{"id":2934,"date":"2021-05-03T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T12:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=2934"},"modified":"2021-05-03T14:51:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T12:51:10","slug":"the-2007-2010-public-sector-strikes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=2934","title":{"rendered":"The 2007 & 2010 Public Sector Strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

28 Days the Shook South Africa<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Lessons of the Public Sector Strike<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Originally published as a special edition of Izwilabsebenzi (June 2007).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 28 June 2007, the leadership of the majority of public sector unions announced their acceptance of the government\u2019s final 7.5% salary offer. This effectively ended the politically most significant strike since the ANC came to power. In terms purely of percentages, government may be tempted to crow that the final settlement was significantly closer to its opening offer of 5.3% than to the unions\u2019 12% opening demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Original cover.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But the outcome of battles in the class struggle cannot be calculated by the simple laws of arithmetic. It is not a question of the size of the wage increase and whether it is within the government\u2019s budget. It is determined by the dialectical interplay of relations between the working class on the one hand and the capitalist ruling class and its political representatives on the other. It is determined by the psychology of the contestants in particular struggles and by the impact of successive battles in different arenas on the relationship of forces between them nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the figures of the agreement may say, the reality is that this strike swept through society like a tsunami, altering the political landscape, and decisively changing the relations between the classes. Despite their misgivings about the actual terms of the final settlement, the public sector workers emerged out of this battle with their confidence in their power restored; the government, and the capitalist ruling class behind it, with its confidence dented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Relationship of Forces<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since government\u2019s walk-out from the negotiations and the unilateral imposition of wage settlement in 1999, the balance of power appeared to have swung in favour of government. So emboldened had government become by the leadership\u2019s spinelessness that they attempted to rub workers\u2019 noses in the dirt of their 2004 defeat. Despite what was then the biggest public sector strike in SA history, they imposed a 5.3% increase \u2013 less than the 6% demand for which the public sector general strike had been called. To the injury of 1999, government had added the insult of 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their derisory opening offer of 5.3% appeared to have been calculated to remind the workers of the humiliation of three years before. This offer and the outrageous proposal for a four-year multi-term agreement clearly showed that government believed they could simply continue in 2007 where they had left off in 2004. They thought the union leaders\u2019 cowardly capitulation was a sufficient guarantee of yet another triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combined effect of 1999 and 2004 was that the credibility of the salary negotiations and even the role of the unions themselves had, in the eyes of workers, been seriously undermined. With the Minister of Finance budgeting salary adjustments in line with inflation in advance of wage negotiations, and workers expected simply to accept this, collective bargaining had been reduced to at best, a rubberstamp, at worst a farce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few years, under the Mbeki presidency in particular, through a combination of government intransigence and the political cowardice of especially (though not exclusively) the Cosatu leadership, public sector workers had experienced a number of setbacks. The union leadership had, amongst others, agreed to: the abolition of leg-and-rank promotion (a policy of systematic promotion which provided workers with a career path ensuring they would not stay on the same level for decades as tends to be the case today); signed an agreement allowing the government to unilaterally introduce a 16-notch performance-based salary grading system which opened-up workers to abuse by managers; provided for tiny, (notch-related) salary increases and, with so many notches, slowed career advancement to a snail\u2019s pace; accepted, despite the HIV\/Aids pandemic, the slashing of sick leave from 180 days to 36 days over a 3-year period; the exclusion of senior managers from collective bargaining resulting in a widening of the wage gap; multi-term salary agreements leading to demobilization and weakening the unions\u2019 ability to fight back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union leadership had even failed to lift a finger as the government blatantly and wilfully defied its own law \u2013 the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Government Underestimates Workers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government could not have been more wrong. 2007 was not 2004. The caravan of history had moved on. Encouraged by the upturn in the economy, the increase in the number of strikes since 2004 and the growing resistance of working class communities to corruption and poor service delivery in local government, public sector workers were determined that there would be no further retreats. They prepared for action to restore the balance of power in their favour by exerting enormous pressure on the leadership. The mood of grim determination led to the unions submitting a single set of demands as early as October 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outcome of the strike was about much more than increased wages and allowances. With the sound of a thunderclap, the public sector workers had forced society to recognise two inter-related and undeniable facts: the undiminished power of the working class and their willingness to struggle on the one hand, and the limits of the power of the ruling class and the government on the other. Regardless of how much, in monetary terms, workers had gained (through the settlement) or lost (through the application of the no-work-no-pay rule) what stood out at the end of the strike was the undeniable reality that, for the first time, mass action had forced concessions from government. Having opened with an offer of 5.3%, the government was compelled to increase its offer by more than 2 percentage points to 7.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Defeat?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, many workers, maybe even a majority, viewed this outcome with dissatisfaction and even bitterness. There is a widespread feeling amongst workers that what was achieved does not correspond to the magnificence of the battle waged, the sacrifices made, and the support obtained from the wider working class. With public sentiment clearly in their favour, and government\u2019s position seen widely as unreasonable, workers justifiably felt that they had had the upper hand. In the circumstances the feeling amongst workers, that defeat had been snatched from the jaws of victory, is understandable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DSM believes, however, that it is going too far to describe the outcome as a defeat. At the same time, as we explain elsewhere, we strongly disagree with those leaders, like comrades Vavi and Slovo, general secretaries of Cosatu and Nehawu respectively, that this outcome was a victory for workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gains made during this strike are not to be found in the wage increase or improvement in conditions of service. These are modest at best. The most important gains of this strike lie in the restoration of the self-confidence of the public sector workers and the inspiring effect this had on the working class as a whole. It is to be found in the fact that it has further clarified the class character of the ANC, exposing the differences in the Tripartite Alliance, especially the conflict between the ANC and Cosatu, as class differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has raised the class consciousness of the working class, and placed on the agenda again the vital question of their class independence, and the need for an independent political voice for the working class. The strike has also forced onto the agenda the question of leadership, the political role of Cosatu and its relationship with non-Cosatu unions. Like an investment with a maturity date, these benefits of the strike have the potential to pay huge dividends for working class struggle in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike brought out into sharp relief, in the outlook and attitude of the public sector workers on the one side and the government on the other, a mutual recognition that this conflict had been over far more than wages and benefits. It had been a struggle over irreconcilable class interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strike was a defining moment in the struggle between the classes and has drawn a line in the sand between them. The government\u2019s hard-line stand in the negotiations, it\u2019s dismissive attitude towards the workers\u2019 demands, it\u2019s hostile reaction to the strike, it\u2019s unapologetic attempts to undermine the strike, it\u2019s callous indifference to the implications of threats of mass dismissals of health workers and the display of apartheid-style kragdadigheid<\/em> through police beatings, the use of teargas and rubber bullets \u2013 all served to re-affirm a realisation that has been taking root in the consciousness of the working class, at first slowly, but now more rapidly, about the class character of the ANC government \u2013 it is a government of the rich. Despite claims of being biased towards the working class and viewing it as the \u201cmotive force of the revolution\u201d less and less does the government believe it has any special obligation towards working class people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Government of the Rich<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much more than ever before, the government has itself become conscious of its role as the \u201cmatshingilane<\/em>\u201d of big business. Its attitude to key demands showed its awareness that its overriding responsibility was not towards the working class majority that voted it into power, but the capitalist class who for decades had opposed it. The ANC government has subordinated the interests of those that had supported and built it for decades, to those of the bosses who had accepted the ANC\u2019s accession to office only as an unavoidable necessity for them. Its rejection, for example of the demand for a new minimum wage was based not on affordability, but, for fear of the potential impact on the outcome of wage negotiations especially in the private sector. The same applies to the rejection of the 12% demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes incidents that are in and of themselves of little consequence shed a light on events in such a way that their true significance is revealed. In previous salary negotiations, Mbeki made it a point to decline any proposals to increase his and his cabinet ministers\u2019 salaries levels higher than what government was asking public servants to accept. If workers were expected to accept 6% then so would he and his ministers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that attitude has now been locked away in the trunk of yesterday\u2019s pretensions. This time the Moseneke Commission recommendations completely ignored the negotiations. It could not care less what government was offering workers. Its proposals, released when the government\u2019s opening offer of 5.3% was still on the table, were for an outlandish range of 30% for ministers to 57% for the president! Most significantly, Mbeki did not reject them \u2013 he merely referred them back, to be revisited, no doubt, once the storm of the public sector strike had passed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Political Significance of the Strike<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ANC\u2019s claim that it represents the interests of all classes in society and is dedicated to the liberation of blacks in general and Africans in particular stands exposed as a fiction. The hollowness of that claim rings through the service delivery protests now breaking out regularly at a local level, as well as the virtual insurrection in Khutsong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The policy of the new political elite (representing the aspirations of the mafikizolo<\/em> capitalists \u2013 the aspirant black capitalists \u2013 and the interests of the predominantly white capitalist class into whose ranks they are being assimilated) is to subordinate the interests of the overwhelmingly black working class majority, to those of the overwhelmingly white capitalist minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SA economy is capitalist. It is the one thing that even all the partners in the Tripartite Alliance agree upon. Furthermore, as Mbeki once again made clear at the policy conference, the ANC is dedicated to the preservation of this system. Whatever the intention of the ANC leadership, the government has to favour capital \u2013 no other policy is possible on the basis of capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The logic of this system is that it compels the rich to conduct a relentless class struggle against the working class. History has known no other type of capitalism \u2013 the class struggle is the common thread that has run through capitalism regardless of the various political forms of state under which it has functioned throughout its history. Whether the political form of government is social democratic, \u201cnational democratic\u201d, military or a fascist dictatorship has always been a question of what was politically convenient or an unavoidable necessity. Having co-existed quite happily with white minority rule and enjoying the benefits of apartheid and the oppression and exploitation of the black working class, the rising strength and militancy of the working class made the bosses realise that the continuation of the apartheid political order posed a threat to the very existence of the capitalist system itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the reason they became converts to bourgeois democracy \u2013 to save their system. To their great relief they found in the ANC leadership social partners whose main objection to the apartheid political order was that it hindered the development of the aspirant black capitalist class \u2013 frustrating their ambition to become part of the white capitalist ruling class. The continued suffering of the working class majority is rooted in this fact. Capitalism cannot function in any other way except through the exploitation and oppression of the working class. This class reality informs every aspect of ANC government policy including on public sector wages. It is this fact that the red hot poker of the public sector strike has burnt into the consciousness of the working class<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of this strike will reverberate across the political landscape for years to come. It is clear that the stance of both workers and the bosses, especially in the private sector wage negotiations, was influenced by the public sector strike. Fearing that private sector workers\u2019 confidence would be boosted by the determination of their public sector counter-parts, bosses outside the public sector made opening offers and settled mostly above the 7.5 % public sector workers accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strike was also marked by the prominent role played by women who make up a majority in a number of key unions. To the extent that the political terrain has been changed, public sector women, like their sisters-in-arms throughout history, have played a critical role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the widespread public support for the dismissed former deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Mail & Guardian<\/em> editor Ferial Haffejee states that a tectonic shift has taken place in public attitudes.[1]<\/a> We agree. But that shift was not brought about by the middle class who dominated the denunciation of the government\u2019s persecution of the former deputy health minister. That shift was caused by the earthquake of the public sector strike which raised the confidence not only of the working class, but has also begun to radicalise sections of the middle class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public sector strike will not only contribute towards a further deepening of the divisions within the Tripartite Alliance. It will widen the differences also within each of its partners \u2013 the ANC, SACP and Cosatu. Within Cosatu in particular, it will bring the rank-and-file, seeking an independent political outlet for their class aspirations as they grow increasingly disillusioned with an ANC revealing itself as a party of the rich, into collision with a leadership desperately clinging onto an increasingly discredited Alliance. It will lay the basis for the dissolution of the Tripartite Alliance and, in time, for the emergence of a mass workers party and the development of a socialist programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

