Public sector workers in South Africa have begun an open-ended strike, having rejected the government’s offer of a pay rise. Unions affiliated with Cosatu, South Africa’s main union federation, have been holding out for an 8.6% rise, more than the latest government offer of 7%.

BBC

In a historic development for South Africa, South African dock workers have announced their determination not to offload a ship from Israel that is scheduled to dock in Durban on Sunday, 8 February 2009. This follows the decision by Cosatu to strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid Israel.
The pledge by Satawu (South African Transport and Allied Workers Union) members in Durban reflects the commitment by South African workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the globe. Last year, Durban dock workers refused to offload a shipment of arms that had arrived from China and was destined for Zimbabwe. Now, says Satawu’s General Secretary Randall Howard, the union’s members are committing themselves not to handle Israeli goods.

On 16 April [2008] news spread around the world of the arrival of a Chinese cargo ship, the An Yue Jiang, owned by China’s state shipping company, in the major container port in Durban, South Africa. The ship included three million rounds of ammunition and 1,500 rockets bound for Zimbabwe, two days drive from the port. The South African government explained to the world that there was nothing they could do: this was a legal transfer of cargo that had already been paid for by a neighbouring sovereign state. The problem was that the sovereign state of Zimbabwe was busy stealing an election and crushing the opposition. The South Africa Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) refused to be browbeaten by claims of legality. The union refused to unload the ship, while Satawu truckers said that they would not transport the cargo by road. The ship was paralysed in “outer anchorage” in “off-port limits”. Within a few days trade unions with members in ports near Zimbabwe followed suit: Mozambique and Namibia also refused to unload the weapons. The ship was forced to sail to Angola, where dock workers “maintained a watch” to ensure that the 77 tons of weapons were not unloaded.

This is a fantastic show of solidarity… Very inspiring… I hope the Suez Canal workers would do the same with the US and British warships passing through the canal on their way to bomb our brothers and sisters in Iraq… There are precedents for that.. In the 1940s, the Suez Canal workers boycotted the Dutch ships heading to Indonesia to suppress the anti-Colonial revolt…

The Congress of South African Trade Unions pledges its support for the 153 diamond polishers employed by the Lev Leviev Diamond (LLD) Polishing Company in Windhoek, Namibia, who have been on strike since June 19th to protest abusive managers as well as job appraisals and promotions, wages and outstanding overtime.
Adalah-NY, the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, report that the company, owned by Lev Leviev, whose companies are already a target of global condemnation for building Israeli settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law, has suspended the 153 strikers and is threatening to begin disciplinary hearings leading to firings, claiming the strike is illegal, according to the Namibian newspaper the New Era.
“The relevant employees will be issued with notices to appear before a disciplinary hearing committee, upon which if found guilty they may face severe penalties and possible dismissal,” LLD Managing Director K. Kapwanga threatened in the newspaper The Namibian.
The workers have been camped outside night and day a few hundred yards from the factory gates, after a court injunction forced them to move there from their original picket line.
Lev Leviev’s companies have been building of settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law, as well as his abuses of workers and communities from Angola to New York City. One fruit of Adalah-NY’s campaign has been UNICEF’s announcement on June 20th that it would no longer take donations from Leviev, which followed a similar decision by Oxfam International.
COSATU urges unions, supporters of human rights for Palestinians, and all other social justice groups to send messages of protest to LLD management, demanding that the strikers not be fired and that their demands be met (addresses and phone numbers to send messages to are below).
The company’s threats take on added weight because of support the government gave to its claim: Labour Commissioner Mathew Shinguadja has also claimed that the strike is illegal according to the New Era.