COSATU+on+Freedom+Charter+anniversary



=Freedom Charter anniversary=

The Congress of South African Trade unions hails the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter. This historic document and the Congress of the People which adopted it on 26 June 1955 inspired the struggle against apartheid and today are the basis for our demands for labour rights, economic justice, and an open and democratic public service.

Every significant political statement from the liberation movement since 1955 has referred back to that momentous declaration. It is still quoted in speeches by government, civic and trade unions leaders.

But is it still relevant today? Over the past eleven years, we have made great strides forward in achieving some of the Charter’s demands. Since 1994, every man and woman has been able to take part in the administration of the country, as demanded in the Charter, through their right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all government at all levels.


 * Our democratic constitution goes a long way to providing our people with “equal rights and opportunities” as the Charter requires. All racist apartheid laws and practices have been outlawed and the section declaring that all national groups shall have equal rights is now the law of the land, even if not all racism has been eliminated.**

We have to admit however that we are yet to implement the section that declared that the people shall share in the country's wealth. The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, has not yet been restored to the people. The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry have not been transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole, as the Charter required. A small number of giant, still mainly white-owned, companies hold sway over our economy.

Although all who work are now free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers, it is manifestly not yet the case that “the state shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits” or that “men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work” that “there shall be a forty-hour working week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers.”

Workers in particular have a long struggle ahead to achieve these parts of the Freedom Charter. While we have been forging ahead on the political and human rights front, we are lagging far behind in the battle for economic freedom. The right to work is a fiction for the more than 22 million people who still live in poverty because unemployment remains at over 40 % of the working population.

That is why on the day after the anniversary, Monday 27 June, workers in their thousands will be leaving work and taking to the streets to demonstrate their anger at the catastrophic loss of jobs and the poverty and misery that unemployment brings with it. These workers are carrying forward the spirit of the Freedom Charter and making its demands relevant to today.

For fifty years, South African patriots and revolutionaries have fought under the banner of the Freedom Charter. Today, we must take this tradition forward. The Charter’s far-reaching demands are as relevant today as in the 1950s. It will help us to remain focused on those important parts of our struggle which we have not yet achieved but which are vital if we are serious about liberating our people and transforming their lives.

Cell: 082 491 1591 Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24 Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940 E-Mail: paul@cosatu.org.za**
 * Paul Notyhawa (Spokesperson)