Clover Workers Hijacked

GIWUSA uses Clover Workers to Attack Israel

By Yossi Malherbe

Clover Workers have been in the midst of an employment dispute with Clover for some time and have had their cause hijacked by the anti-Israel Lobby. A march focusing on an international embassy instead of to their employers was led by The General Industries Workers Association and The Workers and Socialist Party. 

On Monday 26th October 2020, General Industries Workers Union South Africa (These workers have been on strike since 13 October 2020 and GIWUSA claim that they have “long opposed” the selling of Clover SA to Israeli Milco, which was approved by The Competition Tribunal in September 2019. 

They state, “CLOVER’s bosses continue to view workers’ demands for a living wage and against labour broking with absolute contempt and disdain.”

 They connected their view of Clover administration to Israel by stating:

 “This arrogant attitude is consistent with the attitude of the imperialist Israeli regime which continues to commit atrocities against Palestinian people in the occupied territories.”

GIWUSA then stated that they are marching on the Israeli Embassy to hand over a letter of demand.

Letter By General Workers Union South Africa:

Why do we have to speak out?

I feel like this is something that I, as a Zionist and a person that supports fair employment, have to comment on as the anti-Israel movements hijack innocent people from their plight and misdirects them with false promises and a free meal.

It is intriguing how the sale of Clover was approved over a year ago and only now do “The Clover Workers” march on an Israeli entity, when they should be marching at Clover. They claim that this march is due to their “long opposed” sale of Clover to an Israeli company, yet they only “chose” to act 13 months later, which just so happens to be days after our fellow African state, Sudan, announces normalization of ties with Israel.

This timing cannot be a coincidence!

This is clearly a local dispute with nothing to do with the Israeli Government. The description of “The Clover Workers” is designed to make us feel like Clover’s collective employment force  – which includes over 1,255 factory workers  – are striking, while in the video it looks like 40 people. 

Sadly, the Coronavirus pandemic has caused over 1 Million South Africans to lose their jobs this year and is sad and understandable how 3% of Clover’s staff are no longer under employ. Their statement about how their “bosses continue.. with absolute contempt and disdain” highlight how this is a long-term problem/dispute between these workers and their management from 2019 which predates the sale. 

 Nothing about “The Clover Workers” is discussed or addressed while all the focus is drawn towards the Israeli Government and the plight of the people of Palestine. 

 If the focus of the letter surrounds “The Clover Workers” who are striking, then why is a stance being taken against a nation and not their employer?

This was a march that is the total opposite of uBuntu where the GIWUSA have hijacked a group of people to service their own agenda and have done nothing to help the workers with their situation with Clover. In a time where Muslim nations such as Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and every one of our BRICS partners(excluding South Africa) as well as multiple African Nations are either normalizing ties/partnering on projects with Israel, this feels like an attempt to show the public that our public do not support ties with Israel while nearly 80% of the citizens in Saudi Arabia do support it. 

I call on the GIWUSA and The Workers and Socialist Party to free “The Clover Workers” from their control and to support them in finding their hopeful resolution with Clover and to avoid using anti-Israel sentiments to misdirect people who are already distraught.

About the Writer:

Yossi Malherbe is a South African historian that specializes in African and Middle east politics. He has researched in multiple global archives with a focus on “the tipping point” where foe becomes friend and regime changes come into affect.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (O&EO).