A message from The Workers Solidarity Fund Task Team
At universities and other public institutions across South Africa, outsourced workers are protesting and embarking on strikes to demand they be insourced. They believe that the first step to improving their working conditions is to make the places where they work directly responsible for them.
Public institutions should not be places where private companies profit from contracts to provide labour, nor should public institutions shirk their moral responsibility towards those who work to keep them running by allowing private companies to pay these workers poverty wages.
At universities like the University of Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Cape Town, major victories have been won. Protests and unprotected strikes have forced these universities to agree to begin directly employing the majority of their workers. At other universities, like the University of the Western Cape, Tshwane University of Technology, Nelson Mandela and KwaZulu Natal workers fighting against outsourcing are still being threatened with dismissals and other reprisals by the private companies that employ them and by the universities where they work.
Police Repression
They are still being met with brutal police repression. They are still being attacked by thuggish private security firms hired by the universities. To some extent the universities where victories have been won are not the universities where workers are the most militant or organized, but the universities which have the richest students, most able to support the workers protests.
As students involved in workers struggles at various universities iwe have therefore decided to set up a solidarity fund to support protesting workers at universities across South Africa. When workers are dismissed, or have their pay docked for protesting (both events we have witnessed), we will try and financially support them. We will try and provide the funds needed for logistical support — transport, food, water — for their protests.
We have committees of supportive students at various universities, and hope to reach more soon. Together with protesting workers, these on-the-ground committees will decide how exactly to distribute the funds we raise, and provide records of how they spent the money so that we can be transparent to you, the donors, and to the workers we are supporting.
Any donation you can make would be greatly appreciated. If you are in South Africa, you should also make contact with workers at your local university to see how you can provide support. For instance, if you have a car you can be very useful.
If you are able to transfer money to a South African bank account you can donate to:
Workers Solidarity Fund Task Team
Account number: 073576093
Standard Bank Rondebosch
Branch code: 051001
Cheque account
Proof of payment can be sent to workerssolidarityfund@gmail.com
You can also donate to our Paypal account with the email address: workerssolidarityfund@gmail.com
If you want more information contact Ferron Pedro on ferron.pedro@gmail. com or 082 565 2393.
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