26 July 1999, Johannesburg
1. Introduction
The SACP is particularly honoured to address your very important National Conference. To us this Conference is particularly important for a number of reasons. Firstly, a workers’ conferences are like the parliament of the workers, where crucial issues facing the labour movement have to be discussed. Secondly, at this Conference you are faced with an enormous responsibility to build a strong and united FAWU. Thirdly, your conference takes place against the background of what as the SACP calls a job loss bloodbath; a Winter Offensive aimed ultimately at breaking the power of the revolutionary trade union movement as part of a broader struggle to secure South Africa as a capitalist country. It is to these three issues, and the challenges arising thereof, which our address is going to deal with today.
For the SACP it is always a pleasure to be part of workers’ congresses since it is organised workers who are the leading detachment of the working class. It is only the working class that can lead the national democratic revolution to its logical conclusion, the total liberation of the mass of our people and a transition to socialism. I hope that in your deliberations you will in mind the enormous political responsibilities on the shoulders of organised workers in the current period and beyond. It is for this reason that I am here and bring fraternal and revolutionary greetings the Central Committee and the entire membership of the SACP
2. The meaning and challenge of the ANC’s electoral victory for workers and the working class
Let me start by thanking all those workers who cast their vote for the ANC in our second democratic elections. Let me also thank the role played by you, in various capacities, in ensuring that the ANC is returned to government with an even bigger majority.
The overwhelming victory of the ANC in the last elections, winning 66% of the vote nationally, with huge majorities in 7 provinces, is another historic development in the consolidation of the gains of the 1994 democratic breakthrough. Of particular significance is the fact that it is working class, the landless rural masses and the poor who have voted the ANC back into power. But there were also very significant gains made by the ANC from the Coloured and Indian communities.
As the SACP we had specifically mobilised workers to vote for the ANC in order to accelerate worker-friendly change. For us as the SACP the significance of this victory is that it is through an ANC-led government that more spaces could be created to further advance the interests of the working class. When we called upon you as workers to vote for the ANC, we were not asking you to give an ANC government a blank cheque. We were saying vote for the ANC because of its record in struggle and government, and that it will continue to accelerate change that benefit the workers of this country. Therefore as workers you should expect the continuation of change that is of benefit to the working class as a whole.
However, in as much as this electoral victory creates space to further shift the balance of forces in favour of the working class, the landless rural masses and the poor, this will not happen on its own. The electoral victory is but a platform, albeit important, to advance the struggles of workers and the poor. This is because the very direction and content of South Africa’s revolution is heavily contested. The deeper we move into the transition the more the class struggles is intensifying.
On the one hand there are those forces, of which the working class is its core, which stand for the most thorough transformation of South African society, and, on the other hand, those forces that seek limited changes and the creation of a non-racial capitalist South Africa benefiting only an elite. This therefore means that the election results are simultaneously a victory and a challenge. We should however not be surprised nor be domoralised by the offensive directed against organised workers. The 1994 and subsequent electoral victories, significant as they are, do not mean that the struggle for the kind of South Africa we want to build is over.
The first and most critical challenge is to ensure that the very forces that voted for the ANC in their millions – the working class, the urban and rural poor – should be mobilised to be at the centre of the transformation process itself. This makes the SACP’s slogan of building people’s power as a defence and deepening of the NDR even more relevant in this period. For the SACP this primarily means building the political confidence and capacity of the working class to play a leading role in the transformation struggles. It means giving concrete class content to the very process of accelerating change. This is because the deepening of the NDR means tackling simultaneously the class, racial and genders legacies of apartheid colonialism.
It is important to understand the totality of the issues to be tackled in the struggle to defend and deepen the NDR. As the SACP we believe that we need to tackle the race, class and gender contradictions in our society simultaneously and in their close interrelationship. For instance, an emphasis on tackling the racial question outside of the gender and class questions will only lead to the creation of a South Africa that will benefit only the black male elite. Already, sections of the previously oppressed are tending to emphasise race at the exclusion of the class question in particular, hence their tendency to define black economic empowerment as meaning the creation of a black wealthy class, as if this represents the totality of our struggle. Yet real economic empowerment means the tackling of poverty in the urban and rural areas of our country, through the empowerment of the ordinary mass of our people who still remain on the fringes of society.
