African Activist Archive

The mailing says despite the February meeting between ANC-leader Nelson Mandela and Inkatha president Mangosutho Buthelezi, Inkatha-inspired violence against COSATU and its affiliates continues; the American Committee on Africa reports instances where employers have invited Inkatha's UWUSA organizers into workplaces organized by NUMSA in a conscious effort to split the workforce. The mailing says the Bush Administration has proposed $1 million in aid to the Inkatha Freedom Party through the U.S. AID program; it is recommended that organizations write Mervyn Dymally, Chairman, House Subcommittee on Africa to protest this appropriation. The mailing says the current recession in South Africa is hitting health workers especially hard; government cut-backs have led to lay-offs, pay disputes, and rapidly deteriorating working conditions in the public hospitals serving the black majority; while public-sector workers have no legal right to collective bargaining, record numbers are joining the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Unions (NEHAWU). The mailing says NEHAWU has appealed directly to the LCAA for support; right now black nurses are now being threatened with de-registration by the South African Nursing Council for their participation in union-led strikes; though SANC maintains they are only concerned with the nurses' "unprofessional behavior", NEHAWU and the nurses see the action as a clear attempt to prevent nurses from unionizing, and to divide the workforce along racial lines; NEHAWU is asking that U.S. unions send protest letters to the South African Nursing Council; the union has also asked for financial assistance to support its nurses organizing campaign. The mailing says LCAA has joined with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, NYC Comptroller Office and OCAW Local 8-149 in protesting Cyanamid's continued presence in South Africa; in addition to the company's failure to disinvest, the Chemical Workers Industrial Union reports the company still refuses to meet its South African workers demand for a union-sponsored provident fund; finally, Greenpeace has documented that mercury waste from Cyanamid's New Jersey plant has created serious environmental problems in rural Natal. The mailing says ICCR is organizing a shareholders protest at the company's annual meeting in mid-April; please contact Donna Katzin (212) 870-2928 if your union holds shares in Cyanamid; I have enclosed ICCR's brief and an order form for protest postcards. The mailing discusses ACOA (American Committee on Africa), UWUSA (United Workers Union of South Africa), American Cyanamid, COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions), and the Chemical Workers Industrial Union (CWIU). • STOP TIIE VIOLENCE • STRIKING NURSF.S DISCIPLINED • CYANAMID SHAREHOLDERS CAMPAIGN

African Activist Archive

Re: Action Updates

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