COSATU Today, 28 MArch 2011

Sikhakhane dedicated his entire life in the trenches fighting for the improved conditions of workers and an equitable distribution of wealth at the point for production with a revolutionary zeal. He was a fervent opponent of class exploitation as propagated by the crisis-ridden Capitalist system. He was adamant that the abolishment of private property was a necessary pre-condition for the triumph of our revolution, as part of smashing the dominant and contradictory property relations in our society that favours the owning and ruling class.

His commitment to the working class struggle remains an inspiration on the many struggles waged by the working class geared towards overthrowing the dictatorship of the ruling class and replaces it with the hegemony of the working class.

Sikhakhane joins the galaxy of trade unionists, such as Harry ‘Mdala’ Gwala, Moses Mabhida, John Gomomo, Mbuyiselo Ngwenda, Mthuthuzeli Tom, Violet Seboni and many others in the immortal land of the living that died without realizing the noble goals of our revolution as encapsulated in the Freedom Charter. Ours is to honour Sikhakhane and the generation of the trade union movement before him, to radically and practically nationalize the key strategic and commanding heights of the economy, such as Banks and Mines, as dictated by the Freedom Charter, as part of transferring the wealth of our country to be in the hands of the people as a whole.

The current leadership of Numsa is saddened by Sikhakhane’s untimely departure given his immense contribution in building a united, militant, vibrant, active and focused metalworkers union – Numsa. We are saddened by the fact that Sikhakhane is no longer be with us as we caution those comrades who are taking the ANC to courts to desist from such and use internal channels to raise their concerns pertaining to the list processes.

Sikhakhane will be with us in spirit when we have visit every factory, house by house, hostel by hostel, door by door, street by street, township by township, village by village, suburb by suburb campaigning for a decisive ANC-led Alliance electoral victory on the forthcoming local government elections – Wednesday 18 March 2011.

The best tribute we can give to Sikhakhane is by making sure that working class formations, particularly COSATU and SACP are not being used for upward mobility by any leader. These formations must forever remain the shield and spear of the exploited class in pursuit of a true meaning of freedom and democracy – Socialism.

We send our sincere and deep condolences to his family, friends and colleagues at BHP Billiton. Death shall not be proud! Isitsha esihle asidleli…!

Hamba Kahle Mboma kaMqhele! Mathula!

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1.2 COSATU NW Marches to the Department of Labour

Solly Phetoe, COSATU NW Provincial Secretary, 28 March 2011

COSATU together with its affiliates in the north west province will be marching to the department of labour in Christiana as a continuation of its campaign to fight corruption and provide decent work for the poor people of the province.

Part of COSATU demands is the realise of the report of the investigations done against the regional manager in the area and for the manager to stop victimising the workers. We will also demand that the department of labour should do inspection in all the workplaces we have requested them to inspect and they must close down those that are not complying with the safety laws and regulations.

COSATU calls on all the members and the community in and around Christiana to come out in numbers to support our course.

The march will take place as follows

Date: 29 March 2011

Venue : Utlwanang Taxi rank

Time : 10H00

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1.3 POPCRU fights for improvement of conditions of service of traffic officials

Norman Mampane, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 25 March 2011

POPCRU Limpopo representing more than two thirds of Traffic Officers, who are employed by the Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport sat for its Provincial Executive Committee on the 24-25th March 2011 to consider amongst others, the failure of the Department to upgrade employees from Level 5 to 6,outstanding payments on over-time dating back as far as three months, suspension of motor vehicle subsidy by the Head of Department without any alternative model, failure to comply with Occupational Health and Safety Act and allegations of impropriety in relation to short listing and appointment of officials.

POPCRU Limpopo has on numerous occasions sought to meet the Member of the Executive Council [MEC] for Roads and Transport and the Head of Department and all these initiatives failed. We have observed intransigence and indifferent attitude displayed by the HOD in addressing the plight of our members.

As a consequence of these challenges we took a resolution to embark on a Programme of Mass Action to demonstrate our displeasure on the situation and call upon al our members to heed the call and go out in their numbers to exercise their collective power as the working class to stop all these shenanigans.

We further wish o dispel a impression that was created by some sections of the media that as POPCRU were are unavailable to clarify the public on same.POPCRU subscribes to principle of Worker Control where decisions are led by workers. And we shall continue to fight for the interests of workers because we have nothing to lose by the chains that bind us.

POPCRU adjures the Department to come to the party to resolve all these matters.

