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thank you comrades
Manda
Manda thank you I know the chair is
worried about
time uh so I I stopping comrade General
Secretary uh but I must uh thank comrade
Irvin Jim and the leadership of numsa
for inviting me to be here uh
today um when I got the message from
comrade irin Jim that numsa would
consider me speaking at a conference of
numsa I must say initially I was very
shocked uh because I'm quite a
conservative ative type of person uh but
I really thank numsa for the invitation
and the opportunity to speak about some
of the work uh that we do I begin by
thanking the comrades from Palestine who
have spoken and I greet them most warmly
welcome to South Africa I also greet
comrade Ronnie
castros a veteran who doesn't Tire I
don't know where you get this energy he
sends me messages at 3:00 a.m. you must
issue a statement on this why are you
saying nothing on that comrade Ronnie
there you are he takes advantage because
he knew my father he thinks that he's my
father but um I'm very glad to be here I
begin by saying the world is a very
troubled place and I don't want us to
pretend uh that it is easy it's not we
are faced with a very challenged world I
realize this when in 2021 I was sitting
in a summit of the executive Council of
the African Union and it was whispered
to me that the African Union commission
chairperson had issued an invitation to
Israel to become an observer at the
African
Union imagine my
horror I decided at that moment that I
would raise my
arm and would propose that this decision
be
rescinded I walked around the room
seeking
supporters of the 54 Nations I got
three and I include sadc in
that but I said
nevertheless this is not going to happen
I therefore lifted my arm and said I
wish to table a
matter I have learned of this and as
South Africa we object to it
it and it must not be implemented we
want our leaders to discuss it and we we
will never accept it as South Africa and
while we
appreciate the role that the
organization of African Unity played in
US achieving our freedom as South
Africa
this decision of the Au commission
chairperson will make us consider
whether we can be present in the African
Union I thought I would get
support from many of the countries
gathered in the room but what I
discovered is that countries that are
oppressors that continue to be Colonial
occupiers are using Financial
Muscle to provide Grant in Aid to
African countries and
secure the depoliticized support of
African countries for these oppressive
Nations among them Israel and Morocco
they're playing a very negative role in
Africa and comrades I'm being frank here
because you in this room you are
supposed to be Trade union leaders many
of you or you lead Progressive organiz
Iz ations and you are failing in your
duty to
convince governments in Africa and all
other countries of the South that they
cannot tolerate such situations it can't
be left to us as members of government
to be the ones that take up these issues
with no word from Progressive
organizations this is intolerable and
cannot
continue so I'm hoping out of this
conference that you are going to decide
rise up rise up rise up don't say what's
comrade n doing that decision on Israel
hasn't been implemented and it won't be
while I'm still there but what are you
going to do you should be talking to all
Progressive unions
worldwide the unions in the United
States of America weak or strong should
be making it clear to President Biden
they don't appreciate his statement
which has led to the slaughter we are
seeing
today the union movement in the United
Kingdom should be doing the
same if we know our work I I have no
idea what has happened to our
organizational
capability because as South African
leadership our Trade union movement was
able to Marshall under the worst
oppressive
chains we were able to Marshall
International solidarity of a kind that
has not been seen since the struggle
against a party where have all these
Progressive leaders gone and
why why are we not able to
organize why are we only sitting in a
room as
300 there should be 3,000 here there's
something wrong and that's why I'm
saying we're in a troubled world and we
need to recognize that the world has
shifted because what has
happened is in a determined
fashion Progressive values and
principles have been hacked and hacked
and hacked and it is now difficult to
find a voice of the
left and we need to revive we need to
organize
we need to be smart we need to be
strategic and one thing I've
realized is making good speeches does
not
assist I may feel good that I had the
right re rhetoric at that
platform but if the next day my rhetoric
has not led to action my speech was
useless so I hope out of this numsa is
going to lead the
process where comrade irin Jim and
comrade Chira will meet with their
counterparts in all unions whatever they
are and say as South African Trade union
movement let us
lead let us lead let us agree for one
month none of our unions are going to
lift any Israeli Goods out of any
transport just one thing
and let us see let us see whether our
leadership has convening power or
not this week coming a number of
proposed resolutions are going to come
before the United Nations we must keep
our eye on that process we must ensure
it's the right kind of
resolutions today the people of
Palestine need of
help they need medical supplies they're
unable to bandage wounds they cannot
provide
help medicine on Frontier is doing a
good job they are absolutely there but
they are also being decimated what are
we going to do about
that let's ask every South African there
are 62 million of us they say all of us
must donate one thing food or medical
goods and let us persuade an airline to
take them all to the Egyptian border
with Palestine and deliver those
goods let's do something comrades let's
