Liz Cheney's 1988 Op-Ed on Anti-Apartheid Protestors: "Nobody’s Listening"

[DonViejo]

In a 1988 op-ed for her college newspaper, Liz Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney who is now running for the Republican Senate nomination in Wyoming (and kicking up a family feud and a GOP civil war), had a stern message for anti-apartheid activists campaigning for freedom in South Africa: "frankly, nobody’s listening."

The Cheney family has a complicated history regarding South Africa and the effort to end the racist regime that ruled that nation for 46 years. When he was a congressman, Dick Cheney voted against imposing economic sanctions on South Africa's apartheid government and opposed a resolution calling for Nelson Mandela to be released from prison, saying Mandela was a "terrorist"—a position Cheney defended as recently as 2000, when he ran for vice president. Liz Cheney, who is hoping to unseat three-term GOP Sen. Mike Enzi, has not spoken publicly on Mandela since his death last week. Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

In the 1980s, when Liz Cheney was attending Colorado College, a campus group called the Colorado College Community Against Apartheid led regular demonstrations to push the college to adopt a policy of divestment—a form of economic protest in which the college would agree not to invest in companies that had business interests in South Africa. Throughout the country in those years, students at universities and colleges were pushing administrations and boards to dump their investments in firms that engaged in commerce with South Africa, including such corporate powerhouses as IBM. The Colorado College group, as did protesters on other campuses, constructed a "shanty town" on the quad, and it organized an on-stage demonstration at the school's 1987 graduation ceremony. That year's commencement speaker: Liz Cheney's mother, Lynne.

In her op-ed for the Catalyst, Liz Cheney did refer to the white South African regime as a "racist government" that had "oppressed South African blacks." But she argued against punitive economic action—and dismissed the entire divestment movement.

full article
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/liz-cheney-nelson-mandela-divestment

[Gothmog]

1. This editorial will help her with GOP primary voters

Liz Cheney is a nasty person and I hope the loses

[davidpdx]

2. That ought to go over well

Especially with Mandela's passing.

[Chan790]

3. So what you're saying is "Elizabeth Cheney has always been an asshole." n/t

[Thor_MN]

4. She has always been a Cheney is equivalent...

IMO...

[area51]

5. Why am I not surprised. n/t

[yellowcanine]

6. "The Cheney family has a complicated history regarding South Africa..."

Complicated only in the sense that the Cheneys said one thing (condemned oppression of blacks) and did another (tried to block any attempt to bring about majority rule).