* [image: NUMSA] NUMSA Statement, 20 December 2010
Death of an SACP Stalwart * The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is saddened by the death of Cde Jean Middleton, the SACP and Congress of Democrats stalwart. Cde Middleton passed away in London where she was living. Cde Middleton passes away in the midst of conspicuous revelations that our criminal intelligence operatives are abusing their powers to silence a journalist. Cde Middleton, a revolutionary and organic journalist herself, she would decry to hear that journalists are now being subjected to the old apartheid tactics of surveillance, tapping or intimidation. Muzzling or imposing tribunals on the media will not help us in the fight against service delivery backlogs, reversing the massive rate of unemployment amongst the vast sections of the Blacks working class, and fighting corruption in all spheres of society where it manifests itself. In Cde Middleton, we have lost a Cadre, prolific writer and journalist. Cde Middleton is a symbol of left-leaning and progressive journalism that is not detached from concrete realities and conflated by profit margins and anti-peoples aspirations for a just and better South Africa. Cde Middleton belongs to a generation that understands and knows that the Congress Alliance (now called Tripartite) is the strategic centre of political power and leader of our people. As Numsa, we find solace in that Cde Middleton has not gone, but she has joined the immortal living in ideas. We call on the SACP, including the ANC and COSATU to invest resource to train and produce a new generation of writers and organic journalists. In an era where progressive and left ideas are supposedly to be hegemonic, our people are being fed neo-liberalism in newspapers, books, TV, radio, iPods, internet and everywhere! We send our sincere and profound condolences to the SACP, ANC, COSATU and the mass democratic movement as a whole. *Contact:* * * *Castro Ngobese, National Spokesperson – 073 299 1595* * * -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
