Volume 9, No.3 - September 2000

Resolutions

COSATU is proud that is controlled by the workers it represents. One of the main ways in which workers exercise control is by submitting resolutions, through their affiliated unions, to the COSATU National Congress.These are debated and if passed become the federation's programme for the next three years. These are some of the resolutions for the Seventh National Congress.

Taking the NDR forward, laying the foundations for socialism and defining the aims of the NDR

From NEHAWU and SAMWU

This Congress,

Noting:

1 South Africa is no exception to capitalist globalisation, which attacks:

a. the main gains of the NDR, that is the incorporation of social and economic rights in our democratic constitution and the generation of new labour laws,

b. the working class directly, by imposing extreme labour flexibility and unemployment, shrinking formal employment and posing political and organizational challenges to the organized working class, and

c. the social wage, leading to deepening commodification of working people's lives, with rising costs for housing, transport, schooling, health and other government services.

2 The driving forces behind the present imperialist globalisation are the imperial states, the transnational corporations, international financial institutions (notably IMF/World Bank) united behind an ideology and strategy of neo-liberalism, which guide the "New World Order".

3 Within the forces of national democratic forces, a new black elite has arisen, benefiting directly from inclusion in big foreign and local capital, privatisation and the restructuring of the public sector to support a capitalist economy and globalisation. Aspects of neo-liberalism have emerged inside the national democratic forces.

4 Over time, many of the radical aspects of the NDR have been jettisoned, with no objective basis advanced for these shifts. This situation permits the continued domination of the South African economy by mining and finance capital.

5 To justify this shift, the argument has arisen in government and big business that:

a. organised labour forms a labour aristocracy, which cares only about its own interests and wields too much influence on policy decisions, and

b. sacrifices by workers benefit the poorest of the poor.

Resolves:

1 COSATU reaffirms that the NDR means:

a. Participatory democracy that lets the majority of the people take part in shaping government actions, in order to break the monopoly of the former ruling class - big business and old-line government officials,

b. Transforming the economy to meet the needs of the majority and achieve greater equality in income and ownership, through

i. Land reform, better housing and infrastructure;

ii. Broad-based skills development;

iii. A higher social wage by expanding government services;

iv. Stronger social ownership including through the public sector and co-operatives.

3 The strategic role of COSATU today is to maintain and heighten the confidence of the working class and organised workers in particular, since the tasks of building socialism are linked to the NDR and depend on the confidence and strength of the working class.

4 Within the Alliance, COSATU must strongly defend the leading role of the organised working class in the NDR. 5 COSATU must reject strongly:

a. the argument that the interests of capital define the national interest,

b. the use of left rhetoric to justify a shift to the right in policy,

c. the contention that workers employed in the formal sector are a labour aristocracy,

d. attempts to divert the Federation from stronglyprotecting the direct interest of workers and the broader working class, and

e. the notion of that sacrifices by the poor must fund the poorest. Measures to bring about equality must focus on the overall distribution of wealth from the rich to the poor and steps to close the gap in income that is aggravated by the newly emerging elite of black business and public-sector managers. 6 COSATU must challenge the ANC, the Alliance the government to recognise the progressive and active role of organised labour, and especially the public-sector unions.

Building working class organisation

Defending the leading role of the working class From SAMWU This Congress,

Noting:

1. Many working class organisations that were at the forefront of the struggle against racial oppression and economic exploitation no longer function effectively.

2. As a result, working class influence over change has weakened, while capital has increased its power, often claiming to act in the national interest.

Resolves:

1. COSATU must vigorously take steps to re-assert the leadership role of the working class in consolidating and advancing the NDR.

2. Priority must be given to building and strengthening all organisations of the working class, with less concentration on multi-class alliances.

3. This struggle must include opposing any steps to cut government spending and activities to the detriment of the working class as a whole.

Building and functioning of the Alliance

From SACTWU, SADTU, NEHAWU and CEPPWAWU This Congress,

Noting:

1. The failure to implement Alliance decisions and programmes, which reduces the Alliance to little more than an electoral machine.

2. The apparent centralisation of power with the potential to entrench the politics of patronage and to stifle debate within Alliance structures.

3. The declaration of the ANC NGC in July 2000 and the Draft Report of the Commissions on Programme of Action of the ANC NGC in July 2000, which called for stronger participatory democracy, greater consultation on policy issues within the ANC and the Alliance, and a research project to assess economic policies amongst others in terms of their impact on employment and the nature of employment.

