CWU Special Congress wages war on jobs bloodbath and poverty
By Sizwe Matshikiza CWU Spokesperson
About 280 delegates from all our provinces turned the Communications Workers' Union Special National Congress into a focused and militant war council against the jobs bloodbath and poverty and union inefficiency.
Congress, held from 3-5 May, was guided by the theme: Unite and mobilise to defend jobs and crush poverty.
Union President, comrade Joe Chauke, set the tone of militancy which was to guide discussions, noting in his opening remarks: "This Special Congress takes place just after two important events - the Freedom Day and May Day celebrations. What is important for this congress is how do we make those celebrations meaningful for the working class and South Africans at large in pursuit of a better life for all."
He challenged the union to campaign to end the Strategic Equity Partnership with Telkom and the Strategic Management Partnership with the Post Office (SAPO), because the foreign partners involved were failing not only the workers but also the country in general.
They were not delivering on key areas like transfer of skills, attracting foreign direct investment, meeting social obligations, transferring technology and helping the country to access new markets. He decried the failure of the Department of Trade and Industry to monitor these contracts to make sure that they also provide counter-trades for the economic development of our country.
The President did not fail to criticise the union on our own subjective weaknesses as provinces, officials and leaders, some of which are well within our ability to improve on:
- The poor servicing of workers;
- Insufficient recruitment of new members;
- Over reliance on lawyers to wage legal struggles where shop stewards or officials could take the task of defending members;
- Failure to implement important union policy decisions on matters such as HIV/AIDS.
These challenges from the President were followed by yet another awakening comment from our guest speaker, comrade Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of COSATU. He noted that: "The Communication Workers Union has experienced at first hand the dangers of privatisation. In the past decade, most recently in the name of 'developmental restructuring' both Telkom and the Post office have faced repeated assaults. The results, as we see almost inevitably with privatisation, have been both job losses and worse services for the poor. Only the rich have benefited."
On the coming of the second national operator, as announced in the Telecommunication Policy Directions, he said:
"The government says it will let underserved communities set up co-ops or look to independent SMMEs for telephone connections. That cynical decision underlines the extent to which its current policies abandon the poor. It grants the poor the right to pay for their own telephones. In contrast, the apartheid state paid for the telephone infrastructure in rich communities over several decades. Surely, when we risked our lives in the struggle for freedom, we did not mean to set the poor free to pay for basic services."
Further cementing the militant mood of congress, comrade Vavi noted: "We have talked and talked to government, and seen extraordinarily little change in their policies. Our discussions under the NFA have indeed been interesting, challenging and intellectually stimulating - and they have had no visible impact whatsoever on proposals for privatisation."
The resolutions Congress passed should lay foundations for our struggles to come, out of the rut and away from the clutches of joblessness and poverty.
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