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Address by COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi at the Opening Session of theICFTU 17th World CongressDurban, 3 April 2000 |
Chairperson
Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Comrade Jacob Zuma
General Secretary of the ICFTU Bill Jordan
President of the ICFTU C. Leroy Trotman
Assistant General Secretary Eddie Laurijssen
Members of the Executive Board
Distinguished guests
Delegates, comrades and friends
It is a great pleasure and a rare privilege to on my behalf and on behalf of the membership and leadership of COSATU, NACTU and FEDUSA, welcome you to this august gathering - the 17th ICFTU Congress. We hope you enjoy your stay in South Africa. We will do everything in our power to make your stay a comfortable and memorable one.
This is indeed a great honour bestowed on us by the international trade union movement. It is an hour we share with our fellow African compatriots and broader progressive movement of our continent. The holding of this congress in our continent only for the second time signals confidence in the growing strength on the African trade union movement.
It is equally fitting that the first congress in this century takes place in a post-apartheid South Africa. At the opening of the last century many societies including our own were under the yoke of colonial oppression. That we meet in a democratic South Africa indicates humanity's progress to end colonial and racial oppression. The international solidarity received by the progressive forces in South Africa played a significant role in defeating the most inhumane system ever designed - apartheid. We are grateful and we remain highly indebted to the international community in particular the democratic trade union movement. The defeat of apartheid must be celebrated as an important victory for humanity and dispels the myth that we have no power to change our destiny. It again demonstrates the collective power of the progressive movement. This congress consolidates the irreversible process of South Africa's reintegration into the family of democratic and free nations and the international trade union movement.
This opening ceremony signals the beginning of the workers international parliament, for the forthcoming five days the eyes of the workers around the globe will be focused on the congress as we deliberate on the future of the trade union movement.
The workers in their workplaces and their unions wait expectantly for the outcome of this congress. Therefore we have an important mandate and challenge we dare not fail to meet. It is no exaggeration to say that this watershed congress will shape the future of the trade union movement and must meet expectations of our constituency and the progressive movement.
We must emerge from this congress with a new sense of purpose, mission and a vision for the trade union movement in the 21st century. In shaping this vision we must take stock of the past to defend and secure the future. The thread running though must be Defending our Gains and Securing our Future!
We also see the decision to hold the congress in Africa as a statement of solidarity with the African trade union movement and people. As we begin a new century, whilst celebrating the end of colonial oppression, the African people must now deal with un-elected and sometimes even elected dictatorships bent on accumulating more power to themselves through whatever means possible. This conference must support the Organisation of African Unity's call for an end to military dictorships by June this year. South African workers will be joining their counterparts in the continent on the 12th April 2000 to demand that all the military dictatorships comply with the call.
The congress takes place against the backdrop of the Seattle massive protest and the global economic crisis, which started in East Asia in 1997. The Seattle and Davos protests by the social movement signaled the end to the cozy, secretive exclusive club comprising governments and big business shaping our destiny without our participation. We have recorded the need for inclusivity, transparency and democratic participation in shaping a new economic order. The social partnership we are looking for is not akin to the chicken and pig partnership, where the pig makes a total sacrifice and the chicken makes a partial sacrifice in order to create bacon and egg.
The world is inexorably splitting into two camps the rich and the poor, the South and North. The sunshine salesman of globalisation would have us believe that it is about to propel us into a new dawn of progress and prosperity. Unfortunately the reality is quite different. Without being a prophet of doom, the new global order threatens to plunge our world backwards into an epoch of social disintegration, and the destruction of nations, on a scale which matches the depredations of primitive colonialism over the last two millennia. Globalisation far from being a powerful instrument of progress, is deepening existing inequalities - which often take on a racial and gender face - within nations and between rich and poor nations. The UNDP, in its 1999 Human Development Report warns, "when the market goes too far in dominating social and political outcomes, the opportunities and rewards of globalisation spread unequally and inequitably".
African societies are the worst affected by rampant global capital. Africa's human development index is dismal when compared to some developing and developed societies. Most of the African economies are poorly managed or reeling from structural adjustment programmes. Most of the highly indebted countries are in Africa and whatever gains made from structural adjustments are diverted to debt repayment. From this it is apparent that structural adjustments has nothing to do with developing the economies of developed nations but is driven by the need of financial capital - countries must be forced to repay their debts. Needless to point out that structural adjustment eroded even the minimal gains made by African countries after independence such as improved health and education. In general poor nations are suffering from an all round onslaught which undermines their sovereignty.
Many African statesmen and women are championing the cause of an African Renaissance. Pursuant to this objective the 21st Century has been dubbed the "African century". This dream will not be realised unless and until the world economic order is fundamentally restructured. We are called upon as the organised working class to lead the way in transforming the world economic order in favour of the working class and the poor.
The patterns of globalisation do not only affect the poor and working people in developing countries, but also affect those in developed countries. An increasing number of the populations in developed countries live in income poverty. Within the developed countries an increasing number of people and communities are falling into poverty. A growing number of people are holding down part time, low paying jobs, as a result of deregulation, casualisation , and contracting out.
The relentless march of globilisation is taking place under the banner of TINA ("There is No althernative") TINA can only be effective if we ourselves believe that operation of a system, which progressively impoverish the majority of the world's population, is inevitable and unchalleagable. We should not shring from asserting our values in the face of the amoral tyranny of the tiny minority, supported, as they are by their ideologues in the media, as well as sycophants in the intellectual community. We need to shake off any embarrassment we may feel at being labeled naive in the face of the overwhelming global realities.
My aim at raising these challenges in not to instill a fatalistic sense of hopeless and helplessness but to be honest about the magnitude of the task facing us. Advised by one of the luminaries of African liberation movement Amilca Cabral, we should "Tell no Lies, and Claim no Easy Victories". The objective reality is that the vast majority of people organised into their formations in civil society, as well as an increasing number of states are opposed to the current word order. However, the domination of the TINA syndrome, as well as a lack of an alternative platform and focus to bring this potential power to bear, is preventing this opposition from gelling into a coherent challenge. Seattle was the beginning of a broader unity that should be consolidated. Progressive forces need to begin to mobilise internationally to develop an alternative strategy including:
Moreover, we need to build a strong trade union movement and develop strategies to bring the 'new workers' into the fold. There is a new mood of resistance to the current world order, which is beginning to emerge. This creates an historical opportunity to challenge the 'globalisation paralysis' which has gripped the world over the last decade. The following words uttered more than a hundred years ago ring truer today.
"Workers of the World Unite"
I thank you.
