YCLSA Press Statement January 12, 2013
YCLSA calls for peace during workers action and premier Zille to stop fleeing the working class in the Western Cape The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] as a progressive voice for communist youth of the working class that have consistently supported the legitimate demands of striking workers on farms and will continue to push for increased wages as well as an increased minimum wages. Following the developments, which we have followed, carefully (through YCL members on the ground) as a responsible disciplined communist organization, we are morally obligated to now call for peace among farmworkers during their strike. Workers need to be disciplined or they risk loosing much needed popular support in broader society. Workers and their leadership should avoid being affiliated with hooliganism, criminal vandalism and looting. We are extremely concerned by reports of violence emerging from divisions between workers and union representatives; we believe that workers cannot afford to open themselves to accusations of intimidation or violence. If leaders of striking communities are unable to contain their communities then we call upon our alley COSATU to seriously consider the call by the ANC Western Cape to suspend the strike. We are aware that the situation in De Doorns is particularly dire and that today there were acts of violence and intimidation across divides amongst striking workers. We reiterate at the ongoing classist ‘master and slave’ relationship that most farmers have been enforcing through their slavery wages and the abusive treatment of workers has no place in a democratic non-racial South Africa. We also echo cde Blade Nzimande’s remarks that the premier of the Western Cape has lacked leadership and fled the workers instead of engaging them. She has shown that she is an active supporter of the minority elite farm owner community. It is clear that she either fears workers or she has does not care about them. We want it to be known that the DA has many leaders, who are currently farmers, including the MEC of Agriculture. If she has any concern of the agricultural sector then she should consider replacing the MEC of agriculture with a person who is interested in the sector not only in profits of the farm bosses. Until she replaces her MEC of Agriculture it appears that Premier Helen Zille is a “queen of farmers” and merely wants farm workers to accept their horrific working conditions. We wish to acknowledge that following our intervention; farmers who we contacted (after they were reported to us) have stopped their ridiculous and unlawful demands that workers work graveyard shifts of (21:00- 03:00) or face unlawful evictions. Issued by YCLSA Head Office For more information contact: Khaya Xaba YCLSA National Spokesperson Cell: 071 115 4619 Tel: 011 339 3621 Email: [email protected] YCLSA is on Twitter, please follow @YCLSA Sent from my iPad -- 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] .
