While the number of people that are infected by HIV/Aids is increasing rapidly every day, the labour movement is most silent. In this article, Kim Jurgensen looks at why the rate is rising so rapidly and suggests that if Cosatu took up the issue seriously, it could do a lot to reverse this trend.
The year is 2009. In South Africa unemployment is at an all-time high, with more than half the population either not having, or not being able to work. More than 3 million children are orphaned.
Already in certain areas of the bigger cities, Aids colonies (which are euphemistically termed "Aids clinics") are springing up. In KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng every second person is infected.
Although technically illegal, HIV testing in the workplace has become the status quo. Northern suburbs (in Johannesburg) ‘madams’ subject their domestic workers to regular tests to ensure their "children are safe".
The infection has already spread so quickly (more people are infected in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world!) that many medical aid schemes will no longer cover treatment related to HIV/Aids infections.
Foreign investors have pulled out of South Africa at a rapid rate due to alarmingly high turn-overs in the workforce. Some coal-mines report that up to 300 workers a month are dying from the virus already. Morale is extremely low.
Why has the HIV/Aids rate increased to such an extent?
It’s 1998.
In the small Free State town of Welkom a man and a woman are having sex. They are
in a seedy hotel in a seedy part of town. There is nothing extraordinary about this
encounter. No kinky positions, no whips and chains, leather and lace, no video recorders
or sex toys. So why are we writing about this? Well, if you watch the man turn over, you
will notice he’s not wearing a condom.
Phindile is a mineworker on St Helena mine in Welkom. He wakes up at 4:30 every morning in order to be ready for the 5:30am shift. He goes underground where he drills into the earth for 12 hours, only coming up at 5:30pm.
After 12 hours without seeing the sun, of the threat of rockfalls, tuberculosis and retrenchments, an exhausted Phindile finally gets back to the compound where he lives, with thousands of other migrant workers.
His family stays in a village in the far Northern Province, and he only gets to see them twice a year. Although he sends money every month, there are no phones in the village and the postal service is so bad that letter writing is impossible. It’s a lonely existence.
By 9pm, Phindile is drinking beer in a seedy hotel in town. This hotel is notorious for housing sex workers. Phindile is lonely, and when 22 year old Rose approaches him with an offer of sex, he doesn’t say no. How much does she charge? Well, if he buys her two pints of beer she is his for a couple of hours. If he buys five pints of beer, he won’t have to use a condom.
Most people are aware of the risk of HIV, even though they may not know all the detail. However, most South Africans still continuously put themselves and their partners at risk.
Research into mine workers’ attitudes to HIV has found that "sex with its associations of comfort and intimacy (even in the impersonal contact with commercial sex workers) serves as a comfort to workers in the face of fears and stresses. The stressful nature of miners’ day to day lives forms a key aspect of the psycho-social context of HIV transmission on the mines".
Some estimates are that as many as 70% of sex workers are infected with HIV. Why is it that people still continue to take such risks with their lives?
Phindile explains that when life is so cheap and work is so treacherous every single day, gambling with HIV does not seem terribly risky.
It is no coincidence that those most affected by Aids are the most disadvantaged members of society.
President Mandela told the World Economic Forum last year that "In many ways South Africa’s past - as that of most colonial societies - remains with us today, not least in the social dimentions of the unfolding Aids epidemic. The poor, the vulnerable, the unschooled, the socially marginalised, the women and the children, those who bear the burden of colonial legacy - these are the sectors of society which bear the burden of Aids".
But as we all know, Aids is one of the few truly non-racist, non-sexist, non-homophobic phenomenons of our society today. We are ALL at risk. But why then is the international education and awareness campaign failing?
A Zimbabwean researcher argues that it is understandable why disadvantaged people do not prioritise safe sex as an issue. "Bread and butter issues linked to day-to-day survival are more pressing for the majority of people and being HIV positive is for some just another burden in an endless struggle for survival".
| Why are we printing this in The Shopsteward? Because we believe every shopsteward, every official, every worker should see this virus as the global crisis that it is. |
Up to now the labour movement has hardly done anything on this issue. ‘Shopsteward’ asked affiliates to report on their HIV education and training programmes. Only Samwu and Sadtu responded. Even those whose members are most affected by the virus (mineworkers and truck drivers) didn’t bother to get back to us.
The cold hard truth is that Cosatu members are dying. And it’s time the labour movement took this up as the political struggle which it is. Currently, the number of people infected in South Africa totals more than those affected in North America, South America and Australia combined!