Believing:

1. The strategic alliance with the ANC and the SACP should be maintained.

2. In the spirit of the NGC declaration, COSATU cannot act as a rubber stamp for government policy.

3. All partners to the Alliance are equal and should be treated with respect.

4. The working class is the primary motive force for fundamental social transformation in our NDR.

Resolves:

1 In order to fulfill the NDR, the Alliance must qualitatively change its operations by: a. implementing the agreement to establish a strong Alliance political centre that mobilises forces both in and outside government to assert leadership over the process of transformation, as well as other agreements aimed at making the Alliance more effective, and b. conducting a major review of the operations of the Alliance.

2 COSATU must strengthen the Alliance by: a. reaffirming the declaration and resolution of the 1999 Special National Congress to strengthen the Alliance at all levels, and b. embarking as the Federation and individual affiliates on a campaign to recruit individual union members to the ANC and SACP in order to strengthen and revitalise the democratic movement through mass participation, and to reinforce the working class orientation of the Alliance.

Building worker unity and expanding the Federation

From NUM and NEHAWU 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 principle 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 unions that apply for membership gain observer status for six months, during which they can learn about and adapt to COSATU policies.
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 EXCO should approve the affiliation of the new merged union.
6. To support the establishment of cartels, COSATU must:

a. prepare a discussion paper for each of the cartels to workshop and develop further,

b. hold workshops in each sector to examine shared areas of work and challenges, the possibilities for sharing resources and campaigns, and concrete steps to take the cartel policy forward, and

c. on that basis, define a programme of action to move the cartel policy forward.

Recruitment campaign

From NEHAWU and SACTWU

Believing:

The continuous recruitment and unionisation of workers outside COSATU is a critical and central part of building and maintaining a strong labour movement. Recruitment and organising of informal sector workers is a major and necessary challenge.

Resolves:

1. To continue with the annual recruitment campaign.
2. Affiliates should commit more time for planning and execution of the campaign.
3. The Federation sets the realistic target of 50 000 new members a year as a result of this campaign.
4. Affiliates commit to recruitment and unionisation of informal sector workers as a major part of the recruitment drive, as well as their overall work and resource allocation.
5. A committee of affiliates must drive the campaign and integrate into COSATU's functioning informal sector workers and other workers in the new forms of work.
6. The Federation must develop a plan of action for organising workers in difficult areas, including:

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

b. 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,

c. 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.

Restructuring the public sector

From NEHAWU, SADTU This Congress,

Noting:

1. That current practices on restructuring the state:

a. are contrary to Alliance policy that the NDR requires a strong, efficient, developmental and truly democratic state, as recently restated at the NGC in July 2000, and

b. marginalise ANC and Alliance structures and undermine the right to collective bargaining.

2. The Alliance has not debated or developed a common vision on the transformation of the state.

3. Conservative fiscal policy is driving privatisation and downsizing, which reduce the social wage and the capacity of the state to drive transformation.

Believing:

1. The transformation of the state must ensure it is biased toward the working class and allied to popular movements for transformation centred on the Alliance.
2. The transformation of the state must be characterised by:

a. participatory democracy,

b. resistance to imperialist control, asserting the right of self-determination and control over key strategies, including macro-economic and trade policy, and

c. the establishment of a developmental state that

i. decommodifies people's social rights, strengthening the social wage,

ii. leads the industrialisation process,

iii. ensures increasing equality in wealth and incomes,

iv. controls capital to meet the needs of the working class, and

v. builds social capital by strengthening the public sector and through workers' funds, cooperative banks, and other forms of collective ownership.

Resolves:

1. To call for a meeting of Alliance structures to debate policy and strategy in relation to public sector restructuring.

2. Any restructuring of the public sector must aim:

a. to extend and improve government services to historically marginalised communities,

b. to restructure the economy to benefit the majority,

c. to create jobs both inside and outside the public sector, and

d. to control the bureaucratic bourgeoisie.

3. Restructuring must result from consultation and negotiation in a public sector summit that leads to a new and effective National Framework Agreement for the entire public sector. It must establish open, participatory and consultative processes to drive restructuring to meet the aims of the NDR. 4. COSATU must assist the public-sector unions in developing policy and in campaigns to turn policies into practical measures for implementation.

Collective bargaining in the public service

From NEHAWU, SADTU and SASAWU Noting: The trend towards unilateralism on the part of the government as employer in its dealings with public sector workers.

Resolves:

1. To call on government as the employer to negotiate in good faith with public-service employees.
2. To use the labour policy for the public service developed by COSATU's public-sector unions to engage especially with the Executive.
3. Policies that will affect labour must be based on principled agreement within the Alliance, and only then proceed to normal negotiations.
4. Negotiations in the public service should take place before announcement of the budget.

