Today, Tomorrow, To Court!
Trade union Solidarity and Absa are set to meet each other in the High Court soon. Absa has notified Solidarity that it intends taking legal action in order to close down the webpage www.stopabsa.co.za of Solidarity's Stop Absa campaign. The trade union launched the Stop Absa campaign earlier this week in reaction to the bank's controversial restructuring process which has already led to several retrenchments.
According to a letter Solidarity received from Absa's attorneys Adams&Adams in Pretoria, Absa plans to seek a High Court interdict in order to close down the Stop Absa webpage and to force the union to discontinue the use of an altered version of Absa's slogan, Today, Tomorrow, Together, on the webpage. According to Dirk Hermann, Deputy General Secretary of Solidarity, the trade union is considering changing the campaign's slogan from Today, Tomorrow, Goodbye, to Today, Tomorrow, To Court.
"We are looking forward to seeing Absa in court to defend our constitutional right to freedom of speech and fair social comment. The Stop Absa campaign represents the voice of thousands of South Africans. In the past 48 hours, the campaign had 369 774 followers on Twitter. This was the first time that a trade union's campaign achieved the number one spot on the trending topics list in South Africa. An additional 40 000 people followed the campaign on Facebook. Approximately 1 500 people have already sent protest messages to the Chairman of Barclays in England. We cannot allow Absa to silence ordinary South Africans' voices through the courts.
We believe in protecting the right to open debate and not banning institutions that cause unease, like our webpage. We are entirely prepared to go to court to fight for this principle," said Hermann.
South Africans can send protest messages to Marcus Agius, Chairman of Barclays in England, and Maria Ramos, CEO of Absa, via the webpage. A video in which two employees speak about how they were retrenched, made to clear out their desks and escorted outside in front of crying colleagues, can also be viewed on the webpage. Another way to participate in the campaign is to text the word ‘Absa" to 34388 (R2 per SMS). Each text message will be counted as a protest message. The campaign can also be followed on Twitter at #stopabsa.
Statement issued by Dirk Hermann, Deputy General Secretary: Solidarity, March 29 2012
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