28 Days that Shook South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a full four weeks SA\u2019s million-strong public service had witnessed a magnificent demonstration of working class unity, solidarity and power. It was one of the longest strikes in the history of the labour movement. For the first time, all seventeen unions came together from across different races and political traditions. Unions ranging from politically conservative pro-capitalist staff association types, to the militant Congress of SA Trade Union affiliates with their socialist tradition, stood shoulder-to-shoulder in united action to make the same demand \u2013 a 12% salary increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to estimates, by labour analyst Duncan Innes the public sector strike contributed, by the middle of the year, the bulk of the 11 million days lost through strike action so far in 2007. This is the highest since 1994. More accurate calculations by Nehawu\u2019s Guy Slingsby, show that public sector workers by themselves contributed at least 14.4 million days lost and quite possibly more. This would mean that 2007 experienced by far the highest number of days lost through strike action since the ANC came to power.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike was a crushing refutation of the claims of the latest ideas fashionable in academic circles: post-modernism. According to its followers like academic Sakhela Buhlungu of Wits University\u2019s Sociology of Work Unit, changes in the composition of Cosatu\u2019s membership following the influx of white-collar public sector workers in the early 1990s had diluted the federation\u2019s class consciousness, militancy and fighting traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet this strike reaffirmed the very opposite: that the public sector workers are indisputably an integral part of the working class. In fact the teachers \u2013 dismissed by these academics as preoccupied with cell phones, bonds and keeping their children in model-c schools \u2013 displayed the greatest combativeness of all the public sector battalions. Despite being reduced to a minority in the end, the National Professional Teachers Association (Naptosa) and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), whose ballots had produced 90%+ votes in favour of indefinite action, stood by their mandate and refused to sign the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driven, as Fikile Majola, general secretary of the National Education and Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) admitted at a Ditsela seminar, by the rank-and-file, the public sector workers\u2019 endurance and determination shocked and surprised not only government and the ruling class, but the union leadership as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the manner in which the strike ended was testimony to the power of the workers. Although the number of unions that agreed to sign the agreement on 28 June constituted a majority of Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) affiliates, the unions that initially rejected the agreement represented a majority of workers and therefore enjoyed a greater vote weight, frustrating the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a few anxious days, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi had a majority of union signatures but not a majority of votes. Pearls of perspiration continued to moisten the Minister of Public Service and Administration\u2019s brow as her relief and confidence at the end of the earthquake of the strike was shaken by the aftershocks of the majority\u2019s rejection of her final offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those circumstances, she might have been forced into unilaterally imposing the offer. She had never been forgiven for doing so in 1999 and desperately wanted to avoid a repetition. Fortunately for government, after a few nail-biting days, and some furious lobbying, enough of the \u201cbittereinders<\/em>\u201d were eventually persuaded to sign the agreement. After at first standing with the two teacher unions Naptosa and Sadtu, in rejecting the offer, the Public Servants Association (PSA) signed the agreement giving the government the majority it so desperately craved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Victory?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fikile Majola has described the outcome of the strike as a victory for workers. This view was echoed by the Cosatu general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi. Hospersa\u2019s general secretary even went so far as to describe the government\u2019s offer as \u201cfantastic for the lower paid workers\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason that, for the majority of workers, including members of unions that signed first, the outcome felt like a defeat, is that workers felt not only that they had repulsed all government attacks. They had also won the propaganda battle. Despite the rigorous implementation of the no-work-no-pay policy, management intimidation including threats of mass dismissals of any workers employed in jobs classified as essential services, tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and a media propaganda campaign cynically exaggerating incidents of violence, the workers had held firm for a full four weeks \u2013 the longest strike in public sector history. In fact in a number of instances worker-control was established with access to and the functioning of institutions determined by shop steward committees. At KwaZulu Natal hospitals, the virus of solidarity led to police ceding control to shop steward committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a justifiable confidence amongst workers that their unity, solidarity and determination would force the government to accede to their demand for 12%, or at least something close to it. Apart from the unprecedented unity and solidarity in their own ranks, the public sector workers\u2019 demands and the strike itself enjoyed overwhelming public support. This sympathy did not weaken despite incidents of violence including the alleged intimidation of learners, assaults on teachers who did not participate in the strike and allegations that intensive care units had been abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Overwhelming Public Support<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtually all civil society formations, from churches and taxi associations to student organisations like the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), social movement organisations like the Anti-Privatisation Campaign and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) publicly pledged their support and offered solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government also suffered a number of setbacks. The Labour Court application by their local government counterparts, the South African Local Government Association (Salga), to stop the South African Municipal Workers Union from striking in solidarity was dismissed. Government\u2019s own application for a blanket ban on strike action by all members of the Police Prisons and Civil Rights Union (Popcru) was also dismissed with costs. The TAC made a successful application for the reinstatement of nurses dismissed at an Aids Treatment Clinic in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support for the strike by taxi associations in KwaZulu Natal ensured a total shutdown on the day originally set aside for a general strike. This could have been repeated throughout the country if the union leadership had accepted an invitation from the taxi associations in other provinces to discuss what form the support should take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Cosatu