Johannesburg -
It remains unclear if the United Front, spearheaded by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), will succeed where previous attempts to build broad coalitions between social movements and trade unions have failed before.
The formation of the Front follows a resolution taken at Numsa’s watershed special national congress a year ago, and is aimed at building a solid alliance between unions and social movements to fight corruption, failing service delivery and issues facing communities.
This weekend, 342 people and 71 organisations met in Boksburg to plan the Front’s overall strategy towards a national launch scheduled for April.
Among the actions planned are a national day of mass action scheduled for Freedom Day next year in defence of human rights, freedom of expression and the right to organise, as well as opposition to police brutality.
There will also be a response to the National Treasury’s “austerity budget” on Budget day in February.
The assembly elected a 21-person national working committee comprising a representative from each of the nine provinces and a further 12 people, including former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and HIV and Aids activist Zackie Achmat.
It also has Numsa shop stewards Abraham Agulhas, of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, clergy from the Inter-denominational African Ministers Association of SA, former leaders of the SACP, and the former general secretary of shack-dwellers organisation Abahlali Basemjondolo.
But there are concerns that the organisations and individuals who were present at the assembly lack the constituency and don’t represent the numbers necessary to build a mass movement with clout.
Some of the organisations attending the assembly included Equal Education, Section27 and the Treatment Action Campaign. Academics from Wits University and the University of Johannesburg also attended.
Professor Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy in SA, said the organisers of the United Front needed to ask themselves probing questions, including in what way these new leaders broadened a constituency.
While the jury was still out, he said some developments raised serious questions.
Numsa announced last week that it was delaying the formal launch of the Front, amid speculation the initiative was struggling in its infancy.
Friedman said many of the individuals playing a key role in the formation of the Front were already engaged in issues of sanitation, education and freedom of speech, but it wasn’t clear what value they could add.
“The United Front is supposed to deal and rectify the situation in which the trade union movement has ignored social movements. Cosatu trade unions have narrowly focused on workplace. The question is, is this new initiative going to rectify that?” he asked.
“If it means Numsa and whoever from the trade union movement work together with Abahlali, for example, in a united campaign, then it is possible it might produce more than we have at the moment.”
Principles agreed on included:
- Pan Africanism
- Ubuntu from below
- Anti-xenophobia
- Feminist and anti-racist
- Opposed to tribalism and ethnicity
- Anti-homophobia
- Non-sectarian
- Democracy from below
- Transparency and accountability.
- The Star