NUMSA condemns harassment, assault and arrest of striking workers by SAPS

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) condemns the irresponsible intimidation, harassment, arrest and shooting of our striking members in Bellville, Cape Town and Germiston, Gauteng respectively by members of the South African Police Services (SAPS).

We firmly believe that our members have a right to vent their grievances and frustrations through popular action and dissent as encoded in our constitution consistent with our nascent democratic order. The usage of status apparatus, particularly police through excessive force and cowardly arrest, to silent popular dissent and brutalize workers is reminiscent of the old apartheid police style tactics to stagnate popular class struggles geared towards challenging the hegemony of the ruling class.

The ongoing industrial actions as waged by our members across the country are about equitable distribution of income at the point of production and beyond. Its these striking workers who on daily basis bears the brunt as a result of high food prices, rising cost of transport and electricity tariffs and skyrocketing cost of health-care and education as permeated by self-centred accumulation agenda entrenched and fostered in all spheres of our economy by those managing our economy.

As NUMSA we call on the SAPS members to refuse any attempts to be used or bullied to protect the greed of the employers, whilst workers are living in squalor and paid in poverty wages. The SAPS members should be conscious of the fact that this strike action is about eliminating class divisions and exploitation at the point of production and in society broadly.

In the words of the late SACP General Secretary Cde Chris Hani, our people did not struggle for a new flag, new union buildings personnel and a national anthem, but for radical transformation of the lives of the majority of our people. No amount of police brutality will solve the mass misery and poverty inflicted on our people by capitalists. The companies that used to support apartheid know better!

Statement issued by Irvin Jim, NUMSA General Secretary, July 6 2011

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