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1.4 POPCRU fights for improvement of conditions of service of Traffic Officials

Norman Mampane, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 25 March 2011

POPCRU in Limpopo representing more than two thirds of Traffic Officers who are employed by the Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport sat for its Provincial Executive Committee on the 24-25th March 2011 to consider amongst others, the failure of the Department to upgrade employees from Level five to six,outstanding payments on over-time dating back as far as three months, suspension of motor vehicle subsidy by the Head of Department without any alternative model, failure to comply with Occupational Health and Safety Act and allegations of impropriety in relation to short listing and appointment of officials.

We further wish o dispel a impression that was created by some sections of the media that as POPCRU were are unavailable to clarify the public on same.POPCRU subscribes to principle of Worker Control where decisions are led by workers.And we shall continue to fight for the interests of workers because we have nothing to lose by the chains that binds us.

POPCRU adjures the Department to come to the party to resolve all these matters.

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1.5 Phakoe killed by enemies of progress

Solly Phetoe, COSATU NW Provincial Secretary, 28 March 2011

Moss Phakoe’s death was political and is still political.

We are celebrating the death of comrade Moss Phakoe. We are all in tears since Moss Phakoe was brutally killed at his house during the national election campaign after he handed over a detailed report and documents of corruption which implicated many of the politicians in the Rustenburg municipality.

COSATU wants to thank the family of Phakoe for putting up all what they have for the unveiling of the tombstone of Phakoe’s March 2011 during the local government election campaign where Moss Phakoe was going to be one of the best candidates supported by the real ANC and the communities. The brutal killing of Phakoe was politically motivated and it was very clear in the so called hit list which was handed over to the police for further investigations. What the police did was to frustrate those who were on the list especially those who were close to Phakoe.

Many political antirevolutionary activities happened during and after the killing of comrade Phakoe. We need to know from the police how far are they with the investigation?

The late Moss Phakoe’s wife died after she was interrogated by people called the experienced investigators, the same investigators said to the mother of Moss Phakoe that he is not going to satisfy both the mother of Moss or Solly Phetoe by arresting people who are not guilty or people who are not implicated to the death. The statement to us was that you may do what you want there will be no arrest and it is true there is no arrest after two years. The investigators must confirm to the family including the people of the north west that the death of Moss Phakoe was politically motivated and because it involve politics no one will be arrested.

As COSATU we are watching with clear open eyes and ears on the ground that all cases that involves corruption with politicians will not go anywhere in the north west. E.g. the case of the former mayor of Ngaka Modiri Molema was withdrawn from the court after all evidence was there including the burning of the office. Today the people of the North West are told that there is no enough evidence. The SIU investigated 24 municipality due to the same report that brutally killed Moss Phakoe we are on the third year now and still there is no results.

The case of the department of education involving very high senior people, the case is nowhere today. The former premier reported that there is forensic investigation in all the provincial departments, where is the report of two years ago from today. The case of former municipal manager of Madibeng who is currently out on bail of R 40 000.00 for over a year now, what will happen to the case, very soon it will be dropped due to his political position as the ANC provincial treasurer.

Many municipal managers were removed, councillors including mayors were replaced due to corruption that brutally killed Moss Phakoe. Today they are coming back as councillors, what happened to the report? 2011 local government election campaign COSATU uses the unveiling of the tombstone of comrade Moss Phakoe encouraging COSATU members and the communities including the family of comrade Moss Phakoe to vote for the ANC.

COSATU also condemned all those comrades who want to stand as independent candidates due to their name been removed and we want to say your removal from the list suggest that you do not belong to faction and you are not a member of a member therefore all those who are removed must remain strong in the ANC and defend the ANC within the ANC and must not be anti-revolutionaries.

COSATU calls the removal of real comrades who were nominated by the ANC and supported by the communities a real factional and antirevolutionary in particular the Bojanala region. Name that are removed are of those who did not support other faction during the ANC conference and that is uncalled for. As COSATU we are calling for unity in the north wets province towards winning the 2011 local government elections for better life of pour poor communities including creating decent jobs in the whole province.

COSATU used the platform to deal with supper exploitation of the poor mine works (Aurora) which is busy scraping the mine while the case is pending with liquidators. Our members (NUM) are dying every day due to the Aurora exploitation. It is clear that what we are told by the workers Aurora directors came again on Thursday the 24/03/2011 to take the assets of Pamudzi at the time of the court. There will be no assets and the workers will lose all their belongings.

