AREF+boycott+campaign+planning,+IPCI,+Durban,+09h30+Sat+12+Aug

Anti-Racism Education Forum, 7 August 2006
Dear Brother/Sister/Comrade/Friend

=__Re: Invitation Anti-Racism Education Meeting__=

You are cordially invited to a Strategic Planning Workshop on the Consumer Boycott Campaign against Apartheid Zionism and American Imperialism.


 * Date: Saturday, 12 August 2006**


 * Time: 09h30 for 10h00 to 13h00**


 * Venue: Islamic Propagation Centre International, 2nd Floor, 124 Queen Street, Durban**

Proposed Facilitators: Sarifa Moola and Shamim Bodanya

For confirmation and more information, please contact Mphutlane at 031 306 2427/ 076 5586 123

Thanking you in advance

Yours truly


 * Ebrahim Mphutlane Wa Bofelo, Convener**


 * Members:** South African National Zakaah Fund, Jamiatul Ulema (KZN), Verulam Islamic Institute, Sunni Jamiatul Ulema, Southern Africa Dawah Network, Islamic Dawah Movement, Islamic Propagation Centre International, As Salaam Educational Institute, Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa, Refocus and Upliftment Foundation, Islamic Educational Organisation of South Africa, Firqatul Dawah, Darul Yatama, World Assembly of Muslim Youth, African Muslim Youth Congress, Al-Falah College, MUCOSA, Al-Ansaar, Association of Muslim Schools, Minara Chamber of Commerce

=Strategic Planning Workshop=

//Consumer Boycott Campaign against Apartheid Zionism and America imperialism.//
Through the imposition of neo-liberal capitalist policies of state withdrawal and unfettered rule of the market as well as through direct military invasion, the bankrolling of military coups and civil unrests, the supporting of rebel\ bandit\ terrorist groups, and the use of puppet regimes, American Imperialism is responsible for the plunder of natural resources, the destruction of economies, degradation of environments and disruption of the social fabric of countries of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, and for the wars and conflict ravaging the people of the South.

To advance its interests of re-organizing the geo-political map of the Middle East so as to remove regimes that are a stumbling block to its unrestrained plunder of the natural resources and wealth of these countries, the United States of America provides material and moral support to the Zionist Apartheid state of Israel. The latter pursues an expansionist colonial agenda to control the water resources in the Middle East and also operates as a buffer state for American interest in the area. The Zionist Apartheid State of Israel also has a history of supporting the pre-1994 Apartheid-Capitalist regime of South Africa economically, militarily and morally. When the whole world declared apartheid a crime against humanity and the World Council of Churches declared it a sin and a heresy, the Zionist Apartheid state of Israel refused to institute sanctions against the Pretoria regime. The simple reason is that the conditions of the people of Palestine under Zionist occupation are not any different from that of the Black people of South Africa (Azania) under apartheid-capitalism.

In post-Apartheid South Africa, the poorest of the poor, in particular the Black working class in the rural areas and in the townships are suffocated to death by the pollution and environmental degradation that emanates from selfish pursuit of profit by oil multinational companies, and are also at the receiving end of neo-liberal capitalist policies that deny them access to health, education, jobs, water and electricity. The people of Kwazulu Natal in particular have been the hardest hit by the privatization of water, as hundreds have been killed by the cholera epidemic and continue to live under hazardous conditions that expose them to disease and various social ills.

The policies that are responsible for the misery of the poor and working class people in Kwazulu-Natal and South Africa are imposed on the countries of the South with the acquiesce and collusion of neo-colonial and neo-liberal comprador bourgeoisie regimes by the same forces that responsible for the misery of the people of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Since the people of Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, share the same enemy in American Imperialism and Zionism, it is imported that they establish links and bonds of solidarity against these forces and engage in a united programme of action aimed at resisting the advance of American Imperialism, global capitalism and Zionism.

This united action will bring meaningful results only when it hit these negative and anti-human forces in the pockets, where it hurt them the most. Hence, the need to fortify a global action of consumer boycott against products that are icons of American Imperialism (Coke-a-Cola, Pespsi-Cola, Nike, etc), American oil companies (Engen, Mobil,) and against Israeli products.

For this campaign top be successful there is a need to have a strategic planning team that reviews the campaign this far and looks at


 * **Products that need to be targeted.**
 * **Ways of educating people about the campaign.**
 * **Ways of publicizing the campaign.**
 * **Linking up the campaign to relevant local and global struggles and campaigns.**
 * **Stakeholders to be involved in pushing the campaign.**
 * **Partnerships and networks to be initiated or consolidated in taking the campaign forward.**
 * **Ways of implementing\ enforcing the campaign.**
 * **Ways of monitoring the campaign.**

At the meeting of the Anti-Racism Education Forum and various civil society organizations who were involved in the rally for peace and justice in the Middle East, the forum’s convener, Mphutlane Wa Bofelo was tasked with the responsibility of arranging a strategic planning meeting to pave a way forward towards an efficient and effective campaign to boycott products that are icon of American Imperialism and Israeli products. This strategic planning Workshop will take place on the 12th August 2006 at IPCI from 09:30am to 13:30. The participants are drawn from various civil society organizations in Kwazulu Natal.