Philippus Jacobus Wilhelmus Buys (born 1 March 1963) is a South African trade union leader and the chairperson of the

Solidarity Movement Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...

. Born in

Delareyville Delareyville is a maize- and peanut-farming town situated in North West Province (South Africa), North West Province of South Africa. The town is 96 km south-west of Lichtenburg, North West, Lichtenburg, 82 km north-east of Vryburg, 114& ...

, Buys obtained a degree in Communication Studies, with Political Science as his other major subject, from the

Potchefstroom University The Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (abbreviated as PU for CHE) was a South African university located in Potchefstroom. Instruction was mainly in Afrikaans language, Afrikaans. In 2004, the university was merged with othe ...

in 1988. In 1992 he obtained an honours degree in Labour Relations from the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant fundi ...

. During his university years, Buys was a member of the Puk Student Council, chairperson of the Chess Club, deputy chairperson of the mission work organisation, Hulpprojek, and editor of the opinion magazine, Perspektief. He also attended courses in political economics at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

and project management at the NWU. He began working as an industrial relations officer at

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. Eskom was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) (). Eskom represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool. The utility is the larg ...

, then in 1992 moved to work as an organiser for the Mine Workers' Union (MWU). In 1994, he served on the Volkstaat Council, which investigated the potential of an

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...

Volkstaat A Volkstaat (, ), also called a Boerestaat, is a proposed white ethnostate, White homeland for Afrikaners within the borders of South Africa, most commonly proposed as a Afrikaner nationalism, fully independent Boer/Afrikaner nation. The propos ...

. Buys served as council member and member of the executive committee of the North-West University for seven years. In 1997, he became CEO of the MWU. Under Buys' leadership, the union was renamed as

Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...

. After being elected as General Secretary of the MWU, Buys’s first step was to expand the MWU into Solidarity by restructuring, modernising and extending the organisation to be of service to the entire workforce of Afrikaans-speaking people. As the leader of Solidarity, Buys transformed the union into a dynamic movement that went beyond workers’ rights only. He led Solidarity from a traditional union to a movement that actively promotes Afrikaners’ economic and cultural interests. The Solidarity Movement currently consists of more than 25 institutions founded by Buys, which, among others, include: *The trade union organization,

*The civil rights and community safety organization,

AfriForum AfriForum is a South African non-governmental organisation which mainly focuses on the interests of Afrikaners, a subgroup of the country's white population. AfriForum has been described as a "white nationalist, alt-right, and Afrikaner nation ...

*The social welfare organization, Solidarity Helping Hand *Cultural and heritage organizations such as the Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organizations ( FAK) and AfriForum Theatre *Various training institutions such as the higher education institution Akademia, private vocational training colleges Sol-*Tech and Bo-Karoo Training, as well as the educational institution Solidarity School Support Centre (

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

) *The media organization Maroela Media *Various property and development organizations such as Kanton and the Orania Development Company *Various financial and investment institutions and funds In his position as chairperson, Buys is actively involved in current political affairs in South Africa, advocating for the Afrikaner people. His motto is: "Afrikaners should live freely, safely and prosperously at the southern tip of Africa".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buys, Flip 1963 births Living people People from North West (South African province) South African trade union leaders University of Johannesburg alumni