Address by COSATU General Secretary: Zwelinzima Vavi
Lisbon, Portugal, 31 October 2007
Putting the Puzzle together: policy conference for decent work
Your Excellencies;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Comrades;
Thank you for the invitation to participate in this important gathering
to reflect on the decent work agenda. As I was reflecting on the
topic for discussion I could not but wonder about the paradoxes
facing humanity during the 21st century. On the one hand we have
a human civilisation far unsurpassed in terms of its technology,
production, knowledge and scientific enquiry.
Today, we have a truly integrated economic system that brings together
billions of producers and consumers into an ever-widening global
market place. Interdependency between economies and societies has
once again been brought to the fore by the global impact of the
sub-prime lending market in the US. That one incident reverberated
across the globe and threatened the stability and prosperity of
many societies.
Yet, we seem incapable of solving basic problems of humanity of shelter,
food, water, proper sanitation and employment. As we meet millions
are going hungry every day, many more are outside of employment
and most probably will not find employment. Yet, everyday we produce
tons of food - it is hunger amidst plenty!
The spectacular scientific and economic progress pales in comparison
to the magnitude of the social crisis facing millions of our people.
How is it that world that can split an atom, develop nano-technology,
yet fail to create employment for the millions who are seeking
employment?
The world is facing a deepening decent work deficit as the nature
of work is ever changing due to pressures of short-term profitability.
What can be the cause of all these? The answer is simple but the
solution is perhaps even much more simple if we have the political
will to confront these problems.
At the core is the unequal distribution of political and economic
power and too much unbridled power of the market. Globalisation
is accompanied by the forceful liberalisation of markets - especially
of the developing world - with dire social, political and economic
consequences.
Capital's drive for short-term profits and cheap labour has eroded
protection for workers. Millions of workers across the globe do
not enjoy the protections promised in the ILO Core Labour Standards.
A new type of 'rightless' worker is being produced under these
economic circumstances.
South Africa is not immune from these global pressures to open the
market and offer cheap labour opportunities. By any measure, South
Africa's unemployment is high for a middle-income country and affects
mostly young people and low skilled workers. This is both a product
of decades of apartheid job reservation policies and policies to
liberalise the market in the 1990s. COSATU has called for a people-centred
and people-driven development strategy centred on meeting basic
needs and creating large-scale employment.
While the South African economy is creating employment, it is far
too inadequate to address the unemployment crisis; and many of
the jobs are temporary and poorly paid. At the core of the development
strategy is an employment creating industrial policy and South
Africa like many developing countries need the space to develop
its industries and add value to its minerals.
It is against this background that I would like to talk about current
trade negotiations. As a trade union movement working in the developing
world we expect a development round that will provide space for
developing countries to further industrialise and change the current
world division of labour in which developing countries supply raw
materials and cheap labour.
The WTO "Doha Round" started off with a promise that it
would be a developmental round. The mandate provided the framework
and possible basis for such a developmental round.
We are perturbed by the fact that issues of development and special
differential treatment for developing countries have now been consigned
to the background. At the fore are demands for further liberalisation
of agriculture, industries and service by developed countries.
The current world trading system is unfair and inequitable and
further liberalisation by developing countries will further deepen
and entrench these inequalities.
We are painfully aware of the continued subsidisation of agriculture
and trade barriers in the North while many of our countries have
been forced to drastically liberalise trade.
Developing countries are being bullied by the EU to sign Economic
Partnership Agreements and by the US to enter into bilateral trade
talks. All these initiative circumvent the multilateral trading
system and their aim is to secure all what developed nations demand
through the backdoor of bilateral trade agreements and economic
partnership agreements.
Were the demands from developed countries for further liberalisation
to be implemented, a country like South Africa would be seriously
disadvantaged. Not only would South Africa be deindustrialised;
it would lose a significant part of its manufacturing sector and
agriculture; and tariff cuts would cut heavily into our labour
intensive sectors.
Destruction of labour intensive sectors in South Africa is bad news
for low-skilled employment or prospects for a significant reduction
of unemployment. South Africa, like many developing countries will
be reduced to a producer of primary products and a destination
for tourists.
It is clear that current trade liberalisation demands from developed
countries are at odds with the developing imperatives facing developing
countries. The one-sided trade liberalisation that is being placed
on the table by developed countries is tantamount to 'kicking the
ladder' from developing countries. Developing countries are being
denied the instruments used by developed societies to advance their
economies and societies.
In a word, trade liberalisation as proposed by the EU and the US
in particular is bad news for a decent work agenda in the South
and will fuel the expulsion of labour, especially low-skilled labour,
from the economy.
Recent global economic developments have again rudely reminded us
that we share a common destiny. The contagion from the recent sub-prime
lending markets in the United States underscores the interwoven
nature of the global economic system. Environment concerns such
as climate change remind us that we share a common planet and we
need common action to minimise environmental degradation or else
we all perish. Yet, as George Soros once remarked, we have a global
economy but no global government.
The UN and the Breton Woods system are out of sync with current global
realities and are structured to favour the rich and powerful. Moreover,
they do not provide a coherent and objective framework to manage
the common destiny of humanity.
Our experience of International Finance Institutions tells us that
they serve the interest of the rich and powerful. It also tells
us that they are responsible for imposing a one-size-fit all neoliberal
dogma that underpins current approaches to market liberalisations.
We not only need to reconfigure these institutions to contemporary
developmental imperatives we also need a new global framework for
managing the world economy.
The disjuncture between the work of the ILO, other UN agencies and
international finance institutions undermines a coherent institutional
response to issues of economic management, environment degradation,
development and employment.
We believe it is time to reconsider the roles, relationships and
power dynamics within global institutions. If anything, these institutions
must speak to current realities and cease from pursing the empire
agenda of developed countries. In that respect, we need a democratic
framework that taps into the wealth of all citizens of the world
and the ILO provides a useful model for social dialogue that other
agencies should emulate.