On the other hand to tackle the class question, fundamental as it is, outside of the racial and gender questions is likely to ignore the critical struggle of eradicating the legacies of racial and gender discrimination. For instance this was our major criticism of the workerist tendency found in sections of the trade union movement, that there is a “pure” class struggle, devoid of struggles against national oppression. This is a tendency that we have largely defeated in the labour movement but need to deal with it whenever it rears its head.
Again, the tendency to emphasise gender inequalities outside of their relationship to the class and national questions, leads us to gloss over the fact that it is black, mainly African, working class and poor women who represent the most exploited sections of our society. Over and above this they have to carry the worst burdens of an oppressive capitalist society.
Comrades I am raising these issues in order to state that the only consistently socialist approach to the deepening of the NDR is that which understands properly these relationships and be able to organise effectively to deal with them. But much more importantly it clearly identifies the black working class as the main motive force of our revolution. This then points to what is perhaps one of the major struggles facing the working class in the period ahead. That is the intensification of the struggle to build the capacity of the state, at all levels, to undertake social development beneficial to the mass of our people, and fight against the tendency toward market-driven development. This struggle needs to be underpinned and reinforced by a sustained ideological critique of economic fundamentalism and dogma of privatisation, liberalisation and cut back on social spending.
3. The job losses
Workers in general, and organised workers in particular, are facing one of the most difficult periods in the history of international capitalism and in our country in particular. It is through tackling concrete issues that our struggles will be advanced. In our country at the moment workers are facing large-scale retrenchments, which are tantamount to a job loss bloodbath. It is important that we first understand the reasons for this situation if we are to deal with it properly.
Firstly, the retrenchments are a reflection of the broader tendencies and crisis facing capitalism globally. This tendency is that of radical restructuring of the global and national economies through privatisation, casualisation and contracting out, thus shedding hundreds and thousands of jobs. This is exarcebated in developing countries where neo-liberalism prescribes that in order for these countries to grow economically they must privatise, deregulate, liberalise and cut back on social spending, almost irrespective of the scale of inequalities and social challenges facing these countries. The latest report of the United Nations Development Programme shows that over the last 15 to 20 years, despite and usually as a result of these prescriptions, economies of developing countries have declined and faced prolonged periods of cutbacks in social spending.
Secondly, particularly in relation to the gold mining industry, the sale of gold by some of the central banks of advanced capitalist countries has led to a declining price of gold, threatening thousands of jobs in this sector. At least we are very pleased that the IMF seems to be reversing its proposed sale of gold, thus showing that systematic pressure does help to fight the arrogance of imperialism.
But another reason for growing retrenchments is the ease with which employers are able
to retrench. This means that at the slightest signs of problems or temptation to increase
profits, employers simply give notice to retrench. It is for this reason that the SACP
supports COSATU’s call to make retrenchments a collective bargaining issue. This is
underpinned by the increasing restructuring of the economy, which is projected as meaning
cutbacks on labour and dealing with the labour movement once
and for all.
As the SACP we welcome government’s approach on a social plan to deal with the proposed retrenchments. However this is only part of the solution, as such plans are in the medium and longer term unable to deal with the problem of a rising rate of retrenchment. We should rather be urgently planning on how to prevent retrenchments, and the creation of jobs and not only deal with already retrenched and job-less workers. It is for this reason that we are saying the convening of sectoral summits, as part of the implementation of the Job Summit resolutions, is of utmost importance. We see such summits actively developing strategic vision and plans for each sector of our economy, so that these are turned into job creating rather than job shedding sectors. But such sectoral summits will have to deal with the urgent question of alternatives to these massive retrenchments. That is why the SACP welcomes the announcement by the Minister of Public Enterprises for instance to convene a Transport sectoral summit soon to discuss the proposed retrenchments in Transnet. In the food sector, FAWU should be playing a leading role in pressing for the convening of a sectoral summit and also providing a strategic vision on the nature and role of the food sector in our economy.
Underpinning and preceding the current wave of retrenchments is an intensified ideological attack on organised workers, COSATU in particular, as a labour elite. Organised workers are being demonised by the bosses and the mainstream media as being responsible for unemployment and the very retrenchments they are victims of, on the grounds that they demand too much. Related to this attack are the claims that South Africa’s labour market is too rigid and therefore a chorus of calls for flexibility. This is one of the most dangerous attacks on the working class. But when the bosses and the media are challenged on where is this labour market flexible they are unable to say. ILO studies have consistently shown that South Africa’s labour market is already flexible. The call behind labour market flexibility is in fact a disguised call for the erosion of worker rights that South Africa’s working class has fought so hard for. When one examines the complaints of labour market rigidity, it is to laws like Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the LRA, Skills Development Act, and the Employment Equity Act that the attack is directed.
