This year is the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Racial of Discrimination, marking a pivotal moment in the global fight against racism and the first of the core international human rights treaties. The progress achieved over the past 60 years, however, is increasingly being jeopardized around the world. On March 21, we recall the victims of the Sharpeville massacre who protested apartheid, pay tribute to all anti-racist global justice activists, and renew our efforts for racial justice.
As trade unionists, we know that we cannot achieve economic justice without achieving racial justice. Fighting racism requires all of us to step up.
CUPE’s Anti-Racism Strategy identifies actions to challenge systemic racism in our workplaces, union, and communities. It acknowledges that our union must work towards meaningful and attainable change for Black, Indigenous and racialized members, including those with intersecting identities.
- Read CUPE’s Anti-Racism Strategy. The strategy’s 10 goals focus on recommendations to challenge systemic racism.
- Learn more about CUPE’s Anti-Racism Strategy’s goals.
- View Union Education workshops that address anti-racism practices, dealing with harassment, discrimination, or bullying.
- Read the Canadian Labour Congress report on Islamophobia and how to fight it in the workplace.
The General Assembly of the UN proclaimed March 21 the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by resolution adopted in 1966. The day commemorates the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre on March 21, 1960, when police opened fire and killed 69 people and wounded 180 others while they were peacefully demonstrating against apartheid “pass laws” in the township of Sharpeville, South Africa (view the United Nations video about Sharpeville). The UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning the killings and calling for the South African government to abandon its racist policy of apartheid. The UN General Assembly declared that apartheid was a violation of the UN Charter. As a direct result of the Sharpeville Massacre, the UN declared March 21 to be the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Unions were at the heart of the anti-apartheid movement, and unions such as CUPE remain dedicated to being at the heart of the fight against racism.
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