Lybon Mabasa: Leader of South Africa liberation struggle to speak in NYC Fri Aug. 26

[Jahness]

Lybon Mabasa: Longtime leader of South Africa
liberation struggle to speak in NYC Friday, August 26th


*WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CANNOT REST*

Who Is Lybon Mabasa?

Lybon Mabasa is the President of the Socialist Party
of Azania (SOPA).

Mabasa was an executive member of the Black People's
Convention, which had Steve Biko as its honorary
president. In 1976, this movement led the uprising in
Soweto. In 1977, Biko was killed by the government
while in police custody. Mabasa was arrested and
served with a five-year banning order. Many other
leaders of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) were
arrested and sentenced to long prison terms at Robben
Island.

Mabasa and other BCM leaders were instrumental in
reviving the labor movement, through the formation of
several independent trade unions.

One of the focuses of Mabasa's U.S. speaking tours has
been the role played by the IMF and World Bank in
South Africa. the new government that will result from
the April 27 electio ns in South Africa:

As far back as April 1994, Mabasa declared the
following:

"In South Africa (Azania) we are confronted with a new
situation. The IMF and World Bank have just opened
antennas in our country. They have immediately made
evident that they wish to channel the country's future
toward aggravated living conditions for Black workers
and people who have been oppressed by decades of
apartheid.

"Thus they have demanded:

"- No budget increase, when 7 million Black people are
homeless.

"- Honor the debt payment contracted by the apartheid
regimes, which should use up 30% of the yearly budget
in the years to come ... when everybody knows that
this debt was exclusively used to ameliorate the white
minority's living conditions on the backs of the Black
majority.

"- The IMF and the World Bank exert pressures to
obtain that an article in the draft constitution be
the 'democratic' right to lay-off workers."

Mabasa has addressed these and other related issues
during his various U.S. speaking tours over the past
decade.



Lybon Mabasa: Longtime leader of South Africa's liberation struggle to speak in New York City on Friday, August 26th!


Lybon Mabasa, co-founder with Steve Bantu Biko of
South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement and
current president of the Socialist Party of Azania
(SOPA), will speak in New York City on the decisions
of the Second Session of the International Tribunal on
Africa and the International Campaign to Cancel the
Apartheid Debt in South Africa.

The public forum will be held
Friday, August 26th @ 6 p.m. at the Auditorium
of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America Local #1,

113 University Place @ 13th St.
(3rd Floor) in Manhattan.

Brother Mabasa will be
joined on the speakers? platform by Sister Colia
Clark, longtime Civil Rights activist (who co-founded
the Voters Rights Project in Mississippi in the early
1960's with the martyred Medgar Evers) and Brother
Chris Silvera, Chair, National Black Caucus of the
Teamsters? Union. (Others speakers to be announced.)

For further information, please contact Ed Rosario at:
(212) 460-0860

Background Information on Lybon Mabasa:

Mabasa was an executive member, along with Steve Biko,
of the Black People?s Convention. In 1976, this
movement led the uprising in Soweto. In 1977, Biko was
killed by the government while in police custody.
Mabasa was arrested and served with a five-year prison
term. Mabasa was one of the BCM leaders most
instrumental in helping to revive the South African
labor movement through the formation of several
independent trade unions. He currently serves as the
Convenor of the International Tribunal on Africa,
which is based in more than 20 countries throughout
Africa. Mabasa is in the United States at the
invitation of the National Black Caucus of the
Teamsters? Union. His tour is being co-sponsored by
the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples (ILC) and the U.S. Support Committee of the
International Tribunal on Africa. The Second Session
of the International Tribunal on Africa was held on
March 19, 2005 in Madrid, Spain. It launched an
international campaign to demand the cancellation of
the Apartheid debt.

Wm. J.
http://www.bread-and-roses.com