While trade unions organised workers around shopfloor issues, civic organisations organised around problems facing workers and other residents in the townships where they lived.
Most community-based organisations straddled different class origins and aspirations. In apartheid South Africa, these organisations could not be blind to the powerlessness of the oppressed and most were therefore overtly political.
Many were in alliance with township-based student, youth, women's and other organisations.
Some strands of the democratic union movement which had begun to emerge in the late seventies were suspicious of community-based organisations. They preferred to emphasise shopfloor-based and "pure" working class organisation.
Another strong union tradition believed unions had to defend the working poor and the unemployed, not only in their workplaces, but also where they lived.
Union members, it was argued, were not only workers in the workplace, paid low wages and refused union recognition. They were also residents living in the apartheid ghettoes, paying high rents for matchbox houses and governed by puppet local councils. Workers were parents of children who were victims of apartheid education and who were shot at and jailed for demanding democratic SRCs. Their families languished in bantustan dumping grounds as apartheid policy denied them the right and the means to live together.
In short, the interests of workers in the factories, mines, shopfloors, farms and kitchens of apartheid South Africa were inextricably linked with those of the oppressed and exploited in the society as a whole. The working people therefore had to build alliances in order to destroy the apartheid system.
At a time when the ANC and the SACP were still banned and exiled, the emerging trade union movement had a unique depth of organisation and potential to mobilise. It was this which many in the mass democratic movement were keen to harness in the battle against apartheid.
The UDF was formed two years prior to the launch of Cosatu. It generated unprecedented enthusiasm, mobilisation and mass organisation and pulled together organisations previously confined to different sectors or local areas. However, it was still young, and a target of state repression.
"Through Cosatu, workers will take their rightful place in the liberation movement to free our people from oppression and exploitation," said the UDF at the time of Cosatu's launch.
UDF-aligned unions such as Saawu, Gawu and Macwusa had cemented close ties with civics and political organisations. Others such as GWU, FCWU and CWIU had won community backing for consumer boycotts in support of worker demands (Fattis and Monis, Wilson Rowntrees, Colgate and the meat boycott).
Joint action between unions, community organisations and the UDF took the form of opposition to the tricameral parliament, local council elections and the Koornhof Bills, boycotts in protest against rent and bus fare increases and in support of student demands for democratic SRCs, as well as appeals to the township unemployed not to scab during strikes.
In the early eighties many worker leaders and officials of Fosatu affiliates, as well as some independent unions such as the Cape Town Municipal Workers Association (CTMWA), were not comfortable with developing ties with community structures.
Fosatu general secretary Joe Foster's speech to the August 1982 Fosatu congress cautioned against 'unprincipled' alliances with 'non-worker groups'. This did little to persuade political activists of the time that in the emerging trade union movement (or Fosatu at least), they had a willing ally. These unions, on the other hand, feared jeopardising hard-won, factory-based organisational gains that were just beginning to be reflected in the development of shopsteward councils.
But growing township-based mass struggles began to sweep aside any moves to isolate trade unions and their members from their communities. In many areas, students and youth, led by Cosas and UDF-aligned youth congresses, were at first most active in the resistance and bore the brunt of security force action. It was up to workers and other residents to join in the battle.
One event symbolised the easing of the suspicion some Fosatu leaders held towards alliances with community groups.
The November 1984 call for a stayaway to protest, amongst others, the presence of troops in the townships, the education crisis, rent increases, and the dismissal of SFAWU members at Simba, came in the heat of unity talks, a year before the launch. The unions could no longer remain non-aligned and unresponsive to the wave of struggle that was sweeping the townships.
Policy debates in Cosatu
At Cosatu's launch, the question of an official political direction for the new federation was left to the first Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting two months later. However, the tone of speeches at the launch left no doubt that the majority of unions and labour movement activists aligned themselves with the Congress tradition. This was reinforced by general secretary Jay Naidoo's trip to Harare to meet with the ANC, a meeting between the executives of Cosatu and the UDF, and a fuller meeting in March 1986 between the leadership of Cosatu and the ANC and Sactu in Harare.
Cosatu's first CEC meeting eventually adopted a resolution which incorporated elements of all the political resolutions submitted to the launching congress. However, this debate continued to rage, both within the federation and in the broader mass democratic movement.
At civic level, Cosatu's launch gave impetus to the task of building organisation in communities. Many activists argued for a trade union approach to structures (building organisation from the lowest level) and practices (mandates and report-back). However, this was easier said than done, particularly in a state of low-level war. Student, youth and civic activists were regularly detained and even killed. Venues were refused, meetings were often broken up or attacked by security forces.
"From ungovernability to people's power" and "build organs of people's power" became the rallying cry. For a while street committees, people's courts and later self-defence units mushroomed. These generated new layers of leadership to replace those picked off by repression. Pockets of rudimentary alternative governance began to fill the vacuum left by the destruction of apartheid rule.
These new forms of organisation were often able to give direction to mass struggles and to defend communities against third force attacks.
But as activists shifted to formal political organisation, especially after the unbanning of the liberation movements, these institutions collapsed.
