Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has kicked off its year with study tours overseas to investigate the feasibility of forming a workers’ party and a public relations blitz to explain its political programme to potential allies across the world.
The first of these was general secretary Irvin Jim’s visit to the US as a guest of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the first of its study tours is to Kerala and Delhi in India in the next three weeks.
Details of the union’s study tour to African countries are to be finalised soon, followed by a third study tour to Greece.
Numsa says the meetings are about gathering and sharing experiences, but there is no doubt it will be on the lookout for funding avenues.
In December, Numsa’s United Front elected its first national working committee (NWC) which held its first meeting this weekend and has been tasked with preparing for the national launch of the Front, scheduled for April 25 to 27.
This weekend’s meeting was expected to consider what decisions to take and what must be processed between now and the April launch, Numsa deputy general secretary Karl Cloete said.
These included what resources are needed to kick things off, what teams to set up to do campaigns and fund-raising, and consolidation of the resolutions taken at last month’s assembly.
“(Fund-raising) is not a Numsa task – it becomes a UF task. Numsa was just the catalyst, but we will not stop using our influence to find the necessary resources,” Cloete says.
His comments come amid suspicion over Jim’s recent trip to the US.
At last year’s National Union of Mineworkers central committee, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said “trade unionists” had spoiled its relationship with the Congressional black caucus in the US.
ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize was deployed to unruffle the feathers, while SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande has referred to Numsa’s “dirty money”.
Jim’s US trip included an event hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington’s first progressive multi-issue think tank, a speaking event to activists and leftist thinkers in New York, and an interview with labour and world of work-focused radio show, “Building Bridges: Your Community & Labour Report”.
However, Numsa is coy about whether the trip garnered any funding. “There’s nothing concrete as yet in terms of resources… nothing specific on offer. But we won’t shy away from the need for the United Front to get resources for itself if it has to run and mobilise a campaign for the launch,” Cloete said of the trip.
Numsa’s ambitious programme, as resolved by its watershed special national congress of December 2013, has largely been funded by the union itself thus far.
This included its International Left Symposium held in August last year, which brought together leftist activists and trade unionists from across the world, although Cloete said some funding had indeed been raised for that event.
“Largely it was Numsa that funded all of the work, but we can’t anymore – it is going large-scale, going big, so therefore one of the key tasks of the United Front’s NWC will be exploring funding avenues,” he said.
“I know of no funds that are coming in from whatever quarter, but I cannot deny (the need for) a serious fundraising drive if we are to make this thing work.”
Numsa has three separate pillars which its members have tasked it with completing: the establishment of the United Front, exploration of a Movement for Socialism – which could include the establishment of a Workers’ Party, and reclaiming Cosatu or, if all else fails, creating an independent labour federation.
The possible establishment of an independent labour federation is a matter which exemplifies Numsa’s complex funding conundrum.
Given that the United Front includes several independent, non-Cosatu affiliated unions (such as the General Industries Workers Union of SA), it could make sense for the United Front to fund such a project.
But this initiative takes place while Numsa undertakes a parallel process of fighting to remain in Cosatu.
“Reclaiming Cosatu, the three separate pillars (and) the exploration of an independent labour federation, it is work that is very specific to the crisis in Cosatu and whether in terms of Numsa’s own resolution if all else fails whether we explore a new independent federation,” Cloete says.
“(It) is separate work to the United Front and separate to the Movement for Socialism. They are three independent pillars but there is no Chinese wall.”
Political Bureau