This week...
In other news...
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1. Come to COSATU's 20th birthday
party
1 December 2005 is COSATU's 20th birthday. We are holding a mass rally
on Sunday 4 December in ABSA Stadium, King's Park, Durban, to re-enact
COSATU's founding rally on 1 December 1985, with past and present leaders
of the federation and leaders of our Alliance partners, including ANC
Deputy president Jacob Zuma. In addition we shall be:
-
Staging an exhibition to display our achievements,
heritage and traditions,
-
o Organising workers' cultural activities, which will showcase workers'
often neglected talent as artists, musicians, poets and dancers.
-
Publishing an historic illustrated commemorative
book, Hlanganani Basebenzi and a souvenir 20th anniversary special
edition of the Shopsteward
magazine and.
-
Holding debates and discussion throughout KZN on
important issues facing workers, as follows:
5 November, Newcastle Seminar
Topic : COSATU and its shop stewards "Then and Now". COSATU
shop stewards will debate the different and change roles of shops stewards
through a panel discussion with stewards of the 1970s and of today.
Venue : Canon Conference Centre, Harding Street
Date : 5th November 2005
Time : 10h00 - 15h00
Speakers : Gwede Mantashe (NUM General Secretary) Petrus Mashishi
(SAMWU President), Joseph Moloeisani (Veteran SAMWU Shop Steward)
19 November, Richards Bay
Topic : "Labour law, then and now"
Date : 19th November
Time : 10h00- 15h00
Venue : University of Zululand
Speakers : Professor Halton Cheadle (UCT), Roger Ronnie (SAMWU General
Secretary), John Zikhali (SACTWU President)
24 November, Pietermartizburg
Topic : Seminar : Decent Work
Venue : Winston Churchill Community Hall, Msunduzi Municipality
Date : 24th November 2005
Time : 10h00 - 15h00
Speakers : Membathisi Mdladlana (Minister of Labour), Ebrahim Patel
(SACTWU General Secretary), Tanya Goldman (CASE)
26 November, Durban
Topic : Seminar: COSATU and Alliances
Venue : To be confirmed
Date : 26th November 2005
Time : 10h00 - 15h00
Speakers: Bheki Ntshalinshali (COSATU Deputy GS), Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele
(ANC Deputy Secretary General), Jeremy Cronin SACP Deputy GS), Dot
Keet (Senior Researcher at the Centre for Southern African Studies,
UWC), Randall Howard (SATAWU General Secretary)
3 December, Durban
Topic : Seminar : Cosatu and Culture
Venue : BAT Hall
Date : 3 December 2005
Time : 10h00 - 15h00
Speakers : Professor Ari Sitas (poet, writer and sociologist), Nise
Malange (Director of the BAT Centre), Mabutho (Kid) Sithole (PAWE President)
Members, shop stewards and officials - book your transport early!
We have chartered three trains to Durban, as follows:
1. Johannesburg - Standerton - Newcastle - Ladysmith - Durban. 3 Dec,
Cost R150
2. Johannesburg - Standerton - Durban. 2 Dec, Cost R150
3. Bloemfontein - Virginia - Hennenman - Kroonstad - Bethlehem - Harrismith
- Durban, with connecting services on scheduled trains from Worcester,
Beaufort West, De Aar, Kimberley, Port Elizabeth, Alicedale, Noupoort,
East London, Queenstown, Burgersdorp, Springfontein. 3 Dec, Cost
R200.
Special air fares have also been negotiated with SAA for the following
flights:
From Johannesburg to Durban
Cost R935 per person (Compared to normal full economy fare of R2401)
From Cape Town to Durban
Cost R1175 per person (Compared to normal full economy fare of R3810)
Accommodation
Hotel accommodation has been arranged, at a minimum cost of R256.50
per person sharing.
Packages for accommodation and transport will be organized through
COSATU Provincial offices, on a strictly first-come, first served basis.
For further information, please phone your COSATU Provincial Office
2.Vuyisile Mini to be
commemorated
This Sunday, 6 November, COSATU has organised a rally to commemorate
the life of Vuyisile Mini. He was the first unionist to be executed
by the apartheid regime. This will take place in Great Centenary
Hall in New Brighton, at 10:00, preceded by laying of wreath at his
graveside at Emlotheni, New Brighton, at 09:00.
