Share

Inside Labour: Forward to a Cold War future?

IN THE face of the ongoing global economic crisis, with massive unemployment and a wage and welfare gap continuing to grow, the remnants of communist parties around the world see a chance of again becoming major, even leading, political forces. And the prime vehicle towards this goal is the trade union movement.

It is this that lies behind the decision of the Cosatu leadership to host the 17th congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). Until this week, none of the other South African trade union federations nor the major international body, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), were aware of this decision.

ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow has now sent a formal request to Cosatu to confirm whether the federation intends to host the WFTU congress. In previous statements, ITUC has made clear that it does not consider the WFTU to be a “genuine  trade union organisation” since it includes among its affiliates the state-sponsored unions of countries such as North Korea and Syria.

However, formal affiliation to the WFTU and closer links with that body have been on the cards for Cosatu for more than three years. In the wake of May Day rallies in 2012, SA Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande urged Cosatu to affiliate to the WFTU, led by George Mavrikos, a former Greek Communist Party MP. Nzimande maintained this would “advance the cause of national liberation and socialism in the world today”.

At the Cosatu congress later that year, several affiliates called for affiliation to the WFTU as an “anti-imperialist, class-based federation”. Significantly, one of the leading supporters of this position was the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) that was subsequently expelled from Cosatu.

The move to now host the WFTU congress brings to the fore again the ideological fragmentation that existed after World War II where the WFTU became, to a large extent, the agent of Soviet foreign policy throughout the Cold War period. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (now ITUC) was the largely United States and British-inspired response.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and its satellites in 1990, the WFTU all but collapsed. This was a time of triumphalism for one side in a politically bipolar world; the private enterprise West had apparently finally dominated the state-centred East and these models were portrayed as the only alternatives available. Yet, on an economic level, both functioned on the same principle: competition. And this meant the accumulation of profit to boost competition.

On the one side was the fusion of government and business - of state and capital - while on the other, the economy was privately controlled with the government at apparent arm’s length. In the East the trade unions became merely conveyor belts for party and state; in the West they were, to varying degrees, independent of party, state and business, although wooed and put under pressure by all.

But the concept of freedom of association, of the right of workers to independently form and manage unions remains the ITUC cornerstone, and sets it apart from the WFTU that accepts that “worker states” should be supported by their trade unions.

These ideological differences that erupted after World War II saw, especially in Europe, the trade union movement split along political and even religious lines, with Christian, Communist, Social Democrat and other federations coming into being. This is the antithesis of the principle that trade unions should unite workers internationally, irrespective of ethnic, gender, political or religious differences.

This principled view sees trade unions as the vast reserve army of the sellers of labour, providing primarily protection against the ravages of the free market while also supplying the volunteers to political parties wishing to reform or completely change the system.

The debate has now been reopened with the South African labour movement facing the prospect of being dragged back into the rigid sectarianism of the Cold War. Will sense prevail or will the already weakened and fragmented movement continue to lose ground?

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
19.00
-0.5%
Rand - Pound
23.95
-0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.50
-0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.35
+0.0%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.5%
Platinum
895.30
-0.2%
Palladium
991.47
-1.0%
Gold
2,193.25
-0.1%
Silver
24.44
-0.8%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
67,836
+0.2%
All Share
74,046
+0.2%
Resource 10
56,127
+0.8%
Industrial 25
103,468
+0.2%
Financial 15
16,484
-0.2%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders