Input by the Cosatu General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, to SACP/COSATU Bilateral 27 - 03 - 07

 

Input by Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU General Secretary, to the SACP/COSATU Bilateral Summit - 27 & 28 March 2007

This bilateral summit, between a political party of the working class which has a proud record in the struggle for our liberation and for socialism and the biggest, radical, engaging and revolutionary trade union movement, is extremely significant and historical. The bilateral take place in the context of historic moments in our painful and arduous struggle for liberation:

In a month's time we will be marking the thirteenth anniversary of the 1994 triumph over the forces of evil. This will also mark the third year of the second decade of freedom as we resolute march toward the second decade in 2014. As we shall reflect below, the 1994 breakthrough represented a qualitative shift in the NDR, and much has been achieved to lay the foundations for a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist society.

Still, the progress achieved is still profoundly impacted by the stubborn legacy of apartheid colonialism and 'racialised' capitalism. In class terms, we have observed that the working class, though gaining new rights and social advances, has paid heavily in economic terms. Wealth continues to reside in a white minority which also benefited more from democracy. A rift is also appearing within the formerly oppressed, as a minority has gained some foothold in the echelons of power. The strategic implications for the NDR will be discussed later.

Next week will mark the 14th anniversary of the murder of the beloved General Secretary of the SACP and leader of the liberation movement, comrade Chris Hani. Comrade Chris was soon followed by the never-drying fountain of our liberation struggle, ANC President Oliver Tambo. April as a whole is a freedom fighters' month. This is the month when Solomon Mahlangu died, amongst others.

May 7 marks the 20th anniversary of the bombing of COSATU house. As we all know the bombing was not just an isolated incident. It formed part of the total onslaught strategy of the apartheid regime, targeting the democratic trade union movement and our people as a whole. This bombing, together with the other forms of destruction of COSATU's and its affiliates' offices throughout the country was accompanied by other forms of worse violence, including murder of trade unionists everywhere in the country.

When we declare that the working class is the motive force for liberation, we are not being sentimental. We mean that it is the working class that paid the heavy price for leading all other classes and strata of our society in a principled struggle to end all three interrelated forms of oppression - racial, class and gender. The working class is also a motive force because of its capacity to sustain and pursue the struggle to its logical conclusion - socialism.

As we meet today our thoughts go out to the thousands of working class cadres who made supreme sacrifices for our nation to be free. Today the working class is correctly raising its concerns that the leadership of the NDR today should not be a rhetorical claim but should be given its practical meaning.

On 22 March the ANC published the discussion papers for its historic policy conference in June. COSATU has correctly attached lots of importance to the ANC Policy Conference. Next week on 3 and 4 April we are convening our CEC Political Commission to critique these papers and we shall be circulating this critique to our members on the ground to interact with these papers and contrast them with existing COSATU demands. In our view this is part and parcel of achieving our strategic objectives that we so clearly spelt out in our Ninth National Congress. We want the second decade of democracy to be a decade of the working class in economic terms. We want to impose working class hegemony in our society and in our Alliance. We want a restructured Alliance.

In July the historic 12th SACP National Congress convenes. On its agenda are important political challenges facing not only the South African working class but the working class throughout the world. This bilateral will interact with the tasks facing this congress.

In September COSATU is convening its fourth Central Committee. It will have two principal tasks. Firstly it will debate the leadership questions in the context of the stated objectives to restructure the Alliance and impose working class hegemony. And secondly it will also serve as a platform to review progress in implementing Congress Resolutions and adapt, where necessary, our political, organisational and international strategies.

In December we shall, as members of the ANC, gather in Limpopo to confront the challenges facing the NDR and chart a way forward, informed by the conclusions of the June Policy Conference. COSATU sees this congress as a milestone. It is at this congress where we will evaluate the impact of the 2015 Plan on the trajectory of our movement and society.

In a nutshell we meet at time when there are exciting possibilities to take the struggle forward. It is also a time when there are threats that can reverse modest gains made by our revolution so far. The possibilities and threats will be spelt out in detail in the following sections. Suffice to say, that this is the time for clarity of thought, maximum organisation and vigilance otherwise one small step will scupper the smallest of victories made by the working class.

COSATU has produced a wealth of analytical papers which seek to understand the world we live in and the possibilities for change. Recently we published a discussion document entitled "Possibilities for fundamental social transformation" as part of preparation for Congress. We do not intend to repeat that analysis. It remains relevant and only where necessary we seek to repeat some of the key points it makes.

COSATU has just emerged from its Ninth National Congress. Again the main conclusions of that historic congress are well known. We will only, for the purpose of emphasis, repeat some of the main conclusions that the congress made. Lastly in February 2007 we had a full-day political debate which is summarised in the decisions of that CEC.

The salient point made in all these documents, and around which there is a lot of convergence within the liberation movement, are the following:

The 1994 breakthrough represented a leap forward, with a favourable domestic balance of forces, but in a hostile international climate. In that context, the debate revolve around what measures could have taken us much further in realising the vision of the Freedom Charter and the RDP. It is in this context that the acrimonious debate around macro-economic policy should be understood and debated.

The democratic movement has recorded admirable progress in achieving a single political system that replaced apartheid 'balkanisation' and conferred political citizenship to all South Africans, particularly black people who remained excluded for decades. This political system is government by one of the most progressive constitutions in the world which combine political, civil and socio-economic rights. At the core of the Constitution is an understanding that formal rights are not an equal to actual substantive equality. As such, there is a need for deliberate strategies to transform power relations and redistribute wealth to the poor.

The Constitution also aspires to a thoroughgoing participatory and representative democracy. It has important checks and balances, critical towards ensuring accountability, transparency and unbiased governance. Still more can be done to improve the probity and participatory aspects of the constitution for example by introducing a constituency element in national elections.

The democratic space and the removal of formal restrictions on blacks have opened a vista of possibilities for upward mobility. This has created an illusion of a South Africa full of possibilities, and that if only one exerts himself/herself enough there are ample possibilities to be exploited. For a time, the notion of a 'rainbow' nation seemed plausible, as many blacks moved up into the middle strata. Radicalised capitalism has curbed this exuberant enthusiasm as many black professionals have hit the corporate glass ceiling. Senior executive positions and ownership are disproportionately dominated by white males. Access to finance, markets and skills deters the development of black small and medium enterprises.

The public sector, which was the main avenue for black upward mobility seems to have reached its limit. In short, South Africa is still marked by acute inequalities in terms of race, gender and class. However, the upper class has been slightly deracialised with the emergence of a small black bourgeoisie and a black political leadership.

This leads to the conclusion that in economic terms bourgeoisie made more gains from democracy if measured by the restoration of profitability, possibilities for exploiting international markets and the reduction of corporate taxes. The working class has gained from social development but has been bludgeoned by job losses in mining and agriculture and the replacement of secure permanent jobs by insecure, atypical employment, especially in retail and construction.

In a nutshell, the NDR has gone through a number of phases in the last thirteen years which can be summarised in terms of:

The 1994 breakthrough which saw the emergence of a new democratic order and a single political system.
The austerity period between 1996-1999 characterised by the imposition of GEAR, resulting in slow growth, real cuts in government expenditure, privatisation, and trade liberalisation.
The post 2000 period, marked by a slightly expansionary fiscal and monetary policy, a surge in growth and slight improvement in employment and modest drop in unemployment.

During this third period we have also seen government abandoning its major privatisation plans and improvements in public investment. Again, there is a debate whether this is a result of the austerity period or the modification of fiscal and monetary policy.

As we begin 2007 and prepare to engage with this eventful year we are confronted by the battles that we may easily lose. A hegemonic bloc in society is driving the notion that South Africa is on course to prosperity. In this respect, we are reminded of the longest extended period of growth in the South African economy, combined with modest employment growth, improvement in investment, a slight decrease in unemployment, fiscal surplus, and so forth.

We are systematically bombarded by messages that the economy has been transformed to the benefit of the majority and that finally we are on course to address the crisis of unemployment and poverty.

Flowing from this message we are told that the current policies have been good for the country and therefore there is no need to change. We are told that the leadership has done very well. In this they are ably assisted by media, including the state broadcaster.

Helen Zille says her responsibility, if elected DA leader, would be to help the centrists in the ANC to ward off attacks from the ultra left. As a political representative of the bourgeoisie she understands that the principal task is the reinforcement of the status quo and the current policies.