Affiliates Fail Public Sector Workers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threatened general strike failed to materialise only because of the political inaction and sabotage of a leadership that was more terrified of the strike than even the government and the bosses. Scandalously, the Numsa leadership, led by the pro-Mbeki general secretary Silumko Nodwangu, attempted to hide their cowardice behind the fig-leaf of the legal argument that any solidarity action by Numsa would not satisfy the requirements of section 66 of the Labour Relations Act that a direct connection between the demands of the public sector workers\u2019 demands and those of other workers must be shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To claim that a connection between the fight for a living wage in the public sector and their class brothers and sisters in the workers in the metal, engineering sector, energy and auto sector cannot be proven is self-evidently absurd. This is not an unfortunate misunderstanding of the law. It amounts to conscious strike-breaking. It is the language of the bosses. On this basis Cosatu would never have been able to call a single general strike in the past and would not be able to in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such was the level of public support that, despite prominent media coverage of incidents of violence, ordinary journalists who mingled with striking workers themselves were shocked by the poor levels of pay earned by teachers, nurses, police and admin workers and exposed this in the newspapers, radio and even occasionally on television. This recognition of the reality of the conditions under which government employees worked even filtered into the editorial rooms with a number of newspapers calling for increases ranging from 8% to10%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Public Sector Strike Divides ANC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of the strike was such that it divided the ANC and even cabinet. In spite of subsequent denials by Finance Minister Trevor Manual, his alleged support for a 9% increase strengthened the workers\u2019 cause, damaged government and forced an embarrassed Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi to indignantly insist that she was the sole government spokesperson on wage negotiations. Even more embarrassingly, the ANC parliamentary portfolio committee summonsed Trevor Manuel and Defence Minister and ANC national chairperson Terror Lekota \u2013 both members of the cabinet mandating committee on wages \u2013 criticised them sharply and demanded an explanation as to why a better offer could not be made and the strike handled differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More significantly there was a clear sense that the majority of ANC members supported the workers\u2019 demands, once again highlighting one of the issues at the centre of the ANC\u2019s divisions \u2013 the gulf between the ANC as a party and the ANC\u2019s government apparatus, with the latter dictating to the former. To the government\u2019s dismay the ANC parliamentary portfolio committee chairperson expressed open support for the workers\u2019 demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s isolation from its own party was revealed in its unsuccessful attempts to dismiss en masse<\/em> all health workers accused of striking. Its play at kragdadigheid<\/em> was exposed as impotence \u2013 an attempt to exercise a power it did not have. Only 2,700 out of more than 20,000 were dismissed \u2013 the result of the open defiance by provincial ministers of health \u2013 all ANC members \u2013 of the orders of the national cabinet. The dismissals themselves were met with universal condemnation and horror that the government could even consider such action when the public health system was gasping for breath because of budget cuts and the incompetence of a health minister advocating insane ideas on health and the treatment of HIV\/Aids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Soldiers Support Strike<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the clearest indication of the profound impact of the strike on the consciousness of the working class as a whole was reflected in the stance taken by the soldiers union. The South African Security Forces Union had shortly before the strike won an important Labour Court battle against the SA National Defence Force compelling it to end its boycott of the bargaining council. Although they are not allowed to strike they staged a lunch-time march in solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SASFU\u2019s statement of support for the public sector workers is worth quoting at some length:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[SASFU] declares … we are also public servants of an excluded nature because of our geographical position. However we are a Cosatu affiliate… We will remain [so] until the working class agenda runs in the blood and jugular veins of each worker in this universe. It is therefore a duty to for all our learned friends within various sectors to understand that soldiers are workers too. We need them to comprehend that the material conditions of the needy and the dispossessed are not a fleeting illusion but a reality [that] affects us as soldiers and members of the South African community.<\/p>

As SASFU we say there can never be peaceful coexistence between a worker and an employer… Workers create the wealth of this country… SASFU is not only unconditionally supporting the public sector unions\u2019 strikes but it is part of the strike…<\/p>

Once more we declare to all soldiers that have conscience to heed this call, that this Cosatu strike is not an act of greed… it is a reiteration of what people designed during the Congress of the People in 1955, that the people shall share in the country\u2019s wealth and that no government shall claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people.<\/p>

The Cosatu strike, in particular the public sector unions\u2019 strike, is a legally protected strike. Anything against this strike is illegal. We therefore call on our members: not to be used as replacement labour as this will cause a reactionary blow against the honest plight of the working class to engage in protest marches, picketing and any other way of protest within the context of the laws of this country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At one stage, the mood of the prison warders and police members of Popcru became so inflamed that they threatened to defy the ban on their right to strike because they are classified as essential service workers. In other words, in terms of public opinion, and the possibility of solidarity action, the balance of forces was overwhelmingly on the side of the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Government Pleads Poverty While Economy Booms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This applied also to public reaction to workers\u2019 demands. Sentiment was overwhelmingly against the government. This was a classic example of government\u2019s own propaganda about its economic \u201csuccesses\u201d coming back to haunt it. On the one hand it was boasting about the first-ever budget surplus; on the other it claimed the workers\u2019 12% wage demand was unaffordable. Given that the combination of the budget surplus and yet another tax over-recovery, gave it an unexpected R11 billion, government\u2019s cries about affordability lacked any credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a sharp contradiction between government\u2019s stand in the wage negotiations and its public commitment to ensuring that the benefits of the economic boom are shared through policies adopted with much fanfare like the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of SA (Asgisa). Government is clearly failing to practice what it preaches. But this is not simply a moral failing. It confirms that under a capitalist government, the interests of the rich will always take precedence over those of the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time as mass unemployment has continued, poverty increased and delivery of basic services compromised by corruption and incompetence, profits\u2019 have reached dizzy heights. The value of shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange increased, according to the Sunday Independent<\/em>[3]<\/a> by nearly 300%. \u201cNoah Greenhill, (senior general manager for marketing and business at the JSE) said five years ago the shares were worth R2 trillion; now they were worth R5 trillion … the highest was R5.9 trillion.