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The South African Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (SA BDS) Coalition and other Palestine solidarity activists will protest on Saturday 4 November from 2pm-6pm outside Nasrec in Johannesburg against the African Growth and Opportunity Agreement (AGOA) forum in Johannesburg.  

There can be no business as usual with the United States government while it sends weapons and military equipment to Apartheid Israel, proudly publicising to the world that they sent an ‘additional’ plane load of armaments, including munitions, that arrived in Israel after 7 October on top of the regular minimum $3.8 billion a-year for military aid.  US President Biden is pushing for an emergency budget to massively increase this amount.  It could not be clearer that the US is arming Apartheid Israel’s unfolding genocide on the Palestinian people. 

The AGOA forum runs from 2-4 November. The AGOA trade agreement with the United States seeks to increase preferential market access to the US for select Sub-Saharan African countries keen to do business with American companies. 

As the South African people are demanding a ceasefire and immediate humanitarian aid, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have allowed the very minimum – a humanitarian pauses to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza.  This vote made it clear to the world that the US is complicit in genocide.

It is unconscionable that President Ramaphosa, Minister Patel and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) is playing host to high level US government representatives as the US military-industrial complex is complicit in the ongoing Israeli murder of more than 8,306 Palestinians trapped in Gaza – one Palestinian child is being killed every ten minutes – and 122 Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank since 7 October. 

The SA BDS Coalition calls on organised labour to pull out of the AGOA Forum in protest at the US-funded Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Trade analyst and former NUMSA parliamentary officer Woody Aroun asked: “Is trade worth more than the life of a Palestinian child?”

“The US is the world’s biggest financial supporter of Israel, an Apartheid state whose separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians, repeated military attacks on Palestinians by air and land, checkpoints to prevent Palestinian freedom of movement, and forced dompas system bear striking resemblances to Apartheid in South Africa. Organised labour’s current meek participation in the AGOA summit sharply contrasts with their publicly stated positions of unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people. The ANC government and organised labour’s continued participation in high-level talks with the US government amounts to a passive and muted response towards Israel’s continued aggression against the people of Palestine”, said Aroun.

The South African government, along with most of humanity voted on Friday at the UNGA, 121 – 14, against the US-Israel axis, despite the bullying, intimidation, and propaganda, and for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce.” This was a vote against genocide and against US-Western neocolonial hegemony and for justice and accountability. 

Anti-apartheid activist, Rev Dr Allan Boesak said: “why is South Africa playing host to representatives of nations engaged in open, declared genocide, in targeted killings and bombardments of innocent Palestinians?”

We call on Ramaphosa to support our foreign policy direction, stand up to the US bullies and demand the US support an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid with UN protection for the 2.3 million Palestinians under cruel siege in the open-air prison of Gaza as a prerequisite for trade talks to commence.  Our President must publicly reject the US-Israel axis plans for forced transfer of Palestinians within Gaza and from Gaza to Sinai, Egypt.

Dr Dale McKinley, political analyst and educator at the Cape Town-based International Labour, Research and Information Group (ILRIG) said “it is almost beyond belief that South Africa could host a US government Minister as the US backs the Israeli government to the hilt in its assault on the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, committing genocidal acts against Palestinians while cutting economic deals. It is not only hypocritical but sad in the context of South Africa’s own history in calling for international boycotts and cutting off of those who would support tyranny and oppression. That Ramaphosa and the South African government have decided to proceed with the AGOA summit indicates that economic access to US markets and corporate interests trump human rights and humanity, and solidarity with the Palestinians”.

The South African BDS Coalition reiterates our demands on the ANC government:

• Declare the Israeli Ambassador in Pretoria persona non grata and sever diplomatic relations.

• Prosecute South Africans joining the Israeli occupation forces in total contravention

of our Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act

• End sports, cultural, academic and other links with apartheid Israel and corporations complicit in Israeli apartheid.

…/ends

For interviews, please call:

Woody Aroun: trade analyst and former NUMSA parliamentary officer – 082 562 3670

Prof Salim Vally: academic and Palestine solidarity activist – 082 802 5936

Dale Mckinley: political and labour analyst – 072 429 4086

Mametlwe Sebei: GIWUSA President – 081 368 0706

The post SA BDS Coalition protests AGOA – No Trade With USA Financing Genocide appeared first on Asia Commune.

The Palestine Solidarity Alliance welcomes the Free VISA entry requirements for ordinary Palestinian people to visit South Africa.

The new 90-day Free Visa access for Palestinian citizens is an important step in affirming our countries commitment to supporting the Palestinian people in their struggle for basic human right, self-determination and dignity. 