Still the reality, periodically conceded within the dominant discourse, is that the dualistic nature of South African society is far from being overcome. Positive economic growth and rising profitability coexists with marginalisation, mass poverty and unemployment and extreme levels of inequality. The fact that the fruits of growth are not equitable shared is inescapable, hence ASIGSA's aim to ensure wider dispersion of the fruits of economic growth.

Furthermore, while there are some structural shifts in the economy, they have not fundamentally changed the apartheid accumulation regime. Transformation of the economy, beyond making it racially representative in terms of ownership, is far from being achieved. Even if measured by equity, blacks still control fewer than five percent of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

This makes the quote of an Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, which we used in Possibilities for fundamental social change, to be even more relevant today than when we used it in 2006.

"It is though the people of India have been rounded up and loaded onto two convoys of trucks (a huge and a tiny little one) that have set off resolutely in opposite directions. The tiny convoy is on its way to a glittering destination somewhere near the top of the world. The other convoy just melts into the darkness and disappears". (Arundhati Roy page 189)

The question that we must ask is whether we can win this battle? We only have the strength of our organisation to counter this 'status quo' message. We don't have the machinery to mount an effective counter, with the consequence that the working class itself may believe that this propaganda is true. When this happens two things will follow: they will be won over ideologically and then elect their own political butchers.

It is in this context that below we review the debates on the current conjuncture. We are in the middle of an intensely contested National Democratic Revolution. The working class no longer enjoy unfettered power as the motive force of our revolution. Its leadership position is under contestation and the working class character of the revolution under constant challenge. The question to pose is whether the liberation movement is being divided along class lines in the absence of a common external enemy?

Some in the liberation movement believe they have arrived at their final destination. Possibilities now exist for them to accumulate and to be rich.

The working class on the other hand is still facing daunting challenges. These include the reality of extraordinarily high levels of unemployment which is at around 40% if we count the discouraged workers. This is the highest in the world in comparison to the other middle-income countries like South Africa. Quality, more secure and better paying jobs are increasingly being replaced with insecure, poor quality and poor paying jobs through such arrangements as use of labour brokers, casualisation and sub contracting. The working class has been effectively restructured in the process.

Poverty remains extremely high. In this paper we will not engage with the debate on whether poverty has declined, increased or remain at the same levels in the first decade of democracy. Everyone accepts that the current levels of poverty pose a threat to our political stability if not addressed soon.

Income inequalities are also extremely high and have worsened, at least in the late 1990s (Gelb and Simkins). According to the UNDP Human Development Report (2003) the Gini coefficient was 0.596 in 1995 and rose to 0.635 in 2001 showing that income inequalities worsened in that period.

Workers' wages have stagnated. The Labour Force Survey shows that 17% of all officially employed people in South Africa earn less than R500 a month, 34% earn under R1000 a month and 60% of all workers earn less than R2500 a month. An income of R2500 a month for two parents and two children and a grandparent translates to an income of R30 a day per person. On average we know Africans have between 5 to 12 dependents.

Our economy remains firmly in white hands with only about 5% of all companies listed in the JSE owned by blacks. This means 95% of all companies listed in the JSE are in white hands. Our economy remains dominated by capital-intensive sectors such as mining, metals, heavy chemicals and auto. In short we have not changed the accumulation patterns we inherited from apartheid.

The fundamental question we are continuing to ask is if we are on course of the NDR? In the current conjuncture what is it that can unify the broad class alliance that fought against apartheid colonialism under the leadership of the working class?

We must remember that the liberation movement emerged as a united front of the working class and the black middle strata under the leadership of the working class. The goal of this multi-class alliance was to eradicate the political and economic system spawned by apartheid and 'racialised' capitalism. As such, we were fighting for thoroughgoing transformation of society rather than a simple deracialisation, to insert a new black elite in the echelons of power - both political and economic.

Under current circumstances what can keep this broad alliance intact and progressive given the pressures to assimilate into the agenda of white monopoly capital by elements of the black elite? Going beyond the appearance of a deracialised 'melting pot', it is obvious that the structure of power excludes blacks, African women and the black working class.

