Defend COMSA union at UDW
The Combined Staff Association at the University of Durban-Westville
is under attack. COMSA is a militant independent union that organises
70% of workers and staff at UDW.
COMSA has been at the forefront of the struggle for
transformation. In 1996, COMSA fought alongside the Students'
Representative Council (SRC) and Convocation in "Operation Dislodge"-
a mass campaign against fee increases, the firing of casual workers,
and workplace racism.
Following this campaign, the government launched a Commission of
Enquiry which charged the union as being "more suited to revolution
than to evolution", and "blamed" the union for winning a wage
increase. The Commission also called COMSA/SRC opposition to fee
increases "irresponsible" and "populist".
The Commission based itself on incoherent and often false evidence
gathered in secret hearings. The Commission was not supported by
COMSA or the SRC.
Newspaper reports have shown that Education Minister Sibusiso
Bengu got one of the Commissioners to manipulate the findings to
present COMSA and SRC in the worst light. The Minister also called
for spies to be placed on campus.
The Commission recommended disciplinary action against key COMSA
officials, who it blamed for "serious misconduct" and "intimidation".
As a result, 12 student and union activists have been suspended, and
two officials were banned from campus.
MONEY AND MESSAGES OF SUPPORT ARE NEEDED NOW! Contact COMSA,
University of Durban-Westville, Lower Library Level, Private Bag
X54001, Durban, 4000
comsa@pixie.udw.ac.za
* in a possibly related incident, a Marxist lecturer at UCT was
arrested for "illegal immigration". This is harassment, pure and
simple.
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