Volume 7 No 1 - February 1998
Rio Tinto faces global union offensive
SADTU up in arms over teacher retrenchments
Nationwide plans for Autumn Offensive
The sixth national congress is well behind us. The direction of COSATU has been spelled out in many of the resolutions adopted at the congress. The political landscape and the balance of forces are not static and continue to change. The ANC held its conference in December 1997. The SACP will hold its conference in July this year. The national general elections are fast approaching. The national parliament has been opened and the budget speech is around the corner.
All these events present COSATU and the working class with new challenges - and opportunities. It is the responsibility of all our cadres to analyse these historic events and assess to what extent they take us closer to achieving our strategic objectives of fundamentally transforming society and changing power relations to the benefit of the working class. The ANC Mafikeng Conference has, in the true tradition of the liberation movement, called for a return to the culture of debate, political education and open debate on macro-economic strategies. The print media has been carrying a lie that Gear was endorsed by the conference. This is simply not true! Our task is to occupy the space opened and direct the debates in a way that will shift the balance of forces in favour of the working class.
The next few months will once again throw up challenges to COSATU and its cadres to be part of the process of deepening the gains made in our National Democratic Revolution. This edition of The Shopsteward carries an article on the mass recruitment campaign. This campaign forms part of the core activities which COSATU has been directed to carry out by its sixth national congress.
The aim of the campaign is to improve penetration of our affiliates' membership in the various sectors to over 50% representation. The theme of the campaign is "The union a spear, COSATU a shield. Join a COSATU union Now!" We call on you to ensure that this campaign is a success.
The unemployment crisis is deepening. The rate at which workers are losing their jobs in all industries has reached critical proportions. In the mining industry alone, more than 51 000 workers were flushed out of their jobs in 1997. In the first 26 days of this year, more than 13 000 workers lost their jobs. This means that, every day, an average of 500 workers in the mining industry lose their jobs. More than 116Ê000 jobs were lost in South Africa in 1997. There is no end in sight. The captains of industry have warned that there will be more job losses in 1998. Gear has wholly failed to deliver jobs for the unemployed. The President has now put retrenchment in the public service firmly on the agenda. Gear says 300 000 jobs in the public service should be cut by year 2000.
The rising level of unemployment is undoubtedly a national crisis. The capitalist class has now declared war on the working class. Our February Exco decided to launch a campaign to save jobs and for the creation of new jobs at a living wage. The general secretaries of affiliates were asked to develop comprehensive plans to stop this tide of job cuts. In the next edition we hope to announce details of the campaign. In the meantime, we call on all our members to pledge solidarity with the National Union of Mineworkers and all other unions fighting this scourge of job losses. Later this year, a Presidential Jobs Summit will be held in an attempt to find a solution to the crisis. Our preparations for this important event are underway. We are however worried that some elements within the capitalist class will use this event to score political points and to call for more belt-tightening by the working class.
The Ministry of Finance will be tabling the national budget in March 1998. COSATU has in the past few years called for a "people's budget". The key elements of a People's budget are: significant redistribution of income, employment creation, reducing the tax burden on the working class into the industries and creating an environment where job creation becomes the key focus of the country. Our expectation of the budget is that the government should increase its spending on social services, in particular social welfare, housing delivery, health, education etc. The focus of the country can not be the chasing of arbitrary deficit targets at the expense of addressing the backlogs in social services and other ills of apartheid misrule.
For three years now, COSATU has made detailed submissions to the standing committee on public finance, calling on them to initiate legislation to empower parliament to oversee government spending and priorities in line with the constitution. To date no such law has been passed. The Minister of Finance instead presented in parliament a lame duck law. This unconstitutional Bill gave no powers to parliament and was later withdrawn. Last year we said we are tired of making the same points to the standing committee on public finance year after year. This year, unless assured otherwise, we have no intention of making yet another submission just for the sake of being counted amongst those that have spoken, when our recommendations are ignored.
- Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU Deputy General Secretary
This seeks to provoke debate in the broader community around education issues. There has been minimal engagement by communities in this debate and a lot of mourning by the class of '76, who emerged from the days of the June 1976 uprisings.