Managerial positions and ownership are firmly in the hands of a white minority. In fact, the post apartheid workplace still reflects divisions of the past, with black workers on the bottom rung and whites at the top of the employment hierarchy. The public sector is an exception where the top is dominated by blacks, the middle management by whites and the bottom by blacks. Black managers have now hit the proverbial corporate glass ceiling in the private sector.

Most petty traders cannot access credit, markets and other types of support to thrive. In fact, the high level of concentration in the economy hampers the development of thousands of small business people.
African women continue to face triple oppression and access to paid employment is limited. Whereas in the past, teaching, nursing and domestic work were the main forms of employment for African women, this has changed, as retail is now the highest employer of African women. We know that conditions and pay in retail are terrible. Furthermore, African women, especially those under 30 years, constitute a majority of the unemployed. Even if there is progress for middle class women, black working class women remain trapped in poverty and unemployment. This has been exacerbated by the commodification of basic services such as water and electricity which places these services beyond the reach of ordinary working class women.

In short comrades, the revolution is far from over. The task facing the liberation movement is to put in place strategies to transform our society on all fronts and accelerate the eradication of the trilogy of poverty, mass unemployment and inequality.

An opportunity is presented by an apparent change in political and economic stance reflected in:

The ANC January 8 statement, the President's State of the Nation Address and to some extent ASGISA and the Budget Speech by the Minister of Finance. Working class concerns have been placed at the top of the national agenda. There is a shared perspective in the Alliance that unless we defeat poverty, unemployment and inequality the NDR will have failed to address the basic grievances of our people.
Economic policy must support a structural shift in the economy to support an employment-creating growth path. In this regard, there is an acknowledgement of the need for an active industrial policy to place South Africa on a new growth path. In that regard monetary and fiscal policy has to be aligned with the goal of growth, employment creation and poverty reduction.

Millions remain without any form of social security, despite the reach of the current package of social security measures. Specifically, thousands of workers do not have social insurance in the form of retirement savings and unemployment cover. If you are between 14 and 60 (women) and between 14 and 65 (men) and are unemployed, live in a household without a social grant recipient, you have no form of social security.

After many years of academic debate about the scale and nature of unemployment and poverty, government has changed its stance to set a target to reduce unemployment and poverty.
Again after years of confrontation between government and civil society a new HIV and AIDS plan has been adopted with clear targets to reduce new infections and treat those living with the disease.
After years of bashing public servants and after years of telling the South Africans that the government is no employment agency, there is now recognition of the important role played by civil servants. In addition government has at least, notwithstanding the current dispute, prioritised the improvement of pay and conditions for educators, health workers and police. There are commitments to also increase their numbers.

All these create a new opportunity for consensus within the democratic movement. The obvious threat is first that these shifts are managed outside of the Alliance. It is also possible that this apparent shift masks major differences on the policy instruments to achieve these goals. Secondly, do these measures as a package signify a qualitative shift from the austerity period back to the vision of the Freedom Charter and the RDP? Will they lead to the sharing of wealth as the Freedom Charter demanded?

The international balance of forces also holds possibilities and threats to the advancement of the goals of the NDR. Still, we ought to move from the premise that the international situation is not static and is definitely different from the early 1990s. Neo-liberalism as an ideology faces a crisis of legitimacy and has reached a stalemate.

The Latin American situation poses important lessons for the left in South Africa on how to challenge neo-liberalism, even within the current balance of forces.

China's emergence as an economic and political force also poses interesting challenges to the current world order. The question is: to what extent it uses its newfound status to act decisively in favour of progressive forces? At present China seems to be pursuing a cautious international policy and seems to be locked in a prisoner's dilemma with the US as the other hegemonic power.

Both these countries wield enormous power and their actions have far reaching consequence for the balance of power. Still they are locked in a mutually assured destruction stalemate due to the nature of their bilateral relations and their positions in the global economic system. Both China and the US are benefiting from globalisation and any unwise act on either side can set the system in a new crisis.

This explains both the nervousness of the West and the Chinese about each other's action. The West in particular exaggerates the threat from China for obvious opportunistic reasons. China itself faces internal contradictions unleashed by the new economic system and some have argued that it is likely to reach the limits of its internal growth momentum.

How do progressive forces navigate this complex array of political and economic power to create space for progressive alternatives is a crucial question of our international policy. Sadly, the international progressive movement is scattered and does not have a unifying perspective.