\u201d A trillion is a thousand billion, a 1 followed by 12 zeros! This is four times the value of the real economy \u2013 the goods and services produced by the labour of the working class!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bosses have rewarded themselves handsomely with executive pay reaching levels never seen before. The Labour Research Service\u2019s latest figures show that the wage gap is wider than ever. Labour columnist Terry Bell reports that according to the Labour Research Service\u2019s annual Bargaining Indicators 2007 report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026last year the average chief executive was paid more than R8 million a year, while executive directors, on average received more than R4.5 million. Even the average fees of R306,269 paid to non-executive directors was a huge leap compared to the R29,861 earned by workers on minimum wages (per annum) Researcher Saliem Patel points out that the that the average worker now has to work 273 years to earn what the average chief executive is paid annually!<\/p>Star Business Report<\/em>, 10 August 2007<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The background against which the public sector workers prepared for this year\u2019s wage negotiations was therefore one of a sharp polarisation between the classes. As the increase in the number of strikes from 2002 had begun to show, the working class was determined to get a share of a boom that after all was produced by the exploitation of their labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the public sector, the unions prepared much more thoroughly and backed their demands with research showing that government workers\u2019 wages had fallen behind that of their counterparts in the private sector. In real terms their salaries were worth less than what they were twelve years ago. Scandalously, within government, supposedly the champion of the closing of the apartheid wage gap, the gap between the lowest and highest paid has actually increased from 13:1 in 1994 to 27:1 in 2007! The gap between ministers\u2019 salaries and those of public sector workers is even greater. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi\u2019 s salary of R1.5m per year is more than 41 times that of a level 1 worker!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s claims of economic \u201csuccess\u201d were reinforced by statistics indicating that growth had continued for an unbroken period of eight years so far. Through savagely cutting back social spending, the budget deficit inherited from the apartheid regime has been eliminated. The country has recorded a budget surplus for the first time not only since the ANC came to power, but for the first time since the Second World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The repeated drum beating about the economy\u2019s performance when unemployment and poverty is deepening has only served to sharpen the working class\u2019s sense of exclusion from the economic boom. Whilst the economy is creating dollar billionaires at the fourth fastest rate in the world, workers\u2019 wages as a share of annual income has declined from 57% in 1994 to 46% today according to Cosatu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the factors outlined above \u2013 the unity, determination and the workers\u2019 willingness to fight; the support of the working class as a whole; the overwhelming public sympathy; the divisions in the ANC and the isolation of the government from its own party; the rising tide of worker militancy; the economic boom \u2013 had created a unique set of favourable circumstances for a comprehensive victory. A clear call for a two-day or three-day general strike, properly prepared, would have received an overwhelming response. A general strike could have been called not only in sympathy with the public sector workers, but to unite all workers around the demand for a decent living wage. It would have forced the government onto its knees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Leaders Capitulate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately the leadership capitulated once again. Astonishingly Vavi and Slovo repeated government arguments that it was not just a question of the wage offer but the \u201cpackage as a whole\u201d. Arguments rejected all along by the unions suddenly became respectable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 7.5% offer may, on the surface appear to be a substantial improvement on the government\u2019s starting offer of 5.3%. But the fact is that by the time that the 7.5% had been accepted, the official inflation rate (CPIx) had risen to 6.3% and has climbed by another two percentage points since. Interest rates have been increased for the sixth time in succession over less than two years and now stand at 13%. Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has threatened to increase them even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combination of CPIx, food inflation, escalating fuel and transport costs, the impact of the National Credit Act, and the increased interest rate means that, in real terms, any benefits from the 7.5% have already been cancelled out leaving workers no better off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of a basic food basket of meat, milk, maize, chicken, fruit and vegetables and bread has rocketed by about 70% since 2000… Caroline Ndoda, a Johannesburg mother of three told the Sunday Times<\/em> she could no longer afford to buy her children clothes. Her grocery bill has increased from R200 a week to R500 now. She could no longer afford to buy red meat.<\/p>Sunday Times<\/em>, 15 April 2007<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The September reduction in the fuel price has not compensated for the overall increase of nearly 20% this year alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Nehawu\/Sadtu Feud Divides Workers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say that British workers are lions led by the donkeys of the Trade Union Council. It is difficult not to apply this argument to our public sector union leaders. Yet again the split in the Cosatu bloc was a key factor in a chaotic and divisive end to the strike. Disgracefully, the long-running tension between Sadtu and Nehawu leaders on occasion burst out into open conflict in front of other unions and the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It does not matter what view the Nehawu leadership may have taken over how aspects of the offer affected their members. The first principal of struggle is unity. It is an absolute scandal, sectarianism of the worst kind and a betrayal of the fundamental principles of trade union and workers\u2019 unity on which Cosatu itself was established, to break ranks because the particular interests of one union are perceived to have been met. If Nehawu had not capitulated, Hospersa would have found it difficult to cut and run because on its own, it would have been isolated. The Nehawu leadership\u2019s surrender saved the government from a potentially humiliating defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Nehawu Leadership\u2019s Claims Exaggerated<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case the Nehawu leadership\u2019s claims that their members had made substantial gains are somewhat exaggerated. Nehawu members have actually gained very little. The Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) will only begin to be implemented in 2009. In any case workers in other sectors will gain more than Nehawu\u2019s members in the general public service sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to demands that salary notches be reduced from 16 to 7 and the difference in pay between notches to be increased to 5%, government made a minimal concession. It agreed to reduce them to 12 only, and to increase the percentages between notches to 1.