Growing poverty, unemployment and equality around the world indicate capitalism is a scam and must be scrapped, Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini said on Thursday.
“The world is looking for a way out,” Dlamini told delegates attending the sixth Presidential Council of the World Federation of Trade Unions in Johannesburg, according to a copy of his speech.
“It is unfortunate that when this inhuman system has been exposed at all levels of society, the left forces in the world do not speak with one voice and present their own alternatives.”
Dlamini urged union leaders to find alternatives to present to society, “given the glaring failures of capitalism”.
He said it was unacceptable that out of the seven billion people on earth, more than 925 million remained hungry and without hope.
“How can this happen and the world keeps quiet to openly point out that capitalism has failed humanity?”
A recent report by the International Labour Organisation shows that about 1.1 billion people in the world are either unemployed or living in poverty.
Dlamini told union leaders they carried a heavy burden to provide answers to the unemployed.
“It is us, the left axis in the world, who must provide an answer on how to build the 600 million jobs needed to sustain economic growth and maintain social stability,” he said.
“It is us who must table a solution before society on how to address unemployment by the more than 74.8 million youths who are part of the 3.3 billion global labour force.” - Sapa