Impressions of the COSATU 10th National Congress

Written by Ronell

Friday, 13 November 2009 13:55

Impressions of the Cosatu 10th National Congress The Congress was held during 21-24 September 2009, Johannesburg and came after nearly two years since the historic ANC Polokwane conference where the neo-liberals under the leadership of Thabo Mbeki were defeated by the left within the Tri-partite alliance. Cosatu along with the SACP played a central and important role in the victory at Polokwane after having mobilised since 2005 in defence of Jacob Zuma against corruption charges and his ousting as the country’s deputy president. The congress also came at a time when the country’s economy had been battered for a year by the global economic crisis and an estimated 500 000 jobs had been lost, nearly ten times the rate of job-losses during the reign of the “1996 Class Project” over the South African economy. With these two factors at the back of my mind and greeted by the congress slogan on the publications and the big banner as I entered the hall at Gallagher Estate, “Consolidating working class power in defence of decent work and socialism”, I took my seat at the congress with some political optimism that historic decisions were to emerge that would take working class struggle forward. Cosatu congresses always make a big impression on the uninitiated by its sheer scale and size, along with mass uniformity of clothes and colour, the décor and the singing by delegates. The 10th congress was no different but significantly had an even stronger ANC flavour than before, with huge banners in front displaying the presidents of the ANC since 1912 up to present day. This was accompanied by a special exhibition at the main entrance of the hall and, as one delegate put it, illustrated the “ANCification” of Cosatu. During the congress I was also intrigued by a new phenomenon of competitions for delegates, where individuals win microwaves and TV’s with the draws happening and announced from the platform – taking up very valuable congress time. The congress programme, reports and resolutions were contained in several professionally prepared publications and neatly packaged in smart wheel travel cases along with congress t-shirts and caps. But beyond and underneath the gloss there was much to be disappointed about Cosatu’s 10th congress as it hardly reflected the harsh realities of working class life in South Africa as delegates emerged virtually empty handed without any campaign or programme of action other than words on paper and memories of speeches and ceremony. The fact that soon after the congress it was officially announced that South Africa is the most unequal society in the world, with more than half our people now living in poverty and a million jobs lost within the first nine months of this year, is an indictment of Cosatu and the Tripartite Alliance. Cosatu’s 10th national congress paid hardly any serious attention to these realities and in its congress declaration only saw fit to state, “In the short term we support the Framework Response to the Global Economic Crisis. The main objective of the programme should be to save and create jobs; stimulate production and economic growth, as well as to cushion the unemployed and the poor from the effects of the global economic crisis.” Yet this very response has done virtually nothing to defend and save jobs. Moreover, the congress did not decide on anything that calls on Cosatu’s affiliates and 1.7 million members to organise, unite and struggle to defend jobs. It is this very framework agreement coupled with political complacency - a business as usual approach by trade unions in relation to retrenchments with their main defence being the LRA’s provisions of Section 189 - that has allowed capital to embark on its jobs bloodbath unabated. Arguably, the job-losses during this economic crisis has led to such socio-economic devastation for the South African working class, that it has surpassed the harm caused during the period of the “1996 class project”. This reality and Cosatu’s failure to come up with a mass campaign to defend jobs and fight poverty rendered the congress slogan hollow and mere cynical rhetoric as genuine socialism can only come about with and through active mass struggles of the working class from below in response to conditions that affect them. The effects of the economic crisis offered an important opportunity to take the struggle for socialism forward at all levels, ideologically, politically and organisationally. The congress effectively endorsed a sham capitalist “solution” to the crisis and job-losses, contradicting its pro-socialist slogan. The failure to fight, campaign and struggle to save jobs has effectively rendered Cosatu complicit in the socio-economic disaster and an historic opportunity has been lost to revitalise the labour movement, link up with other impoverished sections of the working class and take the mass democratic struggle for socialism forward. Cosatu seems to be directing its political “struggle” efforts, particularly around economic policy, towards the Tri-partite alliance and the ANC government to which it has committed excessive political loyalty. This was exemplified by the much reported tussle at the congress around who will head the economic policy development and implementation, the Cosatu deployee, Ebrahim Patel or Trevor Manual. This, together with Cosatu being virtually muted around the fundamental aspects of the economic policy debate i.e. whether pro-capitalist or working class and being locked into tinkering with aspects of the capitalist economy such as inflation targeting and interest rates, and the absence of a