like most of Clark’s public statements could be the work of any PR flak for the gas industry. There she was in November, touring China and hyping her plans to expand exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – with no mention, of course, of China’s political prisoners or any other aspect of its authoritarian political system.

Meanwhile in B.C., a new report came out blasting persistent child poverty. According to a study by First Call BC, this province is the worst in Canada – with nearly one in five children living in poverty.

“Concerted government action in the form of a comprehensive poverty reduction plan for the province is long overdue,” says Adrienne Montani, provincial coordinator of First Call.

Now that would be true leadership. But it won’t come from Christy Clark.