12 July 1999
1. Introduction
The SACP is deeply honoured for the invitation to your National Congress. To us such congresses are very important because they are the parliament of the workers, where important debates and decisions are taken in order to consolidate gains made by workers and map a way forward. I bring revolutionary and fraternal greetings to you from 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 you for the role that SACCAWU structures played in ensuring that the ANC is returned to government with an even bigger majority.
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 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.
3. The key challenges facing organised workers
3.1 Retrenchments and job losses
Comrades you are holding this Congress against the background of what we can only call a job loss bloodbath, which has reached what can only be a national job crisis. Workers are perhaps going through one their worst periods in South Africa’s recent history. The scale and levels of retrenchments are not only very high, but are clearly unacceptable. This is like a rat race where it seems every employer is rushing to be the highest destroyer of workers’ jobs.
The SACP is deeply concerned and in fact outraged by the ease with which workers’ jobs are being destroyed. It is for this reason that we fully support action by workers to use all their power to fight this scourge. It is time now that workers should stand up and fight against this unprecedented destruction of jobs. But this should not be a struggle that is left only to workers. The mass of our people should ensure that this scourge is fought on the grounds that there is no hope in hell even for the unemployed if there is such a destruction of jobs. Our standpoint is that there can be no job creation without job retention.
Given the scale of the retrenchments facing workers now, and the implications that this has for unemployment, poverty and economic stability, the SACP calls for an immediatate moratorium to these retrenchments until the structures created by the Job Summit are convened to deal with this situation. Of much more urgency is the need to convene sectoral job summits, so that each sector is able to devise a strategy within its context. As part of dealing with retrenchments we also call for a halt to unilateral restructuring, until such restructuring is properly negotiated with workers.
There is virtually no sector of the economy that remains untouched. The provisional liquidation of ERPM, with 5000 jobs that may be lost, has once more focused attention on the terrible job attrition that has been happening in the gold mining sector. Ninety thousand miners were retrenched in 1998.
About the same number are threatened with job losses this year. This would frankly be a disaster that will throw millions of miners’ dependents deeper into a perpetual cycle of hunger and poverty.
We welcome the stance taken by government to oppose the gold sales by the British government and the IMF. Back in May the SACP – when addressing May Day rallies - had already called for a much tougher stand on this issue. This sale of gold, under the guise of debt relief, shows the arrogance of imperialism and how little it cares about developing countries, whilst claiming to be supporting them. What in fact we call globalisation is precisely this imperialist plunder and arrogance. As the SACP we are calling upon all progressive formations in the world to support us in putting pressure on the IMF and the British government not to proceed with this sale of gold.
The proposed retrenchments of up to more than half of Spoornet employees are simply incomprehensible. One of the major goals of the RDP is the creation of a viable and affordable transport system. This therefore necessitates the question: Where are these proposed retrenchments taking us in relation to this goal. It is therefore important that government intervenes in this as a matter of urgency. The country just cannot afford such large-scale retrenchments from either the public or private sector.
But of particular significance is that all opposition parties are silent about this destruction of workers’ jobs. Where is the DP? What is the IFP saying, nothing! What about the NP? These are experts in destroying workers’ jobs. The UDM which opportunistically tries to say it speaks for some workers is also silent, which shows that this organisation is nothing but the last born baby of the NP! If we ever doubted that all these parties are anti-worker and anti-working class, their present silence speaks volumes.
3.2 The Commercial and Catering Sector
There are also very important and key challenges facing the commercial sector and in particular SACCAWU. These include the following:
3.2.1 The extremely high rate of retrenchments in this sector, including the actual and threatened closure of whole shops, leading to loss of thousands of jobs
3.2.2 The increasing casualisation of labour in this sector, thus making workers vulnerable and without any medical aid, pension or other basic worker rights
3.2.3 The yawning apartheid wage gap, and the fact that the wage gap between the top and bottom 10% of employees is 1:19
3.2.4 The most disturbing feature in this sector is that, according a study done by NALEDI about one in every four workers earn an average of R110.00 per week. In addition a third of workers in the retail sector are earning less than the minimum living level of an average African family. This means that a large sector of employed workers is living in poverty. This directly challenges the idea, which some of our own comrades in the movement subscribe to these days, that employed workers are an elite. What kind of an elite earns R110-00 per week?
