South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) Refuses to offload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa

CAIA Message of Support and Solidarity
To: South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU)
For: Refusing to offload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa carrying Israeli Goods.

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Canada commends the members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban for making history by being the first group of workers to refuse to offload a ship coming from Israel and carrying Israeli goods (statement from union and South African Solidarity Organizations below). This act is not surprising. As workers who have lived under apartheid in South Africa, they understand the miseries of apartheid and the importance of international solidarity work in the struggle against apartheid regimes. In doing so, the workers are taking a strong position, refusing to accept racism, oppression and apartheid as acceptable norms. Today, South Africa is leading the world in the struggle against Israeli apartheid, and giving a clear message, that unless Israel ends
the apartheid system it imposes on the Palestinian people, it will be boycotted by the rest of the world.

This act comes at a time when Israel has increased the level and intensity of its crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The brave South African workers are showing the world that Israel should, and could be held accountable for its crimes. At the time when the UN and the “international community” have repeatedly letdown the Palestinians, the South African workers have shown everyone that it is not only up to the governments, but also individuals, groups and unions and have the power to hold Israel to account.

This act is part of the growing Boycotts Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel that was called for by 171 Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005. This campaign was inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and today, South Africans are inspiring the world again by making breakthroughs in the Palestinian BDS campaign. Members of SATAWU are not alone in this struggle. In the past month alone, a number of unions from different parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined the struggle against Israeli apartheid by adopting the BDS campaign. In Canada, two major labour unions have joined the BDS campaign. In 2006 the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario decided to adopt the campaign, and in 2008 the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) joined the campaign.

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a Palestine solidarity organization based in Toronto (Canada) and is part of a growing global movement against Israeli apartheid. CAIA was formed in January 2006 and is active in different levels including among students, faculty, labor unions and high schools. For more details, please visit the website www.caiaweb.org or send an
email to endapartheid@riseup.net.

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Statement from South Africa

FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!

COSATU and PSC launch Week of Action for Palestine supported by YCL and other progressive organisations

Media Conference, COSATU House, 3 February 2009, 11am

In a historic development for South Africa, South African dock workers have announced their determination not to offload a ship from Israel that is scheduled to dock in Durban on Sunday, 8 February 2009. This follows the decision by COSATU to strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid Israel.

The pledge by SATAWU members in Durban reflects the commitment by South African workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the globe. Last year, Durban dock workers had refused to offload a shipment of arms that had arrived from China and was destined for Zimbabwe to prop up the Mugabe regime and to intensify the repression against the Zimbabwean people. Now, says SATAWU’s General Secretary Randall Howard, the union’s members are committing themselves to not handling Israeli goods.

SATAWU’s action on Sunday will be part of a proud history of worker resistance against apartheid. In 1963, just four years after the Anti-Apartheid Movement was formed, Danish dock workers refused to offload a ship with South African goods. When the ship docked in Sweden, Swedish workers followed suit. Dock workers in Liverpool and, later, in the San Francisco Bay Area also refused to offload South African goods. South Africans, and the South African working class in particular, will remain forever grateful to those workers who determinedly opposed apartheid and decided that they would support the anti-apartheid struggle with their actions.

Last week, Western Australian members of the Maritime Union of Australia resolved to support the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and have called for a boycott of all Israeli vessels and all vessels bearing goods arriving from or going to Israel.

This is the legacy and the tradition that South African dock workers have inherited, and it is a legacy they are determined to honour, by ensuring that South African ports of entry will not be used as transit points for goods bound for or emanating from certain dictatorial and oppressive states such as Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Israel.

COSATU, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Young Communist League and a range of other organisations salute the principled position taken by these workers. We also take this opportunity to salute the millions of workers all over the world who have openly condemned and taken decisive steps to isolate apartheid Israel, a step that should send shockwaves to its arrogant patrons in the United States who foot the bill for Israel’s killing machine. We call on
other workers and unions to follow suit and to do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.

We also welcome statements by various South African Jews of conscience who have dissociated themselves from the genocide in Gaza. We call on all South Africans to ensure that none of our family members are allowed to join the Israeli Occupation Forces’ killing machine.

In celebration of the actions of SATAWU members with regard to the ship from Israel, and in pursuance of the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and our call on the South African government to sever diplomatic and trade relations with Israel, this coalition of organisations has declared a week of action beginning on Friday, 6 February 2009. The actions will be organised under the theme:

FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!