South African union joins boycott of Israel

[Scurrilous]

Workers union representing 1.2 million extols CUPE Ontario’s boycott of Israel, which it calls ‘an apartheid nation.’ Union President Madisha: Atrocities committed against the Palestinians pale in comparison to those committed by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3260201,00.html

<snip>

"In additional to the boycott of Israel declared by British academics and public workers in Canada last month, now a large workers’ union in South Africa is shunning the Jewish state in protest of its policies towards the Palestinians.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, representing 1.2 million workers in the African country, published a letter expressing enthusiastic support for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) boycott of Israel. In CUPE’s boycott declaration, the organization calls Israel’s separation fence an “apartheid wall” and condemns its continued construction as in violation of international law. They further called for divestment from Israel and demanded the imposition of sanctions.

In his letter, COSAFU president Willie Madisha hailed the Canadian group’s initiative: "With great pride, I congratulate CUPE Ontario for their historic resolution on May 27th in support of the Palestinian people - those living under occupation and those millions of Palestinian refugees living in the Diaspora. We fully support your resolution."

"As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of the atrocities committed against the Palestinians pale in comparison to those committed by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa,” Madisha wrote."*

On edit:

*Ynet seems to have misquoted the letter. Full letter reprinted here:

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cosatu070606.html

<snip>

"As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of the atrocities committed against the South Africans by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa pale in comparison to those committed against the Palestinians."

Ynet's version:

"As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of the atrocities committed against the Palestinians pale in comparison to those committed by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa,” Madisha wrote."

Interesting.

[BayCityProgressive]

1. To hell with this union

that is all I have to say.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. Perhaps

they should focus more on the dismal economy and corrupt government in their own nation rather than scapegoat Israeli's.

[iverglas]

15. are you SERIOUSLY suggesting

Perhaps they should focus more on the dismal economy and corrupt government in their own nation rather than scapegoat Israeli's.

... that the CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE UNIONS is now or has at some time shirked its duty to the people of South Africa???

If so: educate yourself. Please. Before you do some serious harm.

http://www.cosatu.org.za/

http://www.cosatu.org.za/aboutcos.htm

COSATU was launched in December 1985 after four years of unity talks between unions opposed to apartheid and committed to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. At our launch we represented less than half a million workers organised in 33 unions. We currently have more than two million workers, of whom at least 1.8 million are paid up. Even by international standards we have been among the fastest growing trade union movements in the world. Today when most trade unions are facing a decline in membership, we have continued to grow.

Our main broad strategic objectives have always been:

To improve material conditions of our members and of the working people as a whole.
To organise the unorganised
To ensure worker participation in the struggle for peace and democracy

Principles
From its inception, the federation is based on the following core principles: ...

I realize what amazement it may cause people in the USofA, but trade unions in the rest of the world actually do take progressive positions on matters that affect working people EVERYWHERE, and manage to actually do things to benefit their own members too.

The President of the Congress said:

"As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of the atrocities committed against the Palestinians pale in comparison to those committed by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa," Madisha wrote.

Some people might just think he knows what he's talking about.

[Tom Joad]

3. Israel supported the apartheid government.

[BayCityProgressive]

5. They did not have

good relations with the president of South Africa at first. They had a strategical alignment with them after a while, yes. All countries look out for their own interests first. Name even one that doesn't. They supported the government because originally many marxists backed by the Soviet Union supported and were members of the ANC. In every single country that went communist, zionists, pro-Israel activists, and Jews were heavily opressed...that is fact. Not only did Israel nto want this happening to Jew sin South Africa but they didn't want an anti-semitic ideology spreading thru the governments of Africa. They already had to deal with the boycotts and hatred of the entire Middle East and the indifference or flat out hostility from Europe. Do I hate segregation yes? Yes! As did many jews in South Africa and Israel...but Jews and Israelis are not immune to prejudice and I am sorry to say some supported segregation as well.

[Tom Joad]

10. Strategic alliance? They made nukes together! Sounds like a marriage.

Only the new South Africa abolished its nukes.

[iverglas]

16. "segregation"???

That strikes me like a word somebody like, oh, Ted Nugent would use to describe what went on in South Africa during the period Israel was making love to it.

I guess I just don't get out enough ...

[BayCityProgressive]

18. sorry

I typed the wrong word. It was stupid, I apologize. As for the love fest with South Africa...yes it was absolutely wrong...Just as wrong as it was for Reagan and our government to support them.

