Opening+by+COSATU+President+Willie+Madisha+to+9th+Congress



=OPENING SPEECH BY PRESIDENT WILLY MADISHA TO THE 9TH CONGRESS OF COSATU: GALLAHER ESTATE, MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA.=


 * 18TH -21ST SEPTEMBER 2006.**

Deputy President of the ANC, Cde Jacob Zuma and NEC Members. The General Secretary and the Central Committee of the SACP COSATU National Officer Bearers The Central Executive Committee of COSATU The General Secretary of the ICFTU, Guy Ryder Former National Office Bearers of COSATU International guests and friends Your Excellencies and Members of the Diplomatic Corps Honoured invitees Congress Delegates Members of the Media Comrades. All protocol observed.**
 * Comrade Chairperson.

As President of the Federation, you elected me to lead this federation. In leading the federation I always believed and continue to believe that it is you who provide us with the leadership to lead you. I therefore firstly wish to acknowledge your leadership and request you to permit me to welcome you to this all important 9th congress of our federation. I thus welcome and wish all of you the best during this gathering. On behalf of the CEC I wish you a memorable, robust and very challenging congress.

This congress as with other congresses is convened as per the stipulations of our founding constitution and constitutes the highest decision making body of our federation. I have no doubt in my mind that this congress will serve its purpose and remind us of who we are as a federation.

As well all know, we owe our existence to the cause of the working class. We owe our being to defending our revolution and the gains we made since our existence. We owe our primary loyalty first to the working class, the issues and challenges facing and of course to the broader revolutionary cause.

This 9th congress takes place at a time when we are perceived as less united than before.

Let me start by reminding our detractors that we are still in tact as a federation. That it is not unheard of, of a liberation movement and a working class organisation to face challenges of this nature. One of the key challenges of this congress will be to address some of these perceptions.

We start this congress today by travelling back three years back to our last congress. This journey will entail a comprehensive review of our performance and effectiveness in the implementation of the resolutions of our last congress and to chart a new way forward. I intend to be frank and open in dealing with the issues forming the subject of my address to you today. I also urge all delegates to also be open and frank during our debates and other discussions for the duration of this congress.

Let me start by requesting all of us to stand and observe a moment of silence to express our solidarity and support to our brothers and sisters all over the world who continue to suffer the venom of HIV/AIDS pandemic and in the process remembering in particular the orphans of this pandemic, I also request that we remember workers all over the world who were injured or died in work related accidents as a result of the carelessness of the uncaring employers. Finally, I request that we think of our brothers and sisters over the world but specifically our bothers and sisters in the areas of Lebanon and Palestine during these difficult times.


 * Thank you very much.**

COSATU is a federation set up specifically to advance the cause of the workers in this country. As a democratic organisation, we uphold the fundamentals and cherish the ideals of democracy. One of the key elements of our democracy as a federation is the assertion of worker leadership. This entails that it is the workers themselves who must take decisions about this federation and the affiliates, and it is the duty of officials to implement these decisions. It is however not for officials to tell you what you want but to find out from you what you want. Allied to this is another fundamental tenet of our democracy within the federation i.e the fact that the leadership or officials of the federation and the affiliates are operate at the behest of the workers. COSATU and the affiliates are about workers and not officials. I will deal with this matter more extensively later in my address.

Successive congresses have grappled with the issues and challenges of poverty, unemployment and job losses, lack of skills, the scourge of HIV/AIDS and the impact of globalisation. During these congresses, we adopted a number of resolutions dealing with these issues. Between the last congress and this one, we developed and implemented programmes to implement these resolutions. One of the first questions to ask and reflect on is whether these resolutions have advanced the cause of the working class further. We also have to evaluate the impact of these resolutions and programmes and determine a new way forward which will inform us for the next three years.

In this country, we live with a myth that the economy is generating new jobs. In this country we live with a myth that South African companies repatriating our hard earned resources overseas is good for the economy. In this country, we live with the myth that our labour laws are inflexible leading to a slow down in job creation. These are indeed myths and propaganda that we must examine more carefully and pronounce ourselves decisively.