stop talking because the world is in a
terrible place and all it
needs are a few good men and women are
organizers
strategists and not to organize because
you're numsa only but to organize
everybody what we have to put aside if
you want to change the world are
divisions between us because it doesn't
make any sense to believe that I must be
the most Progressive the most left the
most radical and the world is suffering
the most Progressive thing is to unite
and get action and that's what I hope
you're going to begin to
do so anyway on my
story on the presence of Israel as an
observer in the African Union I I have
managed to pause it for
now with the support of my president but
it's not off the table in the Au so
again I'm asking you pay
attention having said that because I
prepared very hard I'm going to present
my
speech and I begin by
saying one of the things we must realize
is the developing South is caught in the
middle of rising Global tensions I know
it is not correct to speak of the South
as though it's a homogeneous entity but
from my experience I can say to you it
is the region that most hopefully has
the basis and foundation for the kind of
radical shift we need so I Look to
countries of the South not the North and
I think it's important that we do that
what we are seeing in the world is an
increasing push back against the forces
that seek to promote Collective action
International solidarity and Global
cooperation we see the reemergence of
Tendencies toward right-wing nationalism
unilateralism and
populism as an ongoing Trend comrades
another assignment engage the
media why is it all right for a
Palestinian journalist to be murdered
but it's not not okay for a journalist
from Canada to be
murdered what what kind of value system
is that we've been silent about Shireen
Abu
akle she was murdered murdered before
our
eyes the media
today since the period of the
embeddedness of
Iraq totally without
objectivity except Al jazer that's the
only one the rest I'm
sorry but you need to be active
proponents of an objective media that
informs that is balanced and that tells
the truth not a media that lies and
tells you a quarter of the story so
we've got to address all these
things what we see in the globe today is
widening
inequality and we know that the economy
of the globe continues to deliver
inequitable and unjust
outcomes developed countries have
selectively opted out of the observance
of international
law while they continue to insist that
rules must be implemented by developing
countries even at the cost of providing
services to their people just last year
Ghana was facing an
incredible
Financial
meltdown they approached the
IMF and this year the IMF has suddenly
reported that Ghana is going to see
amazing growth after they received loans
from the
IMF but nobody's examining do the
children of Ghana have class rooms do
they have teachers in those classrooms
are they able to go to hospital and get
treatment are the people of Ghana
getting housing because the first Target
of IMF loans is public services so it's
important that we look not just at what
support is provided but at the quid
proos that governments have to make in
order to have access to that
funding developed countries have
certainly not met their commitments to
the developing world and are
consistently shifting responsibility to
us in the global South you must address
climate change you must stop using Cal
you must reduce emissions you must do a
b and c we've developed they had
thousands of years to developed and in a
short space of time we must arrest our
development and respond to their demands
I'm not saying coal is what we should
use I'm not saying we shouldn't reduce
emission don't misunderstand me but I'm
saying the kinds of Demands being made
on developing countries without
appropriate resource responses are
actually demands that are
uncontable so what this has led to is
it's become increasingly difficult to
pursue sustainable development
goals we saw this year that the
Secretary General of the United Nations
has
indicated that far from moving in a
positive fashion the world is actually
going backwards we now have more poverty
more inequity more
joblessness so the fundamental crises of
our time call for international
responses in our
view if we accept that the world is
increasingly more
fragmented it provides an opportunity
for those concerned with economic
Justice yourselves to work toward
creating a genuinely Progressive
alternative Progressive forces around
the world need to push for
multipolarity and a strengthened fairer
and more inclusive
multilateralism by exerting more
influence on global debates we should
not be silent we should be having loud
views we need to make our economies work
for the common good and we need to take
all the measures necessary to protect
our
planet we believe that what is needed is
a different kind of multilateral
architecture which is more suited to
today's challenges of the world in our
own view comrade Ronnie despite its
inadequacies it is our belief that the
United Nations must remain the primary
Locus for political security and
development decision making as it
Remains the most representative Global
body despite its
shortcomings we believe a complete
overhaul of the UN system is needed so
that the UN Security Council is
democratized and reflects the current
balance of forces in the global
system it's unacceptable eight decades
nearly after its
creation five nations still wield
disproportionate decision-making power
in the security Council and those
five number among the most problematic
countries in the world the causes of
many of the problems I refer to
today so the overhaul of the UN system
should include enforcement of decisions
taken but by what we hope will be a
democratized un Security
Council we also believe we should no
longer accept a situation where
