Speech at an Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid party celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela at the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Hall in Chicago. The speech says as Coordinator of the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid, along with Harold Rogers of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, we would like to thank Tony Kujawa for his support of our work. The speech says our objectives in the Labor Network are rather simple: for unions to speak together, with a louder voice, with the same voice, in solidarity with South African unions, and I think we have done so. The speech says the South African mineworkers had a gigantic strike in 1987, 300,000 miners in SA's largest...
Speech at an Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid party celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela at the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Hall in Chicago. The speech says as Coordinator of the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid, along with Harold Rogers of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, we would like to thank Tony Kujawa for his support of our work. The speech says our objectives in the Labor Network are rather simple: for unions to speak together, with a louder voice, with the same voice, in solidarity with South African unions, and I think we have done so. The speech says the South African mineworkers had a gigantic strike in 1987, 300,000 miners in SA's largest industry; it was the UMWA who brought that strike home to many of us; it was shortly after the strike that we organized the Labor Network, inspired largely by the mineworkers solidarity. The speech says during the last decade, unions in the U.S. have been battered by anti-union judges and politicians, by lousy labor laws and the NLRB, by corporate greed and government deregulation; despite this, the UMWA has never, even during the Pittston strike, ignore the fight for freedom of 25 million blacks under the hellish system of apartheid. The speech says it seems to me that there are some lessons we could learn from mineworkers here and in South Africa; I'll only mention one; someone said to me this week, some of our union folks spend more time carping at the labor movement than they do criticizing corporations; we could learn from the mineworkers to keep our focus on our opposition, and on unity. The speech says there is a clear message in the recent occurrences in South Africa; in the unbanning of political organizations, in the unmuzzling of COSATU, in the lifting of petty apartheid laws, in the release of Nelson Mandela. The speech says the campaign of defiance inside South Africa and the campaign for sanctions are forcing DeKlerk's hands: the squeeze on South Africa is working! The speech says as long as the pillars of apartheid remain intact, we must fight like hell for mandatory, comprehensive sanctions. The speech says the workers of South Africa have clearly said: we want corporations out; we want an end to corporate camouflage; we want responsible disinvestment; we want sanctions; and we want them enforced! The speech says if Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the National Union of Mineworkers, or Nomonde Ngubo of the UMWAs international office, or any of the miners of South Africa were here, I am sure they would echo these sentiments. The speech discusses UMWA (United Mine Workers of America), NLRB (National Labor Relations Board), F.W. de Klerk, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions), Amandla, and Ngawethu.