[Boojatta]

4. When is a boycott of Israel going to help Palestinians?

Aren't there Palestinian public servants who aren't being paid? Why doesn't the Congress of South African Trade Unions start sending a stream of money to pay wages of Palestinian public servants? Is the Congress of South African Trade Unions afraid that if they start sending money and later stop sending money then they will become a Hamas bombing target?

[BayCityProgressive]

7. I am not sure about the South Africans,

but to other Middle Eastern countries the Palestinians are nothign but a political ploy. They have always disliked the Palestinians but they hate Jews. They use the Palestine issue to distract from failed policies and oppression in their own nations. If they really cared about Palestinians they would open imigration to them, send them aid ect but they dont. Actually they stop imigrants from Palestine at all costs. They claim that Israel is blockading Palestine yet it shares a border with Egypt who it could easily get aid from and use for trade. Just as xenophobia and homophobia are used in the US anti-semetism is used by the dictatorships of the Middle East to a much more potent effect.

[Tom Joad]

8. Israel would not allow anyone to pay Palestinian public servants.

Neither will the United States.

[Boojatta]

11. The United States Government will not allow anyone in the USA to use

certain drugs. So why aren't organized crime families threatening terrorist attacks against the US government? There is historical evidence that organized crime families got a lot of money from drugs in the past. However, obviously they are getting no money from drugs now.

[Tom Joad]

12. ....

:shrug:

[Poll_Blind]

13. What is that supposed to mean?

Uuuh...what?

PB

[Tom Joad]

14. It means that ...

We have a winner for most baffling post of the season.

[Tom Joad]

6. South Africa was a "Sunday picnic compared to what is happening

in Palestine now."
http://www.stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1110.shtml
Trade Unions call for greater action and effective boycott against Apartheid Israel
Worldwide Activism, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, March 18th, 2006

“Why are all the things done to apartheid South Africa not being done to Israel?” demanded top South African trade unionist Willy Madisha as he addressed the national gathering of trade unions in London last week.

Speaking at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s trade union conference, held on March 11 in London, Madisha – the president of South Africa’s COSATU union – condemned Apartheid Israel and urged greater international action including a worldwide boycott of Israeli goods similar to the movements that helped topple the racist regime of South Africa.

The conference entitled “Palestinian workers challenging the Occupation” has been the most significant trade union event on Palestine held in the last years in the UK. Some 230 trade unionists and activists attended the day-long event that brought together dozens of activists to discuss the role that trade unionists can play in helping Palestinians to achieve justice. The Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions was central to the speeches of many panelists. Palestinian speakers informed the large crowd of how the Occupation is destroying Palestinian lives, including through Apartheid Israel’s control of borders and all Palestinian movement that effectively ghettoize the population. Shaher Sa’ed, general secretary of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, detailed the devastating impact of the Occupation on the Palestinian economy and expressed support for a boycott campaign to counter “the real issue: the silence of the world.”

“Apartheid was characterized by killings, hangings, disappearances, arrests, exile, confiscations, inferior education and the creation of Bantustans,” said Madisha. “All this was a Sunday picnic compared to what is happening to the Palestinians,” he continued. “I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state.”
But Madisha further noted that the global response to Apartheid Israel from trade unions has so far been inadequate. “The trade union movement must move beyond resolutions, otherwise history will look back on us and spit on our graves,” he said.

[BayCityProgressive]

9. I will even go further

and say that the day the Democratic Party stops backing a democratic state such as Israel is the day I leave the party. Even in Europe where the Palestinian cause was supported by Europeans who wanted to be on the "right" side of colonialism for once to make themselves feel better, there has been a change of mood. Now that Europe has had to deal with Muslim extremism the mood in most European countries has shifted pro-Israeli according to new polls.

[Spinoza]

17. You are right about recent polls reflecting

a somewhat less biased attitude from Europe regarding the conflict in the ME. However, European hatred of that eternal 'Other', the Jew, goes so far back in time and is so deeply entrenched that I wouldn't get my hopes up too much.

[Dutch]

19. Sounds like you've got problems with the European "other" that need

resolving--or maybe you just get your "progressive" rocks off on smearing whole continents of people. And yes, the shift in European attitudes towards the I/P situation is both real and long-overdue.