The matric results have once again triggered hysterical reactions from people who claim to be concerned with education. A call was made for an urgent education summit. Others called for the Minister of Education to be dismissed. Some blame students, others blame teachers.
All of us are to blame! The teachers, students, parents, educationalists, government, NGOs, the church - all of us - must take responsibility for the results.
The government responded to the results by convening crisis meetings of the minister and MECs for education. One student organisation called for a week of action. Others called for the suppression of teacher organisations because they are "political and disruptive". Now, a process of consultation with all education stakeholders has been initiated to identify what went wrong.
Almost everyone, including big business, says they are "concerned" about the situation. But most of us seem to have cheap concerns. We are only interested in the results, and that's where it ends. The press is only interested in the results, friction between student organisations or when teachers are marching.
The government's introduction of Curriculum 2005 is a radical shift from the previous education curriculum. This is a major step forward. Yet there has been little talk about it, despite government initiatives to publicise it.
Parents seldom attend parents' meetings, particularly in township schools. This should be declared a crime.
Much has been said about the culture of learning and teaching - including not doing school work, arriving late at school, leaving at any time and forging school documents to get into the next grade.
Personal experiences
My experiences during my school days were:
These serious problems still exist today. This has eaten into the culture of respect: respect for oneself and for others, and for our work as teachers.
Other issues of concern in education include:
Towards a solution
Parents and some educational commentators have failed to identify all our problems in education. The transition period is very demanding. It is important to look at solutions and prepare to make Curriculum 2005 a success. Some steps which could help ensure progress are:
- Musa Manganyi, councillor, Northern MSS, Greater Johannesburg
I should like to inform you that the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), at its 270th session (November 1997), paid tribute to the memory of Dorothy Mokgalo, former national organising secretary of COSATU.
The Governing Body expressed shock at her tragic and untimely death. Highlighting the key features of her career, the Governing Body recalled the immeasurable contribution she had made to the improvement of the situation of workers in South Africa. Not only had she defended their cause within the trade union movement, particularly as national gender coordinator and later as national organising secretary of COSATU; she had also advocated labour's interests in policy-making level in key national institutions.
Through her compassion, hard work, sharp mind and exuberant energy, she had been a living expression of the fundamental principles, values and culture of independent, democratic trade unionism. Of particular merit was her commitment to eradicating discrimination, reflected in her ardent struggle against apartheid in the past and against gender discrimination within the trade union movement and society as a whole.
In the ILO Ms Mokgalo had been the first woman delegate from Africa to occupy the workers' benches and had thus become a source of inspiration to millions of workers in Africa, particularly women workers. She would be remembered as an inspiring and unfailing trade unionist who had dedicated her life to the implementation of the ILO's basic mandate - the promotion of social justice.
Ms Mokgalo's passing was a loss not only to her family, but also to urban and rural women, to the workers of South Africa and indeed to the entire trade union movement throughout the world.
The Governing Body unanimously requested me to convey its sympathy to COSATU. May I therefore ask you to accept, and kindly to transmit, this expression of sympathy to the members of your organisation.
- Michel Hansenne, ILO Director General, Geneva
COSATU has a proud history of fighting for the rights of oppressed black workers and of protecting the gains that have been won. But this history was recently undermined by the actions of SASBO, a COSATU affiliate.
On 24 November 1997, SASBO deputy general secretary Graeme Rowan and SASBO Pretoria regional secretary Ben Venter participated in industrial action at the Land Bank's head office in Pretoria (see SASBO News Vol 22, no 11). SACCAWU publicly distanced itself from the action. The report in SASBO News attributes the lunch-time action to:
What the report conveniently fails to mention is that the social and political changes in the country have completely passed the Land Bank by. For example, before the appointment of the current Managing Director, the Land Bank had no women in senior management and prior to August 1997 there were no black people in management.
Until this time, 100% of management were white Afrikaner males. Appointments and promotions were not on the basis of merit but based on a system of racial and gender discrimination. There was no grading system; no affirmative action policy and disciplinary procedures were contrary to labour law.
Indeed, the whole institution was based on Afrikaner nepotism and subservience.
