Center of a Storm,Irvin Jim, General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa
At the Center of a Storm - Irvin Jim, General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa on RAI
On Reality Asserts Itself, Mr. Jim tells host Paul Jay about his youth and radicalization in the fight against apartheid. Mr. Jim is now the leader of the largest union in South Africa with 340,000 members, which has recently broken with the ANC and is calling for a return to the principles of the Freedom Charter
January 28, 2015
Transcript
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to Reality Asserts Itself. I'm Paul Jay. This is The Real News Network.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa is in the midst of the political storm. In 2013, it broke with the ANC, governing ANC, and in 2014 was expelled by COSATU, the largest trade union federation of South Africa.
At the center of this storm is its president, Irvin Jim, and he now joins us in our studio in D.C.
Thanks for joining us.
IRVIN JIM, PRESIDENT, NUMSA: Hi.
JAY: So, first of all, thank you very much for coming. And I know you're exhausted. As you said, the people have been brutalizing you in interviews, and, unfortunately, we're going to brutalize you a little more.
As people who watch Reality Asserts Itself knows, we start with the personal back story most often and then get into some of the current issues, and we're going to do that with Irvin.
So start from the beginning. Where are you born in South Africa, and what is the political environment you grow up in?
JIM: Well, I'm the son of a farmworker. I grew up in the farms of Port Alfred, which is the Eastern Cape province in South Africa.
And both my parents couldn't read and write. I'm very proud of them. Without education, they pushed me and my siblings to be able to read and write and to go to school.
JAY: Did they own their own farm or they worked on it?
JIM: Not at all. My father was a farm laborer who was exploited. I literally experienced the brutality of the farm bosses that have completely transformed South Africa.
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