Exactly 50 years ago 156 men and women stood trial in what became known as the treason trial. All of them were united in one objective- to fight for the total emancipation of the people of South Africa from colonisation of a special type. What they vowed to achieve were indivisible freedoms of all South Africans both Blacks and Whites.

As a consequence of their sacrifices and total commitment to their objectives, all South Africans have been emancipated from that colonisation of a special type and today live as free human beings.

The emancipation, I talk of has however not been matched by equal economic and social emancipation but has instead seen a growing negative economic colonisation of millions of South Africans, pushing more and more South Africans into abject poverty and unemployment.

It is that negative economic colonisation that has left more than half of the population of South Africa engulfed in poverty and more than 40% of South Africans unemployed.

This congress must raise to the highest pedestal this reality and challenge. We must ask ourselves as to how we reverse this colonisation so that the working class can get saved from the scourge of unemployment, poverty and disease.

In doing so, more than anything else, this congress must devote time and its attention must focus on addressing the real problems and challenges facing the working class of our country so that we can emerge from this congress with a clear programme for implementation by all our structures and affiliates.

The real problems faced by the people of South Africa include the fact that although there is a 40% of unemployment in South Africa, millions of those who work have no quality jobs. This means that more and more South Africans remain without any job security and the security provided by quality jobs. It means more and more South Africans will not even be able to fully benefit from some of the social security benefits such as unemployment insurance funds.

This state of affairs continues to create a situation where casualisation continues to thrive despite our many efforts to turn the tide on this issue. We still continue to see casual labourers who have been and remain casual labourers for years; we continue to see the exploitation of our people who work in outsourced and privatised entities and the millions of the workforce who do not receive a living wage.

Hundreds of workers are retrenched daily and factories either close or migrate oversees. Added to these is the impact of HIV/AIDS on the working class. As we know, every day about 600 people die of HIV/AIDS related diseases, leaving behind orphans that end up being unable to continue with their schooling and education.

Farm workers in particular, in addition to being denied a living wage, continue to be subjected to all other forms of brutal and cruel treatment at the hands of their employers, including the killings we witness on a daily basis including those who are even fed to lions.

Factory workers are still subjected to the practice of being locked inside factories during night shifts contrary to our labour laws. These workers are exposed to risk of death during fires or other accidents at such factories. We have even experienced a situation of a worker giving birth to twins during such a lock in. These twins unfortunately died. At the time of this incident, the factory owner was enjoying the comfort of his bed and in total disregard of the plight and circumstances of his workers.

Jobs are being destroyed on a daily basis in the textile industry to the massive and uncontrolled import of cheap Chinese textiles. We have made it clear before that these imports are at the heart of the job losses in the textile industry. We have called for measures to manage and control these imports.

The Public Sector is no exception to job losses. A practice has now emerged in terms whereof there is no replacement of workers who leave the service even due to natural attrition.

In the steel industry, we have experienced serious job losses as a result of the relocation of some of the steel giants such as ISCOR. We have just been told that cheap Chinese cars will soon flood our market and country. The importation of these cheap Chinese cars is bound to worsen an already worse situation in terms of creating more job losses and reducing the incidence of job losses.

We know that grassroots workers in the cleaning industry continue to receive wages far below the poverty line, despite exposing themselves to the most severe occupational dangers as a result of including using in certain instances their bare hands to clean their bosses faeces. The instances I have mentioned are not exhaustive, but show a pattern and basic examples of the nature and scope of our challenges.

What this congress therefore needs to do is to confront these realities and find solutions to these challenges. However, for us to find the desired solutions we first need to appraise ourselves and fully understand the causes and of course the effects of these challenges.


 * ECONOMIC CHALLENGES.**

Karl Marx made an observation that in any given epoch the dominant ideas in a particular society are the society’s dominant classes.

