The year has been a turning point in history, affecting every aspect of society. Commentators and historians will henceforth reference what was ‘pre-COVID’ and what was ‘post-COVID’.
Every political party takes it for granted that the debt must be paid. To those parties that posture as ‘radical’, ‘left’, or even ‘socialist’ the question must be put to them: should the debt be paid? The same question must be posed to the leaders of the trade unions. This one question can expose which side of the class barricades anyone they will stand upon in the class struggles that lie ahead.
The 7 October general strike called by Cosatu came against the background of an all-out assault on the working class by the ANC government and the bosses over the six months of the lockdown.Cosatu leaders promised that the economy would be brought to a standstill on 7 October. The strike was supported by all four trade union federations whom together claim to represent 2.8 million workers – nearly 25% of the workforce. But what was the outcome?
On 12 October the workers on the ANC government’s slave-labour Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) continued their struggle for permanent jobs and a living wage. Hundreds of EPWP workers took part in a day of action which was initiated by the National Union of Public Sector and Allied Workers (Nupsaw), an affiliate of the Saftu trade union federation.
Workers’ deepening anger and determination to fight back has compelled the Cosatu leadership to act despite its political entrapment in the Tripartite Alliance and their ANC loyalties. The MWP applauds Saftu’s support of a united front with Cosatu. It offers unity in struggle with the Cosatu rank-and-file, will sharpen the contradictions between Cosatu’s membership and leadership and offer them a way out of the Tripartite Alliance trap.
The Gauteng Government has given CHWs permanent jobs. The CHW’s victory shows that mass struggle works and that it is possible to win permanent jobs. The march to the Premier’s Office on Monday 12 October is for EPWP workers to demand exactly this.
The Eastern Cape, particularly the rural parts thereof, is the epitome of the ANC’s betrayal of the rural people who are unable to breathe as they are daily chocked by poverty, unemployment, lack of clean water, access roads, healthcare facilities, decent sanitation, proper housing, proper school education and functioning transport. All this misery is an unfortunate consequence of the ANC’s capitalist policies.
Leon Trotsky explained that, “In the epoch of imperialist decay the trade unions can be really independent only to the extent that they are conscious of being, in action, the organs of proletarian revolution.” (Our emphasis.) Saftu members will not be able to fully purge the policies of class collaboration and complete the journey to reclaiming their organisational, political and ideological until they have consciously rejected the NDR, Keynesianism and all other varieties of reformism, embraced genuine Marxism and made revolutionary trade unionism the official policy of Saftu.
In Part I of our Open Letter we put forward our views on what we believe must begin to emerge from Saftu’s 25 August NEC in order to take forward working class struggle against the unprecedented health, economic and political crisis. But the fact that the NEC meeting is taking place almost a full five months into this crisis cannot be passed-over in silence. Why has there been such a delay in convening the leadership?
On 25 August the National Executive Committee of Saftu will sit. Every member of the federation must take a huge interest in this meeting. The outcome will answer whether or not Saftu is prepared to give leadership to the working class in a world that has changed completely in just a few short months.
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