3.SACP launches "Red Sunday
" National Day of Action
Gauteng
The Gauteng Province of COSATU and the Gauteng Province of the
SA Communist Party will be marching to the Johannesburg Civic Centre
this Saturday, 5 November. The marchers will be handing over memorandums
on: Land Reform, Agricultural Policy and Cooperatives.
For the past month the Gauteng Province of the SACP embarked on
intensive mass work to advance the Red October campaign focus on
hunger and food security. In the first week of October the province
launched a forum for Peoples Land and Food Security committees.
Many of these committees where launched in townships across Gauteng
by SACP branches and are made up of religious organisations, youth
groups, civic structures and community farming projects. The provincial
forum is a platform that would meet once a month and coordinate
mass actions regarding land and food security issues.
"In addition," says the party, "our mass work has
taken us deep into communities, at least 20 different township
communities in Gauteng Province. We have visited communities during
the roll out of food parcel schemes, visited schools to assess
the state of school feeding schemes, spoken to co-operatives and
community projects engaged in urban farming activity, met with
mayors and government officials and are convinced about the following:
-
Increasing growth in the Gauteng economy
masks the fact that permanent unemployment exists in many communities
and therefore
food security makes a difference between life and death;
-
The effects of permanent unemployment,
on households, are felt directly by many amongst the present
generation of learners
in schools. Many children come to school starving and
are barely able to concentrate. School feeding schemes have a
minimal ameliorative
effect;
-
Government responsiveness in terms of
support programs for urban farming, including access to land,
has been poor. The
implementation of co-operative development policy is
also very slow;
' Local government in the province is privatising land as opposed
to pro-actively utilising it for development. Also municipal government
planning departments have bureaucratised the process of land distribution;
"To further highlight these issues a provincial march jointly
with COSATU and Peoples Land and Food Security committees is planned
for Saturday, the 5th November, commencing at 10 AM at library
gardens. A memorandum will be handed over to the provincial government
and SALGA in Gauteng.
For further information contact Vishwas Satgar, Gauteng SACP Secretary,
082 775 3420
Northern Cape
The SA Communist Party in all it's entirety will be descending
to the Northern Cape Province in celebrating and at the same
time concluding the 2005 Red October Campaign in Jan Kempdorp,
which
is about 100Km from the Northern Cape Provincial Capital, Kimberley.Date:
6th November 2005 - (Saturday)
Time: 10h00
Venue: Agricultural Research Station
The event will kick-start with a Night Vigil on 5 November where
a cultural event including political education and ideological
development will be held as part of the build-up towards the main
event which is the symbolic occupation of unutilized and underutilized
land. The key event will take place on 6 November at the Agricultural
Research Station which will be addressed by the General Secretary
of the SACP Cde Blade Nzimande, including members of our alliance
partners the ANC and COSATU. We are taking the National Day of
Action to this area as part of extending our key demands of the
campaign;
Access to land for production and food security
Basic provision of proteins, vitamins, etc, especially for the
poor
Highlighting the problem high food prices
Expansion of the school feeding scheme and the social security
net
In the local areas, our Party branches & districts are
already working on the ground with churches, land rights
organizations,
women's groups and small farmers on local land and agrarian
demands for the building of People's Land Committees.
To this end, we are expecting from the length and breadth of the
Country all the popular forces heeding our call to join the Party
in numbers to demand and end to Hunger and call for Food Security
for the People of South Africa, the Continent and the World.
4. The COSATU workers survey
As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations COSATU is to conduct
a survey of workers, union members and non-members, to get their
views on the labour movement and how well it is meeting their needs.
It will be conducted by the Community Agency for Social Enquiry
(CASE), with support from our research institute NALEDI.
This, the first scientific, national survey of workers' needs
and attitudes, will build on findings from recent smaller surveys
and focus groups, including studies by the Sociology of Work Programme
(SWOP) at Wits University. But this will be the first that is large
enough to give us a systematic picture of workers' opinions.
