Economics,+politics+and+Cosatu,+Willie+Madisha,+Mail+and+Guardian

Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, Comment, //18 August 2006 11:25//
=Economics, politics and Cosatu=


 * Willie Madisha**

From September 18 to 21, I will have the honour of presiding over the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) ninth national congress, at which more than 3 000 delegates from our 20 affiliated unions will hammer out a programme for the next three years and elect a leadership.

Jobs, poverty and inequality are sure to dominate the discussion. Unemployment is still far too high, whether you take the strict figure of 27%, which excludes those too discouraged to look for work, or the more realistic, expanded definition of 41%.

Linked to this is the decline in the quality of jobs, as more and more permanent jobs are being replaced by casual, temporary and insecure employment. Workers have gained significant new rights since 1994, but these are constantly being negated in practice by employers.

I am sure that delegates will also discuss the “economic boom” that they keep reading about but do not experience in their own lives. The reality is that economic growth is nowhere near fast enough to reach the government’s target of halving unemployment by 2014. This “growth” moreover is entrenching and increasing inequality in the distribution of the country’s wealth.

According to a recent Labour Research Service survey, the average increase in minimum wages during 2005 was R150 a month, while the average increase in executive directors’ pay was R50 000 a month. Average remuneration for a chief executive was R7-million, while the average minimum wage for a blue-collar worker was R25 000. On average a worker will have to work 270 years to earn what a chief executive earns in a year.

The government, we believe, has no coherent industrial development strategy to change our apartheid wealth distribution patterns. The disastrous growth, employment and redistribution strategy increased the profitability of business, made a tiny minority of the population even richer, and did virtually nothing for the unemployed and the poor majority.

Cosatu’s Jobs and Poverty Campaign has consistently demanded that the levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality be treated as a national emergency. Congress is surely going to insist that the campaign be continued and intensified.

Another issue delegates may discuss is the erosion of democratic structures, with the demobilisation of the mass democratic movement, the marginalisation of the tripartite alliance and the absence of the African National Congress in mass mobilisations. Instead of being the driver, the ANC is increasingly following the state, as policy formulation takes place not in the liberation movement but in government offices.

The congress will also debate Cosatu itself. It remains a highly cohesive and militant force. But we face new challenges and must confront serious weaknesses. These include our failure to break the two million membership target, or to make significant inroads into organising casuals and other vulnerable workers, especially women. Also, although women constitute almost half of Cosatu’s membership, they are grossly underrepresented in the federation’s leadership.

There has also been insufficient progress on trade union unity, which has always been one of our objectives.

The congress will surely reiterate the demand of the Cosatu central committee for the corruption charges against Jacob Zuma to be dropped or, should the trial proceed, that it must be speedy and fair.

However, we have always insisted that only the members of the ANC, through their democratic structures, must elect their new leader. It would be wrong for Cosatu to try to hijack that process.

To perform this task, the ANC must be well organised in the branches. We would like to see them elect a president who is strong but sensitive to the problems of poverty, joblessness and the scourge of HIV/Aids. He or she should be someone who we can work with and who involves the alliance much more in policy formation.

In the run-up to the congress, the media have been spreading rumours about the Cosatu election process. These are invariably based on “information” from faceless “sources” and consist of nothing but malicious, untrue gossip about individuals. Specifically, I must refute the allegation in the City Press that the Cosatu general secretary and myself are “at war”, or that I am investigating accusations against him. It is my duty as president to monitor all aspects of Cosatu’s work, but there is no truth in the suggestion that I am investigating any individual.

The people leaking these slanders to the media are our enemies, whose sole aim is to destabilise and weaken us. I am confident our members will treat these works of fiction with the contempt they deserve and debate the leadership elections in a mature and disciplined manner.

Finally the congress, as always, will find time to debate international issues and extend its solidarity to all workers struggling for human rights and a better life. The congress will surely lend its support to the campaign to free the Cuban Five — five Cuban citizens who have been in United States jails for five years on trumped-up charges.

The delegates are also sure to find time to discuss the plight of the people of Palestine and Lebanon, who are valiantly resisting the brutal military onslaught of the Israeli regime. They will want to express their solidarity and repeat our demand for South Africa to break off all diplomatic ties with this “apartheid” state of Israel.

Above all I hope that the congress will conduct its debates in line with Cosatu’s traditions of democracy and openness, that it will strengthen our unity and inspire all our members to intensify our struggles over the next three years.

//Willie Madisha is president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions//
 * From: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=281223&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/**

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Media invitation
The **South African Democratic Teachers Union** invites the media to a briefing on the occasion of its KwaZulu Natal Provincial Executive Committee.

Willie Madisha, President of both SADTU and COSATU, will take the occasion to explain his position on media reports about a ‘war’ between himself and the COSATU General Secretary.


 * DATE: Saturday 19 August**
 * TIME: 12h00**
 * VENUE: Coastlands Hotel, West Street, Durban**


 * For further information please phone Sipho Nkosi, SADTU KZN Provincial Secretary, on 031 305 1828 or 082 611 7027**