2005-10-14,+Swazi+workers+academy+(IRALE)+is+launched

= “The Workers Academy” =

Discussion framework towards a Founding document as presented to the inaugural launch. of the International Research Academy for Labour and Education, popularly known as the WORKERS ACADEMY in Johannesburg, 26th February, 2005 at DITSELA offices.

1. Background to the need for a Workers academy

The launch of this ideological engine of workers is a landmark in the history of the Swazi working people’s struggle to conquer and abolish the system of royal slavery, semi-feudal oppression and neo-colonial exploitation, characterized as tinkhundla aristocratic rule in Swaziland. This is because it is the first of its kind in Swaziland, specially dedicated to the ideological development of workers and deep analysis of the broad struggle for democracy and social justice in Swaziland, in line with the class interests of workers.

Any workers movement cannot make the desired impact unless it relies on accurate information and facts to engage, campaign and develop strategies for effective advance. A trade union movement or any social force, for that matter, that relies on sheer gossip and disjointed pieces of information cannot be able to understand the whole picture upon which to engage with the regime and its institutions, therefore half-baked solutions, short-cuts and even outright opportunism inevitably result.

This is why it is important for an effective working class movement to engage with the arena of research and education as critical pillars of the struggle for new, correct and workable alternatives, including the battle of ideas in general. No other motto could be as relevant as that of, Building social consciousness through working class education, for the purpose for which this institution has been established.

Swaziland is a society marked by a serious crisis of ideological and political drought in terms of intellectual debates and ideas. The lack of an advanced working class political representative articulating the primary (class) interests of workers and the struggle for socialism is the most obvious reason for this political bankruptcy, despite the huge contribution made by progressive forces, which are multi-class in orientation, with constantly shifting and vacillating ideological tendencies.

The reality is that, there has been a tendency amongst sectors of the progressive movement, particularly the trade union movement, to discourage the development of progressive ideas, hence the discouragement of political education, debates and research on critical issues affecting workers and the poor in general. This is the primary reason why there has been such a terrible decay of cadreship and revolutionary activism in the whole movement, as well as rampant opportunism within the ranks of the workers movement in general. The struggle to defeat the tinkhundla regime begins with a clear leadership rooted in working class understanding and a clearly progressive programme for change. For this problem, the political movement must also be blamed for its failure to effectively deliver clear leadership and advanced analysis out of the confusion, instead it has engaged in political gymnastics with the trade union movement, without offering clear and viable alternatives to the leadership dilemma.

2. Objectives

There are four main objectives;


 * To provide support to trade unions and community organizations through capacity building and leadership development
 * To conduct research and provide information to unions for negotiations and campaigns work
 * To develop worker activists and shopstewards to become quality and advanced cadres of the working class movement
 * To link workers’ issues at the workplace with broader social issues facing our country and society in general

3. Structure and character of the Swazi economy

Swaziland is a country with high income-inequalities than in most developed countries and high by standards of the developing world according to a study by the UNDP for 2000.

There are two major causes of the persistent inequality in Swaziland;


 * First, the deliberate policy of the tinkhundla royal regime to monopolise national resources and allocate these in favour of their own narrow selfish interests, to the total exclusion of the suffering masses of Swaziland;
 * Secondly, the economy has experienced growth that has not translated into development and benefit for the majority of the people of Swaziland.

This situation is made worse by the fact that the economy of the country is going through a deep-seated structural crisis, resulting in the lack of growth, which is indicated by the fact that economic growth dropped to 1.5% in 2002, compared to 2.5% for 2000 and 3.7% in 1999, according to the Annual Report of the Central Bank of Swaziland for 2002. This situation is further compounded by the fact that the country is also suffering from a lack of foreign direct investment inflows.

All this is a result of a political and socio-economic crisis engulfing the country, brought about by a system without a vision, characterized by rampant corruption and fragmentation, parasitism, and deepening poverty levels. In this regard, instead of creating new jobs and protecting the existing ones, the economy is destroying the remaining jobs. This explains the terrifying unemployment levels in the country.