countless un resolutions are passed by
the vast majority in the UN General
Assembly but are merely
ignored we've had repeated calls as com
khala said from UN member states for
Israel to withdraw from the occupied
territories to the 1967
borders these decisions have been
ignored and instead we have witnessed
the burgeoning expansion of illegal
settlements on Palestinian land growing
oppression of the Palestinian people
gross violation of their human rights
and the Gaza Strip being turned into an
open air prison regularly denied
electricity water and fuel the current
denial is not new it's been happening
time and time and time
again for 16 years Gaza has been under
siege with his people struggling to
survive the ongoing Land Air and sea
blockade imposed by Israel with
Palestinians denied exit and entry into
the strip our was was horrified when one
of our former
leaders comrade I don't know if I should
call him comrade anymore comrade
terot said that Israel is not an
apartate State
well this the Palestinians are denied
free exit and entry into their own land
they do not have free movement we didn't
have free movement under
apartate Palestinian people use separate
entrances when they go through the
Border we had to use separate entrances
under apartate Palestinian children do
not have free access to education it was
the same for us so I don't know what
more Israel should do for comrade lot to
recognize that it is an apartate
State we've seen
today increased Israeli aggression under
the most far right Israeli government
we've ever
seen and we've seen the inaction by the
security Council the very body whose
mandate is to maintain International
Peace and
security despite the fact that the root
cause of this conflict is illegal OCC
occupation we have heard a tiate of
criticism of Palestinians from Western
powers and flinching support for the
occupying power despite the fact that
I've been called all kinds of names
because I refused to call Russia an
occupying power of
Ukraine I have always Obed to double
standards these type of double standards
are the result of a global system which
is skewed in favor of the powerful to
the detriment of those fighting for
their rights and
self-determination I repeat it is
imperative that social movements rais
their voices in solidarity with the
Palestinian people particularly given
the notably biased media coverage of the
current
violence within the United Nations we
have seen almost unanimous support among
member states for ending the illegal
economic block blade of Cuba which is
now entering its 61st
year yet the Cuban people continue to be
denied access to life-saving medicines
essential goods and the right to trade
as any other Sovereign
Nation these are injustices that once
more need to be taken up by the global
South and Progressive forces worldwide
to create a ground swell of popular
support for the Cuban people as well as
the people of Palestine and all
oppressed people all over the world in
South Africa as the South African
Department of international Cooper
international relations and
cooperation we wanted to provide support
to the people of Cuba after they sent an
appeal to
us when our opposition parties got hold
of Our
intention they through an organization
called afre Forum took us to
court and the Court ruled that I must
use that money for poor people in South
Africa and not provide anything to the
people of Cuba of course I'm appealing
that decision but here's my troubling
point the progressive forces of South
Africa have never spoken up in support
of my fight in court and afre forum is
decimating all the progressive gains we
have made in South Africa including
affirmative action and we are allowing
it to happen while we
live we are also articulating calls that
we should overhaul the current Global
Financial and trade
architecture and much of the world is
joining Us in this call we believe we
need a fundamental reset of the Breton
Woods
institutions including the IMF the World
Bank and the World Trade
Organization multilateral development
Finance institutions need to be
redesigned to respond to the challenges
we are confronted with and to assist
countries to meet the sustainable
development goals they must help us
respond effectively to Public Health
emergencies and to mitigate climate
change the IMF needs to be
repurposed and should provide
countercyclical lending in times of debt
distress enable debt restructuring and
relief and provide liquidity to all
countries that require
it I'm raising all these things comade
Chira because I believe while we should
have the debates you will have in this
meeting we also must look at the real
situation of the globe and determine how
we interface with these challenges and
address them we are fortunate as South
Africa to be part of the brics
partnership and in brics as the brics
countries we've been working toward
developing a more Equitable balanced and
representative Global governance system
this includes the restructuring of the
Global Financial
architecture we have built up an
institution such as the new development
bank which we own as bricks and it has
given us as emerging economies greater
control over lending and greater
autonomy over the progress and course of
our
development as we discussed in the most
recent bricks Summit which we hosted as
South Africa the concept ccept of
countries opting to conduct trade in
their own currencies is to us a welcome
development and we are now investigating
how we can multiply such practice and
have it available to all of
us emerging economies are key to
reforming Global
governance the fact that we've had
emerging economies holding the G20
presidency for the last last four years
is an opportunity that we should not
waste as countries of the South
Indonesia held the presidency last year
and brought back development issues into
