Today I met up with Brother Archie Sibeko (known to many Canadians as Zola Zembe) who was a trade union leader arrested with nelson Mandela in the Treason Trial in South Africa in 1956 and was constantly harassed and imprisoned by the police. Faced with a long prison sentence he fled the country in 1963 and became a commander of the armed wing of the African National Congress. Later he coordinated the solidarity work for his organization, the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and that's how he came to know and respect Canadian unions for their support for the struggle. I had read and loved his life history ("Freedom in our Lifetime") and so it was an honour for me to finally meet him here in his home country - a country free of apartheid, but, as Archie says, a country and its people still "damaged" by that system.
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