Rights and Action

COSATU’s Seminar on Swaziland and Zimbabwe starts this morning at 09h15 in COSATU House, 1 Leyds Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg. It is expected that at least one of the two MDC women who arrived in Johannesburg yesterday from Harare for medical treatment will be there. The women are Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland (pictured). They were beaten up following the rally in Highfields, Harare on March 11. Also speaking will be COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi and Zimbabwean academic Brian Raftopoulos.

Also today, at 13h00, NUMSA will be picketing the Japanese Embassy, following the sudden and unilateral retrenchment of 410 workers by the Nissan car company. See the link below for details.

Next, as a further contribution to the Great Proletarian Culture Debate initiated by DITSELA in general and by Gino Govender in particular, see the link to Lenin’s brief statement on the occasion of the curtailment of the “Proletkult” organisation, in 1920. There is also a very interesting on-line book on the Proletkult by Lynn Mally, called Culture of the Future.

The six COSATU public sector unions have declared a deadlock in their negotiations with their employer, the government. The gap is wide on the main pay increase demand, and none of the other terms are agreed, either. The government has dragged its feet on the process with the result that the due date of the deal, April 1st, is almost upon us. There will be a period of conciliation, after which there could be an enormous strike if no agreement is forthcoming. See the statement, linked below.

COSATU’s General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi is scheduled to make three major speeches in the next few days. One is today, at the Zimbabwe/Swaziland seminar. Another is on Sunday, at the YCL Chris Hani Commemoration Rally in Limpopo. Then next Thursday, there will be a press conference following the long-awaited bilateral meeting between COSATU and the SACP. See the link for more details.

Also from the YCL, see the Bottom Line, linked below, for their National Secretary Buti Manamela’s Botswana diary, and the YCL’s statement on human rights.

There will be a second Communist University post today with the first instalment of the ANC’s newly-published discussion documents.

Click on these links:

Numsa pickets Japanese Embassy over Nissan retrenchments (245 words)

On Proletarian Culture, Lenin, 1920 (926 words)

COSATU public service unions bargaining statement (631 words)

COSATU Media Alert - Zwelinzima Vavi speaks (278 words)

YCL, Bottom Line, Botswana Diaries, Human Rights (2936 words)