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Address by COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi Ottawa CanadaHow do unions best represent their members politically3 March 2002 |
Seminar on Labour and Social Democracy: The Internal Experience
3 - March, Ottawa, Canada
Let me start by thanking the Canadian Labour Congress, a distinguished friend
and ally of COSATU for countless years and the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives - for inviting me to participate in the this august seminar and
its panel. This is a real tribute to the struggle waged by the South African
working class and I have the honour to share that experience with you today.
Our own experience and having observed the international developments no trade union can avoid political struggles if it is to bring tangible benefits to its members. Yet, a political engagement holds many complex challenges and opportunities for the trade union movement. Perhaps on of those challenges is how to balance shop floor struggles and broader political struggles.
If not carefully managed this can produce an imbalance - over reliance on political deal making and abandonment of the trade union base and shop floor struggles. A union movement reliance exclusively on political deal and lobbying under-estimates its power and is generally reluctant to use power to tilt the balance of forces in favour of the interests of its members. As such, it becomes part of the elite that has a stake in maintaining the status quo.
The South African trade union movement, COSATU in particular, has through years of struggle, learnt to combine workplace struggles with broader political struggles. From inception, COSATU recognised and understood that workplace apartheid was linked to the broader political system of apartheid colonialism.
At the same time, COSATU recognised that it would not on its own defeat national oppression and had to enter into alliances with a range of other forces in particular the liberation movement to do so. It is in this vein, that COSATU became a key component of the struggle for liberation. At the same time, it did not abandon workplace struggles - in fact workplace grievances were utilised to mobilise the workers in the broader political struggle and to change the material reality of many South African workplaces. So, workers workplace struggles were knitted together with other sectoral grievances and became a national contradiction that the National Democratic Revolution had to address as one of its key objectives. This historical position has put COSATU in a position of strength politically.
Eight years after the first democratic elections in South Africa, COSATU has not retreated to a narrow trade union movement - concerned solely with workplaces issues. Going into the transition the trade union movement was faced with two stark choices: retreat from the political terrain and revert to a narrow trade union role or continue to play an active political role whilst ensuring that the transition begins to deal with some of the contradictions referred to above. COSATU opted for the latter option for the simple reason that even in a democratic society workplace struggles and political struggles cannot be divorced from one another.
In time, experience has vindicated the option chosen by COSATU. COSATU's strategy of engagement in the political terrain to shape policies and legislation has paid off to the working class. The trade union movement has played an active role in shaping labour, social and aspects of economic policy. As well known, economic policy has been key political debate in South Africa with the government turn to the right in macroeconomic policy. COSATU's achievements and setbacks on the policy terrain are recorded in a booklet entitled "Accelerating Transformation - The first term of governance" which can be downloaded from the COSATU website: www.cosatu.org.za
The trade unions are by nature not political parties and form alliances with political formations. COSATU in keeping with its own recognition that trade unions or workers on their own cannot deliver liberation or a better life for all had formed what is known as the tripartite alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). This is a strategic alliance that liberated South Africa and spearheads the transformation process of South Africa.
There are prerequisites that make any alliance between a trade union and political parties in particular once those political parties win political power. The trade union movement has to be strong both organisationally and politically - after all without power you cannot negotiate or force a deal. The trade union movement must jealously guard its independence and develop a willingness to stand firm on matters of principles or issues that will have a negative impact to members. The trade union movement must develop an array of tactical alliances with a range of civil society organisations so that it learns to have a broad approach to issues and at the same time make it difficult to be isolated. There has to be rules and structures that govern its involvement in the determination of policy otherwise it end up being used as a vote catcher by the political party. The trade union must have a capacity to engage in complex transformation issues at the policy level. COSATU has mastered most of these prerequisites and failed on few of them notably the issues of developing rules and structures with the governing party so that it can have a direct influence on policy formulation.
There is no substitute to struggle and engagement. In a nutshell COSATU has combined a multi-pronged strategy of forming strategic and tactical alliances. It has also developed its capacity to formulate policies and maintained its ability to mobilise members in support of its demands. Equally important, COSATU unions still embark on struggles to represent workers on the shop floor for better working conditions. Without that no trade union can survive. The central argument being articulated here is that: trade unions can represent members' political interests by:
- Articulating clear policy positions around which it can galvanise its members;
- Secondly, in forming political alliances it must choose political parties that can best represent workers' interests but who are also capable of winning an election;
- Thirdly, it must never relinquish its ability to mobilise its members and society in broad struggles to achieve its aims - the boardroom must be combined with mass struggle;
- Fourth, members should be actively involved in shaping the positions of the trade union movement and internal democracy guarded jealously;
- Lastly, trade unions must continue to represent workers interests at the shop floor
I hope this COSATU experience is useful in your discussion in this seminar and in future.
Thank you again for having me here.
