NObama! South Africans prepare to protest Obama visit

by NObama Coalition Cape Town

NObama-Coalition-Johannesburg-South-Africa-press-conf-062213, NObama! South Africans prepare to protest Obama visit, World News & Views On June 20, a growing group of organizations gathered at Community House in Salt River to form the NObama Coalition Cape Town, aligning itself to the already formed NObama Johannesburg. The aim of the coalition is to mobilize widespread protest against Obama’s visit to Africa while exposing U.S. imperialism.

So far activists from the following organizations are part of the Coalition: Gugulethu Anti Eviction Campaign, Newfields Village Anti-Eviction Campaign, Zilleraine Heights Community in Struggle, Consumer Fair, Concerned Education Forum, Anti-War Coalition (Cape Town), Muslims Against Illegitimate Leaders, Muslims Against Global Oppression, Struggle Veterans, Mitchell’s Plain activists, Workers International Vanguard Party, Blikkiesdorp community committee, Housing Assembly (Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Bonteheuwel, greater Athlone, Langa, Delft, Mitchell’s Plain), Gleemoor Civic Association, New Unity Movement Southern Suburbs Branch, Apdusa, Friends of the Congo-Cape Town.

UJ-Univ-of-Johannesburg-No-you-cant-honour-Obama-Coalition-logo-205x300, NObama! South Africans prepare to protest Obama visit, World News & Views Cosatu also supports the campaign and is discussing how to broaden its specific support.

The NObama Campaign in Johannesburg consists of the following organizations: South African Communist Party (SACP), the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCL), the South African Students Congress (SASCO), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Friend of Cuba Society (FOCUS), Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel in South Africa (BDS South Africa), the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) the UJ Coalition.

We will be awarding Freedom of the City to

  • Mumia Abu Jamal
  • Bradley Manning
  • the masses of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
  • the masses of the Palestinians
  • the Marikana community
  • the impoverished masses of Cape Town

NObama-Coalition-Johannesburg-member-organizations-logos-205x300, NObama! South Africans prepare to protest Obama visit, World News & Views (The list is still being added to.)

Basic platform

The USA under the leadership of Obama has escalated its assault on human rights, militarization of international relations and continuing gobbling of world resources at the absolute expense of the environment and oppressed peoples of the world.

  • Monopoly capitalists and banks, mainly from the U.S., are responsible for the ongoing plunder of trillions of dollars of wealth from Africa each year. This is the main reason why most of the youth have no future – the masses are unemployed and the few who work earn starvation wages. Much more is stolen from Africa than is received in “aid.” We demand all the stolen wealth to come back! In fact, U.S. and other imperialism are responsible for the plunder of the world.
  • Africom out of Africa; end the drone wars and imperialist wars of plunder such as in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); stop warmongering and genocide in Syria and elsewhere.
  • Free all the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay prison – shut it down.
  • Free the Cuban 5.
  • End the blockade on Cuba.
  • We reject the Freedom of Cape Town and the honorary doctorate awarded by the University of Johannesburg to Obama with the contempt it deserves.
  • Any diamonds sent to Israel by Anglo American and other mining companies are blood diamonds. End all support for Israel. We demand one Palestine, no Bantustan.
  • Free Bradley Manning!
  • Stop snooping on our e-mails, phone calls and social networking!
  • Halt the unleashing of your Al Qaeda forces on the world’s people!

NObama-Coalition-Cape-Town-South-Africa-protest-sign-Africom-out-of-Africa-062213, NObama! South Africans prepare to protest Obama visit, World News & Views The United States of America is the single largest contributor to global warming, which is condemning the world into catastrophic environmental disasters.

We also support the call by the Muslim Lawyers Association for the arrest of Obama – their complaint was made in terms of international customary law – as well as the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Act 2002 (the ICC Act):

“The [drone] program is responsible for extra-judicial killings of both innocent civilians as well as U.S. citizens abroad. The drone strike policy has continued unabated with total disregard for territorial sovereignty and this is cited as the primary reason that Obama should be investigated and tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”

Proposed program of action

  • Mobilize and invite other progressive organizations to join the NObama Coalition.
  • We support the petition against University of Johannesburg giving an award to Obama
  • Saturday 22nd June at 12 noon, meet at Community House in Salt River to prepare placards
  • Wed and Thursday 26-27 June from 12 noon to 14h00 meet at the taxi rank opposite entrance to Civic Centre in Cape Town to claim freedom of the City for the masses and to reject freedom of the city for Obama
  • Friday 28 June, picket at parliament from 12 noon to 14h00 to protest the government’s role in inviting Obama to SA and their complicity in allowing plunder by U.S. monopolies
  • For those who cannot make it to Cape Town centre on these 3 days, we call on to mobilise for lunchtime pickets at these times, to either hold education programmes about the role of U.S. monopolies in the plunder of the world, or to take to the streets, to picket forming human chains outside your workplaces, or at a selected point, to show rejection of the visit and of U.S. imperialism

NObama-Coalition-Cape-Town-South-Africa-protest-sign-Close-down-Guantanamo-Bay-military-prison-now-062213, NObama! South Africans prepare to protest Obama visit, World News & Views We call for the masses across Africa

  • to also mobilize protest actions against the Obama visit and
  • to ready themselves at a moment’s notice to come to the areas where Obama may appear, so we can protest and issue our own warrant of arrest for Obama.

The Freedom of the City is for the people of Cape Town, not for OBAMA. He is not welcome!

Signed by Imraahn Mukaddam, Eleanor Hoedemaker, Rabia Petersen, Frank Van der Horst, Mustafa Jacobs, Abdurahman Khan, David Appolis, Lucille Kennedy, Ms UC Fataar and Shaheed Mahomed.

Contact the NObama Coalition Cape Town at nobamact26@gmail.com and on on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/528714780529047/. For more information, contact Shaheed Mahomed, a member of Workers International Vanguard Party (formerly Workers International Vanguard League), First Floor, Community House, 41 Salt River Rd, Salt River, South Africa 7925, phones 0822020617 or [27] 21 4476777, fax 0865486048, email workersinternational@gmail.com, web www.workersinternational.org.za. Read a similar statement from the NObama Coalition Johannesburg at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/06/19/18738681.php.

Editor’s note: In the U.S., an outcry is rising against Obama’s trip to Africa for its cost, projected at $60 million to $100 million according to an anonymous source reporting to the Washington Post. “The White House is hoping the return on that investment will be an increased foothold for U.S. businesses on a continent where China and other emerging economies are already major players,” the AP reports. Rep. John Barrow, D-Georgia, however, told President Obama not to “rub that (exorbitant spending) in the faces of hard working Americans” in a time of sequester-generated austerity. And Black economic commentator William Reed complained that Obama is not taking an African-American business delegation with him, concluding, “The trip will show the continent’s ‘Homeboy’ to be no different than his 43 White predecessors: a paternal view of Africa as development cases, rather than opportunities for partnership.”