{"id":6483,"date":"2009-02-09T09:06:33","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T14:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=6483"},"modified":"2009-02-09T10:52:34","modified_gmt":"2009-02-09T15:52:34","slug":"cosatu-general-secretary-zwelinzima-vavi-in-solidarity-with-the-people-of-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=6483","title":{"rendered":"COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi: In solidarity with the people of Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Address to Lenasia Rally
\n14th January 2009<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

From our own experience, we know how painful and dehumanising is the system of segregation, otherwise known as apartheid. Apartheid is a system based on the assumption that one group or race is superior to others and therefore has a right to all the privileges and virtues associated with that particular status. It has a right to run and determine the lives of others, excluding them from certain privileges, merely because they do not belong to the \u201cchosen\u201d group.<\/p>\n

What other definition would so fittingly define a system based on different rights and privileges for Jews and Arabs in the Middle East? The bantustanisation of Palestine into pieces or strips – West Bank, Ramallah, Gaza strip and so on – run by Israel and with no rights whatsoever for the Palestinians, is definitely an apartheid system.<\/p>\n

Israel occupied the land of the Palestinian people and created settler communities of Jews who enjoy a different lifestyle and privileges than those experienced by Palestinians. Palestinians are packed like Sardines in a tin throughout the Bantustans, with Gaza being acknowledged as the world\u2019s biggest open-air prison.<\/p>\n

The prime characteristics of apartheid in South Africa included:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Segregation of the country into highly developed whites-only areas co-existing with extremely under-developed black communities, where the majority lived with no or limited rights and access to basic facilities;<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The black majority had no rights to freely participate and determine their destiny without the supervision of the superior race, which made all the decisions and enforced them through a highly militarised state machinery;<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The country was further balkanised into various Bantustans – Bophuthatswana, Kwangwane, Kwandebele, Venda, Transkei, KwaZulu, Ciskei, etc. – which were partitioned in such a way that within the same country you needed a passport to travel from one Bantustan to the other. In between these Bantustans was South Africa, a land foreign to all blacks but firmly in the hands of white supremacists<\/p>\n

What is the situation in Palestine today?<\/p>\n

[Read more<\/a> | hat tip<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Related<\/em>:
\nVictory for worker solidarity
\n6 February 2009<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Congress of South African Trade Union is pleased to announce that its members, dock workers belonging to the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) achieved a victory last night when they stood firm by their decision not to offload the Johanna Russ, a ship that was carrying Israeli goods to South Africa. This, despite threats to COSATU members from sections of the pro-Israeli lobby, and despite severe provocation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Read more<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Address to Lenasia Rally 14th January 2009 From our own experience, we know how painful and dehumanising is the system of segregation, otherwise known as apartheid. Apartheid is a system based on the assumption that one group or race is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-1Gz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6483"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6504,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions\/6504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}