Socialist Outlook in duff headlines scandal
I wish to disassociate myself from the heading to my article on South Africa in Socialist Outlook 16 —'Mandela and Moscow join in ANC policy switch'. This is the sort of headline one would expect to see in the tabloid press, not in a serious political journal, and completely distorts what I wrote about Man- dela.
Far from ascribing Nelson Mandela a pivo- tal role in conjunction with the Kremlin, I simply expressed an opinion that 'the pro- negotiation tendency must ahve been further strengthened by (his)letters to the British Am- bassador... (and) Buthelezi'.
This is a far cry from what is implied by the sensationalist headline, and I think my own title 'South Africa - Changing Perspectives' would have been more appropriate.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 17, Summer 1989
A small point; paragraph 2 suggests that 90 organisations have been banned in the current state of emergency, when the number is 32. My original refered to 90 organisations banned since Sharpeville in 1960.
Charlie van Gelderen, Cambridge