‘Mandela joined the people who are making history and participates with future generations in doing so.’
On
5 December, Nelson Mandela returned to life and to God.Years ago, his
release from prison coincided with the anniversary of Iran’s 1979
revolution. While Mandela initially resorted to violent struggle, he
later adopted pacifist methods and even method of deviolentisation. He
understood well that revolution does not give birth to violence. But
accumulated violence within generations reaches a pressure that needs to
explode, and revolution provides possibilities for this to
happen. After this, it is leadership which provides a direction for the
explosion of compressed violence. If the leaders of a revolution aim to
realize it without capturing the state, then they can transform violence
into dynamic forces for opening up the social system. This energy can
then be used to transform animosities into relations of coexistence and
friendship. This is what Mandela did. Even those who had committed
crimes during apartheid were given an opportunity to express their
regret, to attend court and through this to gain permission to live a
human and right-oriented life free from apartheid. Mandela became the
founder of a new and multiracial society that is able to live in
democracy and social peace.
Mandela
realized that revolution is not a reservoir of violence. It can take
one of two passages of violence: one in which dynamic forces are used to
open up the social system and make it transformative; the other passage
in which dynamic forces are used to establish a more destructive form
of despotism. Iranians knew this lesson and tried to use it. They tried
to transform the social system. They stood on right and are still
standing. But even though the Iranian revolution was won through
peaceful means (or as we say, the flower won over the bullet), the
accumulated violence within the society was used replace the
monarchicPahlavi dynasty with a dynasty of clergy. As a result, the
country still is burning in fires of violence. Now, if Iranians want to
stand for their right and make deviolentisation their method of
struggle, this lesson can also be used: violence which accumulates as a
result of oppression can be used to establish an independent and free
society.
Abohassan Banisadr
6 December 2013
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