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Labour Wrap: Demanding more than democratic rhetoric


Labour Wrap: Demanding more than democratic rhetoric

AMANDLA Ngawethu. Power to the people. This is the commonest slogan chanted at political meetings in South Africa, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour wrap.

He points out that it comes from the clause in the Freedom Charter: the people shall govern. And in recent weeks, he says, this demand has gone beyond mere rhetoric.

The abuse of the Constitution, the autocratic use of a Parliamentary majority and the lack of consultation at a political leadership level has caused major rifts in the governing ANC, followed by cries for radical change. But such rifts and calls for change manifested themselves much earlier in the ANC-affiliated, Cosatu trade union federation, he says.

In controversial circumstances the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) was unconstitutionally expelled from Cosatu and has gone on to support the building of a new Labour federation. This will be launched in two weeks and among the unions aligned to it, most are breakaways from Cosatu.

Bell contends that, with this launch, this section of the Labour movement has an opportunity to forge a truly new, democratic way forward. But whether it will do so or merely establish yet another federation in the same mould as those that exist, is still an open question.

Bell maintains that a mere change of leadership, accompanied perhaps by more militant rhetoric and the promise of greater democracy and the tackling of corruption, will not deal with the problem. Unless the fundamentally bureaucratic and undemocratic nature of the system is changed, he maintains this would be the equivalent of merely moving the deckchairs on a political or labour Titanic.

Everything is up in the air at the moment, but a window of opportunity has been opened, especially for the labour movement. According to Bell, this amounts to the chance to make a complete break with an essentially autocratic past. It may not, in the short term, happen.

But there is always the hope that, given enough time, education and anger, such a break will be possible.

* Add your voice or just drop Terry a labour question. Follow Terry on twitter @telbelsa.

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