{"id":1024,"date":"2019-12-10T11:30:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=1024"},"modified":"2021-05-26T12:52:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T10:52:59","slug":"build-the-trade-union-united-front","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=1024","title":{"rendered":"Build the Trade Union United Front!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally\nappeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 4 (October 1981)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by\nJake Wilson and Rocco Malgas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite sharp crackdowns by the police there has been\na magnificent increase in the activity and struggles of the independent trade\nunion movement. Through strikes, and the consolidation of union membership,\nworkers are winning a whole spate of recognition ballots and agreements, shop\nsteward elections and wage increases.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Labour Relations Amendment Bill and the\nwhip of the police, far from taming the movement, have already led to new steps\nto unite the workers’ ranks against the bosses and the state. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growth of\nworker militancy comes at a time when South African capitalism is entering a\nperiod of crisis following on the general decline of world capitalism. In the\ncoming year it is anticipated there will be no growth in world trade on which\nSouth Africa is so dependent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worldwide\nrecession has meant increasing unemployment, higher prices, shut-down factories,\nand cuts in social spending. It has in turn thrown millions of young people\ninto the ranks of the jobless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But throughout\nthe world, recession has been made even worse by the monetarist policies of\nmany capitalist governments. In Britain Thatcherism (cutting social spending\nand raising interest rates) has brought about an economic slump even deeper\nthan the depression of the 1930s. Hence the widespread rioting of the\nunemployed youth. The United States is now on the same road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internationally\nthe workers have met the deepening social crisis with an unprecedented increase\nin trade union and political struggles to defend their living standards against\nthe constant attacks of the decaying capitalist system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These attacks\nhave been marked by many capitalist parliaments frantically enacting\nlegislation to curb the powers of trade unions and outlaw strikes. In America,\nIndia, Britain, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zambia, for example, trade union\ncontrols or arrests are the order of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade unions\nare the first line of defence of the working class against attacks by the\nbosses and the state. They bear the brunt of the ruling class attack, but are\nalso a powerful weapon in the hands of the working class to fight back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every country\nof the capitalist world, the class struggle will be driven to new levels of\nintensity in the period ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is no\ndifferent in South Africa. Since the mass strikes of 1973<\/a>,\nthe bosses and the regime have used every possible measure to frustrate or\nrepress the independent organisation of the black workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is an\nadded thrust to trade union struggles in South Africa. Unlike in Europe where\nthe trade union movement came of age during the rise of world capitalism, the\nindependent trade unions in South Africa have been born in struggle against a\ncapitalist class which has always been too narrow-based and economically weak\nto concede the reforms which the workers in Europe have won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today the\nindependent trade union movement has entered a period of explosive growth\nprecisely as capitalism in South Africa and on a world scale is moving into\ndecline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dependent on\ncheap black labour and a violent police state, capitalism in South Africa can\nprovide no reforms on any lasting basis. It is this which removes any\nfoundations for stable reformist policies within the unions of the black\nworkers and pushes the mass trade union movement in South Africa in a\nrevolutionary direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling class\nunderstands this only too well, yet is powerless to halt the forces which are\nbeing unleashed by the decline of the capitalist system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Drastic Powers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its attempts\nto bring the independent trade unions under control through the whip in one hand\nand carrots in the other, the Botha regime has got itself deeper and deeper\ninto trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Bill\nin Parliament is just another attempt to bring the quarrelling between the\ngovernment, the bosses, and the bureaucracy of the registered unions to an end.\nBut this Bill drops nearly all the carrots intended to encourage registration\nand vigorously cracks the whip against the independent unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspectors are\nprovided with drastic powers to search the offices of trade unions, registered\nand unregistered, and seize documents. All trade unions must have their\nconstitutions available for inspection, as well as their finances and\nmembership lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other controls\nmaintain the ban on strikes and now all trade unions are prohibited from using\ntheir funds to support ‘illegal’ strikes! A further sting is the reintroduction\nof the liaison committees, called \u2018works councils\u2019, as a weapon against the\nunions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Bill\nrequires all worker education to be brought under the control of the Registrar\nof Man-power Training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This whole\nparcel of anti-union measures in Parliament, which have been supported by the\nPFP and NRP, are reinforced by unprecedented police attacks in the factories\nand townships. Trade unionists in Port Elizabeth, East London, and elsewhere\nhardly have time to get home before being arrested again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In East London\nthe Security Police have even drawn up a secret document on how to break trade\nunion power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document\nprovides detailed advice to the bosses on how to smash the unregistered unions\ngenerally, and particularly “to act as a millstone around the neck of Saawu\nand to prevent the acceleration of the success of Saawu”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the secret\ndocument the fear of the regime of the unions’ power to call a general strike\nshows through!