Solidarity with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic 23-05-07

 

Independence for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic!

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is giving its full support to the month of action in solidarity with the struggle of the Sahrawi people and the exiled government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

COSATU has consistently condemned the occupation of Western Sahara after the Spanish colonialists conspired to hand the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1976. Since then the majority of the people of Western Sahara have been living in exile in dire poverty in refugee camps in Algeria.

COSATU reaffirms its support for the national liberation movement headed by Polisario Front which has fought for more than 30 years for an independent SADR and demands that the 1991 United National resolution calling for a referendum be implemented without delay.

This is the last colony on the African continent, albeit occupied by another African nation. Our continent’s freedom remains unfinished so long as Western Sahara remains a colony!

COSATU is taking part in solidarity activities in support of the Sahrawi struggle and will help build a Sahrawi solidarity movement in South Africa. We are calling upon our people to join in these activities.

In particular we are supporting the march to the Moroccan embassy on Thursday 24 May and appeal to the South African media to give this struggle in this last African, and the Moroccan regime’s brutality, the prominence that it deserves. Details are as follows:

Date: Thursday, 24 May 2007

Venue: Union Buildings, Tshwane

Time: 11h00