Cosatu G.S. Zwelinzima Vavi address the Alliance MDM Summit 13- 09 - 08

Address by Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, to the Alliance Mass Democratic Movement Summit

13 September 2008, Ekurhuleni

The historic nature of the meeting arises from the following factors:

1. It is the first attempt after many years in post apartheid South Africa for the Alliance to engage the mass democratic movement. Relations with the mass movement were taken as given and no efforts to connect, mobilise and discuss with the MDM for a long time.

2. The forum takes place in the context of the 25th anniversary of the United Democratic Front (UDF), which brought together more than 100 community, mass and non-governmental organisations in a united front against apartheid. Lessons from the UDF days include the importance of mass involvement in politics, the role of organisation and unity among the democratic forces. Even more important is the central question of internal democracy to allow the space for the articulation of different perspective as a route towards a unifying position.

The strategic task facing the forum is how to join state and mass power as a tool to advance the revolution and tilt the balance of forces. We must draw from the history of other revolutions, both the failures and successes of sustaining mass involvement in post-revolutionary situations. We can draw from African, Latin America, the Soviet Union and Asian revolutions.

In this regard the recent experiment in Venezuela offers some interesting lessons on how the state and mass movement can reinforce each other. As such we are opening the debate on how to overcome the demobilisation that followed the closure of the UDF and the 1994 democratic breakthrough.

Despite the demobilisation by the alliance, there was a period of re-mobilisation to challenge the neo-liberal direction adopted since 1996. In this context, the democratic state and the mass democratic movement were pitted against each other and attempts to bridge this gap were ineffectual.

Within this environment new movements emerged some of whom are supportive of the alliance while other are hostile to it. What was missing is coherent Alliance leadership of the democratic forces. The Alliance itself was rent by internal divisions over strategy and functioned more in permanent crisis resolution mode.

It will however be a mistake to characterise the social movements as the strategic opponents of the revolution. Ultimately capital is the strategic opponent to a far reaching democratic project and mass and state power represents the countervailing power against the entrenched power of capital. Of course, it is necessary to mobilize private capital in the effort for national reconstruction but ‘on whose terms?’ is the strategic question.

The climate under which we meet poses both threats and opportunities. We must grasp the nature of the threats and opportunities in order to re-unify the movement and reconnect with the mass base.

1. Recent economic challenges, slow growth, high interest rates, and the rising cost of living demand clear answers and leadership. This is compounded by the real possibility of a recession in the US and some leading economies in Europe such as Britain. Polokwane has heightened contestation around the content and direction of policy.

2. Capital is definitely unnerved and is piling pressure on government and the new ANC leadership to stay the course. On the other hand, Polokwane has raised the expectations of millions of our people that their plight will change for the better. Within the Alliance, it has raised the expectation that things will be better. In short, there is a lot of expectation riding on the shoulders of the ANC. That means the coming elections campaign may prove to be the toughest.

3. Mass poverty and unemployment combined with rising inequality poses a serious challenge to the revolution. Unless there is a dramatic improvement in the material conditions of our people the possibility for social instability remain very strong.

4. The state of our organisations is very uneven. Recent attacks on foreigners have revealed our weak roots in some of the communities. It is fair to guess that we are strong in the former townships and fairly weak in the informal settlements that have sprouted post apartheid.

This forum therefore faces the following challenges:

1. Developing a shared understanding of the state of the nation, geopolitical challenges as well as possibilities and limits faced by our revolution. On this basis develop a programme and vision to advance the revolution in the current context.

2. Rebuilding the unity of the mass movement on the basis of a shared programme. In this regard articulate strategies for rebuilding our organisations and intensifying political education to raise the consciousness of our cadres. This will also require clear management of internal contradictions within the mass movement.

Against this background it is import to reckon with the ugly divisions of the past. We are all aware that the level of political participation is not similar to the period under apartheid, as a significant layer of our cadres are disillusioned with how things have panned out. Yet, a majority of our activists have retained their level of activism in other formations but are also disturbed by divisions that have confronted the movement in the post-apartheid era. It is worthwhile recounting some of the alien cultures that crept within the movement:

1. The disjuncture between comrades deployed in the state and the mass movement. Even the ANC and the Alliance were marginalised. Power shifted from the ANC to government and cadres in the state selective implementing movement policies.

2. Political intolerance of different perspective including unleashing a witch-hunt against so-called ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and ‘ultra-left’ tendencies.

3. Use of the state and the media to isolate attack and malign comrades who differ with the neo-liberal course chosen by the state. State patronage was also used in a factionalist manner to win over some supporters and to undermine internal democratic processes.

4. A culture of grabbing at all levels of the movement – a section of our comrades see the movement as a stepping stone to self-enrichment rather than as a weapon of our people. This is in part an explanation for the divisive and often violent leadership contestation.

As this generation of activists we face the task to restore the dignity of the movement and prosecute the revolution to new height. It is against this background, that we set issues for consideration for the way forward.

First we need a political and organisational programme to rebuild the MDM and our organisations. In this regard, we can use the election campaign and the health and education campaign as launch pad to reconnect with the mass base. Political education is also central in this campaign of mass activism. Therefore the task is to build a popular movement for transformation.

Second we need to take stock of the local and global balance of forces and agree on how we advance the NDR in the current context. The role of the state and mass movement thus become essential in tilting balance of forces. To this we must add, the importance of international front of progressive forces that we must consolidate.

A vision and programme for Social and Economic Transformation must be clarified. The central question is how we take forward the Freedom Charter/RDP Project forward in the current period. The essential elements include:

1. The vision, role and capacity of a developmental state.

2. An industrialisation strategy for large-scale job creation supported by appropriate macro-economic, trade and agrarian transformation policies.

3. An appropriate social policy focusing on human resource development, basic services and social protection.

4. A strategy for the region and building strong relations with progressive in the South and the North.