Now that the new managing director has started a transformation process to modernise the parastatal and abolish all traces of racial and gender discrimination, those who benefitted under the old system are obviously concerned and feel threatened.
These reactionary workers are now using SASBO to undermine a process that will introduce the following into the Land Bank:
I need to ask: how can COSATU allow one of it affiliates to embark on industrial action to protect white Afrikaner male dominance and be against the promotion of affirmative action? It is a disgrace.
- Progressive Land Bank employee
We have sent a copy of this letter to SASBO and COSATU and will publish a response in the next edition - Ed
It is of paramount importance to warn comrades about the formation of workplace forums in the municipal sector.
We would advise comrades to liaise with their principals to get sufficient information before they fall into the trap of the management. Workplace forums (WPFs) are not favoured by employers because of joint decision-making and disclosure of relevant information pertaining to budgets and other important issues contained in the new LRA.
We would advise comrades to retain their existing forums where they negotiate or discuss labour issues rather than jumping to form WPFs without proper knowledge or information.
Employers will try to convince comrades about the importance of having WPFs. But there are many technical logistics behind forming WPFs which will cause them to be controlled by the management rather than the employees and the unions.
The other danger zone of WPFs is the issue of rival unions within the same municipal structure. Comrades should not forget that we are in a new era but with the same management of the past.
The same unions which were operating then are still operating and they are the sweethearts of the management. There are also unions whose members are in managerial positions and who aim to see WPFs and affirmative action programmes fall down.
In most cases you find our comrade councillors being blindfolded by these people. They submit reports with financial implications so as to avoid continuing certain programmes. This is one of the weak points which have been realised by these people. At the end of the day, you will have steering committees and unnecessary task teams being formed before the workplace forum is formed, which is not contained in the new LRA.
The other important issues are the way in which full-time shop stewards will be elected and how they operate; the involvement of union members in joint decision-making and whom should you meet. Here you will hear them saying that they regard themselves as part of the employer because of the duties they perform, forgetting that they are also the members of the union.
Comrades should not forget that management has many strategies to bash SAMWU. One of these, if comrades are not serious, is to form workplace forums without proper information and knowledge. But comrades should not take it as if WPFs are not good. They are good enough to dismantle the spirit of dictatorship and unilateral decision-making by employers. But it needs a very careful and programmatic approach.
- Christopher M Nkosi, SAMWU Germiston
I want to express my views about the way things are handled in our organisation, the ANC, at national level. I want to point to the issue of the Gauteng premier. Cde Mathole Motshega and Cde Amos Masondo contested the premiership. Six regions supported Cde Motshega and one region supported Cde Masondo.
When the National Working Committee realised that Cde Masondo would lose the election, they changed the election date. Cde Masondo was withdrawn from the race for premiership. Then there was only one candidate for the position. Then the story changed that the person must first contest the chairmanship, which Cde Motshega won with the highest number of votes. Other comrades were brought in to contest the position, including Jessie Duarte, Peter Mokaba, Rev Frank Chikane, Paul Mashatile and others, which didn't help the issue.
The people have shown that they want Cde Motshega to be their premier of Gauteng, so I make a strong appeal to the national leadership that the ANC belongs to the people and they must allow people on the ground to decide on the people of their choice. I hope the national leadership elected at the ANC national conference will be open minded and hear what the people want on the ground for any position in the organisation.
I am a NUMSA member and shop steward in the Klerksdorp local and the COSATU local deputy chairperson. I am a loyal member of the ANC in Klerksdorp, so I am registering my concern about things that happen in the organisation such as the withdrawal of Cde Matthew Phosa and Winnie Madikizela Mandela from the race for deputy president.
Comrades, let us work together to make the ANC win by a two-thirds majority in the 1999 elections. I will make sure that I campaign for the organisation like I have done in 1994. We have to take a release from our workplaces and work for the organisation.
Amandla! Viva ANC Viva! Viva SACP Viva! Viva COSATU Viva! Long live the spirit of our fallen heroes, Long live!
- Daniel Montoedi, NUMSA and COSATU Klerksdorp
