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Inside Labour: Time for labour to put principle into practice

“ONE is workers’ unity and evermore shall be so.” So goes a line in an old union song. It is a sentiment still agreed to - at least notionally - by unions and their federations across the board as they start to play a competitive numbers game.

Where once there were three main federations, now there are four. And the labour movement in South Africa today displays more disunity than at any time since the debates and fall-outs among anti-apartheid unions of 30 years ago.

These involved mainly the Council of Unions, the Federation of Trade unions and the Azanian Confederation that gave rise to Cosatu and National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu).

The line from that union song was especially pertinent this week as Cosatu completed its four-day Central Executive Committee meeting, heavily influenced by the wider political shambles in the governing ANC. The meeting was held under the slogan: “Unity and Cohesion of Cosatu to advance the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) for socialism”.  

This slogan reflected the claim that Cosatu is the only real workers’ movement and remains allied to the ANC. It also punted the ANC’s economic policy programme, the NDR, which it now claims as a route to an undefined socialist future.  

Although clearly suffering fragmentation because of its party political allegiance, the Cosatu leadership continues to immerse itself in the ANC’s succession battle. Having banned President Jacob Zuma from the traditional presidential address to the meeting, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was invited to speak and was hailed as the next president of both the governing ANC and the country.

Here, on one level, was an equal measure of confusion and irony: a proclaimed “socialist” labour federation supporting an NDR programme widely seen as “neo-liberal”, while giving fulsome backing to one of the most prominent emergent capitalists in the land.

Ramaphosa is also remembered within the labour movement for his involvement as a director of Lonmin at the time of the 2012 massacre at that company’s Marikana mine.

Looming bitter battle within labour

Some critics, in what promises to be a looming bitter battle within labour, have also pointed out that Ramaphosa was never a mineworker although serving as the first general secretary of the then emerging National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). They claim he was “parachuted” into the leadership of NUM, having arrived via the Student Christian Movement and the Urban Foundation established by Harry Oppenheimer of Anglo American.

Yet Cosatu’s continued involvement in the presidential succession battle, and in ANC politics generally, provides ammunition, especially for the newly-formed SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), to continue sniping at Cosatu. And largely as a result of this confusing political involvement, Cosatu may have lost as many as 500 000 members.

The expulsion from Cosatu of the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) and the departure of the Food and Allied Workers’ Union alone would account for at least 400 000. Numerous fragments of other Cosatu affiliates make up most of the new Saftu membership, but many formerly unionised workers may simply have left the movement. Numbers are important, but difficult to establish accurately.

Although all unions have, by law, to supply membership numbers annually to the registrar of trade unions, names of elected officials and financial statements, only the financial statements are independently audited. There is no control over whether officials are properly elected or if the number of members claimed is accurate.

Numsa-led Saftu now claims “more than 700 000 members” while the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), recently rejoined by probably the largest public sector union, PSA, puts its membership at “close to 700 000”. Nactu claims “more than 300 000” although it too has lost members to Saftu.

Once again, as with Cosatu, party politics is at the root of the Nactu’s problems: the federation’s general secretary, Narious Moloto, also doubles as secretary general of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). In order to halt any further splits, there are now moves to “deselect” Moloto at the Nactu congress next month.

At present, the single largest affiliate of Nactu is the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the major beneficiary of the loss of members from Cosatu-affiliated NUM in the wake of Marikana. Amcu, assiduously wooed by Saftu, is unhappy with involvement with any political party, let alone the PAC.

Numbers game will come into play

The numbers game will come seriously into play within the next few months when, as expected, Saftu submits its application to join the labour caucus at the tripartite National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). This is the forum where all government policies are supposed to be discussed - and hopefully agreed by consensus - before implementation.

Labour is currently represented at Nedlac by Cosatu, Fedusa and Nactu and all three would have to agree to include Saftu. It is clear that such agreement will not be forthcoming and there will almost certainly be a fight about which federations truly represent workers. This will come down to numbers.

Perhaps, again emulating actions in the political arena, the Nedlac matter will end up in the courts. At the same time, the leaderships of all four federations profess to support worker unity as a priority, again presenting a mirror image of party politics where expressed principle and practice are often poles apart. 

But with an apparent groundswell among rank and file union members and citizens in general to see principles put into practice, there is still room for optimism.

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