United front in Cape Town against US imperialism

Waving Palestinian and Iranian flags and chanting ‘Hands off Venezuela’, protesters lined the road outside the United States of America Consulate General in Cape Town as part of ‘intensified protests’ against ‘American Imperialism’ on Thursday. Led by the alliance partners, Cosatu, SACP, ANC and Sanco, and with support from the PAC, EFF, PMC and civil society organisations like the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Pagad and the New Unity Movement, the protesters called for the release of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from US prison, with some calling for the closure of the US embassy in the country and for the US ambassador-designate, Brent Bozell’s credentials not to be accepted by the South African president.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia, were ‘captured’ by US special forces earlier this month following a military attack by US warplanes and have been in a prison in New York where they await trial. The protesters denied that the leaders of Venezuela’s United Socialist Party were, as the White House crowed, ‘captured’ insisting instead that they were ‘kidnapped’.

“Today, we are here to tell the American president to please return the Venezuelan president and his wife to their country. You cannot have a scenario where a sitting president is kidnapped by the American government,” said Cosatu provincial secretary, Malvern de Bruyn.

“We enjoin you and all progressive forces to express our outrage and our anger at the kidnapping of President Maduro and comrade Flores. We express our condolences to the people of Venezuela and Cuba for the martyrdom of the gallant and brave soldiers who died defending President Maduro from the cowardly attack from the boastful, lying thief called Donald Trump. This kidnapping is just the beginning; the war against the majority, against the marginalised world, has begun and it’s in full swing. It is a war that is there to steal our land and resources, our minerals, but more than anything, it is a war that is there to rob us of our dignity,” said the Pan African Congress of Azania leader in the Western Cape, Cassiem Khan.

‘Yankee go home!’

Palestine Solidarity Campaign coordinator, Usuf Chikte called on President Ramaphosa not to accept the credentials of Leo Brent Bozell III. Bozell was sworn in as the ambassador-designate to South Africa this month and is expected to present his credentials to the South African president.

“We call on President Ramaphosa not to accept the credentials of Bozell and we declare him a persona non-grata. Bozell is fostering and formenting divisions in South Africa. He has not disavowed the fake [white Afrikaner] genocide narrative. Bozell’s purpose is to stop us from going to the ICJ, to stop the case that we brought against Israel, and we say no to Bozell,” said Chikte.

Usuf Chikte from the PSC and Benson Ngqentsu from the SACP.

“Bozell called us their enemy openly. He said South Africa is now an enemy of the United States. So, what can we expect in the next couple of weeks? They will be using policies to undermine our sovereignty and our hard-fought democracy through this thing called Agoa [African Growth and Opportunity Act], consigning us frozen chicken to poison our people. They do it by funding political parties that are opponents of our democracy,” said Barry Mitchell from the South African Communist Party (SACP).

Yaseen Parker from People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) decried the South African government’s double standards and called for the closure of the US embassy in South Africa. “Every atrocity that you see in the world, the US is always behind it somehow. You can call it conspiracy, but the greed of the US imperialist system is everywhere we look. We need to hold people accountable. When we look around and hear people making excuses of why we are still trading with the US, we need to say human rights come first. How is possible that we have a consulate still open behind us? How is it possible that we take Israel to the International Court of Justice but then at every turn we go to the White House to beg for forgiveness and ask for handouts,” said Parker.

De Bruyn called on the South African president to close down the US consulate because “we can’t have these people who are a threat to peace in the world here in our country”.

Boycott of US and Israeli goods

The ANC’s provincial convener, Jeremia Thuynsma called on workers to withdraw their labour when handling goods from Israel and the US. “As workers of the world, we need to agree to stop handling products of these imperialists that are trying to destroy our countries,” he said.

His sentiments were echoed by SACP leader, Barry Mitchell. “How are we going to convince the National Union of Mineworkers in the coal mines and AMCU [Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union] to ask workers to down tools. How are we going to ask and convince workers of Satawu [South African Transport and Allied Workers Union] working in ports and docks to down tools, so that we can prevent economically and through our militant action as workers, the continued resourcing of genocide in Palestine? We are the biggest coal exporter to Israel. How is it possible when we have them at the ICJ? That is the contradiction,” he declared.

Members of the public order policing unit made sure that no protesters could get close to the consulate offices.

According to De Bruyn, consular officials said that they would not come out to accept the memorandum but asked two representatives to deliver it inside. The organisers refused but agreed to email it to them but also left copies in front of the offices.