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demand for a new minimum wage was rejected. Instead of abolishing salary levels one and two, government agreed only to promote a minority of these workers \u2013 less than a third of level ones and less than a quarter of level twos. More than 100,000 remain on the miserable slave wages paid on these levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increases in the different types of allowances may appear substantial in percentage terms. But they are from a very low base. The increase in overtime pay for public holidays is not something to celebrate. All that has happened is that government has brought overtime policy into line with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Since the BCEA became law, government has simply been ignoring it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Rank-and-File Must Call Nehawu and Sadtu Leaders to Order<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nehawu and Sadtu leadership have once again, as they have done since 1999, allowed yesterday\u2019s grudges and political rivalries to create divisions and to undermine the unity of the workers. The Sadtu leaders may take pride in the fact that they were the last ones standing in this particular battle. But the fact is that on at least one previous occasion, they were the first to break ranks. If the Sadtu leadership refused to surrender this time it is because they were under far greater pressure from their rank-and-file. Teachers have been subjected to the harshest retribution through the rigorous application of the no-work-no-pay rule. In 1999 and 2004 many teachers had gone home with negative pay packets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was enormous anger amongst teachers over the 2004 capitulation. Teachers in Soweto, Lenasia, Eldorado Park, Ennerdale and Kliptown distributed a leaflet showing that they had drawn the correct political conclusions about the reasons for the calling off of the strike in 2004 \u2013 that the Cosatu unions had come under political pressure in the Tripartite Alliance to subordinate the class interests of the workers to the political interest of the ANC government. Their leaflet argued that it was time for Cosatu to pull out of the Tripartite Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sadtu and Nehawu leaders behave as if they are involved in some kind of competition to see who sinks onto their knees first. The membership of both these unions must not allow the bureaucracies to build a wall between them. They must set up inter-union rank-and-file committees to re-establish worker control, democracy and accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Tripartite Alliance Paralyses Cosatu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surrender of the Nehawu leadership is a direct result of the paralysing effect of the Tripartite Alliance on Cosatu. Supporters of the Tripartite Alliance claim that it must be retained to ensure the unity of the working class. But as the DSM has pointed out before, Cosatu\u2019s continued membership of the Tripartite Alliance has the opposite effect \u2013 it causes disunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is evident from the failure of most Cosatu affiliates (with the honourable exception of Samwu) to respond to the call for a solidarity general strike during the public sector action. It is the reason that the divisions in the ANC caused by the power struggle between Mbeki and Zuma have spilled over into Cosatu resulting in conflict both within and between affiliates. It is the reason for the ongoing attempt to oust president Willie Madisha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The divisive effect of the Tripartite Alliance on Cosatu is further underlined by the furore over the R500,000 donation to the SACP that Madisha insists he delivered to general secretary Blade Ndzimande. Whatever the merits of the claims and counter-claims, the fact is that the divisions in the SACP, as with the ANC, are being imported into Cosatu compromising its independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

SACP Denies ANC Capitalist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astonishingly, the Cosatu leadership, under the direction of the SACP, continues to insist that the ANC is not a capitalist party. They criticise Gear and allege that the ANC\u2019s economic policies were imposed by a \u201c1996 class project\u201d. Yet, as Mbeki has repeatedly made clear: the ANC has never stood for socialism. Even when it adopted the Freedom Charter, the nationalisation clauses were intended to fast track the development of, in Mandela\u2019s words, a \u201cprosperous non-European bourgeoisie\u201d, that is, a rich black capitalist class. It was intended, in other words, as a strategy for the preservation, not the abolition of capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the ANC policy conference Mbeki went even further in clarifying the ANC\u2019s pro-capitalist character. Criticising the SACP, he pointed out that it had always been agreed that the ANC\u2019s programme was the \u201cnational democratic revolution\u201d and that of the SACP the socialist revolution and that it was improper for the two to take over each other\u2019s programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Mbeki has correctly asked before: if the SACP demands that the ANC adopts a socialist programme, what is the role of the SACP? Of course Mbeki did not directly state that capitalism is the ANC\u2019s policy; he prefers to dress up the ANC leadership\u2019s pro-capitalist polices in the radical rhetoric of the \u201cnational democratic revolution\u201d. The SACP\/Cosatu leadership in effect are aiding the ANC leadership with this ideological deception. But capitalism is the ANC\u2019s policy. The policy conference\u2019s rejection of an ANCYL proposal to describe big business as the \u201cenemy of the revolution\u201d, confirms this yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every aspect of ANC policy, foreign and domestic, almost without exception, confirms its class character. The government counts as an achievement that it is invited to participate in the meetings of the G8 club of imperialist powers; supports Bush\u2019s war on terror to the point that they have collaborated in kidnapping and smuggling of \u201csuspects\u201d; voted against UN sanctions against the Burmese (Myanmar) military junta whose representatives were invited to Mandela\u2019s inauguration; conferred the country\u2019s highest honour on Suharto of Indonesia who waded into power in the blood of over a million trade unionists and Indonesia\u2019s Communist Party members, a year before this bloody dictator was overthrown by the masses, invaded Lesotho and, of course, refuses to condemn Mugabe\u2019s suppression of democratic rights, repression and electoral fraud in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s approach to social spending as a whole and in particular areas of service delivery, from health, education, housing, electricity, water and sanitation through to transport and  roads and  telecommunications, has been to use these as an opportunity\u2019 for self-enrichment for the emerging black capitalist class. But private profit and social need are like oil and water. This is the main reason for the collapse in the quality of social services, the escalation in costs and the rampant corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Cosatu Approach Reformist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, no matter how sharply the Cosatu leaders may denounce Gear, the truth is that its critique of the government\u2019s economic policy is not a thoroughgoing socialist one. Cosatu\u2019s criticism is not of capitalism itself, but the absence of an \u201cindustrial policy\u201d. Because the \u201cindustrial policy\u201d Cosatu proposes is not designed to abolish capitalism and replace it with a planned economy democratically controlled by the working class, it can only have the effect of sewing illusions in capitalism. If the Cosatu leadership genuinely believes that socialism is superior to capitalism, and the only way to permanently eradicate poverty and raise the standards of living of all, they would use every failing of capitalism, of which there are no shortages, to argue for it to be abolished. They would put forward demands linking everyday struggles with the need for the socialist transformation of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately the Cosatu leadership believes capitalism can be better managed so that it is more \u201cdevelopmental\u201d and humane. If it is the objective of the socialist revolution to overthrow capitalism, then that of the national democratic revolution can only be to preserve it. To talk therefore of a \u201csocialist oriented national democratic revolution\u201d is to talk of a socialist capitalism. This is self-evident nonsense. By not campaigning for a socialist revolution now, the leadership is in effect collaborating in to the preservation of capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This explains why clear anti-capitalist demands do not feature in the