COSATU and the WSF - a response to the Sunday Independent
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has written to the Sunday
Independent to protest about the article, COSATU must walk the
talk, on Sunday 29 January by Christelle Terreblanche.
Christelle is an excellent journalist, for whom COSATU has great
respect. But this article is unfortunately marred by a number
of damaging inaccuracies, which are then used to reach false
political conclusions. COSATU must set the record straight.
The most serious allegation is that at the 7th World Social Forum
(WSF) in Nairobi, "South African labour, including COSATU,
was all but invisible", and that "there was no input
by COSATU, one of Africa's largest union federations, when a
first-ever formal network between mainstream international labour
and 'left' social movements globally was launched within the
WSF."
This is totally untrue. COSATU was a co-founder of the WSF, and
its African wing the ASF, and has been participating in all its
activities since 2002, when trade union representation was minimal.
It fought for more representation of unions and was instrumental
in getting the then International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions on board.
COSATU was also in the forefront of the campaign to rotate WSF
meetings around different continents, which resulted in meetings
in Mumbai in 2005 and Nairobi this year.
It was represented on the Organising Committee for the Nairobi
meeting and pushed successfully for the Kenyan Centre of Trade
Unions and African union federations - ICFTU-Afro, OATUU and
OOATU - to be given a central role. This led to the Trade Union
Pavilion at the WSF, under the theme: Decent Work for a Decent
Life! COSATU then campaigned strongly for trade unions to send
delegations, and indeed the trade union activities were well
attended for the entire three days.
COSATU itself was represented by its President, 2nd Deputy President,
Deputy General Secretary, the General Secretary of NUMSA, and
the Deputy Presidents of SAMWU and the NUM, and eight others
from affiliates and head office.
They were certainly not "all but invisible". It is unfortunate
that none of their paths crossed Christelle's, but the following
summary of some of the important seminars and panel discussions
shows just how actively COSATU participated:
a.. NUMSA General Secretary, Slumko Nondwangu, spoke at a discussion on the
growing expansion of multinational companies, their behaviour in emerging
economies like South Africa and Brazil and how to monitor them.
·
Deputy General Secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali, was part of the
panel in a seminar on the informal economy and the role of trade
unions.
a.. Oupa Bodibe, the Director of Naledi, represented COSATU in a discussion
on the ILO campaign for adequate social protection as a cushion against the
effects of globalisation.
·
At a seminar on 'Western Sahara: the last Colony in Africa', which
looked at ways of providing continuous support for the struggle
of the people of a country colonised by Morocco, Deputy International
Relations Secretary, Mandla Rametsi, represented COSATU.
a.. President Willy Madisha participated in a panel discussion on the NAMA
11 negotiations, which aim to reduce tariffs on non-agricultural goods, which
could involve deeper tariff cuts for developing countries than for developed
countries.
a.. The DGS was also involved in the International Council making plans for
WSF meeting in 2009 and discussions on common programmes leading to the 2009
8th WSF at a venue still to be decided.
a.. In the light of South Africa's hosting of the 2010 World Cup, COSATU was
invited to speak to a meeting on the theme of Decent Work equals Fair Play.
This examined what action the trade unions should take action towards 2010
World Cup in South Africa. Mandla Rametsi took part in this discussion.
a.. Mummy Jafta, COSATU gender coordinator, participated in a discussion on
'Women and Sexuality'.
a.. Violet Seboni, COSATU 2nd Deputy President, and the DGS participated in
numerous discussions on decent work and the role of trade unions.
a.. At an event dealing with labour, the environment, sustainable development
and climate change, the DGS participated as a panellist.
a.. The and NUMSA, with the CUT of Brazil and other progressive social movements,
held an intensive discussion with the National Secretary of President Lula's
office on future cooperation between the social movements, NGOs and governments
of India, Brazil and South Africa around strengthening their governments'
role in the future WTO negotiations.
This list, which leaves out the work done by COSATU representatives
as part of international trade union organisations and numerous
informal engagements, completely refutes the article's main charge
of COSATU's 'invisibility'.
The article then unfortunately proceeds from its inaccurate report
of COSATU's "non-involvement at the WSF" to draw false
political conclusions about the federation's relationship with
the Tripartite Alliance and social movements. "COSATU's
lukewarm participation begs the question of whether it was ready
- as it says, and resolved - to embrace more radical civil society
organisations to build a front to challenge ANC policy, without
breaking ranks with the ANC's rival 'poverty front'."
The article then misquotes COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima
Vavi, in his response to a question about "whether COSATU's
near-invisibility at the WSF was an indication that the resolutions
about building the 'popular movement' were mere alliance rhetoric".
"
Vavi," said the article, "pledged that in working with
civil society from now on, 'there will be no talk of [the ANC]
alliance, [but] talk just about what we should be doing together'."
We are sure there was no intention to misquote him, but Vavi insists
that he did not make such a statement and COSATU is concerned
that it could give an entirely misleading interpretation of its
relations with the Alliance and social movements.
The federation's view has always been that the two relationships
are complementary, rather than contradictory. The article correctly
reports that COSATU resolved last year that "a popular movement
towards socialism, located within a restructured alliance and
involving a range of mass movements, must be formed to assert
the leadership of the working class, including the pro-socialist
social movements".
But there were other resolutions equally emphatically reaffirming
support for the Alliance with the ANC and the SACP. COSATU and
its affiliates and provincial structures are now busy implementing
both resolutions.
COSATU remains committed to work as closely as possible with progressive
civil society and social movements, alongside its commitment
to build and strengthen the Tripartite Alliance.
