VISITING ACTIVIST
Economic inequality the new apartheid, says Rev Jesse Jackson
A cold, clinical lecture hall grew rapidly warmer as the Rev Jesse Jackson delivered an oration that aimed to turn young professionals into a congregation of believers in the church of struggle. The civil-rights activist drove home his message that in SA and the US black people had reached the fourth stage of struggle: democratising the economy. He urged his audience to repeat political and economic mantras. "Say it with me: strong minds break strong chains," he drawled in a thick southern accent. The anti-apartheid activist had been invited to the Gordon Institute of Business (Gibs) in Johannesburg to deliver a talk on "black excellence". It was an entirely practical message on how to slowly roll back the legacy of apartheid, manifested today in economic inequality. After the battles to overthrow slavery, segregation and apartheid, the victors were now facing the fourth stage of the struggle: the quest for transformation and economic freedom. "Black people got freer, white people g...
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