COSATU take this opportunity to send a message of condolence to the nine (9) mine workers who died in a bus accident on their way to work at Carletonville. COSATU blames the mine bosses of all the workers who are NUM members. The investigation by both police and the department of transport will not bring back the lives of those workers to their children who are without fathers or mothers due to the negligence of the mine bosses who do not care about our lives. They only care about the profits for their own stomach. Let the mine take the responsibility of all what happened to our members. May their soul rest in peace.

2. South Africa

2.1 COSATU NC irked by Police Commissioner’s conduct

Anele Gxoyiya, COSATU NC Provincial Secretary, 25 March 2011

COSATU in the Northern Cape has expressed anger at the behaviour of the South African Police Service in the Northern Cape since the arrival of the Bheki Cele imposed Provincial Commissioner who does not have a clue how the service in the province has been operating.

Since the arrival of Commissioner Basson there have been a number of violent attacks by police on innocent and unarmed civilians in the province. There was an incident of police brutality in Kakamas where the MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison together with his HOD had to make an intervention.

The recent two incidents in John Taolo Gaetsewe Region, where young learners were subjected to close range shooting which resulted into two people admitted in the ICU in hospital, have prompted us to rise and say Basson has overstayed her welcome in the Northern Cape.

In De Aar peaceful protesters were shot at, as well as innocent people who were not even part of the protest action.

As COSATU we call on the Portfolio Committee of Safety in the Provincial Legislature to summon Basson to come and account for her barbaric acts. She must be instructed to go to those communities where she has caused havoc and explain to those people why they must not rise against her and push her out of the province.

We will not accept a situation where Basson will come to this province and instil fear on our people. We will also not accept a situation where our MEC will be reduced into a fire extinguisher who runs after Basson to clean her mess in our communities.

Our message to Jeanette Basson it that she must get her act together or ship out peacefully before the people of the Northern Cape force her out.

We call on the police officers in the province to resist any attempts to reduce them into tools that are used to reverse transformation. They must resist any command that seeks to set them up against our communities.

All workers and members of the community of Kimberley and the surrounding areas are called upon to prepare themselves for a march on 20 April 2011 where we will be calling for the removal of Basson before she plunges our province into a crisis.

We will resist the apartheid style policing that Basson is trying to introduce in the Northern Cape with all our might.

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2.2 COSATU NW fully behind the ANC on elections

Solly Phetoe, COSATU International Relations Secretary, 28 March 2011

COSATU in the North West has appreciated the opportunity to participate in the ANC’s local government elections list processes from the ground level and during the whole night meeting of the extended ANC PEC that was given the mandate from the ANC NWC to work on the list, properly following the ANC list processes.

However, the list processes were overlooked by some of the deployees.

COSATU is on record that when the ANC changed all that was done on the night of the 16 of March until the morning of the 17 ^March 2011, it happened without informing the alliance.

COSATU condemns that the federation was not informed about the changes on the ANC list.

We are requesting and appealing to all members of the federation and loyal members of the ANC in all regions that we must go out and work for the ANC to win the election and close the book of complaining. The federation condemns the independent candidates, the burning of government properties, damaging of ANC properties and the plan of resigning from the ANC due to your name being removed from the list.

We are aware that some of the removals are as a result of clashed that took place during the ANC regional and the provincial conferences in November 2010 and February 2011 which must be condemned strongly by COSATU.

Both the ANC regional chairperson and the provincial chairperson, during their acceptance speeches, indicated the importance of the call for unity in the province which is supported by COSATU.

None of us was born as a councillor, born as the secretary, born as the mayor or born as the MEC. For us to be in those positions we must be elected by our constituency and serve the poor communities as per the mandates of our movement.

As the federation in the NW we are calling for a cool heads on all those who were removed from the list due to factions, friends, business opportunities including populists in the ANC.

The ANC is not for sale; those who are imposed on the communities will not fail the ANC in the long run like those who are removed before the end of their term.

The ANC belongs to the masses of the poor people and it will win the election not for the individuals who continue to use the ANC for their own business opportunities.

COSATU NW is on the ground to make sure that ANC wins the 2011 election. We are also warning the DA to stop promising our poor people things that they did not do when their friend of the National party were in power. If the DA today speaks about non racism in their manifesto, why are poor farm workers, and domestic workers who worked for them still being racially killed, assaulted, insulted and evicted. Why do most white farmers not follow our constitution, or the laws and are corrupting most of our officials, in particular labour inspectors? The DA has never represented the African black people in this country; we must not be fooled.

