This weekend a very productive joint region international seminar at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester brought together 50 UNISON activists from Northern, North West and Scotland. Building on a session in Glasgow in 2013, the event heard a keynote presentation on TTIP from Polly Jones of the World Development Movement and following workshops an action plan was agreed to step up campaigning/lobbying on the proposed trade deal which will open up public services to US corporations as well as undermine democracy.
The ANC’s
huge victory in last week’s general election has been
welcomed by its trade union ally COSATU -
'The ANC has proved again that it is still the party in which the majority of South Africans, especially the working class and the poor, put their trust. The election has also confirmed the absence of any credible opposition party which offers an alternative which could appeal to workers. The Democratic Alliance in particular has once again revealed itself as the party of the rich and privileged, with policies solely designed to benefit big business and increase their profits. The federation thanks all its members who helped to achieve his victory by their tireless campaigning work in the workplaces and communities. COSATU union members played a key role in achieving the high 77.3% turn-out and winning this victory for the ANC. We can repeat what we said after the 2009 ANC victory: “Our liberation movement and the National Democratic Revolution have been defended!”'
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) is calling on its members to back the African National Congress (ANC) in the upcoming general election on 7 May 2014. A new document ‘Why workers should vote for the ANC’ sets out the gains of working people since the post apartheid democratic breakthrough in 1994. ‘We are again calling to workers and their families to vote ANC. Only the ANC has the interest of workers and the poor at heart. Only the ANC has a vision to continue changing our country away from the apartheid and colonial legacy. Only the ANC fought, in the face of hard opposition in parliament, for the advancement and protection of workers’ rights’
http://www.cosatu.org.za/docs/misc/2014/election_booklet.pdf
'We thank all our hard working public servants. Keep up the good work and let us continue building a responsive, effective and caring government,’ says South African President Jacob Zuma. ‘In today’s global and competitive world, a country’s success is determined by many things. Key amongst these is a patriotic, effective and efficient cadre of public servants that translates government policies and programmes into tangible benefits’
http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=15182
Yesterday, ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe`s addressed COSATU's Collective Bargaining Conference. The challenging and self critical speech examines the role of a national union federation, industrial unionism, union/worker relationships and draws parallels for COSATU with the internal divisions which have beset and weakened the ANC in recent years:
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=7043
Last week the African National Congress voted to support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, declaring it was "unapologetic in its view that the Palestinians are the victims and the oppressed in the conflict with Israel." Democracy Now previews a new documentary film "Roadmap to Apartheid" - about the apartheid analogy commonly used to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/21/as_the_anc_votes_to_support
It’s one thing winning the revolution. It is another thing implementing its vision. That was the theme of veteran ANC activist Denis Goldberg at a meeting of ACTSA Scotland in Glasgow on Tuesday.
Billed as a speech about the Marikana massacre, it turned into a disarmingly honest and at times painful analysis of the challenges of building a fair and just South Africa in just 18 years after centuries of constitutional oppression.
#psicongress2012 Public service trade unionists from every continent are assembling in Durban, South Africa, for the five-yearly Congress of the Public Services International (PSI) - the global union federation for public service workers. Host union federation COSATU has issued a fighting welcome to delegates: 'Congress is taking place at a critical moment in the history of the struggle for a new and just world order, quality public services and the fight against neo-liberal globalisation, particularly ravaging our continent and the working class as a whole'
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=6727
Patrick Kane of War on Want reviews the intensified struggles of South Africa’s mineworkers in the aftermath of the deaths of 34 mine workers by police shootings at the Marikana mine in August and quotes COSATU’s Sidumo Dlamini: "What we see happening at Marikana and elsewhere is that workers are essentially demanding a living wage. Workers are simply saying, 'We produce wealth and we want our reasonable share. And they expect to be given a fair share.' This is a reflection of the demands being harbored by millions of our people"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-kane/south-africa-mine_b_1967275.html
Leading COSATU affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers, is South Africa 's largest union organising in the mining industry:
http://www.num.org.za
'The struggle in such cases as Polisario and Palestine will be protracted, but I am sure will culminate in victory because these are struggles of heroic peoples who are steadfast in their objectives and just do not give in. South Africa and Nelson Mandela are illustrations of this', anti-apartheid veteran Ronnie Kasrils tells Frank Barat in a captivating interview on Aljazeera.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/
2012/09/2012925114242310461.html
The 11th Congress of the COSATU, South Africa's trade union centre, ends today in Braamfontein. The Congress was opened on Monday by COSATU President, Sidumo Dlamini, who gave a wide ranging address on global and national issues, placing the tragic events in Marikana in the context of a South Africa where '54% of the workers receive no regular wage increments or have their wages determined solely by their employers. Yet Capital has been calling for the need to decentralise or even abolish collective bargaining. The reality is that currently bargaining councils cover just 9% of the workforce, while only 23% of the workers` wages are negotiated directly through unions'
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=6523
COSATU has issued a strong statement expressing 'shock and dismay' at the loss of life in the tragic events in Marikana and reiterating its heartfelt condolences to the families and fellow workers of those who perished. Calling for an end to police brutality and over-reaction it also calls for everyone to abandon 'dangerous weapons'. Most of all it calls for unity in defending the miners' cause: "Our enemy is not ourselves or some amongst ourselves - our enemy remains the capitalist system that exploits workers and robs them of the social surplus". Read the full statement here
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=6437
The third session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine is to convene in Cape Town in November to answer the question whether the treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid.
A ruling by South Africa’s Advertising Standards Authority gives hope to those facing spurious attacks of anti-Semitism by the Israeli lobby when legitimately criticising Israeli political and military attacks on Palestinians. In a report from
Australians for Palestine, Sonja Karkar said “That this decision was reached in South Africa is significant because that country more than any other would know exactly what are the conditions that constitute apartheid.”
An appeal from South Africa: Please sign this petition in support of Archbishop Tutu and circulate widely
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/defend-tutu/ Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has publicly criticised Israeli policy towards Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. He has also criticised Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians. These criticisms are well-known. Recently, his criticisms of Israeli policy have elicited bitter personal attacks.
South Africa's public sector strike is set to continue after the leading trade union federation Cosatu rejected an improved wage offer from the government. Cosatu said the majority of its affiliated unions had voted against the proposal. "The unions met this afternoon and Cosatu rejected the offer. The strikes will continue and we will continue to consult our members," said Cosatu Secretary General Zwelinzima yesterday. The BBC reports that further talks are expected.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11161276 Also click here for a pdf of great strike posters
After 13 days on strike, over one million striking South African public servants will vote today on a revised Government offer. Reuters reports that the government ‘increased its offer to 7.5 percent from 7 percent - compared to the union demand for 8.6 percent’. As well as the proposed wage increase, the government raised its offer for a monthly housing allowance to 800 rand. Unions have been demanding 1,000 rand.
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE67U05Y20100831
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has congratulated striking public service workers and their supporters from other unions and the general public on the magnificent turnout at the nationwide marches throughout South Africa yesterday:
