** *NUMSA WOMEN’S DAY MESSAGE*
*9 August 2011* The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) takes this opportunity to salute the women of our country on this august occasion of celebration of the heroic 1956 women’s march to the bastion of apartheid oppression - Pretoria. We pay tribute to the gallantry and fighting women of our country such as Dora Tamana, Hilda Bernstein, Sonia Bunting, Dorothy Nyembe, Lillian Ngoyi, Victoria Mxenge, Ruth First, Bessie Head, Adelaide Tambo, Jabulile Ndlovu, Esther Bersel, Albertina Sisulu, Violet Seboni and countless others. We salute the thousands of women that were at the picket-lines during our class battles with capitalist bosses for a Living Wage. We salute the thousands of women who continue to be the voice of conscience against corruption as promoted by the predatory elites. We salute the thousands of our women who refuse to be demeaned by those who flaunt their wealth by eating sushi over their bodies. We call on the working class and the poor women of our country to celebrate this year’s women’s day in protest. Our country is amongst the most and leading unequal country in the world which manifest itself in the form of high rate of mass unemployment, deepening income inequalities, rising cost of living, ravaged by scourge of HIV/AIDS diseases, high cost of health-care, grinding poverty and high cost of transportation which are burden to the working class and poor women. All these socio-economic pitfalls are being reproduced by capitalism and the neo-liberal economic policies adopted by our nascent democratic government. This requires the working class and the poor women of our country to draw inspiration from the heroic 1956 women to fight and defeat capitalism. As long as capitalism still persist and dominant in our country, the triple crisis of unemployment, inequalities and underdevelopment will remain intact and unchanged. Whilst we appreciate the advances made by our democratic government to improve the conditions of the working class and poor women through free housing, social grants, roll-out of electricity, water connections, however these advances are being reversed by neo-liberalism through soaring food prices, fuel, electricity and jobs bloodbath. Our country, 17 years into democracy, remains the most sexist and patriarchal society which is an integral part of the rottenness of the capitalist system since the system is not people centred, but profit driven. During this women’s day we remember in tearful pain the brutal murder of Noxola Nogwaza, who was raped and stoned to death because of her sexual orientation. We call on working class and poor women of our country to rebuild and swell the ranks of the ANC Women’s League, as opposed being a lobby group and voting folder for different and factional electoral slates in the broad liberation movement as led by the ANC. A strong, vibrant and campaigning ANCWL is crucial for the triumph of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) geared towards the total implementation of the Freedom Charter. 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] .
