#cosatu

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Pretoria, South Africa: Picket at the U.S. Embassy against U.S. aggression in the Middle East, January 23, 2020.

Solly Mapaila, South African Communist Party First Deputy General Secretary: "We oppose US imperialism! We oppose US aggression! The entire democratic movement will be organizing mass actions across South Africa until USA withdraws its forces from the Middle East."

Via SACP

[eretzyisrael]

Picketing Cape Town's Jewish Groups in the Name of Palestinians, By Armin Rosen - Tablet Magazine

On Friday morning, the Council of South African Trade Unions picketed the Cape Town offices of the Jewish Board of Deputies as part of the country’s annual Israel Apartheid Week festivities. Why target the board, whose mission is to “promote the safety and welfare of South African Jewry” and “build bridges of friendship and understanding between Jews and the broader South African population?”  Malvern De Bruyn , a COSATU activist, touched on that question during a brief address to the 30 or so activists on hand, most of whom wore shirts or hats representing COSATU, the ruling African National Congress, and the South African Communist Party: “There’s no embassy in Cape Town. That’s why we came to the board of deputies.” In the absence of an Israeli target, the provincial chapter of COSATU chose the most visible and convenient Jewish one.

COSATU, one of the catalysts for the fall of apartheid regime, comprises one-third of the so-called tripartite alliance of 1990 that forms the ruling African National Congress. The other two members are the communist party and the ANC itself, but the communists and COSATU don’t stand in elections and have their interests represented through the ANC instead. Among those governed by the ruling ANC are the roughly 15,000 Jews in Cape Town. Their institutions, including the South African Jewish Museum, are located in the center of the historic city, not far from Parliament, and just a block form the present-day botanical garden where, 300-odd years ago, the Dutch East India Company kept vegetable patches used for reprovisioning passing ships. Beginning in the mid-1800s, the city’s Jews carved out an unlikely position of prominence despite being a microscopic minority in a society that operated around strict and violently enforced racial hierarchies—the kind of environment in which Jews have had very mixed luck over the centuries. COSATU, meanwhile, is a nationwide political powerhouse legitimized through its role in the freedom struggle and its membership in the nation’s leading institution.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

South African Trade Group, BDS Activists Promote Palestinian Refugees With Photo of Jewish Refugees From Arab Lands

South African activists and the country’s largest trade union group tried to raise awareness of Palestinian refugees on Wednesday by sharing a photo of Jewish refugees from Arab lands.

In commemoration of World Refugee Day, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign in South Africa tweeted that “Palestinians are the largest and longest suffering group of refugees in the world.” It shared four photos alongside the text — one of which was taken in 1950, at an Israeli transit camp for Jews who fled or were expelled from Arab and Muslim countries following the creation of the Jewish state.

The tweet was quoted later in the day by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which prominently featured the image of Jewish refugees without mentioning its source.

COSATU is a supporter of the BDS campaign, and has called a resolution passed by the ruling African National Congress in December to downgrade South Africa’s embassy in Tel Aviv “a major step towards the total shutdown and isolation of … the colonial apartheid state of Israel.”

The group’s gaffe was mocked by several commentators on Twitter, one of whom sarcastically wrote, “Thank you Cosatu for bringing to the world attention the plight of Jewish refugees exiled from their homes in the 40’s and 50’s. Truly doing good work!!”

The issue of Palestinian refugees dates back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when five Arab armies invaded the Jewish state less than a day after it declared independence. Some 750,000 Palestinians left or were expelled from their homes during the fighting, and they and their descendants are today considered refugees.

That year also saw the beginning of an exodus of an estimated 850,000 Jews from across the greater Middle East, whose communities were targeted with antisemitic pogroms and discriminatory laws following Israel’s creation. A majority of the refugees — hailing from countries including Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, and Libya — were resettled in Israel, where their descendants now make up half of the Jewish population. Others made their way to the United States and Europe.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Elections, capitalist economics and self-determination in Africa, Part 2

By Abayomi Azikiwe 

The social aspirations of African workers, farmers and youth cannot be fully achieved absent the merging of states, political parties, trade unions, peasant and mass organizations. Although there has been significant economic growth in Africa since the beginning of the present century, the recent period marked by the decline in commodity prices, the drop in currency values and the reemergence of the debt crisis — which enhanced dependency on world capitalism during the post-independence period — could easily overwhelm the continent, stifling its capacity to realize genuine development and regional sovereignty.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

South Africa: Activists hold action in support of Donbass residents

South African Trade Unions Activists have held an action of solidarity with Donbass residents in the fight against Kiev’s aggression in front of Ukraine’s embassy in Pretoria, the Lugansk People’s Republic Trade Unions Federation reports.  

The action was held on the initiative of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU).  

“The action in support of Donbass residents has been taking place in many countries worldwide recently and it was for the first time when such an action took place on the African continent. We sincerely thank our Trade Unions colleges from the Republic of South Africa for their active position and express our hope that they will continue to actively demonstrate solidarity with Donbass Republics’ working people. Such assistance is very important and necessary for us,” highlighted LPR Trade Unions Federation Chairman Oleg Akimov.