various documents and in the proposed pact. This is why they put forward demands for what is in fact a capitalist \u201cindustrial policy\u201d and support reformist SACP campaigns against red-lining, blacklisting and for the Mzansi account. In a number of key sectors of the economy the practices of the bosses and the policies of the government are crying out for a genuine socialist approach, a transitional programme linking tactics to strategy \u2013 the struggle for reforms with the struggle to overthrow capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ANC government\u2019s capitalist policies have had a catastrophic effect on the clothing and textile industry with tens of thousands of jobs lost and the near-destruction of a previously viable domestic industry. Instead of campaigning for the nationalisation of the industry, the Cosatu leadership has demanded quotas and supported the discredited \u201cProudly South African\u201d campaign for the purchase of local products. The campaign has lost so much credibility that not even the bosses believe in it anymore with a number of companies allowing their subscriptions to lapse. The reduction in imports from China has in any case only led to increased imports from other cheap labour countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cosatu should forge links with exploited Chinese workers and help them to build unions to combat the extreme levels of exploitation and child labour in China. Instead through the \u201cProudly South Africa\u201d campaign Cosatu formed an alliance with the South African exploiters of their members\u2019 labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cosatu should campaign for nationalisation under workers control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since privatisation, the benefits of the formerly state-owned Sasol, now a highly profitable company, have been enjoyed only by its executives and shareholders. The government has just stood by as Sasol ruthlessly profiteers through the policy of Import Parity Pricing \u2013 the practice of charging for fuel produced in Secunda, Mpumalanga, as if it has been imported from Saudi Arabia. To add insult to injury, Sasol includes insurance costs against evaporation at sea in the price paid at the petrol pump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol, which has become a world leader in coal-to-oil technology, supplies close to 40% of SA\u2019s fuel needs. Those profits could be used to subsidise the price of petrol in SA, to expand capacity to reduce dependence on imported oil. It could give the state control over what they say is outside of their powers \u2013 the fuel price. It would further remove the excuse used for what the SACP describes as the Reserve Bank\u2019s \u201csado-monetarist\u201d inflation-targeting interest rate policy. The government could enter into a trade agreement with Venezuela to buy oil at below world market prices. But they are terrified of the reaction of imperialism and big business at home for keeping the \u201cwrong company\u201d. That is why instead government echoes the views of bourgeois analysts that it has no control over the fuel price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Public Sector Strike Divides the ANC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Mittal Steel, like Sasol, formerly state-owned, has been fined nearly R700,000 for excessive pricing, the reality is that it has made billions from import parity pricing \u2013 charging for steel, produced in the Vaal as if it has been imported. It will hardly feel any pain from the fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cosatu should not just be demanding that Sasol, Mittal Steel, the textile and clothing industry be nationalised. They should demand that they should be placed under workers control and management. The SACP campaign for the banks to stop discriminating against the poor is the equivalent of asking the devil to stop committing sin. Instead of the routine denunciations of the Reserve Bank\u2019s interest rate policies, Cosatu should be campaigning for the nationalisation of the banks under workers control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately support for nationalisation in Cosatu has consisted of little more than the resolutions adopted at the 9th<\/sup> congress. There has been no campaign. This is not really surprising. It stems on the one hand from the ideological confusion of a leadership over which the SACP exercises an influence far greater than its support in the rank-and-file. The SACP has become so terrified of being accused of \u201cultra-leftism\u201d \u2013 that is of actually believing in socialism \u2013 that even after visiting Latin America they did not take up a campaign for nationalisation as has been done by Evo Morales in Bolivia and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Instead they criticised those within Bolivia and Venezuela who warned against making half-a-revolution and who demanded that Morales and Chavez go all the way. The SACP\u2019s position amounts to viewing the socialist revolution they claim to stand for, as \u201cultra-left\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other reason for the leadership\u2019s failure to translate their socialist rhetoric into deeds is that Cosatu and its affiliates\u2019 investment companies themselves invest in industry where fellow comrades are employed, turning Cosatu in effect into employers over fellow workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

OSD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the statistically favourable economic situation, and the undeniable reality of poverty, it became virtually impossible for the government to justify its rejection of the workers\u2019 wage demands. Recognising that it was losing the war for the hearts and minds of the public, government resorted to deception. They dragged into the salary negotiations a plan \u2013 the so-called Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) \u2013 still in its early draft a stage, claiming it was designed to address the problem of the skills shortage in the public sector, and to stem the tide of workers leaving the public service for overseas and\/or the private sector. OSD was integrated into the salary offer with the aim of giving the impression that the package provided for more than the percentage increase by itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union leaders should never have accepted the introduction of the OSD into the salary negotiations. The skills shortage and the exodus from the public service was in any case the result of the government\u2019s disastrous neo-liberal economic programme, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy (Gear). The OSD is a belated, hastily and poorly prepared attempt to repair the self-inflicted damage done on the health service by the government\u2019s neo-liberal policies and the cuts in public spending that it led to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reversing the impact of the criminal cutbacks in public spending after the adoption of Gear in 1996, and the subsequent exodus from the public service of thousands of teachers and nurses cannot be solved by simply tinkering with salary scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A complete overhaul of economic policy is called for; a massive injection of public funds aimed at increasing access to health is required. This means building\u2019 more clinics and hospitals; building more training institutions and increasing enrolment, repairing infrastructure and acquiring equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the crisis at Frere Hospital, the former Eastern Cape MEC for Health, Trudy Thomas, explained that the national health emergency was precipitated by massive budget cuts in 1997. The Eastern Cape health budget<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026started out with R2.5 billion in 1995 rising to R3 billion in 1996\/7. Under the budget-deficit reduction dispensation, it\u2019s 1999\/2000 budget fell to R2.87 billion, much lower in real terms, after inflation and annual staff increases were factored in, than its first budget five years earlier!