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Address by COSATU Deputy General Secretary,Bheki Ntshalintshali, at the opening of International Federation of Building and Wood Workers Southern African Assessment Workshop28 January, 2002 |
Compliments of the new season to you dear leaders of IFBWW in our Southern
African region! Thank you very much for the invitation to address this important
gathering of our regional leaders.
Let me start by welcoming you to South Africa on behalf of the leadership and the two million members of COSATU. I trust that you stay and the workshop shall be a rewarding experience that you will cherish for a long time. You have no choice but to succeed in your endevour to organise wood and building workers. All of us come from countries and the regions where workers organised in the sectors forms part of what we call the working poor. It is one if not the most exploited sector in our economies.
There is no doubt of the fact that the farm workers and the building and construction workers are one of the most vulnerable workers in the Southern African region. There is a very clear link between the exploitation of this sector of workers with our colonial and apartheid past. Failure to defeat this exploitation in this sector means that we have not yet achieved some of the basic goals of our liberation struggle. You have to succeed for the sake of the millions of farm and construction workers facing humiliation, racist attacks and blatant abuse in the hands of racist employers.
This is clearly the most important challenge facing the IFBWW in Southern Africa. That challenge is to assist its affiliates and the trade union movement in this region to set up a network and a capacity to organise this sector in each an every country into a formidable predator capable of defending the interests of members. All of us know too well that a trade union that year in and year out does not defend the most basic interests of workers is destined to the dust bin of history and soon will disappear before we even realise that we are beginning a new century. We can no longer wave flags with our revolutionary colours and hope through that only we will attract new members and maintain the loyalty of those already members.
What we require is a new approach to organising. The days for slogans are over. We have heard enough of such slogans are "an injury to one is an injury to all, organise of starve", etc. What we need now is am implementable plan and strategy that is well thought out that will give us practical tools to organise workers and build their power to defend themselves against the ongoing attacks from the bosses. The ICFTU is involved in a process called the Millennium Review that seeks to address some of the most pressing weaknesses we face in this period. I am happy that COSATU is one of the organisations that have taken this process seriously. We have contributed immensely for the development of a global trade union strategy. We out of realisation of our own weaknesses and strengths have embarked on our own internal "organisational review" that will culminate into our 8th national congress in 2003. You are challenged to ensure that you embark on your own organisational review at affiliate and IFBWW level so that you can contribute positively to the process of regenerating the trade union movement in the 21st century.
Strong and viable trade union movement are a must in the world we live in. Without a strong trade union movement the power of capital over the world economy and politics will be too much to bear. Without a strong trade union movement, the unelected and elected dictators in our region, continent and elsewhere in the world shall assume so much power that every piece of freedom human kind won shall be destroyed.
Currently we live in a world dominated by one super power with one ideology of free markets that have caused havoc and left millions of the world's citizens destitute. Inequalities, poverty, diseases, ignorance and hopelessness have reached catastrophic proportions. The world is largely divided into two, the relatively rich north and the poor and marginalised south. Within each nation inequalities and despair has taken firm grip of societies. In our own region, where the workers have played a pivotal role in the liberation struggle, a new arrogant elite has emerged interpreting the goals of the revolution in a manner that will further their new class interests.
The world economy is in recession and the impact of this to our own economies
and jobs will be devastating. Already as a result of the September 11, we
are facing massive job losses in many industries and spiralling food prices.
The neo liberal hegemony is certainly replacing the much-desired developmental
approach with a strong role for the state. The one size fits all IMF and World
Bank imposed hegemony is taking firm grip of our national economic policies.
The key elements of this being the blind loyalty to the markets, the liberalisation
of our economies and labour markets, the destruction of the state and the
reduction of the public service which is linked to privatisation programme.
Obviously governments following these prescriptions normally also build their
police and defence capacity to deal with any social unrest in protest of their
policies. It is not surprising that in Zimbabwe, the armed forces have been
given up to 100% wage increases to keep their loyalty in the face of a restless
working class.
Globalisation has brought with it largely negative effects - not only has
it given more power to capital, which in its pursuit for more and more profits
seeks to trample on workers and their hard -earned rights.
measures, thereby increasing the vulnerability of workers.
Basically, workers are under siege. Looking at all the self-defeatist measures that our governments undertake, just to make our countries attractive to potential overseas investors who are supposed to be the Messiahs, delivering Africa from its underdevelopment, but in reality making our countries more suitable for exploitation, thereby pushing Africa to the underdevelopment comparable to that of the Stone Age, it is clear that workers need to take an active role in the development of their individual countries and Africa in general.
The drastic measures mentioned above, that are taken by our countries not only to attract investors, but also to comply to the rules of the international money-lending institutions, like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, puts workers in any given country at a disadvantage. The cut-back on social expenditure for instance, affects the workers because it is the very privileged few, who can afford private heath-care and private education which offer better service but in reality, everybody is supposed to have a right to a good health and education system and our governments as the custodians of these rights have to ensure adequate provision.
Currently, the world population is under threat of the scourge of HIV/AIDS and since there is no cure for the virus yet, people need to have access to the life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs but presently the availability of these is limited to only the rich who are able to get them at a very high cost which no ordinary worker can afford. Our countries by adopting these IMF/World Bank conditionalities of cutting back on social expenditure are therefore condemning workers to certain death.
The privatisation of state owned resources for example, even privatising forests puts workers at a further disadvantage. These forests that I am referring to here are those that have the trees that provide us with the paper with which the school-books of our children are made. By privatising this resource it is possible for the paper manufactures to increase the price of paper and as a result the price of books, which will impact negatively on those whose parents to not afford to buy them.
As I have said, privatisation not only leads to the control of the economy by the very few and fabulously rich, whilst globalisation forces these companies into international competition in their pursuit of even greener pastures and more profit. Competition is not the only evil in this instance, but the fact that in the pursuit for more profit, there is always a perceived need to cut down on expenditure, meaning that employment will be negatively affected because with less wages to pay, profit will be in abundance.
Faced with these challenges workers should not take this sitting down but rather adopt a very proactive approach. Globalisation, with its numerous accompanying negativities has very few advantages, amongst which is the ever-evolving technology, which has resulted in easier communication between countries. This one advantage we as workers should use to the fullest advantage by establishing ties with fellow workers in all countries and therefore being able to exchange information and experiences and mobilising for organised action around similar causes.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the LOFTF-Denmark for making this event possible through their sponsorship. Finally, I would like to quote one of my personal heroes during our struggle for liberation, Samora Machel, when he said that, " International solidarity is not an act of charity. It is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objective. The foremost of these objectives is to aid the development of humanity to the highest level possible." With these few words, I would once again wish to welcome you to my home South Africa and wish you fruitful deliberations.
Forward with borderless solidarity!!!
Thank you!