struggle campaign around job-losses, gave one the impression that this orientation has caused the federation not to want to rock the boat of the Zuma led ANC government. Ironically Cosatu’s 8th National Congress held in 2003 adopted the programme entitled “Consolidating Working Class Power for Quality Jobs – Toward 2015”. This programme highlighted that Cosatu needed to; 1. Build the power of the organised working class locally and internationally, 2. Strengthen the tripartite alliance and, 3. Intervene in socio-economic policy in the short term to stem the job-loss bloodbath and fight for quality jobs. The 2015 programme also committed the federation to recruiting 4 million members by the 10th National Congress in 2009. Whilst the secretariat reports offered a review of the federation and it affiliates, its patent failure to achieve its commitments made six years ago in the 2015 programme are not admitted nor analysed.  Similarly, previous congress resolutions are hardly reviewed and it’s as if the congresses are about showcasing Cosatu and its leadership’s posturing and oratory. Cosatu also needs to review its processes in preparation for congresses that seem to remain affiliate oriented with dozens of resolutions submitted for the congress to consider. It was impossible for most delegates to read and seriously engage all resolutions, let alone for congress to consider, debate and adopt all the resolutions with most forwarded to the CEC. Several interesting and important resolutions generated good discussion and at times heated debate. These included resolutions on: ?    Young workers – with a commitment to focus on organising young workers, including establishing youth desks and allocating special organising staff. ?    Climate change – Historically a neglected area of trade unions and working class organisations and it will be a huge milestone if Cosatu does make serious follow-up on this resolution beyond media pronouncements. ?    Xenophobia – This resolution focused on combating the scourge of xenophobia highlighted by the violent attacks during 2008. However it was not linked to the huge influx of African migrant workers into South Africa and did not focus on the need to organise them into trade unions. By a last gasp contribution by the writer the resolution was amended at congress to encourage Cosatu affiliates to organise African migrant workers. ?    Ituc – highlighted the limitations and political weaknesses of the international trade union body and committed Cosatu to “transforming the international trade union movement into truly workers’ organisations fighting for the interests of workers”. ?    Sex-workers – long overdue and submitted by the police and prisons union, Popcru, called for the regulation of sex-work and generated lots of heated debate at the end of the congress and deferred along with several other resolutions to the CEC. With the “Polokwane victory” and by not coming up with a radical programme of mass action at its 10th National Congress to defend jobs, it seems as if Cosatu has decisively shifted away from its struggle orientation towards influencing the alliance and the ANC government towards introducing Keynesian measures to the South African economy. Cosatu hopes that by doing so jobs will be created to reverse the extreme poverty and inequality. Yet it is this very political approach that is self-defeating by undermining its only source of power, a politically active mass of organised class conscious workers. It is this same approach that encourages capital to proceed undeterred with terminating hundreds of thousands of jobs forever and  condemning millions more South Africans to poverty and misery with the highest and most horrific social ills in the world. During the 1980’s, COSATU was at the forefront of the Mass Democratic Movement, along with the United Democratic Front, in the struggle for freedom from oppression and exploitation against the Apartheid government and the capitalist class. At the time, COSATU’s radicalism, militancy and strength of organization elevated it to being the most revered and respected trade union organization in the world. Millions of workers in South Africa and the world looked towards COSATU as a shining example of struggle against capitalism and advancing the struggle for socialism. Today, COSATU is a shadow of its former self, largely inactive in mass struggles and the main focus of its activity has shifted away from struggles on the ground, workplaces and communities, to the boardrooms of co-determinist forums a such as NEDLAC and tripartite alliance structures. The several strikes around annual collective bargaining and the vaguely formulated, ineffective and sporadic jobs and poverty campaign during the period from the 9th to the 10th congress do not reflect any radicalism on the part of Cosatu but are rather routinist and bureaucratically managed trade union activity as these mass actions make no attempt to threaten capitalist class power and strengthen the working class. For as long as this continues and Cosatu fails to seriously reach out to other sections of the working class in communities and develop a radical programme of mass action against poverty, job losses and unemployment and for socialism from below, South Africa is doomed to a continued trajectory of worsening poverty and misery for the majority with the main beneficiaries being white monopoly capital and their corrupt junior partners the new black capitalist elite represented by the ANC. As Karl Marx once remarked, “in order for workers to submit and compromise it needs no organization at all”. by Martin Jansen Director of WWMP

Last Updated on Friday, 13 November 2009 14:06