It will cover a sample of 3000 workers in randomly chosen houses
within randomly chosen working-class communities, to ensure an
unbiased sample, which will be representative in terms of race
and gender.
The survey is part of COSATU's 'listening' campaign. As we organise
for the on-going mass action on jobs and poverty, we have deployed
national office bearers across the country, to listen to workers
in the workplace, workers' forums and communities, to get a better
picture of our members' hopes, desires and needs.
With almost two million members, COSATU remains by far the largest
union federation, with over half of all union members. But we
cannot afford to be complacent. We face huge challenges, which
have changed the conditions under which unions work.
Today our shop stewards and organisers, if they are to serve members
properly, have to master complex legal skills. Many unions which
grew very rapidly in the 1990s - doubling and tripling in size
- have to work hard to consolidate this growth, and serve and educate
their new members.
Trade unions' main purpose is to give workers collective power
- in the workplace and their industries and in national policy
debates. We must protect workers every day in negotiations over
pay and benefits, in grievances and disciplinary cases. So we need
to know how well we are meeting members' expectations in all these
areas.
COSATU's principles of worker control and democracy ensure that
our leaders basically know what their members want, but as in any
large democratic system, communication may break down. The survey
should help us check on what we learn in our daily interactions
with members. Specifically it should help us understand:
-
Why some workers don't belong to a union - because
they can't find one, a dislike of unions, or a past experience
of poor service?
-
What union members want, and what they are getting,
from the unions. What demands workers want us to prioritise and
how they
feel about their shop stewards and organisers. Do our systems
function properly to empower and serve members?
-
Are national stayaways a good tool for the labour
movement?
-
Do workers know how to contact their union?
What response have they got when they called on organisers?
-
What do workers want their union to prioritise
in workplace negotiations - pay, benefits, employment equity,
HIV, or other
issues?
The survey does have limitations. The sample size is fairly small,
primarily due to financial limitations. We will only
be able to work in larger urban areas, although in every province.
We are
excluding workers from micro-enterprises. Major groups
will be excluded, including farm, domestic, taxi and informal workers.
From next year, focus groups will probe the views of
these critical
and most oppressed sections of the working class.
The sample size also means we will be able to reach realistic
conclusions only about national trends and in some larger metro
areas. We will not be able to analyse the results for smaller towns,
or for most occupations and industries.
With CASE and Naledi, COSATU will analyse the results from January
2006 and present the findings to our 9th National Congress in September.
Since the results will certainly be useful for a host of organisations
besides COSATU, we will make the database available to other researchers
5.COSATU statement on safeguards
for the clothing and textile industry
COSATU is concerned that the DTI is moving very slowly in providing
support for vulnerable industries like the clothing, textile and
footwear sector. South Africa is running a huge deficit with China,
and the growth in labour-intensive imports is costing us tens of
thousands of jobs. While we appreciate the DTI's desire to negotiate
a mutually acceptable agreement with China, it seems the Chinese
side is simply dragging out the talks to avoid stronger measures.
In this context, we note that the 2005 Alliance Summit agreed
that,
"In regard to trade, focused and clearly defined safeguard
measures on imports must be taken to give industries
in crisis an opportunity to restructure and to link these measures
to active
industrial policy measures and to shift industries
to a more sustainable growth path."
The agreement to introduce safeguards was reinforced by the
Alliance task team on textiles and clothing. Given the severe
job loss,
factory closures and market disruption experienced
as a result of the surge in imports from China in this sector,
we have a compelling
case for the implementation of safeguards. This compelling
case is supported in law by both South Africa's safeguard regulations
as well as the Protocol of Accession signed by China
when it joined
the WTO.
The underlying problem remains that trade with China is
currently highly unequal. To start with, South Africa runs
a large deficit
with China, which reached USD 2,6 billion (R16,6
billion) in 2004. Equally serious, South Africa exports capital-intensive
commodities
to China, and imports labour-intensive manufactures.
As a result, our exports do not generate employment on a substantial
scale,
while imports displace employment.
The graph below shows the worsening trade deficit with China.
Much has been made of the fact that South Africa should look at
its overall balance of trade with China and not just at one sector.