Proposals to amend the LRA and the BCEA

From SACCAWU and SACTWU This Congress,

Noting: 1. Attempts by the government to reverse our hard-fought gains through the proposed amendments to the BCEA and the LRA;

2. Widespread retrenchments and the accelerated casualisation of labour.

Believing:

1. The vision captured in the Inaugural Central Committee resolutions guides our policy and is more relevant than ever before;
2. The proposed amendments roll back the rights which workers have won through hard struggle over many years and impose greater labour-market flexibility;
3. Our campaign to stem and reverse the tide of job losses has laid a foundation for carrying this battle to a victorious conclusion.

Resolves:

1. To reject:

a. Amendments that would make it harder to extend bargaining council agreements;

b. The inadequate formulation on Section 189 (retrenchments) and Section 197 (transfer of businesses), of the Labour Relations Act;

c. The weakening of procedural rights at the workplace;

d. Changes to the sections on Workplace Forums that give minority trade unions and non-unionised workers the trigger to set of Workplace Forums;

e. The removal of Sunday overtime pay;

f. Ministerial right to vary core rights.

2. To call for a programme of sustained action including sit-ins and a general strike to register our protest.

3. To call for:

a. inclusion of the duty to bargain,

b. amendment of Section 189 of the LRA to ensure that retrenchments are negotiable,

c. the right to strike over dismissals,

d. the right to picket inside and outside company premises during protected strikes,

e. no right to lockout,

f. a severance package of no less than four weeks' pay per year of service.

3. Systematically to campaign for the extension of the collective bargaining agenda to cover new areas, as provided in the Inaugural Central Committee resolution.

4. To monitor the activities of the CCMA and ensure that measures outlined in our Inaugural Central Committee resolution apply as a matter of extreme urgency.

HIV/Aids

From CEPPWAWU, SACTWU and SADTU

Noting:

1. The continuing impact of the HIV/Aids pandemic in South Africa, and 2. The failure of the government to provide a clear lead in combating it.

Believing:

1. Congress reaffirms the declaration and resolution on HIV/Aids passed at the Special Congress in August 1999,
2. The HIV/Aids pandemic threatens the social and economic fabric of our society and could undermine the gains of our democracy,
3. The poorest and the most vulnerable of our society are most at risk,
4. Providing medication to HIV positive pregnant women is morally and medically right and makes good economic sense in terms of costs saved on treatment of HIV positive children,
5. Providing medication to rape victims is morally and medically right,
6. Government's conservative economic policy prevents adequate resources being made available for education, prevention and treatment,
7. There is scientific evidence to support the efficacy of anti-retroviral drugs in the control of HIV/Aids.

Resolves:

1. To condemn pharmaceutical companies who put profit above people.
2. To call on Government urgently:

a. to draw up a programme of action to make affordable treatment available to people living with HIV/AIDS, and to increase government spending on treatment,

b. immediately to provide the necessary medication to HIV positive pregnant women and rape victims,

c. to end its scientific speculation in order to concentrate on education, prevention and treatment,

d. to respond to the immediate and long-term needs of AIDS orphans and people living with AIDS, and

e. urgently to address issues of gender inequity as this is feeding the AIDS pandemic.

3 COSATU must lead a campaign to end discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.

Building a progressive platform internationally

From SACCAWU and NEHAWU This Congress,

Noting:

1. Progressive forces have not yet formulated a common vision to weave together various national struggles against neo-liberal policies, leading to an absence of overall leadership to sustain the struggles of workers and social groups.
2. A lot of work is still required to transform the ICFTU into a fighting organ of the international proletariat.

Believing:

1. A common platform against neo-liberalism will only emerge through conscious effort on our part, and the South African working class has an important role to place in this process.
2. COSATU's prestige internationally is a source of strength in forging a fighting programme against neo-liberalism.
3. A common platform will be a product of common struggles that should be coordinated.

Resolves:

1. To intensify the struggle against neo-liberalism.
2. To commit ourselves to an on-going process to restructure and transform the ICFTU, and create closer relations with the WCL and WFTU in order to unit the workers of the world.
3. To call for an international conference of progressive forces to assess national struggles, define a programme to co-ordinate solidarity work, and define a process to culminate in a common platform. 4. To call a conference of progressive forces in Africa to identify key priorities for the progressive moment on the continent, adopt a common programme to address these priorities, and define a programme to engage progressive forces in other continents.
4. To mandate the International Relations Department to prepare for both these conferences and to develop a clear programme to educate and mobilise members on international worker solidarity.
5. To support of day of action, with pickets and demonstrations at major institutions and multinational companies, against the World Bank and the IMF semi-annual joint meeting on 26 September 2000, in the Czech Republic.