In South Africa, there are two dominant classes namely:

a) The Black upper middle class that dominates the country’s political life, but not the economy. This class manages a few state assets. It is not effective as it does not control real economic development but plays the role of spectator. b) The second are the owners of the big monopoly capital who own and control all the productive assets. This class chooses whether and where to invest etc. this is the class that owns and controls what Zaveher Rumstomjee calls Mineral Energy Complex, amongst which are:


 * Coal, gold, diamond and platinum;
 * Electricity generation and distribution;
 * Non metallic mineral products;
 * Iron and steel basic industries;
 * Non ferrous metal basic industries;
 * Fertilizers, pesticides, synthetic resins, plastics, basic chemicals and petroleum.

It is this mineral energy complex that whilst proving that our country is rich in mineral deposits and resources, brings about two main problems that this congress must address:

//Firstly//, the destruction of the South African manufacturing sector;

//Secondly//, reliance on unskilled cheap Black labour which it exploits, and also its dependence on imported technology capital as well as exposure to volatile world markets.

The unskilled cheap Black labour, I am referring to, for example in mining receive an average salary of R25000 per annum as a minimum wage whilst at the same time the CEO of Impala Platinum for example earned R7.6 million over the past two years.. On average, a worker will have to work 270 years to earn what the Impala Platinum CEO earned in one year. The major challenge facing this congress is to address the issue of how these massive and strategic resources must be shared and redistributed to the benefit of the working class of our country, rather than concerning ourselves with those who get given small tenders for painting roads. It is this big monopoly capital class that is responsible for mortgaging the South African economy through the relocation of major South African companies to London, New York and other European Countries. I refer here specifically to companies such as Anglo American, Old Mutual, Illovo, ISCOR, ABSA parts of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and many more.


 * SKILLS DEVELOPMENT.**

South Africa is faced with an adult functional illiteracy rate of 12 million adults. Even amongst those who are functionally literate, hundreds of them are faced with the problem of the lack of proper skills for particular areas of work.

Congress must be critical of affiliates which do not take on the employers to ensure effective skills development despite the fact that in certain instances there are adequate resources in the form of millions of rands in skills levies. We must say what is the work of SETAS and ask ourselves whether the worker leaders who sit on the boards of these SEATAS are doing what they are supposed to be doing to advance our ideals and needs and of course whether these leaders still represent our needs of the workers.


 * MINING AND TEXTILES**

Over the past ten years, we have lost in the mining sector alone, over 173 123 jobs (i.e. from 598 123 in 1995 to 426 000 in 2005). Mining and agriculture are the major sectors that have been shedding jobs, and temporary employment and atypical work are growing daily and constitutes 30% of employment.

The textile industry continues to shed jobs daily. We must however congratulate the government for engaging the Chinese government on the issue of cheap Chinese goods and dealing with the issue of quotas, but at the same time we must also condemn government for not involving us in the negotiations on this issue. Similarly we must express our unhappiness with our exclusion from negotiations with other countries such as Russia, Brazil and India, particularly in those aspects of the negotiations that directly affect the future of the workers.

Comrades, the country is being fed with blatant propaganda that the economy is creating jobs. We believe that the contrary is true and we must as congress determine an appropriate response to this misleading propaganda campaign. If indeed the economy was creating jobs as it is alleged, why then are we seeing the daily closure of factories and the consequent loss of jobs of our members. If indeed this is the case, why is unemployment rising to such unacceptable levels.


 * POLITICAL CHALLENGES.**

Congress must agree that the National Democratic Revolution which is a common project of the democratic forces led by the ANC has not been fully realised. Furthermore we must agree that for us to ascend to our final destination of full socialism, we must work very hard to eliminate problems that are still prevalent at this stage of our revolution, which the NDR seeks to address. These problems include the as yet non realisation of gender equality, racism, tribal and ethnic mobilisation.

South Africa is today a bourgeois democratic state, this is the first stage we have arrived at and what we need to fight to achieve is the second stage, which is socialism.

For us to achieve this, we must ensure that the democratic forces remain intact, that we maintain and strengthen the revolutionary alliance.