Therefore the key struggles for organised workers at this point in time is the struggle to defend workers’ jobs. This is the most pressing issue for organised workers. It is for this reason that the SACP fully supports and is part of the present campaign of workers to focus the attention of the country on these retrenchments and struggle to turn these around. Such campaigns should of course be based on the understanding that there can be no job creation without serious attention being given to job retention.
4. The key strategic challenges to the working class:
Building unity and the political party of the working class The ultimate strategic objective of the working class is build socialism in South Africa. The struggles outlined above have to be waged within the context of this overall objective. But what do we mean by socialism?
Our cynics, detractors and those, who are either opposed to socialism or have abandoned socialism, now ask us what do we mean by socialism. It is as if they do not know or never knew what socialism is. By socialism we simply mean a society who primary objective is the meeting of the social needs of the majority of the population rather than driven by a profit motive. It is a society where the control of the predominant means of production is in the hands of the producers, the workers.
The struggle for working class leadership over society, the building of people’s power, the struggle against patronage, the struggle against ideologically driven privatisation, the deepening of a people-driven democracy and development are all important foundations for socialism. The shortest route to socialism is the struggle to defend and deepen a working class led national democratic revolution. But this means concrete struggles and building of our organisations:
4.1 An injury to one is an injury to all!
This COSATU slogan of “An injury to one is an injury to all” has never been relevant than in the current period. Of course it was behind this slogan that workers’ defended and advanced their struggles during the period of the apartheid regime. It was around this rallying call that worker organisations were strengthened such that without the role of the workers in the liberation struggle there would be no democratic South Africa today. But what does this slogan mean in the present period?
Principally this means the building of a strong and united COSATU, expanding towards our goal of creating a single worker federation in our country that will also draw in other sections of organised workers who are still located outside of COSATU. It means that any attack on any sector of organised workers – as is happening with these retrenchments now – must be defended not only by the unions in those affected sector, but by all unions. This is of absolute importance at this point in time, otherwise the labour movement faces defeat. It is for this reason that the forthcoming COSATU Special Congress is of absolute importance in repositioning COSATU to defend workers ’ interests and turn these struggles into strong foundations for socialist struggles.
4.2 Strong and united affiliates
The question of building a strong and united affiliates is of key strategic importance. There can be no strong COSATU without strong affiliates, just as there can be no strong affiliates without a strong COSATU. This issue is of even more relevance to a union like FAWU at this point in time. It is no secret that FAWU is faced with one of the most difficult periods in its history, that of division, lack of unity and consequently severe weakness. Comrades, we need to remind ourselves that a divided union can only benefit the employers and the enemies of a strong labour movement. Whilst divisions might be seen to be strengthening this or that section of a trade union, in essence they strengthen the bosses. A weak, divided and fractional FAWU is in the deepest interests of the bosses in the sectors in which you organise.
The most important challenge of this Conference is for FAWU to emerge united with a clear programme of rebuilding and repositioning itself as the leading trade union in both the food sector and in COSATU. Do not allow yourselves to be tempted to want to wipe out what you see as this or that faction, rather use this conference as a true unification and healing process! As the SACP we have full confidence in you to be able to rise above factionalism and build a strong FAWU.
4.3 Building a strong SACP
The SACP has identified 1999 as the year for the building of the political consciousness of the working class. This is because without a politically conscious and confident working class, the very direction of the national democratic revolution is at stake. It is for this reason that as part of this focus the SACP is intensifying its organisational effort to root itself first and foremost amongst organised workers. This means that organised workers themselves must take a direct and active interest in building SACP industrial units and branches as per your very own resolutions. We will shortly be producing a discussion document that will guide unions on the formation of SACP industrial units. We have started with this programme and we have identified October 1999 as the peak and focus month for this programme. Hence we are naming October 1999 as “RED OCTOBER”. We would like FAWU to play a critical role in this respect. Furthermore, the SACP is intensifying a programme of joint political schools with the affiliates of COSATU in order to build the political consciousness of the working class. We have undertaken these joint schools with FAWU before, but we would like to continue and intensify these in future.
With these words we wish you a successful Conference, and we are confident that you are going to rise to the occasion and build a strong FAWU.
Thank you.
Blade Nzimande General Secretary, South African Communist Party