Address by COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, at the TUC Congress in Britain, 15 September - 2004

 

Future of unions in South Africa, Challenges and hopes in the context of 10th anniversary celebrations years
Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU General Secretary at the TUC Congress (Britain)

Comrades and friend

Democracy brought a huge increase in political power, labour rights and social and economic opportunities for black people, including workers and women. It fundamentally improved conditions for the majority of our people.

We saw substantial improvement in pay and conditions for lower level African workers, especially in the first few years of democracy. Blacks and women benefited from laws banning discrimination and improving basic conditions of employment. They also gained much greater access to education and skills development. Workers also benefited from the extension of government services in African communities.

As such the ANC-led democratic movement used access to political power to begin to unravel the legacy of the past. Still, the state pursued a contradictory strategy, which on the one hand provided basic services to the people and changed apartheid labour regulation. On the other hand, it relied on a conservative macroeconomic framework.

The gains listed above have been offset by rising unemployment and the resulting fall in incomes for poor households. Slow growth and low investment have been associated with formal job loss and a decline in the quality of work. To the extent the economy has created jobs at all, they have been low-level, insecure and very poorly paid. Thus the average income from work declined sharply between 1995 and 2001.

Essentially, the first decade of freedom has meant the attainment of political power and not total control over the state. While the ANC is the leading party in government, old-style bureaucrats; reactionary consultants; and advisors from the IMF and World Bank have to a certain extent usurped policy formulation in critical areas. On its part, the democratic movement has weakened its capacity to formulate and develop policy while the tripartite Alliance is largely marginalised from policymaking.

Fundamentally, economic power remains firmly in the hands of white capital centred in mining and finance capital. Unless the economy is restructured significantly, it would be hard to realise our dream for united, non sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

We also noted the process of class formation taking place in our society. While the ruling class remains largely white and centred in mining and finance, we have seen the emergence of a small black bourgeoisie. On its part, the working class has also been restructured with the loss of jobs and expansion of the informal economy. Capital’s drive for short-term profits has resulted in new forms of insecure and poor quality jobs.

The overall thrust of our political strategy is to assert working class hegemony of society to counteract the entrenched power of capital. To that end, we seek to combine state and social power in a way that consistently tilts the balance of power in favour of the working class. Freedom must bring tangible and real benefits to the working class.

The complex challenges facing the working class demand a longer-term vision to build a strong trade union movement and to assert working class leadership. The march to our longer-term vision demands patience, resilience; bold thinking foresighted and visionary leadership. COSATU adopted a medium to long-term plan popularly known as 2015 plan to attain this vision.

The 2015 Plan defines priorities, benchmarks and core strategies for taking forward the National Democratic Revolution. The two central pillars of our strategy is to build working class power and ensuring quality jobs. These twin thrusts must be linked and reinforce each other. Engagement on policy issues must support organisational development.
Our vision for 2015 is shaped by the following benchmarks:

Systematic and rigorous implementation of an organisation building programme, ensuring the recruitment of over four million members, by the 10th National Congress in 2009, with a united working class and depth of organisation and militancy. We working to unite at least the three main national centers (COSATU, NACTU and FEDUSA)
Defending our political gains and space. In this regard we need a strong ANC and SACP, rather than weakened Alliance partners. For each elections we will have a balance sheet based on our vision of what was achieved, what still needs to be done and setbacks. On that basis we will develop a framework for what should constitute an electoral platform. This analysis will be used to contribute towards the development of Election Manifestos. We have in the past including established election teams for mobilisation of voters during the entire election campaign. We have and will continue to mobilise financial resources to implement our election plan.

Deepening debates on all major challenges facing the working and at the same time playing a major role in delivering membership education and deepening the political consciousness of the working class on the ground. In that context we are building a pool of cadres with organisational, political and ideological depth.

These programmes are designed to ensure that that working class provides leadership of the society, including in the ANC and key organs of people’s power.
We seek to strengthen civil society, especially community-based organisations, and ensure stronger involvement of our local structures in local government and mobilisation.

We want to ensure stronger role for the working class and black women in the public discourse, challenging the hegemony of capital on a larger scale.
Ensuring clear measures are in place to reverse rising unemployment, poverty and inequality, ensuring that the share of the working class in national income is on the rise. In this context, we hope to increase the capacity of affiliates in order to influence sectoral and workplace restructuring policies.

In that context, a strong developmental and democratic state is needed to drive a growth and development strategy with a strong redistributive thrust.

Resurgence of the African trade union movement is essential and COSATU must play a central role in developing the perspective of the international trade union movement.

A better coordinated international policy is required that contributes in the struggles to build a better world based on equitable redistribution of resources and closing the growing gap between the rich and poor within and between countries. In this regard we must build stronger international trade unions and improve the coordination and unity of social movements as well as improve coordination with progressive political parties and progressive governments.

Success on this front requires a stronger role in the ILO as well as transformation of the UN institutions such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank.
We hope we shall walk side by side with the TUC in realising these dreams.

Thank you once more for having me here