When looking at the overall balance, it is clear that South Africa
is seriously disadvantaged in its trade with China.
In 2004 80% of South Africa's exports to China were mining products,
especially basic iron and steel, heavy chemicals and non-ferrous
metals. In contrast, the main imports included clothing, machinery
and equipment, televisions, radio and communication equipment,
furniture and footwear.
The graph below shows that imports of labour-intensive products
drive the growing trade deficit with China, more than
offsetting the trade surplus on capital-intensive products. This
pattern of trade with China has two serious consequences.
First, it resulted in significant job losses in labour intensive
industries. The clothing, textile and footwear sector alone lost
55 000 jobs since 2003, largely due to the dramatic increase in
imports from China.
Second, it reinforces South Africa's dependence on mining and
heavy chemicals, while undermining South Africa's light industry.
That reinforces the economic structure developed prior to and during
apartheid. South Africa will continue to export raw materials and
increasingly import value-added finished goods. The resulting growth
in heavy industry and the stunting of light manufacturing can only
result in unacceptably high levels of unemployment and inequality.
Because of these concerns, COSATU's CEC has called for completion
of a study of the impact of trade with China before
talks on a preferential trade agreement continue.
At the same
time, we expect a greater sense of urgency in dealing
with the current crisis especially in the clothing,
textile and footwear industry. In light of the overvalued rand
and WTO regulations,
COSATU supports immediate introduction of safeguard
measures as a crucial step. Negotiations to find other solutions
cannot become
a delaying mechanism.
The fate of thousands of workers hangs in
the balance. South Africa cannot continue to manage trade relations
in ways that contribute
to the on-going marginalisation of the majority of
South Africans.
6.SATAWU mourns drivers death
SATAWU has sent condolences to the family, friends
and colleagues of the driver who died in yet another train accident
earlier today.
"We regret the loss of this valuable and committed worker who
died on duty,"" says the union. "We also would like
to record our worry at the spate of accidents in the rail sector.
We wish to reiterate the call we made on Car Free Day for a major
capital investment on the part of government into the infrastructure
of this sector. No sooner had last week's accident been explained
to the public than we witness yet another one.
"We believe that an improved infrastructure will see a major
decline in rail accidents. We have in many fora, suggested that this
current state of the rail system is old, unsafe and a disaster in
the making. We only regret that when disaster does strike, the main
victims are the passengers and the workers.
7.POPCRU launches its annual
"Anti-crime campaign"
POPCRU will be launching its annual "Anti crime campaign" in
the Western Cape on Saturday, 5 November, an initiative that will
members, in their thousands, using their time off-work to be actively
involved in active service to combat crime during the festive season.
"Our members," says POPCRU, "shall be doing this
work without compensation. As an organisation we are committed to
building a crime free environment. Much as we are concerned about
the fact that our members are receiving meagre salaries we remain
convinced that the need render these services free of charge is a
noble gesture and a necessary contribution towards building a crime
free society."
POPCRU holds the view that the fight against crime cannot be driven
by financial gain. Much as criminal elements would see the festive
season as an opportune time to unleash their activities and escalate
their nefarious work it behoves us to reinforce the police officers
in order to be equal to the challenge.
"The national launch of our 'Anti crime campaign' will be addressed
by the Deputy President of POPCRU, Comrade Boas Motjetsi, and the
Western Cape MEC for Safety and Security, MEC Leonard Ramatlakale.
This campaign has also received a nod from provincial structures
of the Alliance who shall also deliver their messages of support."
The launch shall take place at Simunye High School in Delst at 10h00.
POPCRU calls upon the nation in all the provinces to rally behind
its Anti-crime campaign to ensure that there is no increase of criminal
activities during the festive season. "The scourge of crime
affects us all and the fight against it concerns everybody and we
urge our communities to be actively involved in this initiative."
8.POPCRU concerned about
missing teenagers
POPCRU is highly concerned about the case of two
teenage girls who have been missing for over a month now. "What
compounds our worry is that two police officers have been fingered
as suspects on the matter and the fact that the Krugersdorp Magistrate
Court released them on warning does not ease the problem either.