G20 India held it this year and
sustained that Focus Brazil is assuming
the G20 chair next year and we must
ensure it holds the ground and in
2025 South Africa will be chair of G20
and again we must strengthen the
progressive
ground with leading countries of the
global South able to set the world
agenda this is an opportunity for all of
us to push for Real Change let's not
waste
it the demands that were made over 50
years ago by the global South when it
met as
Nam that we should over overh hold the
rules of international trade reform the
International Financial system and
recognize the
sovereignty of each state over its
natural resources all of these
articulated over 50 years ago are
gaining momentum
today the global South is calling for
cancellation of historical
debt there must be content to our
Progressive
agenda
content the issuance of new IMF special
drawing rights is something South Africa
has been insisting upon the expansion of
concessional development financing and
Technology
transfer all of these are based on the
concept of the right to development
which many of us have
forgotten ironically all of these
princip principles form part of a
declaration that the UN adopted in
1974 but this was largely disregarded by
multilateral bodies that instead imposed
neoliberal policies on developing
countries to ensure they Implement
extreme trade
liberalization to their people's cost
today developing countries
which include the Africa group India and
Cuba have tabled a proposal on the
reform of the
WTO a proposal called strengthening the
WTO to promote development and
inclusivity the proposal cites World
Bank data to show that the Gap in per
capita GDP between the developed and
developing world has widened since WTO
was created
and calling for special and differential
treatment to be upheld in future
agreements The Proposal calls for
respect for the right of countries to
adopt different economic models and
supports
diversification and
development we also require multilateral
security
Arrangements we need to reject military
alliances that divide the world into
blocks but do not offer answers to the
challenges we
confront we are seeing now the
weaponization of the ocean indopacific
Alliance and so on all of this is meant
to take unipolar control of the oceans
and deny us the right to peace and
development which the oceans offer the
world what we need today more than ever
before before and that's why this
conference is to me vitally important we
need International
solidarity there's an urgent need for
this in responding to the crisis
confronting
US during our struggle in South Africa
the principle of international
solidarity was one of the key pillars of
our struggle it was through this pillar
that Civil Society political parties
Academia and other
sectors all over the world were
mobilized to isolate the apartate
regime this pillar of international
solidarity made an immense contribution
to our Victory against
apartate to the extent that some
analysts have even tried to elevate it
above other very important pillars such
as the underground the armed struggle
which comrade has referred to and the
mass struggle which we must never
forget these four pillars of the
struggle complemented and reinforced
each other to deliver the death of the
apartate redeem regime so again we need
to revive International solidarity as a
pillar we need to revive underground as
a pillar we need to revive arm struggle
as a pillar
and we need to ensure Mass struggle as a
pillar the international
struggle against
apartate embodied Humanity struggle
against discrimination and social
exclusion our post apartate South Africa
has attempted to continue this tradition
of active internationalism on the
continent and globally we've tried to
play our part in the renewal of Africa
promoting South South
cooperation engaging countries of the
North in the interest of Africa and
striving for the transformation of the
global system of governance we know we
benefited and we are trying to use our
benefit in the interest of
others we believe that today
internationalis internationalism is
going to be decisive in crystallizing
new forms of organizing political forces
for Meaningful
transformation but as I said earlier we
need a strategic approach to the search
for a better International order one
that is Equitable just Humane inclusive
and
Democratic so while I agree with BDS and
the focus it has I think we need to
discuss how do we activ vas this in a
manner that allows us to achieve the
outcomes we desire and not as an
illustration of our ability to organize
and I haven't yet had that strategic
advice so with the BDS uh intervention
at thec conference in
2017 we did indeed uh remove an
ambassador from Israel but I haven't
seen it Advance the peace agenda so how
do we act together to make gains in the
struggle rather than to have
illustrations of action this is the kind
of strategic discussion I hope we could
have at some time I believe we need to
continue as South Africa to contribute
to the building of a global Progressive
Movement for a better Africa and a
better world people need to be shaken
out of complacency and distraction
Progressive forces of the left need to
step in need to provide hope and vision
and offer up concrete Pathways to
political action across the global South
the progressive Community has begun to
Rally we look forward to the expansion
of Brave United vibrant social
movements as the great revolutionary
leader of Cuba president Fidel Castro
said we need to unite today to build the
tomorrow we yearn for to vindicate the
always excluded and to rescue faith in
humanity I hope we can do this and I
thank you for listening to
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me
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give
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J
that