The National Union of Metalworkers of SA’s (Numsa) United Front (UF) could be in trouble before it is even launched at the end of this month because the union is over-stretched and moving on too many fronts.
This is the worry of some people involved with the organisation, which is aimed at marrying shop floor and community struggles.
“Numsa is overrun on the shop floor because it extended its scope. It lost fees from bargaining agreements which were not renewed and is (also) attempting to set up a movement for socialism,” a unionist with insight into the UF told The Sunday Independent this week.
“Bluntly, it is moving on too many fronts. If it is not careful, this will weaken Numsa the trade union, and it will launch everything on a very weak platform.”
The unionist said Numsa was misreading the mood among its rank and file in its haste to launch the UF nationally in Ga-Rankuwa later this month.
There are also concerns about whether or not the UF should contest next year’s local government elections, with pressure apparently being exerted by certain individuals and communities for it to do so.
“In parts of the country there is an organic pressure to put up candidates or support independent candidates. But ultra-leftists, who were traditionally outside the ANC, want to draw the UF in their direction.
“With the contesting ambitions of everyone there’s a real danger (of failure).”
The same unionist said there had been no mass-based mobilisation of Numsa members with the organisation, and no political programme, adding that unions that supported the metalworkers’ reinstatement into Cosatu, since its expulsion last year, did not have mandates to support the UF.
“I’m not confident that Numsa has sufficient control over what the United Front will be. It is unclear whether the United Front has leaders from any community struggles. So Numsa’s intentions are great (but) I’m not sure Numsa correctly conceptualised the UF,” the unionist said.
“The December 2014 declarations from the United Front People’s Assembly don’t have resonance with our struggles, our communities, and shop-floor struggles. If this thing is to succeed, Numsa must take more political control because it is the only organisation that is mass-based.
“So the United Front is dislocated from a mass-based, working class, and township logic… There’s never been money… and we’re running into deep trouble. I think this a stillborn thing of value to academics and NGO types who view the ‘Numsa moment’ as their thing.”
But Numsa has rejected this view, saying unless there was an open revolt from its members it could not be regarded as fact that the UF was doomed.
Deputy general secretary Karl Cloete said all of its members were on board with the UF launch following resolutions taken at the union’s watershed 2013 special national congress.
“First and foremost, we would want any media house in the country to show factually that Numsa, as a result of the resolutions it’s taken, is divided,” he said.
“Second thing, (including) the past weekend, there are provincial launches of the UF running up to the national launch, with the participation and engineering of Numsa to a large degree.”
He said last year’s People’s Assembly of the UF had confirmed that while the organisation should be mass based it would also have to attract “influential people in society”.
“You’re not going to have people always in mass organisations - there’ll (also) be NGOs, but the objective will be the same,” he said.
“The fact is Numsa is growing because we don’t treat workers on the basis that they must belong to a (specific political) party to belong in Numsa.”
A UF organiser in Gauteng said her experience was that the UF was succeeding in marrying community issues with shop-floor struggles but that its development could be patchy in different parts of the country.
“You can’t expect it to be homogenous and overwhelming everywhere… This is a process that has to come from the bottom. So Numsa is a catalyst but it is not controlling the process. So, it has to come from the workers, their families, their communities and neighbours to become engaged,” she said.
“We are confident that we can count on a mass base. We haven’t organised in that sense - in terms of mass meetings and mass action (because) we don’t want to have a flash mob that meets once and then disappears.”
But she said the UF should not simply be a Numsa branch.
“Numsa has helped us, but their resources are also limited.
“They also don’t have a mandate from their members to give money until the UF is finished. There are other members of the UF and we should all contribute, without expecting one organisation to take the lead and… I think the leadership should come from below.”
Sunday Independent