African Activist Archive

Notes for the speech of Johnnie Jackson of the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid at the celebration of the release of Nelson Mandela organized by the Chicago Committee in Solidarity with Southern Africa (CCISSA). The speech says I greet you on behalf of the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid, chaired by Jack Parton of the United Steelworkers Union, Bill Stewart of the United Auto Workers Union, and myself of the Chicago Chapter, Coalition of Labor Union Women, and our many affiliated unions; through the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid, we seek to create ties between unions in Illinois and in South Africa. We seek better ties, in part, to strengthen disinvestment. The speech says last year, for example, the Rubber Workers Union in the U.S. was part of the effort to get Good Year Tire and Rubber Company out of South Africa; the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union in the U.S. was an integral part of the effort to get Mobil Oil out; many years ago, unions such as AFSCME withdrew their huge pension funds from companies doing business with South Africa; that is another special role for U.S. unions to contribute. The speech says the Labor Network thanks CCISSA, the Chicago Committee in Solidarity with Southern Africa, for its tremendous encouragement of our work; we look forward to working with you again on Sanctions and on Soweto Day actions and more, and on to final victory. The speech discusses Jay Naidoo, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), apartheid, the cheap labor system, the Defiance Campaign, the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM), townships, ballot boxes, the oppressed, BTR, Stewart-Warner in Chicago, responsible disinvestment, the oil embargo, Shell Oil, Moses Mayekiso, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), detainees, hunger strikes, and the African National Congress (ANC).

African Activist Archive

NOTES FOR JOHNNIE JACKSON / for CCISSA's NELSON MANDELA CELEBRATION

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