COSATU calls on all its members to remain in the movement of the people, the ANC.

COSATU calls its supports go out and vote for the ANC, the only movement that bought the democracy in SA.

COSATU calls all its shop stewards to go out and campaign for the ANC in all wards, in farm areas, in all rural communities, in all townships.

We call on our farm workers not to be used for the election by white racist farmers, not to be intimidated by any farmer during Election Day, refuse to be associated with any other political party. Only the ANC can change your working conditions under the ANC government and organised in COSATU affiliates.

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2.4 SACP EC condemns forced removal of poor families

Xolile Nqatha, SACP EC Provincial Secretary, 28 March 2011

The SACP in the Eastern Cape has expressed outrage at the forced removal in Butterworth’s Bhungeni Informal Settlement of people which has seen 2000 left homeless.

The SACP condemns this behavior which is a painful reminder of where we come from, during the dark days of apartheid, when black people were treated as sub-humans in their own country. We condemn this removal that represent a violation even of our country’s constitution as it makes it illegal to remove people without providing alternative shelter.

This forced removal, taking place during the human rights month represent as another attack to the dignity not only of the people of Bhungeni but to the majority of workers and the poor who leave in degrading conditions as a minority enjoys the benefits of our country’s economy. It is indeed an insult to remove people to make way for mall construction and the owners of “new mall” are going to need the same people as cheap labour to construct the mall and then employ some of them as casual workers with no benefits in the outlets to be opened.

We call upon the Mnquma Municipality to take the side of the people and defend their rights to human dignity. It is not enough to claim they did not know as reported in the media. As the SACP, we further call on all public representatives in that area to stand on the side of those they claim to represent. These are the same people they want their votes as we approach the coming local government elections. We pledge our support as the SACP to all the affected families and committing to join them in a life of dignity in a free South Africa.

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2.5 1330 ANCYL branches in good standing- ANCYL NWC

Floyd Shivambu, ANCYL Spokesperson, 24 March 2011

The National Working Committee of the ANC Youth League met on Thursday, the 24^th of March 2011 to receive updates and reports towards the 24^th National Congress of the ANC Youth League which will happen between the 16^th and 20^th of June 2011 in Johannesburg.

The NWC accepted and discussed the draft discussion documents from the 24^th National Congress’ Drafting, Resolutions and Communications Committee. The NWC appreciated the work done by the Drafting, Resolutions and Communications Committee and referred all the documents to the ANC Youth League National Executive Committee, which will happen between the 6^th and 8^th of April 2011 in Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape. The official launch of the Congress discussion documents will happen on the 10^th of April 2011 in Luthuli House.

The NWC also received an update that thus far, 1330 ANC Youth League branches in good standing have gone to their respective Branch and Annual General Meetings and Congresses to elect delegates and prepare for the 24^th National Congress. The NWC appreciates the reality that there were no incidents of successful disruptions to these processes, which will be replicated in the Regional and Provincial General Councils.

All branches of the ANC Youth League are expected to convene their Branch and Annual General Meetings before the 30^th of April 2011 to allow the audit process to begin. The NWC calls on all Provincial and Regional Executive Committees to expedite the processes of Branch and Annual General Meetings and selection of delegates, particularly that currently, more than half of the branches expected to attend Congress have convened their BGMs and AGMs.

The NWC notes the discussion document released by National Treasury titled Confronting Youth Unemployment: Policy options for South Africa. The discussion document amongst other things proposes the Youth Wage Subsidy as a mechanism of addressing youth unemployment. The ANC Youth League is opposed to Youth Wage Subsidy and will soon release a detailed perspective on how to respond to massive youth unemployment. The ANC Youth will continue to be on the forefront of providing sustainable solutions to challenges confronting the youth.

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2.6 Renaming jails will not improve the country’s prisons-POPCRU

Norman Mampane, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 25 March 2011

POPCRU has noted the universal truth alluded by the Deputy Editor of the Star on his Opinion and Analysis piece in the Star Newspaper on a fact that the “Department of Correctional Services has its priorities mixed-up”.

On an open account on the 22nd March 2011 the National Commissioner of DCS said “Outcome II of the South African government’s strategic plans, inter alia, about
strengthening integration, political cohesion, governance capacity and public safety as an integral part of building a better Africa and world”.