<\/p>Sunday Independent<\/em>, 19 August 2007<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Outlining the disastrous effect of the budget cuts \u2013 a moratorium on all building meaning that many pregnant women and sick babies would not be able to reach help in time; a reduction of the 1994 staff complement from 37,000 to 34,000 mostly professionals and senior management \u2013 Thomas points out that though the budget is now up to R7 billion, money alone will not reverse the damage because<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026many health systems have completely collapsed and cannot use money infusions. To be absorbed and processed, money needs administrative systems, staff and skills…The attrition of competent administrators and supervisors and the mentorship of professionals has led to such deplorable staff behaviour and attitudes that women die in labour or deliver dead babies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Clearly the creation of OSDs in the different sectors will not succeed in attracting and retaining skills as government claims. The damage done to the public service requires a comprehensive plan addressing not only human resource issues, but equipment, infrastructure, training and development and a massive injection of financial resources. This should be part of an ongoing process of the reconstruction and development of the public service and has no place in wage negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By embracing OSD, the unions are undermining centralised bargaining and also endangering workers unity even within the same union. Not only will there be different salaries for different occupational classes, but even within the same sector salaries will differ reducing the incentive for workers to struggle around common demands. OSD has the potential of introducing a new elitism and to undermine class solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the anger of the Cosatu rank-and-file supplied the fuel that ensured that the fire of the public sector workers\u2019 discontent would bum for as long and as intensely as it did, it proved not to be enough to prevent another capitulation. The leadership\u2019s surrender was mitigated by a magnificent struggle and some limited gains. But it was nevertheless a surrender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conduct of the Cosatu leadership, far more than those of the other union groupings, was highly damaging. Cosatu continues to be the most powerful organisation the SA working class has built. Cosatu houses the best traditions of the movement and continues to exert an influence well beyond its own formal membership. But Cosatu does not have a God-given right to occupy that role. The retention of its credibility and authority depends on its commitment to nurturing its revolutionary and socialist traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has not gone unnoticed amongst workers in and outside of organised labour, that non-Cosatu unions with a conservative history like PSA and Naptosa, were in the end prepared to go further than for example Nehawu, Cosatu\u2019s second biggest public sector affiliate. By placing itself at the front of the queue of capitulators, Nehawu provided a cover for the conservative unions to cave-in, effectively breaking the strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rank-and-file must reclaim Cosatu from the hands of a leadership that is blinded by its political allegiance to the Triparite Alliance whose party political partners, the ANC and SACP, are both sources of divisions in the federation. This is undermining its cohesion and ability to carry out its historical mandate \u2013 to promote and defend the interests of the working class and to fight for socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be able to play that role, Cosatu must reassert its class independence. The ANC leadership\u2019s interest in retaining the Tripartite Affiance is to enable it to continue using Cosatu\u2019s political credibility to promote its capitalist programme. Remaining in the Alliance is to engage in class collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also exposes workers to being used to promote the factionalist aspirations of the competing groups of power-mongers in the ANC. This is the reason that a leadership that has committed itself to restoring the ANC\u2019s alleged historical working class bias, recoiled from lobbying the ANC policy conference even though it took place in the middle of the strike. The Cosatu leadership did not want to embarrass the ANC with working class demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Support for Zuma?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claims, like those of Jovial Rantao[4]<\/a> that the unions deliberately made a demand for 12% knowing that the government would never accede to it, and used the strike to fight Zuma\u2019s battles are cynical, reactionary and confirm the anti-working class prejudices that have qualified him for promotion at the capitalist newspaper he is employed at. He has nothing to say about the outrageous 30% to 57% increases recommended for ministers and the president. This is apparently perfectly acceptable. Only senior journalists like himself and the elite are apparently entitled to a decent income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of workers genuinely went on strike over the demands the unions made. By being directed against government as employer, public sector strikes anywhere in the world are inherently political. Given the political divisions over the presidential succession race that have spilled over from the ANC into broader society, it would be surprising if it did not in some way, affect, influence and colour workers\u2019 perceptions of a strike that was after all directed against the government\u2019s wage policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to claim that workers could be so easily hoodwinked into losing four weeks\u2019 pay to march behind the Zuma banner, is to hold workers in contempt. In fact an attempt by union leaders to sing pro-Zuma songs on one of the Johannesburg marches was met with a very muted response. Only in KwaZulu Natal did pro-Zuma sentiment find expression amongst strikers. But even here, the class issues overshadowed the Zuma issue by far and in all likelihood served as a lightning-rod for working class discontent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality though, is that unless the rank-and-file reclaims Cosatu and its affiliates, the federation will always be vulnerable to being used by leaders who have their own political ambitions as the support for Zuma by the Cosatu leadership demonstrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we have stated before, a Zuma presidency will be no more beneficial to the working class than Mbeki\u2019s. Zuma, who, like Mbeki resigned his SACP membership in the early 1990s, has made it abundantly clear that he supports the ANC\u2019s economic policies. These are capitalist policies. Zuma, apart from his other serious shortcomings on gender and cultural issues, is a capitalist politician. That disqualifies him from any support from the working class. The same applies to all his rival capitalist presidential candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central task facing the working class today is the creation of its own independent political voice \u2013 the creation of a mass workers party on a socialist programme. The ANC has become the main party of capital. Its rivals, who in any case, do not stand the remotest chance of ousting the ANC, offer merely different versions of the same capitalist policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2007 survey of political opinion in the working class by Cosatu\u2019s research arm, Naledi, shows that there is growing support for a workers party. Within Cosatu support for the idea sits at nearly one-third. If working class opinion outside Cosatu is taken into account, support for the idea is even higher. The idea of a mass workers party would have been strengthened by the public sector strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DSM calls upon the Cosatu rank-and-file to develop a programme to restore worker-control, democracy and socialism within Cosatu. The practice of leaders, at all levels, from shop stewards at the workplace to national office bearers, being elected on the basis of cliques must come to an end. All candidates for any position must be required to produce a platform or election manifesto outlining their position on all the key questions facing the working class today. If their constituency is satisfied with their positions, they must then be elected subject to the right of immediate recall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders should be considered fit for office if they stand, amongst others, for the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n