While workers had always been part and parcel of community and political organisations, the unbanning of the ANC and the SACP saw Cosatu enter formally into the tripartite alliance.
Debates over the decade
During the ten years following its launch, three issues related to Cosatu's political stand were intensely debated, both inside and outside Cosatu:
At Cosatu's 1989 special congress, the debate on the form of opposition to the state emerged in the 'united front' versus 'broad front' debate. These were questions which gripped the entire federation, compelling workers - through their affiliated unions - to make political choices long before they got the vote.
Community campaigns
While unions were often asked to support community campaigns, Cosatu and its affiliates also enlisted community support for workplace struggles.
An example of this was during 'siyalala' or sleep-in strikes. Residents in areas closest to the factories would bring food, water, newspapers, toiletries etc. to strikers.
Consumer boycotts of white towns were another a key tactic used by an alliance of unions and community organisations in the eighties to mobilise support for their demands.
Stayaways were another well-used form of joint action between unions and communities. Some were initiated by students and communities and others by Cosatu. Given that an effective stayaway was one heeded by all sections of the community, the key to success was clearly broad consultation. This lesson was learnt as far back as the fifties and again during the 1976 student uprisings.
The anti-VAT campaign probably stands out as the clearest example of Cosatu's capacity to mobilise a broad section of society in action against unpopular policies. At Cosatu's initiative, a range of organisations within civil society reached agreement on a set of demands to negotiate with government. Government's failure to respond to a reasonable compromise offer led to the November 1991 stayaway.
Since the April 1994 elections, the stayaway tactic has been used rather tentatively. Cosatu's Wits region called a half-day stayaway in support of labour's demands around the LRA Bill earlier this year. The federation had stated its intention to mobilise broad support for its position on the LRA. While this was achieved with the tripartite alliance, this support did not reach down to a mass-level within the communities.
In Kwazulu/Natal, Cosatu initiated a half-day stayaway on November 1 in protest against that province's failure to hold local government elections.
The unemployed
The federation's four-year experiment with building organisation among the unemployed ended in 1991, when it dissolved the National Unemployed Workers Coordinating Committee, which had been set up in 1987.
Hostels
Hostels housing pre-dominantly Zulu-speaking migrant workers are another area of weakness. Initially many union members lived in hostels. But Inkatha forced-recruitment campaigns made it difficult for hostel dwellers to openly declare their membership of Cosatu unions.
In addition, township residents and hostel dwellers have tended to regard each other with mutual disdain.
The state-inspired violence against ordinary people - commuters, residents, worshippers and shebeen patrons - exacerbated these tensions. Despite these difficulties, many hostel dwellers have remained loyal members of Cosatu affiliates.
Solidarity forever?
While Cosatu's relationship with the community was particularly close in the years of the anti-apartheid struggle, it is doubtful that the federation is any closer to communities today. Strikes involving nurses, teachers and municipal workers have highlighted the need for mobilising work in communities. This would help ensure that workers do not become isolated in their demands. While many support the struggles of public sector workers, township communities are often hardest hit by disruptions to health services, schooling, and municipal services such as refuse collection and sanitation. In addition, some Cosatu locals and regions have taken it upon their shoulders to help find solutions to the problems of crime and endemic taxi violence in their areas.
Sanco
It had been hoped that the emergence of Sanco as the national umbrella organisation for the civic movement would cement a relationship between Cosatu and local communities. This has not happened on a national basis.
In some areas, in the November 1995 local government elections, candidates with Sanco links stood in opposition to ANC candidates. There is also a lot of room for improving relations between Sanco structures in the formal townships, and informal settlements. And Sanco and the ANC are at odds with traditional leaders in some areas. In many of these disputes, members of Cosatu affiliates are to be found on both sides. These factors have inhibited closer ties between Cosatu and the civic movement.
Local government
Many shopstewards and officials from Cosatu affiliates have been elected to serve in local government. These councillors bring with them a strong democratic tradition, and a commitment to serving people.
This is bound to impact on the relationship between elected councils and the communities they are meant to serve.
The success of the RDP, and thereby local government, will depend on implementation at local level. This process will also be crucial in rebuilding ties of solidarity.
The future
Cosatu's main task is to protect the interests of its own members. At the same time, the federation has always committed itself to act in the broad interests of the working people and the unemployed. The federation initiated the RDP and has been an important force in pushing for its implementation.
But the playing field has changed and the challenge facing Cosatu is a much more complex one.
Numsa general secretary Enoch Godongwana argues that township communities remain a critical support base for Cosatu.
"During various strikes in 1994 and 1995, as well as during the LRA campaign, there were attempts to isolate Cosatu as an elite group and to mobilise the unemployed against us. It is critical for us to develop an agenda which is not sectional, or looking after our own members only. We need to ensure that our views are the views of society as a whole. That is what our opponents are trying to do. But we will only succeed in this if we interact with the youth, with women, with civil society and the communities."
Without this support, Godongwana argues, Cosatu runs the risk of becoming marginalised, as has happened with labour movements in other countries.
"The challenge for Cosatu is to carve a role for itself in South Africa. We need to pronounce on the problems of our society and begin to put forward our own solutions, such as on unemployment. We must show that capitalism does have weaknesses."