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Management cannot dismiss the workers because it will not be only one or two firms involved, but the whole of East London. The result is very clear \u2013 one would have to give in to the demands of the workers however extravagant or ludicrous these may be”!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The whole\ndocument eloquently testifies to the power of the working class when it is\norganised on an industry- and city-wide basis. It proves once again how the\ninitiative is moving into the hands of the black working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This power\nshould be multiplied by organisation on a national level!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decisive\nshift in class forces confirms the perspective of Marxism that the black\nworking class, organised on a mass basis, will be the main force in the South\nAfrican revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in South\nAfrica the political and industrial organisation of the black working class has\nto be secured on underground foundations, the open trade union movement has a\nhuge potential as a vehicle for mass struggle against the exploiters and\noppressors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every step\nforward by the trade unions proves again their capacity to serve as centres of\norganisation of the oppressed masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The independent\ntrade unions are becoming the focus for all the organisations of the oppressed:\ncommunity organisations, legal defence committees, student groups, rural\norganisations and even some church organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this power\ncan only be realised to the full through the massive consolidation of the trade\nunion movement itself \u2013 through building trade union unity and developing a\nclear-sighted working class leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need for\ntrade union unity is being hammered home by practical experience. In periods of\nlull, the unions could be picked-off and strangled one-by-one. The confused\nreaction by some trade union leaders to the issue of registration, with a drift\nto place themselves under state control, opened the unions to this danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the\nrelentless pressure of the state through the police and laws to extinguish all\ntrade union independence has made it impossible for even these trade union\nleaders to avoid the question of unity in the struggle to defend their\nsurvival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Common Programme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this\ngrowing confrontation which brought leaders of the independent unions,\nincluding Saawu, Fosatu, GWU, FCWU and Cusa, to a meeting held in Cape Town\nearly in August. The trade union leaders pledged themselves to a common programme\nof action in opposition to the trade union laws of the regime and the bosses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The registration\nof trade unions was rejected “insofar as it is designed to control and\ninterfere in the internal affairs of unions”. The unions demanded the\nright to strike and decided collectively to defy restrictions on strike pay to\nmembers. Also the industrial council system was rejected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most\nimportantly, the unions decided to establish inter-union solidarity committees<\/strong> in the regions to assist organisation,\ndevelop financial support, and organise consumer boycotts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\nlimited programme (unfortunately, for example, not every aspect of the new Bill\nwas rejected), the meeting marks one of the most important steps forward in the\nhistory of the workers’ movement in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tests of Strength<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panicky\nreaction of the Ciskeian puppets to the spectre of trade union unity, by\narresting 205 activists from East London, has propelled the independent trade\nunions further along the road of political opposition to the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\nprevious ‘non-political’ stance of some of the unions, a joint statement by all\nthose involved in the unity talks condemned the arrests and the whole Bantustan\npolicy of the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as these\narrests show, if we study the situation carefully, the working class is clearly\nheading towards an inevitable sharper confrontation with the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade union\nmovement therefore has to take adequate steps to prepare the workers for the\ntests of strength, which lie ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\ntremendous step taken at the Cape Town meeting, the defensive pact still falls\nshort of what will be required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is needed\nis a programme of concrete action capable of mobilising the largest possible\nforces for the struggle ahead. The unionisation of 7% of African industrial\nworkers has been a big stride forward, but the task remains to organise the\nmass of unorganised workers into a mighty nation-wide force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme\nwould need to be made up of demands on which all the independent unions could\nagree as a basis for a mass campaign to expand and advance the gains made by\nthe workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can only\nsuccessfully be decided by full freedom to discuss policy and strategy within\nthe common front around the workers’ fighting demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the broadest\nmobilisation of the rank-and-file, any differences can be put to the test of\nexperience. This should lead to growing clarity on the direction of the\nstruggle and greater unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this\npreparatory stage some demands on which the trade union movement could draw in\nunorganised workers by the tens and hundreds-of-thousands would be: <\/p>\n\n\n\n