Importantly, we must recognise that this pronouncement by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, DIRCO is a result of the advocacy by many solidarity groups across the country, including the PSA, MRN and the SABDS Coalition amongst others

It is a significant victory in countering the apartheid state of Israel, which controls so many aspects of Palestinian lives, from checkpoints, administrative detention without trial and the siege on Gaza.

This effort further demonstrates the need for collective and unified effort on common campaigns to halt the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Jewish state.

In the words of President Mandela, we know that “South Africa cannot be free until Palestine is Free,” and thus call for a redoubling of our efforts to isolate apartheid Israel by building a strong anti-apartheid movement to drive boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the fascist Jewish settler colony.

In particular, we call for a full cultural and sporting boycott of apartheid Israel as was done for apartheid South Africa.

We call for the expulsion of the Israeli embassy and all its agents from our democratic lands, in particular we call for the prosecution of all South Africans serving in the Israeli military and occupation force, for crimes against humanity, the crime of apartheid and war crimes.

We look forward to welcoming our Palestinian brothers and sisters to South Africa and to the day when we can all be truly free from the yolk of apartheid, racism and inequality.

Issued by:

The Palestine Solidarity Alliance

info@palestinesa.co.za

22 September 2023

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A film by casualised women workers, shot in Gauteng, South Africa, and produced by the Casual Workers Advice Office (cwao.org.za).

In this film, casualised women workers speak about sexual harassment by labour brokers, being made to share personal protective equipment (PPE), being forced to buy lunch for supervisors in order to get overtime. The women workers tell of how they came together as the Simunye Women Workers’ Forum with the support of the CWAO, to fight for their legal right to be made permanent at work.

The post Casual Women Workers Organise appeared first on Asia Commune.

15 June 2023

Press statement

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has signed the wage proposal at Eskom which was negotiated in the Centralized Bargaining Forum of Eskom. 

The agreement is broken down in the following way:

1. This is a three year agreement which is valid from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2026

2. Wages will be increased by 7% across the board for year one, 7% for year two and 7% for year three. 

3. The increase for year one will be implemented from the 30th of June 2023 and will be implemented in term of Eskom’s remuneration principles

4. Housing allowance will be increased by 7% for year one, 7% for year two and 7% for year three.

5. Eskom shall pay a once off taxable payment of R10 000 to all employees for year one of the agreement. And again, in the 2nd year of the agreement, a once-off taxable payment of R10 000 will be paid to workers. 

Parties have further agreed to engage on the following issues within the next 12 month period:

– Income differentials and salary disparities

– Jan H smith Loan

– Business scheme vehicle and cellphone allowances

– Fixed daily allowances

– Reimbursement for business travel

– Moratorium on the closure of power stations

NUMSA views this agreement as a victory for workers at Eskom who have been denied meaningful increases since the 2016/2017 financial year. We are coming from a dark period where Eskom was led by the racist, clueless Andre De Ruyter who plunged the country into rolling blackouts, because of his refusal to drive quality maintenance at power stations. We are in the process of trying to recover and repair what was destroyed during Andre’s tenure. At the same time, the same Andre De Ruyter, tried to collapse centralized bargaining by imposing 1.5% increase on the workforce. But he refused to intervene on Eskom’s true cost drivers, namely, coal costs, REIPP’s and diesel costs. He wanted workers to pay for Eskom’s financial challenges and used them as a scapegoat for his glaring failures to motivate workers, and to drive a program to increase the Energy Availability Factor at the power utility. 

NUMSA wants to assure the public that we are playing a progressive role in trying to repair the damage caused by Andre’s incompetence. This agreement is a sign of an improvement in the relationship with Eskom. We want continue on this path. And part of our contribution is the signing of a multi-year agreement so that there is labour stability. This will allows workers at Eskom to focus on quality maintenance, without interrupting that process with annual wage talks. We promised South Africans that we would do everything in our power to prevent a repetition of last year where workers were provoked into picketing and protesting at power stations, and we have upheld that promise. We managed to secure an agreement without deadlocking, and we did it before the end of June, which is when the old agreement expires. 

We want to thank our negotiating team which worked tirelessly to secure this agreement and settle this round of wage talks. We are deeply grateful to them for their hard work. NUMSA is a sword and a shield for the working class and we will continue to fight for improvements in wages and benefits, for the producers of wealth in this country.

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued by Irvin Jim

NUMSA General Secretary

For more information, please contact:

Phakamile Hlubi-Majola

NUMSA National Spokesperson

0833767725

phakamileh@numsa.org.za

NUMSA Head Office number: 0116891700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

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