This we cannot however achieve if we as workers allow, what is happening where alliance partners do not work together except when common campaigns like elections and alliance crises have to be addressed.

Although resolutions of the alliance have been passed in the past congresses, implementation has not happened and we still find alliance partners not treating each other equally and with mutual respect. The main culprit in this regard is the ANC. This congress must now once and for all push for the implementation of the Ekhuruleni One and two resolutions, and further call for the management of tensions through mutual consultations. At the same time, this congress must also agree to fight to ensure that the ANC leads government instead of the ANC being led by cabinet.

The issue of the take over of state power is another issue requiring serious thought and consideration. Our other alliance partner, the SACP has proposed to contest state power. This proposal must be considered by this congress with the seriousness it deserves. I urge you not to pay lip service to this issue. Many activists including members of the ANC, SACP, COSATU and of course members of all other alliance partners believe that state power is sitting on the chairs of parliament. State power means taking over state instruments and the bureaucracy. We further need to determine how we achieve this objective of taking state power, whether the SACP should contest for state power and issues about what then happens to the ANC, and the alliance during such contest. In dealing with that matter, I urge you to take into account the best interests of the working class and primary objectives of the NDR.

Comrades, I earlier on referred to the issues of racial, ethnic and tribal mobilisation against those of our comrades we differ with. This problem is once again rearing its ugly head and continues to undermine all the good work and achievements firstly of the UDF and secondly, generally the congress movement lead by the ANC.

Whereas we must agree to unite our forces to fight racism in the Western Cape, we must equally do so with tribalism, in whatever form it manifests itself. We must fight tribalism without reservation both inter and intra-provincial.

The fight against racism, tribalism and ethnicity as well as worker control are some of the key principles that brought workers together to form this federation. Can this federation and its affiliates therefore tolerate any form of racist, ethic and tribal tendencies?

The last two years have seen events that have and continue to hurt and destroy the unity of the entire congress movement as well as our country. These events have divided the revolutionary alliance partners individually as well as collectively. These are the events that emerged as a consequence of the removal of the Deputy President of the ANC from his position of Deputy President of the Republic.

Let me remind congress that we did not only agree to support Comrade Zuma, but we also committed ourselves to establish a fund and to encourage affiliates and workers to contribute towards his legal fees.

We resolved to do so as a result of our belief, which we still hold that he was treated unfairly by the relevant state institutions. Therefore one of the key questions we must ask ourselves is how far are we with the implementation hereof. You will also recall that we repeatedly called for him to be charged if he had a case to answer. Indeed he has now been charged, but once more the delay in giving him a fair and seedy trial must be vigorously challenged. We must reiterate our position that justice delayed is justice denied.

Elsewhere, I have asserted that the so-called Zuma-Mbeki crisis has, continues and will leave thousands of political casualties in our broad movement. Already, we have started to suspect each and classify each other based on this ZUMA-MBEKI notion. We have started to use this notion to want to eject each other from positions. I have already indicated that this situation will leave our movement so hurt and impede the possibility of any early recovery from such hurt.

I challenge this congress and implore you to seriously consider and address this matter, the consequences of this situation as well as the impact thereof on the broader movement and our key objectives as a federation. We need to ask ourselves if the working class are the benefactors of this unhealthy situation.

As the head of the federation, I wish to report and unequivocally state to this congress that none of us in the CEC has ever risen to challenge and condemn anyone of these two leaders or to condemn the resolution we adopted as the Central Committee to support Comrade Zuma.

All of us under the able leadership of the current COSATU President have continued to implement that resolution and have continuously made it clear to our detractors that it is only the workers at this congress who can, if you so deem it necessary and appropriate to reverse this resolution. This congress has come and you are here and only you can decide. I personally see no need for any change to the resolution except to strengthen it.