But how has this become a political issue. Larry Kramer, an American Aids activist said "there is nothing in this whole Aids mess that is not political", and this was back in 1987!
Studies have shown a direct link between an increase in HIV infections, and socio-economic policies of the IMF and World Bank which result in poorer countries not being able to establish their own social policies because they have no resources and rely on handouts from these institutions.
At a global level, the response to this epidemic is being determined by industrialised countries.
Another irony of the capitalist world is that those who have money, and not those who are most affected, get to set the agenda. Already a vaccination has been developed to manage the virus but the vaccination works for the strain of HIV found in North America, not for the strain found in our part of the world!
Combination therapy (a combination of drugs) (which doesn’t cure Aids but does minimise the effects) works anywhere, but Mark Heywood of the Aids Law Project says the drug couldn’t be used here anyway, because of developing world circumstances.
For example, it requires the patient to have regular meals, the medicine needs to be refrigerated etc. It is unlikely that a vaccine will be developed for the strain of HIV in our region for at least another seven to ten years!
What are the challenges for the labour movement then?
Heywood believes the labour movement can do more on this issue than any other group in society. He says unions must develop a strong network in the unions and ensure that every union has a workshop on Aids. This will help officials and shopstewards become aware of the risks their members face on HIV.
Every union should have a national Aids officer. We have gender officers, education officers, sometimes health and safety officers. We can’t afford not to have someone in every affiliate committed to co-ordinating the Aids campaign.
Affiliate leadership must kickstart the drive to eradicate this virus. If our political leadership does not take this seriously, it’s hard to expect workers to champion the cause.
Our campaign should include research into the impact HIV will have on worker benefits as well as discussing ways to engage employers. They have the resources, we should provide the programme. These programmes could include HIV education in the workplace, setting up workplace STD (sexually transmitted diseases) clinics to reduce the risk of STDs, counseling etc.
| In Zimbabwe it is law that every workplace should have an HIV prevention programme. Why are we lagging so far behind! |
Heywood argues that the reason previous programmes failed, is that these programmes were devised by people whose life experiences are far removed from the poor, and the working class. That is why the labour movement is in such a prime position to really make a difference on this issue. We know how to relate to workers, to deal with their fears and concerns, to develop our education and awareness materials in ways that make sense to workers.
As part of our commitment to this struggle, "The Shopsteward" will publish a regular column on HIV/Aids during 1999.
Thanks to Mark Heywood from AIDS Law Project for information and advice for this feature.
Unions A Key Player in the Partnership Against AIDS On October 9 Deputy President Mbeki called on all South Africans to "join hands in the Partnership Against AIDS" in a ten minute live broadcast to the nation. The historic declaration, read on behalf of President Mandela, warned that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reached crisis proportions. All sectors of society were called on to make a contribution to prevent the spread of the disease and to care for those who are already infected. Unions have an important role to play in the fight against AIDS as they have direct access to the nation’s workforce. Given that employees are also family members, parents and community leaders, collectively they have access to the majority of the South African population. At the Declaration event, at Ethembeni Children’s Home, the General Secretary of Cosatu, Mbhazima Shilowa, made a pledge on behalf of the labour sector to:
Already the Employment Equity Act:
Issued by: Department of Health (See the HIV/AIDS Workplace Resource Guide, developed by the Department of Health as part of the Beyond Awareness Campaign, for further assistance) |
Gender, poverty and HIV There are obvious gender dimensions to poverty and inequality, which also helps to explain women’s greater vulnerability to HIV. The need to supplement income results in many women selling sex either as prostitutes or in a less formal sex-for-support relationship. Research conducted in mining areas has found many women who "sell sex" without regarding themselves as prostitutes per se. Alternatively, many women engage in commercial sex work as their sole source of income. Inequality in employment and wages has reinforced women’s financial dependency on men and has reduced a woman’s power to insist on safer sexual practices. Domestic violence and rape also have associations with poverty. Abused women and rape survivors also risk HIV infection. Welfare Services and the SAPS have no policies to inform women of the risk of HIV transmission or to improve accessibility to prophylaxis which can reduce the risk of HIV infection if it is taken soon after the rape. It is more difficult for poor women to get treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. With a STD, the chances of getting infected with HIV are much greater. Pregnant women infected with HIV are dependent on the public health service, where it exists. They can’t access therapies (such as AZT) that dramatically reduce the risk of HIV being transmitted from mother to the child. Adults and children estimated to be living with HIV/Aids at the end of 1998: North America 890 000 |
