Who will lead the workers after the split in Cosatu, asks Zenzile Khoisan.
There can be no sadder moment, when bonds forged in the furnace of an intense struggle are at the point of being torn asunder. That was the feeling on Friday on May Day, when a labour federation, crafted for noble purposes, was set to break apart, placing South Africa’s working class at its moment of truth.
This year, as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) prepares for the celebration of a glorious achievement – 30 fighting years in existence – a fissure has emerged, dangerously threatening the very foundation on which this once magnificent guardian of workers’ and working class rights was built.
It was launched in Durban on November 30, 1985, during one of apartheid’s most draconian years, by 760 delegates representing 33 unions. Its unveiling, at a public rally the following day, presented several far-reaching resolutions that over the decades served as a clarion call to protect and advance workers’ rights and to defend workers’ unity.
On Friday, in turbulent Durban, there were two massive gatherings of workers, who came to defend the rights they’d won, squarely, on the shop floor, the barricades and in the boardroom. But this was not the happy May Day gathering that those who launched the federation dreamed of 30 years ago. Instead, May Day 2015 heralded a moment of truth, when comrades who stood side-by-side for decades, parted ways, maybe forever.
The run-up to this watershed moment has been the bludgeoning of hundreds of thousands of jobs, internecine fights and leadership battles, heavy-handed state reaction to labour unrest and the expulsion from Cosatu of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa), one of the federation’s founding pillars.
This May Day was different to the May Day rallies and demonstrations during apartheid, or even the first decade of democracy, because there is a dangerous undercurrent of betrayal and loathing that now defines the multi-faceted political and organised labour terrain.
The official Cosatu position is that they are rid of a cancer, while the United Front, led by Numsa, has denounced Cosatu as a toothless, sweetheart organisation doing the bidding of the ruling party.
At Curries Fountain, under the leadership of president Sdumo Dlamini, Cosatu hosted the official May Day rally. Also addressing the faithful were ANC president Jacob Zuma, South African Communist Party boss Blade Nzimande and Richard Ndakane, president of the South African National Civics Organisation. Besides the National Union of Mineworkers, several public service unions, some industrial unions and unionised transport and allied workers filled the bleachers.
Downtown, a completely different story unfolded as Numsa hosted what was dubbed the “march of red”, from Dinuzulu Park, down the main thoroughfare of Pixley ka Seme, to the city hall.
This event, banned at the last minute by the eThekwini municipality, was only given the thumbs up after a high court challenge. Here, expelled Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, Numsa’s Irvin Jim and Food and Allied Workers’ Union president Katishi Masemola used the colonial backdrop of the city hall to lay down the gauntlet to their erstwhile compatriots.
Predictions of violent clashes did not materialise. Cosatu’s Dlamini said his troops exercised “maximum discipline along the way, despite extreme provocation”. Numsa’s Irvin Jim said their march of about 20 000 people was peaceful, despite serious intimidation.
Drawing on the words of Elijah Barayi, the federation’s first president, Dlamini told the Cosatu gathering: “Like 30 years ago, a giant has risen, that will defeat everything that stands in its way.” Calling the Numsa-led initiative “mischievous”, Dlamini said life in Cosatu must go on without Numsa. “We are not going to pay attention to any destabiliser, we are not going to break Cosatu into pieces,” he said.
Jim compared “the behaviour of Dlamini to that of an agent provocateur”, and said “the working class must organise itself as a class, for itself”. White monopoly capital, he said, was “enabled by a black elite and compradore politicians”. From this May Day, he continued “we will launch rolling mass action”.
Looking ill at ease and somewhat subdued, Zuma said: “The ANC is very concerned that the challenges faced by Cosatu leaves room for the exploitation of the working class by capital.” He went on to say that “if Cosatu is divided, we must know we are weakening the struggle of the working class”.
From what occurred on Friday it is clear that critical matters have to be met head on by both sides of the great divide. Not least of these is the future of Cosatu without its strongest industrial unions, and several other formations that have either been excommunicated or removed themselves from its ranks.
The other question that hangs thick and heavy over the tripartite alliance itself is whether this breaking of enduring bonds will weaken the governing party and deliver body blows to the South African Communist Party, which has over several decades presented itself as the vanguard of the working class.
The other issue is what is to be done when things fall apart, as is patently obvious in this tale of two rallies?
Numsa, by beating the ban from the eThekwini City Council, and emerging victorious from its march and rally, is obviously buoyed.
Another heavyweight union that has aligned its fate with the mother body and the ANC-led alliance is the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union. In its May Day statement it said: “We will celebrate Workers` Day on 1 May, 2015 under the theme: ‘Celebrating the 30th Anniversary and repositioning Cosatu towards radical economic transformation’.”
Speaking to the climate of distrust and accusations of betrayal that are now the currency of communication in the labour movement, the statement stressed that:
“This is not a time for the workers’ movement to be complacent. We are facing challenges from every angle. It is not the time for distracting divisions among ourselves. As the organised working class, we must be active and present in all of the key battlefields of the day.”
undefinedFrom pronouncements at both rallies it is clear the future of South Africa’s organised labour movement has reached a moment of truth, which may well turn comrades who bonded in apartheid’s hellfire into hardened adversaries. It’s a short jump from there to a war of attrition in the battle for the heart and soul of organised labour and the working class.
That must be the central question troubling Irvin Jim, Jacob Zuma, Blade Nzimande, Zwelinzima Vavi, Richard Ndakani, Katishi Masemola and Sdumo Dlamini. Could a dream, built off the blood, sweat and tears of millions, on whose backs an elite fed their fetish for wealth and opulence, be lost so soon?
Maybe, as these leaders reflect on the gravity of the situation, they could contemplate the words of Jay Naidoo, Cosatu’s first general secretary, recently published in the Daily Maverick:
“The central task of Cosatu was always building trade union unity. I am surprised that more has not been done to re-inforce that unity in a post-apartheid SA.
“And I am shocked to see that proud body, the leader of South Africa’s organised working class and largest in our history, fall to its knees with the sword of disunity piercing its heart.
“I cry along with millions in our country. I cry at the betrayal of the heroic cause we so painstakingly crafted in the furnace of the battle for our rights on the factory floor, three decades ago.”
* Zenzile Khoisan is a senior writer for the Weekend Argus senior writer and a former TRC investigator.
Weekend Argus