{"id":3082,"date":"2021-05-25T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T08:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=3082"},"modified":"2021-05-25T10:55:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T08:55:29","slug":"hands-off-the-trade-unions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=3082","title":{"rendered":"Hands Off the Trade Unions!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 5 (January 1982).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Gerald Desai and Jake Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement by the regime that SAAWU and CUSA trade unionists, among others, are to be put on trial is a challenge to the whole working class of South Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few months there has been a sharp increase in detentions and bannings as the regime lashes-out against the growing opposition to its rule. Acting with growing desperation now that all promises of reform are turning to dust, the bosses are turning their attack on the workers\u2019 movement in an attempt to stamp out the rising demands of the masses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is reported that almost 200 people are currently being held in detention by the security police. The actual number is much higher, as the defence committees formed by relatives of detainee\u2019s and activists have shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After toying with the idea of industrial reform, the strategists of the ruling class have now concluded that this is inadequate to stem the rising militancy of the working class. Fearful of the resistance that could be provoked by an all-out attack on the trade unions, sweeping away all existing leaders, the regime is trying to intimidate the whole trade union leadership by cracking down on some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bosses and the regime are worried also at the prospect of a strong trade union movement, determined to defend its recent gains, at a time when the economy is moving into a downward curve. They want the utmost flexibility in the factories to fend-off the pressure on their profits, which could be wiped-out by hard struggles to defend wages and to stop layoffs and firings of workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regime is making every effort to discover the weaknesses of the trade unions and frustrate their growth. It is trying to crack open the unity which is being built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is the workers\u2019 struggle that has forced openings in the \u2018united front\u2019 of the employers. The strikes against the \u2018no payout\u2019 Pensions Bill brought about a free-for-all fight between different employers. In the end, all they could agree on was that the regime was to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At other employer meetings, leading bosses have argued that the non-racial trade unions have a legitimate political interest, especially in housing and transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And again, in the ultra-cheap labour textile industry, even the close friends of the security police have been forced to offer the non-racial trade union national negotiations outside the framework of the industrial council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Bosses Weakened<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these developments have signalled flashing danger signs to the regime \u2013 the top defence organisation of the bosses. They mark the growing weakness<\/strong> of the bosses in defending their dictatorship in the factories and mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so the question of trade unionism has moved from the hands of Wiehahn into the lap of the security police murderers \u2013 the defenders of cheap labour and the bulwark against trade union freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade union movement, which has suffered no decisive set-back in the last period, is entering into a serious struggle<\/strong> in the factories, townships, courts and police cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any sign of weakness, any hesitation in defence and reorganisation, will be taken full advantage of, not only by the police and prosecutors, but by every employer facing organised workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the regime is at this stage testing<\/strong> the strength of the non-racial trade unions, the impending trial of the detained leaders provides enormous opportunities for trade union defence. A spirited defence by the accused, turning the spotlight onto the regime and exposing the bosses\u2019 complicity in trade union repression, would win great sympathy throughout the country and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mass meetings, marches, and resolutions demanding the release of the accused are essential to their defence. In this way the unorganised majority of the working class, the youth, and community groups can be drawn into the struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old slogan \u2018Hands off the trade unions\u2019 has to be carried forward on a country-wide<\/strong> basis to rally the detainees committees, community and youth organisations, and all others struggling against the regime, behind the leadership of the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defence of the detained trade unionists should be taken up at all levels of the workers\u2019 movement. In each province and area it should become a campaigning issue for organising the solidarity committees proposed by the trade union unity meeting<\/a> in Cape Town last August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By drawing together the whole trade union movement, great opportunities are raised for a mass drive to organise the unorganised, particularly the migrant workers, around fighting demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The task of defence is not to cover the line of retreat<\/strong>. Now more than ever the question of defence has to be linked-up with a concerted effort to build the trade union united front around the issues facing all workers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n