7th National Congress Resolutions

Organisational Policy Resolutions

Political | International | Socio-economic

Building worker unity Expanding the Federation Recruitment campaign Organising the unemployed

Organisational Review   Membership and cadre development to deepen organisation and class consciousness

Building worker unity

1.1 Expanding the Federation

This Congress,

Noting

1. Whilst progress on building worker unity has been made since the founding of COSATU, the labour movement remains divided.

2. Aspects of the constitution discourage affiliation by independent unions and mergers between affiliates.

Believing,

1. COSATU’s founding principles of "One Industry, One Union - One Country, One Federation" remain relevant for the strategic objective of creating worker unity.

2. These principles and policies provide the platform for affiliates to speak with one voice in unity and in struggle.

Resolves

1. To call on affiliates engage in a dialogue with unions operating within their sectors to build the widest possible unity through joint co-operation on key struggles to defend our gains.

2. To encourage those unions that support our founding preamble, aims and objectives and policies to affiliate to the Federation.

3. To amend the constitution so that a union that applies for membership gains observer status and/or undergoes a probation period for six months, during which they can learn about and adapt to Cosatu policies and unite or integrate with an existing affiliate or formalise their affiliation. They should only be able to attend CECs and regional activities, not regular EXCOs. They should pay affiliation fees and abide by the constitution and policies of the Federation for the period to demonstrate their commitment. During this period there should be an induction and orientation programme, after which the CEC will evaluate progress.

4. To embark on an information campaign to underline the fact that the commitment of Cosatu unions to defend and advance the interests of workers is not in any way compromised by our membership of the Alliance, and to reassure other federations that the benefits of unity far outweigh their concerns on the political front.

5. When two or more Cosatu affiliates merge, the subsequent CEC should ratify the affiliation of the new merged union.

6. The decision from the 1997 Congress on cartels should be implemented within a period of three years. The next Congress will assess progress. As part of the facilitation of the process, discussion papers should be prepared and workshops held in each sector to examine shared areas of work and challenges, possibilities for sharing resources and campaigns, and concrete steps and a programme of action to take the cartel policy forward with a view to ultimately form super-unions in the Federation.
    

1.2 Recruitment campaign

Believing

1. The continuous recruitment and unionisation of workers outside COSATU is a critical and central part of building and maintaining a strong labour movement.

2. Recruitment and organising of informal sector and atypical workers is a major and necessary challenge.

Resolves

1. To continue with the annual recruitment campaign.

2. Affiliates must commit more time for planning and execution of the campaign, with clear monitoring mechanisms to sustain the newly recruited membership and evaluate the campaign’s success. The Federation must include a recruitment budget in its annual budget and ensure that affiliates make resources available to run the recruitment campaign.

3. The Federation must set realistic targets for this campaign.

4. Affiliates commit to recruitment and unionisation of informal sector and atypical workers as a major part of the recruitment drive, as well as their overall work and resource allocation. A committee of affiliates must drive the campaign and integrate into COSATU’s functioning workers in the informal sector and other workers in new forms of work.

5. White-collar workers should also be targeted for recruitment.

6. The Federation must develop a plan of action for organising workers in difficult areas, including

6.1. Priorities, focusing on farm and homecare workers in the coming year, with a review to see how to extend the strategy to other groups thereafter,

6.2. Carefully planned assistance to unions organising in these areas, taking into account that these unions will likely be weaker due to the nature of the workers engaged,

6.3. The development of sectoral organising strategies by individual unions that identify target groups, work out links and areas of potential organisation, and develop strategies, with support from the Federation and other affiliates where this would assist.

6.4. Homecare workers should be defined as part of the social welfare sector.

6.5. To support effective recruitment and strong organisation of farm workers, SAAPAWU should be linked to a relevant union.

6.6. The Federation and its affiliates should release adequate resources for the campaign.

6.7. The Federation must actively support the taxi worker recruitment campaign recently launched by SATAWU

7. COSATU must publicise and share the experiences of affiliates at provincial and regional level in rebuilding COSATU structures and strengthening organisation.

8. If the Federation identifies weaknesses in an affiliate at any level, it should help the union develop a strategy to address the weaknesses, if necessary through capacity building and sharing resources.

9. The Federation must ensure that every shop steward is trained in the basics of unionism and representation.
    

1.3 Organising the unemployed

This Congress,

Noting

1. The need for unity between employed and unemployed workers.

2. The Democratic Party, the primary beneficiaries of the system causing unemployment, is wooing and establishing organisations of the unemployed.

Further noting,

1. We need to revisit our previous resolution on the unemployed to put a deadline for adequate research and investigation to be done by NALEDI into ways to organise the unemployed, based on the experience gained with the NUWCC.

Resolves

1. To strengthen the links between employed and unemployed workers, unions should explore the possibility of permitting workers who become unemployed to remain in the union, and the possibility of involving them in a broader organisation to organise the unemployed.

2. COSATU must develop specific proposals for the creation of a democratic and militant alliance of organisations of unemployed people.

3. The first CC put mechanisms into place for implementation of this resolution and previous ones.

4. COSATU through EXCO must explore the possibility of involving the unemployed in a broader organisation.

Organisational review

Noting

There is a need for a thorough organisational review,

Resolves

1. To establish a commission:

1.1. To review structures of the Federation at all levels, including the substructures of the CEC

1.2. To propose policy changes and, where appropriate, propose constitutional amendments.

2. The commission must report to the Central Committee in 2001, which will refer any proposed constitutional amendments to the next Congress.

Membership and cadre development to deepen organisation and class consciousness

Noting

1. In the current context, the Federation must deepen class-consciousness and build the capacity of cadre to engage.

2. Every class which plays an active role in social transformation always find its own intellectual representatives grounded in its own theory ideology.

Believing

1. The hectic and fragile socio-economic environment within which we organise necessitates a dynamic strategy to inform our membership about our positions on major events and measures in workplaces and nationally.

2. In the current era of globalisation, information and education is a necessary tool of struggle in the hands of our cadres.

3. We need to develop cadres with the political, organisational and technical skills and knowledge needed to advance the struggles of the working class.

Resolves

1. To call on affiliates to develop programmes to intensify political and ideological work among the mass membership in order to develop confidence, deepen class-consciousness and build working class hegemony.

2. To strengthen COSATU and affiliate education programmes and provide sufficient resources. COSATU shall allocate an adequate proportion of its budget to education activities.

3. A suitable mechanism and an enabling environment must be created for progressive academics and the revolutionary intelligentsia to share ideas with the membership of the union movement.

4. In collaboration with other working class formations, COSATU must mobilise progressive intellectuals into a dependable back-up capacity to the working class movement.

5. To establish an academy to provide education and training for selected youth, stewards and officials. Such a programme must provide a sound theoretical, ideological, practical and intellectual development and grounding for current and future trade unionists.

6. This academy should be named after Comrade Chris Hani.

7. To develop a comprehensive communication strategy aimed at empowering members, shop stewards and officials.

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