Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 14 May 2024
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY Inaugural Elijah Barayi Memorial Lecture is taking place tomorrow at UJ Campus in Soweto #Back2Basics #ElijahBarayiBrigades #VoteANC #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
Our side of the story
14 May 2024
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- POPCRU supports Mokgadi Caster Semenya in her upcoming court appearance
- South Africa
- COSATU notes with disappointment the latest unemployment figures
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- The WFTU on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba Day
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
POPCRU supports Mokgadi Caster Semenya in her upcoming court appearance
Richard Mamabolo, POPCRU Media & Communication Officer, 14 May 2024
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) pledges its solidarity with Mokgadi Caster Semenya as she is set to appear before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which will start a hearing in Strasbourg tomorrow, Wednesday on a referred case after it found last year that Semenya had been discriminated against and her privacy had been violated.
This after Semenya lost an appeal at the Swiss Federal Court in an attempt to overturn World Athletics rules which required athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) to take hormone suppressants in order to compete against other women.
As Caster Semenya's costly legal marathon enters its last lap at the highest chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), we hope the upcoming decision in her ongoing court battle will set a precedent in protecting the rights of athletes.
In 2018, the World Athletics (then IAAF) promulgated new sex testing regulations that regulated testosterone levels of females who have naturally occurring higher testosterone levels associated with Differences in Sex Development. The regulations indicated that to be eligible to participate females with higher testosterone levels should reduce their testosterone levels by taking medication. These regulations applied to females participating in the 400 meters, 800 meters and 1500 m track and field events.
Semenya’s journey to protect her right to participate in a sport that she excelled in has not been an easy one. She obtained a breakthrough in July of 2023 when she won an appeal that she had submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to end testosterone limits.
On the 15th May 2024, the Grande Chamber of the European Human Rights (ECHR) will hear the case that was referred by the Switzerland government after the European Court decision ruled in favour of Caster Semenya and found that the Federal Tribunal had failed to uphold human rights norms despite credible claims of discrimination.
Mokgadi Caster Semenya had taken the medication to lower her testosterone and this has threatened her health because she was left with negative side effects. Since her battle against the World Athletics, she has lost time to defend her gold medal in 2021 and she has lost financial support from brands that sustain her livelihood.
We stand in solidarity and we vouch our support to Mokgadi Caster Semenya. We believe that she is a woman and we believe in her course of advocating against discriminations in the Sports.
Issued by POPCRU
COSATU notes with disappointment the latest unemployment figures
Matthew Parks, COSATU Acting National Spokesperson & Parliamentary Coordinator, 14 May 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) notes with disappointment the latest unemployment figures showing a slight uptick in the unemployment rate. Whilst this is not unusual for the 1st quarter of the year which normally follows a seasonal increase in jobs over the festive holidays and retail peak period during the 4th quarter of the year, it is nonetheless disappointing.
Though we are frustrated by an increase in unemployment, we appreciate that this is not surprising given the challenges at Transnet that the mining, manufacturing and agricultural experienced during the first half of the 1st quarter and the 4th quarter in particular.
We are heartened by indications in the jobs report that the mining, manufacturing and agricultural sectors are showing signs of recovering from the challenges they encountered in transporting their exports.
The report is a sobering reminder that we cannot sustain the current levels of unemployment and that whilst we are seeing critical progress on many fronts, from the massive decrease in loadshedding, to the reduction in congestion at our ports, the reopening of various freight and commuter rail lines, the increase in revenues collected by SARS and significant investment injections by such international giants as VW and Hisense; much more remains to be done to unlock the economy and slash unemployment.
The African National Congress’ elections manifesto correctly places a mass investment programme in the economy’s industrialisation, local procurement and job creation programmes.
Whilst this is rolled out it is critical that not only are these important interventions in the economy, amongst others, are expedited, but similarly we accelerate measures to provide relief to the unemployed through the SRD Grant, to assist young people to enter the labour market through the Presidential Employment Stimulus and other programmes, as well as the implementation of the Two Pot Pension Reforms on 1 September providing relief to millions of indebted workers.
Unemployment is the heart of our socio-economic challenges. It must be at the heart of government and the private sector’s plans. Businesses in particular must halt retrenchments and engage with Labour on alternatives. What we cannot afford to do is send more workers to the unemployment queue.
Unemployment needs to be tackled with the same sense of collective urgency and determination as we successfully tackled the COVID-19 pandemic.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
The WFTU on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba Day
14 May 2024
The 15th of May, 1948, is known in history for the Palestinian people and the world as the “Day of Catastrophe”, the “Nakba Day”, when 15,000 Palestinians were murdered and another 750,000 were displaced from their land.
The World Federation of Trade Unions along with our brothers and sisters in Palestine remembers and condemns this day every year, which marked the beginning of the occupation, the illegal settlement and the crimes of Israel against the Palestinian people.
Today, 76 years after the Nakba Day, a new Nakba is being performed by the murderous state of Israel, with the support of the USA, the EU and the rest of their allies. Continuing its methodical tactic of genocide and the total expulsion of the Palestinians from their land, Israel is proceeding with the attack on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are trying to survive. The intensifying aggression and the imminent attack are going to multiply the civilian and child victims in the Gaza Strip.
The consistent and principled support and solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people had always been a priority for the international class-oriented trade union movement. The only way to guarantee and consolidate peace and security in the region is to immediately end Israeli occupation and settlement on Palestinian land, as stipulated in dozens of resolutions of the UN and other International Organisations and institutions that have never been respected by Israel, including the recent decision of the International Court. An independent Palestinian state must be established on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, guaranteeing the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
On the occasion of the 76th anniversary of Nakba Day, the WFTU expresses once again its full solidarity with the Palestinian people. The class-oriented trade union movement, will continue proudly waving the Palestinian flag next to the flag of the WFTU, demanding an end to the genocide, and standing in the right side of history!
We reiterate our call to affiliates and friends to intensify all actions in solidarity with Palestine through mass demonstrations, mobilizations, protests, strikes, initiatives and struggles of various forms, using the means of military, commercial, academic and institutional boycotts.
We salute the militant students in the US, Europe and elsewhere, who despite the repression, have flooded dozens of universities demanding an end to the massacre and the non-engagement of their countries in the crime against the Palestinian people.
In the framework of intensifying the internationalist solidarity for Palestine, the WFTU is organizing a solidarity visit of a wide International Delegation with the participation of trade unionist of the WFTU from every continent, inside Palestine, for the last week of June. This visit aims to strengthen the solidarity and support of the large WFTU family to the hard struggle of the Palestinian people. Through the visits in several Palestinian areas, through the activities organized, and through the meetings with Palestinian workers, officials, refugees and the political leadership of the country, the WFTU International Delegation will convey in a more direct way the message that our brothers and sisters in Palestine are not alone in their struggle.
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Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street, Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct line: 010 219-1348