Day in the Sun

they had their moment
their day in the sun
paraded their heroes
in marches & processions
the great joy of liberation
freedom fighters won their war
the ANC had released their country
from the chains of apartheid
from white-man’s sub-human segregation

their dreams of land, of freedom
of justice and equality
their cherished 'Freedom Charter'
fought for and hard won -
were still but a dream

they won their war
but didn’t know it yet
they'd lost the economy
to Milton Friedman
& his Chicago Boys
the gangster-Capitalist
money-men in suits
got there first
before the revolutionaries got back
(while they were still fighting their war for freedom)

so that by the time the war was over
by the time the battle-bruised freedom-fighters
had returned home to become politicians
to give the country back to their people
their dreams had vanished

it took some time for the shock
to be absorbed
that there never was to be
the promised land re-distribution
there never was to be clean water for all
never good housing, electricity for all
there would never be
new schools, hospitals for all

their dreams were lost in paper reams
lost in the depths of the World Bank, the IMF
and above all, Chicago School Economists
American institutions all
designed to never let the poor prosper
designed always for corporate rule

the gorillas in suits - the Chicago Boys -
had arrived previously
(it had become obvious to them
- the economists - that the ANC
would win their war eventually)

so that by the time
the heroes all came home
all that was left
was the ‘glory - of winning the fight’
they’d been ‘cleaned out’

Friedman’s boys had got there first
‘stitched up’ the economy
the ‘technicalities’, the 'paper work'
the morgages, the land grabs
the white apartheid
political money-men all got there first
and South Africa
so like so many other countries gone before
had been well and truly ‘done over’
by brutal Capitalism

Nelson Mandela got his freedom
won his war
but there was no country
to give back to his people

he acquiesced to the big-money-boys
trusted they knew more than he
to run the economy
was he forced ? did he trust too much ?
how could he have known
US corporations would wipe his country
of all it's national assets ?

he learned the hard way
the ‘economy’ comes first
'little' people come last
until we know this
until we understand
nothing will ever change

Pamela Sidney 2008