He further said “the Department will be to progressively address the perennial challenges of over-crowding, poor health care services, limited access to rehabilitation, regional transfers of inmates and improving the pace of delivery of the broader criminal justice system to avoid inordinate prison terms”. And no mention was made on naming changing as a key driver of change to making offender population take the advantage of skills revolution in the new dispensation.

We want to argue that apartheid fault-lines remain largely intact in our society with specific references to inequalities, structural unemployment and Bantustans
modeled development which makes many townships to be built on the periphery of cities and towns thus making workers to be located away from workplaces and with many communities still trapped under apartheid influenced names such as Kaffirkraal, Buffelspruit etc.

We agree with the argument put forth by Jovial that “changing prisoners and not prison names “must be the key focal point of the Department. And also content that indeed “spending millions on renaming jails will not make prisons or inmates or the country any better”. Same can be true on many millions spent to defend “defend less cases” at the Labour Court recently around the disputes on the shift system.

We have due respect for participative democracy and entrenchment of public participation through hearing but our view is that the recent one held by DCS was just a “PR Exercise” to wash away the bad publicity the department is experiencing through indecisiveness on matters of importance relating to improvement of conditions of service of our membership and the offender population.

Before the distortion of rehabilitation in DSC through the introduction of Private-Public-Participation- narrow programme,the department was having specialized focus through the provision of skills programmes that enhanced the acquiring of portable skills such as shoe making from Losperfontein, Tailoring from Witbank and Cooking from Krugersdorp Correctional Centres, Dept. And such programmes promoted inmate labour which reduced the "24hour TV viewership syndrome" currently experienced in many Correctional Centres. Experience have proved that idleness is a source of anarchy and horrible actions from any person
on the world. Inmate labour was also to curb tender crisis the department is finding itself in as per the SIU Findings which are not yet made public.

DSC is still expected to budge on allegations of corruption, maladministration and wasteful expenditure related to tenders awarded to Sondolo, Bosasa and Phezulu which the Special Investigating Report’s Findings identified and such must be shared with all stakeholders in general. And many cases such as the Shift System and handling of Occupational Specific Dispensation matters are some of the mishandling within the Department.

We recently attended Safety and Security Sectoral Education and Training Authority [SASSETA] Road shows in which a vociferous calling was made to allow a new dispensation on policy by DCS to allow offenders to access skills programmes offered through Seta’s.

In the current conjuncture security measures, amongst others, on compulsory lock-up schedules disallow adequate contact session by service providers with offenders as per the National Qualification Framework to conclude assessment requirements. And the processes entail providing security for all role-players as security risks become a major concern. Such imperatives must be budgeted and therefore prioritized.

The key challenge facing many former offenders is the continuing impasse around
stigma attached to CV compilation in which an applicant is requested to attest as to whether he or she has a criminal record. The mere writing of yes in many instances prejudices the applicant from employment. We are not saying many people should falsify their credentials, however we are saying employers must consider affording former offenders an opportunity to participate in the economic cycle as part of rehabilitation and social reintegration. And with that attitude, corrections as part of the safety and security value chain in the country will achieve the ideals of indeed accelerating of harmony of DCS programmes on corrections.

Together we can fix the mix-up by reprioritizing vital deliverables to achieve the Delivery Agreement Outcomes signed by all Departments to enhance quality service delivery for all.

3. International

3.1 COSATU Mpumalanga to march to the Swaziland border

Fidel Mlombo, COSATU NW Provincial Secretary, 28 March 2011

COSATU in Mpumalanga will stage a protest march to the Oshoek Swaziland border gate in support of the struggle waged by the people of Swaziland for freedom and democracy.

The past few weeks have seen a lot of protest actions inside Swaziland by the poor and the working class demanding both political and economic freedom.

The COSATU Provincial Executive Committee has taken a decision to provide active solidarity by staging a protest march against the dictatorship of the Mswati regime.

We believe that this march will be a final push to the collapse of the Mswati regime which is already limping and bleeding like a wounded animal.

We regret that since the 1973 degree imposed by Mswati to the people of Swaziland, that banned political parties, banned political activism, subjected the people of Swaziland into the subjects of the King and his family – the socio – economic status of the people of Swaziland is deteriorating

The Socio – Economic profile of Swaziland indicates that

Ø More than forty 40% of the people of Swaziland and are unemployed.