Much as we accept the authority of the Court and do not doubt its
wisdom, we are very weary about how this can affect the investigation
of the case.
"What makes matters worse is that, there has also been an informer
who chose to mislead the police about the whereabouts of the two
teenagers. It worries us as POPCRU that there is great potential
of the release of the cops giving rise to another Francis Rasuge
ordeal."
The unions has called upon members of the local community to assume
their role and cooperate with the police to ensure that the girls
return home soon enough. Once again we call upon our members to expose,
isolate and report all elements in the SAPS who involve themselves
in activities that undermine the good name SAPS.
9.Racism case against Old
Mutual
The case between SATAWU and Old Mutual, where a white member of
staff verbally abused a black worker continued in the Cape Town Labour
court this week. The case involves a woman who refused to sit near
a black worker, asking management why they wanted her to sit near
a kaffir. Court sat at 10.00 and lasted an hour and a half before
being adjourned for Thursday at 11.30 am when closing arguments are
going to be heard.
SATAWU is confident that it will win the case and Comrade Finca
will be fairly compensated for the personal injury and humiliation
he has endured at the hands of the racist worker. We also hope that
the apartheid era tactics over covering up for racist workers will
be addressed.
This case comes in the wake of the COSATU-wide anti-racism campaign.
SATAWU has had a handful of cases recently. The most recent case
involves a worker who was spat at and hit by his employer in Benoni.
Another one involves a Northern cape employer from the town of Springbok,
who insists on calling his staff by derogatory terms such as Hotnots
and Boesman.
10. TAC and partners to
picket at MCC office in Pretoria
Stop Illegal Clinical Trials: Arrest Mathias Rath
On a number of occasions since February 2005, the Treatment Action
Campaign has urged the Department of Health and the Medicines Control
Council (MCC) to act on the illegal clinical trials being conducted
by Dr Mathias Rath and the Rath Foundation in Khayelitsha-Western
Cape Province.
It is a known fact that the Rath Foundation and the AIDS denialists
it funds do not have the approval of the MCC or the University of
Pretoria Ethics committee to conduct clinical trials. They have also
not registered their products with the MCC and they make unsubstantiated
claims about the healing powers of their vitamin concoctions.
We are extremely concerned that Rath is using vulnerable, poor people,
known to be living with HIV/AIDS to advance selfish commercial interests,
by promoting his vitamin products as an alternative to registered
and safe AIDS-fighting antiretroviral drugs. According to community
organizations in Khayelitsha and the Eastern Cape, the SA National
Civics Organisation (SANCO), who supports these illegal activities,
send out their street committees to recruit people living with HIV
/ AIDS and are paid R100.00 for each patient recruited. Out of desperation
and poverty people sell his products to substitute their income.
As a result there is already evidence that some of his top 'patients'
have died.
We call on the MCC to speed up its investigation against Dr Rath & the
Rath Foundation. This conduct is criminal and Rath should be arrested
for conducting unlawful and illegal clinical trials on people, making
false claims about medicine and being a direct contributor to the
deaths of people who have fallen prey to his claims and stopped treatment
that was prescribed by registered doctors working from government
health services. Failure to do so implicates the MCC and the DOH
in the death of innocent people. It also makes a mockery of our system
of medicines control.
We trust that the Provincial Dept of Health in Gauteng will not
hesitate to stop such practices in this province and will do what
ever is possible within the existing legal framework. We call on
Civil Society and the press to join the picket in Tshwane to expose
this profiteering and denialism agenda at the expense of ordinary
people. The details are as follows:
Friday 4 November , 11:00-13:00, Medicines Control Council, Spruce
Street, Hallmark Building, Tshwane
Endorsed by: AIDS Consortium, Catholic Justice & Peace, Khanya
College, COSATU, Men as Partners, Positive Women's Network, Eluthandweni,
SANGOCO
11. A Profiteer from illness
and death
The South African Communist Party (SACP) wants to
add its voice to the mounting dissatisfaction with the unethical
activities of the vitamin salesman Dr Rath. What are the charges
against this crook; he is making false claims that his medicines
treat HIV/AIDS, he is distributing unregistered medicines and conducting
an illegal clinical trial on people in Khayelitsha and Hout Bay.
