Review: Freedom Next Time by John Pilger
Reviewed by Michael O’Brien, Socialist Party
This is probably Pilger’s most overtly political book. Like his previous works Hidden Agendas, Heroes and Distant Voices this one contains a series of stand alone pieces highlighting the plight of oppressed people around the world whose voices are so seldom heard is the establishment media.
As a journalist Pilger is pre-occupied with the media presentation of conflicts and the resulting manipulation of mass public opinion in the west. The first example is the case of the Island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The inhabitants, “British subjects†were forcibly moved from the island to allow it to be leased to the US military as a base. The people of Diego Garcia have fought long and hard for justice, a struggle barely acknowledged in the mainstream press.
However some conflicts are too big to ignore. In a long piece on Israel/Palestine Pilger blends a historical analysis of the formation of the Israeli state and treatment of the Palestinian people both within the state and the post 1967 occupied territories. He includes first hand accounts from Palestinians of demolitions, checkpoints and bombings carried out by the Israeli Defence Force.
For contrast, we have interviews with settlers living in splendour in Gaza unmoved by the suffering being inflicted on their behalf. Pilger here and throughout the book takes up the subjectivity of the term “terroristâ€. While he and many Palestinians view suicide bombings as reprehensible and desperate acts which do not advance their cause, it is at the same time hard to take lectures on terrorism from a regime that is one of the biggest recipients of US military aid in the region. One of the positives in this segment of the book is further evidence of the breaking down of some of the cohesiveness within Israeli society in terms of Israeli Jews actively opposing the occupation and state terror. One of the most moving accounts of this is Pilger’s interview with the father of a young girl blown up by a suicide bomber who has remained a public opponent of the occupation and has since had to endure the vocal disapproval of some of his peers.
Next, there is a short piece entitled Shining India which serves as a welcome antidote to the barrage of news items and documentaries painting a picture of a society on the up. While there is a developing middling class arising from the managerial layer of the multinationals that have re-located there, the fact remains that for the vast bulk of the almost one billion population life has become a lot harder.
Pilger’s next stop is South Africa which for this reviewer is the best part of the book. The key theme here is how while the political vestiges of apartheid have gone in terms of the pass laws, Bantustans etc, an economic apartheid persists for the vast majority of blacks. Pilger is unsparing in his criticism for the leadership of the African National Congress including Mandela which, despite being in power since 1994, has not honoured the programme for which many fought and died for during the apartheid regime. He charts how leading figures in the liberation movement such as Cyril Ramaphosa, former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers has transformed himself into a millionaire and advocate of neo-liberal policies.
Pilger documents how prior to Mandela’s release in 1990, a process was underway where the South African business elite through their political representatives in F.W. de Klerk’s National Party sought an accommodation with moderates in the leadership in the ANC including Mandela. Apartheid was proving bad for business and the white elite decided it could best be dispensed with if only their privileged economic position could be protected.
The sell out of the ANC and Arafat in Palestine, which Pilger also briefly addresses, is linked in his introduction to the book to the collapse of the former Stalinist states and the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. While these societies held little appeal for workers in Western Europe and North America, they were held in certain esteem by a number of national liberation movements including the PLO and the ANC (which included the South African Communist Party as an affiliate). When these regimes collapsed there was a corresponding demoralisation among admirers around the world, who then bought the message that there was no alternative to the capitalist market. Pilger is careful not to be all doom and gloom and interviews people who are still engaged in the struggle for economic liberation – hence the title of the book.
The final section deals with Afghanistan. John Pilger again perfectly blends a short history lesson with up to date reportage of what is taking place. He seeks out, at personal risk, the voices of ordinary Afghanis who have survived atrocities at the hands of the Taliban, the US sponsored Northern Alliance and the US military itself. Pilger moves from Afghanistan to the Pentagon to interview some leading lights in the Bush administration. Pilger’s knack of giving these people rope to hang themselves with during interviews allows for some moments of black humour.
Anybody new to politics should acquaint themselves with Pilger. You will never look at the capitalist press in the same way when it comes to news coverage.
Freedom Next Time
By John Pilger
Bantam Press, Random House, 2006