Ø Swaziland has one of the highest levels of inequalities between the rich and the poor; the poor are getting more poorer on daily basis

Ø About 70% of the people of Swaziland live below the poverty line, over 300 000 of the one million citizens depend on food aid.

Ø Swaziland has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world, which is hovering between 40 and 50% of the population.

Ø The economy of Swaziland is centred around the royal family and their trusted friends.

COSATU has vowed in its PEC to intensify the struggle against the brutal and autocratic Mswati regime through protest actions including border blockages, pickets, protest marches inside and outside Swaziland.

In this regard on the 12 April 2011 COSATU will stage protest march from South Africa to the Oshoek border gate in Swaziland to demand the following:-

Ø Unbanning of all political parties

Ø Unconditional return of all those who are exiled

Ø Media freedom

Ø Democratic constitution

Ø Freedom of choice and association

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3.2 Sunday Times of Swaziland undermines people’s struggle

Lucky Lukhele, SSN Spokesperson, 28 March 2011

The Sunday Times of Swaziland’s project to undermine the Swazi people’s revolutionary April 12 uprising took a turn this Sunday as the newspaper desperately attempted to hoodwink the nation into believing that a revolution in the country was impossible.

In a week that saw Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) leader, Solly Mapaila, making numerous interviews with South African media on the subject, “Why Swazis should rise against their government,” the pro-government tabloid ignored all those interviews and only published one that fitted its agenda.

They chose to publish the myopic, racist and blatantly cliché views of a so-called “expert” from the Institute for Security Studies a Pretoria based NGO whose vision is ironically, “A stable and peaceful Africa, characterised by human rights, the rule of law, democracy and collaborative security.”

Swaziland is notorious for its disregard for all the above and has no democracy. Interestingly, Dr Hohn chose not to mention any of that and apologetically stated that,” the monarchy sometimes attracts global criticism for some bad decisions”, as if its very existence is not a bad decision to begin with.

This so-called “expert”, Dr Judy Smith Hohn, was quoted while speaking on a programme broadcasted the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Throwing around clichés like, “Swaziland is different from other African countries.” “The country is a traditionally-oriented society,” the senior researcher sounded more like a kindergarten aged child regurgitating the conversations of her parents than a seasoned and original thinker.

As the days leading up to Swaziland’s historic rendezvous with its ultimate destiny of democracy, The Swaziland Solidarity Network would like to assure all courageous and democracy loving Swazis that their future lies in their hearts and minds, not in the jaundiced narrow perceptions of people who do not even know the difference between a Swazi and a Swati.

Swazi people are not the ignorant skin-clad tribes people that the international media would like the world to believe. As Mr Mapaila correctly observed in one interview, the majority of Swatis live in South Africa and only a thin fence separates the nation tribe. If one half can live in a Democratic Republic, how can the other half fail to conceive and actualise one themselves?

This so-called expert’s views echo Apartheid era propaganda which attempted to portray Black South African people as being tribal and traditional with no grasp of the concept of democracy and were used as an excuse to maintain white privilege and economic domination over them for years as democracy was the preserve of Europeans. If these are the views of the Institute of Security Studies then they are indeed unnerving.

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3.3 Tribute for Pakistan trade union leader

Rubina Jamil,General Secretary All Pakistan Trade Union Federation

As you know that a great leader of Pakistani working class and a pioneer of left trade union movement, Gulzar Ahmed Chaudhary, General Secretary of All Pakistan Trade Union Federation passed away on February 14^th, 2011.

On the behalf of All Pakistan Trade Union Federation and Working Women Organization, we thank you so much for your message of condolence and your great remarks for (Late) Comrade Gulzar Ahmed Chaudhary, great leader and trade unionist in Pakistan.

The best way to pay tribute to Comrade Gulzar is to continue his revolutionary struggle for democracy, end imperialism exploitation, privatization and building peace where every human being get freedom, jobs and social justice.

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3.4 SDC online platforms

The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) would like to draw your attention to its online platforms that host a Declaration and many other critical documents and information (www.swazidemocracy.org and www.sdcampaign.mobi) . May you visit the websites, and sign the declaration in support of the campaign. In addition to this, may you mobilize affiliates, shop stewards, comrades, partners etc to support the campaign by signing the declaration and participating in SDC activities where possible.

www.swazidemocracy.org (on your pc)

www.sdcampaign.mobi (on both your mobile and pc)

Note that messages of support towards the first SDC anniversary celebrations are welcome (see website for more information). The messages will be posted on SDC websites.

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