COSATU statement on the outcomes of the solidarity meeting with the people of Gaza at the height of Israeli aggression

The Congress of South African Trade Unions convened a very successful and well attended meeting of alliance partners, affiliated unions, international solidarity organisations, NGOs, social movements and academic activists on 14 January 2009 to discuss the tragic developments in the Middle East, specifically in Gaza following the war of aggression by Israel.

The meeting benefited from informative briefings from a wide range of activists involved in solidarity work with the Palestinian people and related activities in that part of the world, as well as other organisations involved in many other ways.

The meeting noted that massive and varied solidarity activities are underway by many organisations and people all over the world, which is an encouraging sign of human co-operation. It further noted the need for maximum impact through deeper synergies around a clear and concrete programme of action to raise the plight of the Palestinian people and intensify pressure against the occupying power, Israel, to withdraw from the whole of Palestine in the interests of freedom and democracy for the Palestinian people, and broader peace and justice in the whole Middle East region.

Finally, the meeting agreed on the following bold programme and activities to guide our collective response to the dire situation, and on the need for more coherence and impact by the progressive people of the world:

• Support for a just ceasefire in the Middle East, anchored in the recognition of the right of Palestinian people to their freedom from Israeli occupation and an immediate end to the siege of Gaza, because peace without justice in unsustainable. Only through ending the occupation of the land of the Palestinian people will there be lasting peace in that region, hence the failure of several truces.

• Popularise and intensify the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign against Israel, through:
  • Call on the South African government to cease all relations with Israel and close down the Embassy
  • Encourage all other states to emulate the heroic example of Venezuela, Mauritania and Bolivia who have expelled the Israeli Ambassadors from their countries
  • Effect a sustained campaign led by trade unions for the total boycott of Israeli goods and refusing to handle goods going to Israeli
  • Intensifying the call for cultural, sporting and academic boycott of Israel at all levels.

• Mobilise for more humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Gaza for their most immediate needs and the general task of reconstruction after the war.

• Arrange a high-profile delegation of COSATU, or beyond just COSATU, to the Middle East to assess the situation and raise international awareness on the urgency of the need for a solidarity.

• Support the growing movement of voices within Israeli and amongst Jews all over the world supporting an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine and end immediate end to the unjust war against the people of Gaza.

• Call on the media to expose the truth and stop being the propaganda instruments hiding the real suffering and atrocities committed by the Israeli Defence Force and the savage rule of Zionism in the whole of Palestine. In particular, the CNN, BBC and other such western media apologists. This includes our own media, which panders to the whims of Western propaganda, projecting the legitimate resistance of Palestinians as acts of terrorism, just as our own liberation struggle was also labelled in that way, with Comrade Mandela being called a leading terrorist, and only recently being removed from the US list of terrorists.

• Many South African parastatals and companies have serious business deals with Israeli companies and workers must reject them, with Telkom being an example.

• In their refusal to handle Israeli goods, workers will be protecting their own jobs in the true spirit of the Proudly South Africa Campaign, because in many instances, Israeli business promote privatisation and destruction of jobs, whilst also providing unfair competition to local products even in areas where South Africa has the capacity to provide the goods itself, with the retail sector being the most immediate example, where Pick n Pay, Checkers and other such shops sell products from Israel at the expense of local produce.

• We should call for the expulsion of Israeli security agencies and Mossad at our airports. The security of South Africa is compromised by allowing these Israeli security agencies to operate at our airports and harass people going to Israel, as in the case of SAMWU Deputy President and COSATU CEC member, Cde Xolile Nxu. In this case, the relationship between SAA and ELAL (Israeli airways) must also be terminated

• COSATU unions will lead the development of concrete action plans around the following activities:

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  • SATAWU and NEHAWU on the campaign to refuse to handle Israeli products at all our ports of entry
  • SADTU on the campaign to assist, through its leadership of the Education International (EI), the revival of the destroyed education infrastructure in Gaza and also in calling for academic boycott of Israel. Schools are closed and destroyed in Gaza.
  • SACCAWU on the retail and commercial trade and commodities between the two countries
  • NUM and NUMSA will have to ascertain the situation of gold and diamonds, as well as arms trade between the two countries
  • All other unions will have to explore their own sectors and identify areas of focus.

• Israel continues its mission of courting people all over the world through scholarships and other visits that do not expose people to the Gaza or occupied territories, but only to the glories of Israel cities. We must call on all people to reject this and expose those who allow themselves to be used as pawns in the war of public relations by Israel.

• A well organised global campaign to expose the US and EU, and their cronies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who are complicit in and support the Israeli occupation, must be co-ordinated, together with progressive organisations within these countries themselves, the case of the Norwegian union's action against Israel, being a classic example of such action.

• We also note that some organisations globally continue to send mixed signals and refuse to recognise the legitimate struggle of the suffering Palestinian people, preferring to submit themselves to Western propaganda, projecting the struggle as acts of terrorism, rather than a struggle for freedom from occupation of their land, the same struggle we also waged against colonialism and apartheid. In this case, we call upon the some centres of the global trade union movement to refuse to be apologists for Israeli occupation, at least to play remain neutral, in a war against injustice. It is Israeli who broke the truce on 4 November (when the world was focussing on US elections) and not Hamas, which itself was not guaranteeing justice and freedom from occupation, but peace in conditions of continued occupation, which all of us would have challenged.

• We must also invite all the journalists and other people who have already been exposed to the situation in Palestine to come and speak out on the situation for more public awareness.

• Processes must begin towards an International Criminal Court on Israel in the same way that we have seen the Rwandan and Yugoslavian international court proceedings

In this regard, the following action points were identified as priorities;

• National days of action in solidarity with the occupied and suffering people of Gaza and Palestine during the State of the Nation address (date to be announced) and on 21^st March, 2009.

• A Solidarity Co-ordinating Forum (Committee) convened by COSATU International Secretary, Bongani Masuku and National Organising Secretary, Theo Steele, was established to include all involved organisations to co-ordinate the various activities as identified, particularly the national days of action

• Provinces must also hold similar meetings at their levels to plan courses of action they would prefer to take and solicit a cohesive response to the crisis. In particular, the discussion should also be able to ascertain what actions are preferred for the identified days of action. COSATU Provincial offices must assist with co-ordination in order to anchor an effective and cohesive movement.

Statement issued by Bongani Masuku, COSATU international relations officers, January 16 2009