3.2.5 Much more important for SACCAWU is that, according to the same study, less than 24% of workers in this sector belong to a trade union
3.2.6 Related to the above is a perception that unions in this sector tend to concentrate on permanent workers at the expense of casual workers, who are usually African and Coloured women
These realities pose a number of challenges to SACCAWU specifically. Some of these challenges are:
That the struggle for job retention is of crucial important in this sector. In particular this means that SACCAWU should lead the struggle for an urgent convening of a sectoral job summit as part of the struggle to halt retrenchments and unilateral restructuring
The need to struggle for the narrowing of the apartheid wage gap which still expresses itself in terms of race and gender
For SACCAWU to pay particular attention to the organisation of casual workers, as this will be the only way to consistently fight against casualisation of labour and the rolling back of worker’s gains.
This means that SACCAWU needs to embark, sooner rather than later, on a massive recruitment drive, targeting casual workers as well.
4. Broader political challenges facing the working class: The struggle for socialism
Our struggles in the workplace have to be firmly related to broader political struggles and challenges facing the working class. No matter how many gains we can make under a capitalist system, as long as the working class does not politically position itself as the leading class force in society, these gains are threatened.
The first and most immediate broader political struggle is to fight against the bosses’ ideology that it is only workers who must bear the brunt of globalisation and current capitalist crisis. If there are to be sacrifices to be made in order to restructure the economy of our country, let this be spread throughout, and not be the responsibility of only the workers. We need to wage an intense ideological struggle against this neo-liberal ideology and attack on workers
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 inflexible they are unable to say. 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. In other words a call for labour market flexibility is a call for the re-establishment of some of the core features of the labour dispensation of the apartheid regime, tinkered with some changes to give a semblance of a non-racial labour dispensation under a legitimate government.
The ultimate strategic objective of the working class is to 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 the 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 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.
To reach this goal the SACP’s programme commits itself in the first instance to root the Communist Party amongst organised workers. This means that organised workers themselves must take a direct and active interest in building SACP industrial units and branches. Furthermore, the SACP has embarked on a programme of joint political schools with the affiliates of COSATU in order to build the political consciousness of the working class.
We hope that soon we can hold a joint political school with SACCAWU, as part of strengthening workers within the context of these overall political challenges.
Related to this objective, is the need to build a strong and progressive COSATU rooted amongst workers. One of the most important events for the labour movement this year is the forthcoming COSATU special congress in August. That Congress, the ultimate parliament of South Africa’s organised workers, will call upon you as workers to strengthen a revolutionary COSATU that is strategically positioned to take the struggle of the workers into the next millennium. As part of this you will be called upon to elect a new leadership that is grounded in the politics of the working class and able to position organised workers as the leading detachment of the working class.
When you elect the new COSATU leadership in August you must bear in mind that without a strong federation there will be no strong SACCAWU. If you watch mineworkers being destroyed without doing anything as workers in the commercial sector, by the time you stand up and act there will be no mineworkers organisation. COSATU’s slogan of an injury to one is an injury to all is even more relevant now to defend workers’ interests.
The last and most important message we want to leave with you is that unless you build the SACP as the political vanguard of the working class, the very gains you have made are threatened. It is for this reason that we also ask every SACCAWU worker to sign the SACP debit order form and make at least a R10-00 monthly contribution to the SACP. It is only workers who can support and build a strong and financially independent SACP on a consistent basis. Let us all during this Congress sign the SACP debit order form.
With these words we wish you a successful Congress, and we are confident that you are going to rise to the occasion and build a strong SACCAWU.
Thank you.
Blade Nzimande
General Secretary, South African Communist Party