RESOLUTION ON THE SHELL BOYCOTT

The resolution says WHEREAS, oil is a strategic and essential commodity for the South African government and South Africa does not have its own supplies; WHEREAS, without oil the apartheid government of South Africa could not survive; WHEREAS, the Royal Dutch /Shell Group of Companies, the largest corporation in the world in terms of assets, ships oil to South Africa in violation of the international oil embargo against South Africa by the United Nations; WHEREAS, Shell supplies the brutal South African police and its surrogate armies with oil products which enable them to enter black townships and shoot down hundreds of unarmed blacks and to invade Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, and Mozambique and to, in contravention of the United Nations decrees, illegally occupy Namibia; WHEREAS, Shell operates coal mines under slave-labor conditions and undercuts American-mined coal in the market abroad; and WHEREAS, it is clear that no argument based upon moral or humanitarian reasoning will cause Royal Dutch/Shell to cease to support the racist government of South Africa and that the sole motivation for Royal Dutch/Shell's investments in South Africa - monetary profits - must be removed. The resolution says RESOLVED, that endorses the ___________the Shell Oil boycott, until Royal Dutch /Shell stops propping up the apartheid economy and government and severs its ties to South Africa; RESOLVED, that we will advertise the boycott of Shell through newsletters and other publications, and at conferences and meetings of our members; RESOLVED, that we will ask our members to boycott Shell products, to stop using Shell Oil credit cards, and to promote the Shell boycott; RESOLVED, that we support the passage by local governmental bodies of a Selective Purchasing Ordinance to ban the purchase of any commodity from those companies which are either directly or indirectly involved in the petroleum industry in South Africa; RESOLVED, that we will join with the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid and other local unions and organizations in the Shell boycott campaign and will take part in actions aimed at getting Shell out of South Africa; RESOLVED, that we will contribute $ to the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid for the Shell boycott campaign; FURTHER RESOLVED, that we hereby express our solidarity with union brothers and sisters in South Africa; we salute their courage in confronting the apartheid regime; we commend their leadership in the struggle to end the racist system of apartheid; and we are inspired by their militant unionism; and FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution will be sent to the National Union of Mineworkers, South Africa's largest union, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the largest labor federation in South Africa, and to the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid. The resolution includes a space for a union affiliate to add its name. The resolution discusses COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions).