This message from Bishop Desmond Tutu was taped in Cape Town on June 6, 1988 and apparently transcribed by Rhode Island Divest. Tutu's notes that his greeting comes at the start of a three-day stay-away called by two black labor federations, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and NCTU, to protest the prospect of a new labor bill. Unions are at the cutting edge of the struggle for justice and peace and reconciliation. The unions are protesting not only the government's attempted emasculate of the black trade union movement but also the recent ban on 17 organizations and individuals that led to a march by several church leaders and others on February 29 from St. George's...
This message from Bishop Desmond Tutu was taped in Cape Town on June 6, 1988 and apparently transcribed by Rhode Island Divest. Tutu's notes that his greeting comes at the start of a three-day stay-away called by two black labor federations, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and NCTU, to protest the prospect of a new labor bill. Unions are at the cutting edge of the struggle for justice and peace and reconciliation. The unions are protesting not only the government's attempted emasculate of the black trade union movement but also the recent ban on 17 organizations and individuals that led to a march by several church leaders and others on February 29 from St. George's Cathedral intending to present a petition to Parliament. Tutu points out that people are seeking to use nonviolent strategies to resolve the crisis brought about by apartheid. At virtually every turn, nonviolent actions have met with a violent response from authorities. Tutu says we want a new, nonracial, democratic South Africa where all people, black and white, will be able to live harmoniously together. Tutu says the decision is whether you are on the side of justice or injustice - the side of liberation or of oppression. The government has claimed that it has ended forced population removals, but that is untrue. Black family life is eroded when the father must leave his wife and children in the Bantustan resettlement camps, eking out a miserable existence, whilst he lives as a migrant worker in a single-sex hostel for 11 months of the year. The message discusses sanctions, victims, press censorship brutality, democracy, and totalitarianism.