The SACP is concerned that it is the working class and the poor
- the very constituency of the SACP that is being abused by this
charlatan who is exploiting the vulnerability of poor and desperate
people. This is a shame.
The SACP calls on the Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala Msimang
to provide clear leadership to our communities who are increasingly
being infected by HIV and still dying of AIDS prematurely. The HSRC/Nelson
Mandela Foundation released its research findings in October 2005.
It is shocking to note that the HIV prevalence amongst young women
aged between 20 to 24 is as much as four times higher than men of
the same age. The prevalence for women is 33.3% compared to that
of men of the same age which is estimated to be at 6%. These are
statistics based on a scientific household survey of HIV/AIDS conducted
by the HSRC.
Something urgent needs to be done if the youth of today are to be
protected and nurtured to enjoy the fruits of our transformation.
We support the call made by COSATU for the department of Health to
convene a National Consultative Workshop on Prevention to revisit
the ABC messages and look at new strategies to ensure that our prevention
messages are working.
Charlatans like Dr Rath thrive on situations where there are inequalities
and desperation in order to make profits. The government must invest
more money in the public health sector so that people will have confidence
in the service it is providing and not run around seeking alternatives
offered by the likes of Rath who want to make money and have no vested
interest in the plight of poor people in this country.
As the SACP we strongly condemn profiteers like Dr. Rath who wants
to make money out of the misery of our people, we call on government
to take decisive and urgent steps against those who are profiteering
from illness and death.
12. ZCTU action against
poverty
Workers celebrating Silver Jubilee in hunger
While Zimbabwe is celebrating 25 years of Independence, life for
the worker has never been poorer. Poverty in Zimbabwe is now at 80%
of the population while the cost of living keeps rising by the day.
NechiShona vanoti "Mwana asinga cheme anofira mumbereko".
NgeSindebele bathi "Umntwana ongakhaliyo ufela embelekweni"
On behalf of all workers of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) will be organizing processions country-wide on Tuesday
8 November 2005, from 12.00 to 2.00 to remind government and employers
that workers are hungry angry and tired.
The ZCTU demands the following;
A living wage for all workers. The Poverty Datum Line is now at
Z$9 500 000
Reduction of Income Tax to a 30 % maximum and Value Added Tax
Availability and Free access to Anti Ritro Virals (ARVs)
Availability of fuel now!
The ZCTU also demands the protection of jobs: No to zhing zhong
The
ZCTU leadership will lead processions in the following centres
Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Chinhoyi, and Masvingo. (All from
12:00 pm - 2:00pm Tuesday 8 November 2005)
In Harare the Procession is going to deliver a petition to the Minister
of Public Service Labour and Social Welfare and the Minister of Finance
while in other centres the petitions will be delivered to the offices
of the Chief Labour Relations Officer who in turn has to forward
them to the Ministry of Finance.
Police have been advised of this action
Zvinhu zvadura vakomana todya marara here!
How can workers suffer in the land of plenty? Now it's the time
to be heard. Join the procession and be counted! Shinga Mushandi
Shinga !! Qina Msebenzi Qina. Proud to be ZCTU
For more information on the action please contact the ZCTU Information
and Organising Departments on 794742 / 794702 / 793093 E-mail, info@zctu.co.zw
Support JZ - Have you made your donation yet?
Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust account with First National
Bank Durban - Account Number 62087217818; Branch Code 221426
is the only legitimate public account associated with the
former Deputy President. Members of the public wishing to
contribute to the defence costs are urged not to deposit
funds into any other account. Funds from the Trust account
will be routed directly to the legal team acting for Jacob
Zuma in the corruption trial.
A website has been established to provide updates on the
funds collected, fund-raising events as well as the trial.
It will allow members of the public to make suggestions for
fund-raising activities, or send messages of support to Jacob
Zuma. The web address is www.friendsofjz.co.za
A public SMS campaign has been commenced across all three
of South Africa's cellular networks. By SMSing the word "Zuma" to
36045, members of the public will contribute R5 to the fund.
The business service provider will provide monthly reconciliation
statements which will be posted on the website.
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