 * VAVI-MADISHA PROBLEM**

As I already indicated, the tensions, disputes and contestations within the alliance regarding the matter of Comrade Zuma has presented itself in many hurtful ways and in certain instances in destructive ways. I, Comrade Vavi, our federation, affiliates, the leadership and membership have not been spared from being victims. We all know what has been and is being reported in the media on the alleged conflict between myself and Comrade Vavi. You also know what has been reported in the media regarding the alleged source of alleged tensions between myself and Comrade Vavi. Not wholly unexpected, the issue is projected as a contest of the Zuma-Mbeki factions or supporters. I and Comrade Vavi are now classified as MBEKI and ZUMA supporters respectively. It has also been reported in the media that the leadership of this federation will be determined along these lines.

Congress is aware of the initiatives of the CEC to resolve the alleged tensions within the leadership ranks of the federation. Congress is also aware that a task team of Presidents of affiliates was appointed to address and resolve this matter. Congress is also aware that the report of the task team will not be tabled and debated here. As a leader of this federation, I expect that certain of the judgements I make must be respected. Similarly I also feel bound to respect the decision of both the task team and the CEC not to present and debate this report here. However it is also important for me to address some of the issues that are now for good or bad measure in the public domain and which continue to perpetuate the hurt I have already alluded to. I do so very conscious of the sensitivity with which we must deal with matters of this nature but also with the need to ensure that we do not depend on speculation and innuendo to reach conclusions. For the record, I wish to reiterate what I have said before that I understand as my primary responsibility to carry out the mandate of the workers who elected me. I also wish to reiterate that whatever actions I take, I do so with the primary responsibility of those who elected me. Let me state without fear and hesitation that I will not waver on this principled position. I also wish to reiterate that I operate at the behest of the workers and this congress. Leadership to me is not about my own personal wants and wishes but what the workers expect of me. It is in this context that I regard myself bound and obliged to work with whomsoever the workers deploy me to work with, regardless of my personal feelings. In any event, as a leader of both an affiliate and the federation, I should expect to have differences with other leaders and members, but that does not mean I cannot work with such people. Let me reassure this congress that I stand by my previous position that I have always been and am still prepared to work with any democratically elected leader of this federation, Comrade Vavi not being an exception. Comrade Vavi, be rest assured that as a democratically elected leader, you enjoy my unreserved and unwavering support and I therefore see no reason why I cannot work with you. Let me remind this congress that it is the diversity of our views and approaches that has seen us through some the most challenging moments and difficulties in this federation.

Congress is aware that South Africa is a constitutional state, exactly what as a federation we fought for. Within this context we have a free and independent media. This media operates therefore on its own. As Comrade Vavi has said it is incorrect for the leaders of our federation to be making anonymous comments to the media on the positions of the structures. It is exactly this practice that fuels the suspicions amongst us and continues to create the impression that this federation is divided.

This federation has previously pronounced itself decisively on the issue of fairness and transparency when decisions affecting individuals are taken. This principle of innocence must always be our guiding principle and yardstick to measure how effective we are in dealing with various allegations levelled against the leadership of this federation. This federation, its leadership and membership must always exercise caution when serious allegations are made in the media particularly if the alleged sources of the information are not prepared to come forward and confirm their allegations and to avail themselves to be examined and the veracity of their allegations to be tested.


 * ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES**

Three years ago, you emerged with a programme based on the resolutions which were themselves guided by the 2015 programme. I stand before you with full confidence to report that the COSATU leadership has collectively done well in implementing the programme.

The programme, you evolved was mainly on jobs and poverty alleviation. South Africa and South Africans have seen the implementation of that programme in the streets through well organised and attended marches. These marches against job losses, disease and poverty were led by the COSATU and affiliate leadership. The effective and collective coordination of these actions are highly commended. Under normal circumstances we can give particularly the affiliates a high performance rating.

Our campaign was not only in the streets. We also took the battle to the boardrooms and parliament.

We are proud to report to this congress that we have been successful, but congress still needs to put this matter on the list of its priorities. We have made progress in managing to get government to move on the GEAR issue. We now need to accelerate the shift to attain our primary objective. This congress must therefore consider additional measure to ensure that we maintain the momentum.