The SADC region and Africa as a whole is undergoing an interesting period of change, yet this is driven by governments and does not guarantee a progressive outcome. Social forces are weak, fragmented or non-existent and most of these countries do not have sizeable/influential socialist and communist forces as in South Africa.

We live in a region governed by former liberation movement who have succumbed to the power of neo-liberalism due to objective and subjective factors. In Zimbabwe the liberation movement has gone off-track and has now turned on the people. Swaziland is under control of a despotic monarch and the progressive movement remained outlawed

This input has tried to sketch challenges confronting us as socialists and as part of the liberation movement in South Africa. It sought to broadly analyse the trajectory of the NDR and to understand the domestic and international balance of forces. Without limiting discussions that must ensure in the next two days, let me summarise what I believe are key challenges facing the left forces in South Africa:

Building a counter-hegemonic bloc to the agenda of monopoly capital. This should be translated into challenging the dominant discourse and fighting for policy shifts in areas of fiscal and monetary policy, social development and employment and industrial strategies.
Building unity of the liberation movement around the Freedom Charter vision. We must avoid endless, vague and abstract debate which channel energy towards proving who has the correct reading of classic or historic texts. Rather debate must focus on how the contemporary trajectory lives up to the vision of the movement and the concrete steps to attain the goals in the current conjuncture.

While asserting the hegemonic position of the working class as a primary motive force, the key question is how to maintain the historic bloc of forces around a vision of society that addresses the class, gender and racial contradictions. It is pointless to achieve recognition of the working class as a primary motive force when policy disproportionately favours the elite. In that context, the working class must articulate a vision that will draw the broadest section of the people, particularly the middle strata. To that extent the vision should demonstrate that there is a common cause between the working class and the black middle strata to fight for the radical transformation of our society. This can take the form of campaigns like the financial sector campaign, agrarian reforms and breaking the stranglehold of white monopoly capital.

The Alliance, as a centre that drives transformation and policy development. In this context we need to fight for a qualitative shift in the functioning of the Alliance. If Alliance means strategic coming together of independent formations, then this must be reflected in the manner in which policy is set and driven. Furthermore, the ANC ought to be empowered to drive policy rather than tail government.
Galvanise a progressive movement made up of the liberation movement working with progressive elements of civil society. In this regard the aim would be to marshal social forces to buttress a progressive state in a way that tilts power in favour of the working class. As such mass mobilisation will be important to counter the power of capital, defend the revolution and expand the envelope of the possible.

The ANC remains an important progressive formation for the working class. The challenge is how we retain its progressive posture and working class leadership under the current conditions of intense contestation? As ANC members we need to defend the progressive strand in ANC policy and its continued bias towards the working class. This will require an examination of how the ANC is affected by current developments and in what way it reflects working class bias in its policy and leadership structures.

Without doubt we know that leadership contests can either place an organisation on a higher growth path or lead to paralysis and disintegration. For that reason, as we approach the ANC conference we need to exercise maximum caution not to destroy the movement due to narrow factionalist positions. Neither should we allow a sense of paralysis or helplessness to creep in as we tackle leadership questions. We must shift debate from personalities to what collective will take the ANC forward and retain its progressive working class bias.

The SACP will debate how it positions itself in the political landscape. COSATU does not have views at the moment and will have to grapple with the implications of whatever decision the Party arrives at in relation to whether the SACP should stand on its own for elections. However, we remain unshaken in our belief that a strong Party rooted among workers is our insurance to advance the struggle towards socialism. It is from this context that we call on the SACP to unite the left and convene a conference of the left.

The Alliance has to build a coherent international policy and progressive movement. This should be consistent with our vision to build a humane and just international order. To that end the minimum platform of such a vision is to challenge the tyranny of neoliberalism, decolonisation, and democratisation throughout the globe. We also have to fight for a fairer and just international trading regime.
This is a gathering of the working class formations. It is not a gathering of whingers who must consistently complain about being marginalised. The working class have already raised those concerns. Our responsibility is to aggressively impose working class hegemony and leadership. We must be aware that the other classes will not give up their current position of leadership smiling. Opportunities exist for us to do just that now in 2007. If we fail then the political implications are too ghastly to contemplate.