I believe that believe we are still not doing well to unite all workers to realise our objective of one union one industry and one federation one country. We have already examined the need the implementation of this objective. We however seem to be unable to successfully implement it.

As Lenin teaches us, ‘Leftwing communism an infantile disorder’ that as an advanced section of the proletariat, we must work hard to bring to bring on board and unite with the most backward. I therefore believe that we still need to go even further to bring on board even those we view as too rightwing or backward. One we have done that, further work hard to teach them so that they can be on the same par with us. We must always remember that this federation is the product of intensive education and mobilisation projects.

We also seem to still be lagging behind in addressing the issue of gender equality. As a federation, we should have used the same vigour and became more aggressive during the launch of the women’s movement during the past two months.

This congress must now determine a structured organisational intervention. We need to release gender activists to go out and ensure that we consolidate on gender issues. This congress dare not leave the women movement in the hands of the festival of NGO’s. We must ensure that we establish a proper working class formation to pursue this matter.

We cannot succeed to build a strong and coherent federation unless we have well capacitated and trained shop stewards. We need to ensure that our shop stewards are taken through a comprehensive capacity building to ensure that we improve the quality of service we provide to our members. Our organisation’s strength resides in the capacity of our ground forces to organise, mobilise and service our members on the ground, to mount challenges to the bosses on the shop floor and to inform affiliate and federation programmes and campaigns.

Other unions outside of the federation have been able in certain instances to capitalise on their capacity to service their members more effectively. In certain instances, we have been found wanting on this aspect. We have no option but to ensure that our members not only get the best leadership available but also the best quality of service.

Unity is power. Unity made it possible for us, despite the painful dimensional circumstances during our formative years and during the struggle to attain what many thought was not attainable. We recently faced many serious challenges and we continue to face more challenges as we push forward towards consolidating working class power. We must exhibit the type of unity and cohesion displayed by our comrades in SATAWU during the security officer’s strike. Our collective unity and unity of purpose forced the employers to negotiate and come to their senses.

I call upon those who love their people, their country, their federation, those who believed indeed in consolidating working class powers for the intensification of the jobs and poverty campaign, those of us who appreciate the challenges and objectives the affiliates, the federation and the broad movement as well as the National Democratic Movement to work towards unity and cohesion that can save this movement.

More than anything, we need to be united not just in thoughts and words but in action and implementation. We need to ensure that this unity cascades down to all levels, provincial, regions and local.

Maybe now is the time for us to call on the leadership of the broader alliance to confront the real issues dividing our movement. Maybe now is the time to challenge every national, provincial and local leader and every member within our broader alliance to confront these issues.

As President of the federation, I wish to make a special request and appeal to both the President of the ANC and the Secretary General of the SACP to lead this process and deliver to the movement a united front.


 * INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGES**

International challenges are many and momentous, but I wish to concentrate only for purposes of this input, on the Palestinian question. For decades now, the Palestinian people have suffered attacks from apartheid, Zionist Israel. Israel continues to kill innocent women and children with the ruthlessness that even we did not see during the erstwhile Apartheid S.A.

Children, women and men of Palestine are attacked with tanks and airplanes daily. Israel, with the support of Bush-Blair axis, does whatever it wants in the Middle East and in Palestine in particular. Israel has built an apartheid wall that divides families that blocks children from attending school.

Israel continues to exploit Palestinian economy by taking farms where olives are grown, and olives are the main economic export that brings revenue to Palestine, taxes due Palestinian government are taken by Israel.

It thus becomes necessary for this congress to pass a resolution that calls for sanctions against Apartheid Israel. We must call for divestments, boycotts, including intellectual boycotts.

We must resolve to stop our minerals industry from giving diamonds to Israeli diamond companies. We must resolve to call on the SA government to stop diplomatic relations with Israel.

Our march to realising our objectives as a federation remains unchanged. VIVA COSATU.

Thank you for listening, and once again welcome to this, the ninth national congress of COSATU.

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