The key features of the Swazi economy, as indicated by a UNDP study include:


 * High levels of poverty
 * About 70% of the population live in rural areas
 * The bulk of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority
 * Land remains largely in the hands of a few
 * The economy is still agro-based
 * The economy is no longer expanding, thus it is destroying jobs and not creating new ones, which also make it fail to absorb new job seekers
 * The economy is largely dependant on the economy of South Africa, particularly for revenue as indicated by the close to 50% SACU revenue which remains a key source of revenue for the country
 * Ultimately, the economy is going through a deep-seated structural crisis

The GNP per capita of $1360(1999) classify Swaziland as a middle income country, disregarding huge inequalities so obvious in the country, assuming that the size of the economy, in relation to the population, automatically means guaranteed access for all to basic resources, which is not the case in reality.

This is what has led to many progressive economists and development activists questioning the use of per capita GNP as a proper measure of development. According to Todaro(1997), "the experience of the 1950s and 1960s, when a large number of third world nations did achieve the overall growth targets, but the living standards of the masses remained for the most part unchanged, signaled that something is wrong with this narrow definition of development subsumed in the growth rate of per capita GNP".

There is no automatic link between income growth and human development, and therefore the growth of per capita income over time should not be the only measure of human welfare.

Fundamentally, development should be measured in terms of poverty levels, income distribution and levels of material satisfaction in a country, and not just economic growth rates.

The average picture of wealth, as indicated by the growth rate, as well as social audit, tend to hide the high level of inequality, poverty and deprivation so evident in the country. This shows that since the 1968 independence the standard of living of the great majority of Swazis has not improved. Instead, inequalities have deepened as indicated by the following characteristics;


 * Huge unequal distribution of income and living conditions
 * Regional disparities in income and living conditions
 * Skewed property income and land ownership
 * Inequality in upward mobility and favouritism in social opportunities
 * Unequal access to safe and clean water and sanitation facilities
 * Unequal access to basic education and employment
 * Massive rural and urban poverty and landlessness

Manzini region has the highest human development index while Shiselweni has the lowest due to the high rates of unemployment in the Shiselweni region. More than that, this also reflects the patterns of development in Swaziland which are urban-biased while the majority of the people live in rural areas, under conditions of total neglect. On the other hand, Lubombo region is said to have the highest life expectancy index, followed by Manzini and Hhohho regions, while Shiselweni again, has the lowest of them all.

In terms of gender performance, a Human development report of the UN made an example of how Swaziland fares when it stated that, "the proportion of female parliamentarians in Swaziland is 6.3% (SADC target being 30% by 2005), which makes Swaziland perform worse than any other country within SADC and to rank 62 out of 70 countries listed under the gender empowerment measure (GEM) in the world".

Swaziland is currently listed as the leading country (2005), confirmed at 42% by the Sunday times of Swaziland, dated 13th March, 2005, with the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world according to the UNDP.

Children are orphaned, workers' productivity suffers, families are broken and left without breadwinners, children's education suffers as parental care and national resources are stretched, people die young and poverty is deepened by these conditions - all as a result of the HIV/AIDS catastrophe. The government has no political will to deal decisively with this pandemic, which is compounded by the regime's systematic encouragement and practice of patriarchy and cultural abuse.

Statistics indicate a serious increase in the number of people infected with the disease. At the same time, impact on our communities has been devastative. While HIV/AIDS can affect anybody, it hits workers and the poor hardest. Our programme to fight this epidemic must therefore be part of the struggle against poverty; to make basic health services, clean water and sanitation accessible to all our people; to improve nutrition and food security; to fight against opportunistic diseases, malnutrition and to promote the empowerment of workers, women and youth.

We must mobilize and support the international effort to ensure affordable access to medicines, including medicines used against HIV/AIDS in the developing world through engaging pharmaceutical companies to stop seeking to make profit at the expense of human lives in the true spirit of "putting people before profits".

4. Global development fact file


 * About 28 people die of hunger every day in Africa, while the world spends about $4 million per day on military.
 * One billion people live on less than $1 a day.
 * Since 1990, the number of poor people has increased by an average of 10 million a year.
 * One billion people are undernourished, underweight and live in water scarce areas.
 * 1,2 billion people lack access to clean water and hundreds of millions breathe in unhealthy air
 * By 1998, the heavily indebted poor countries had international debts of $214 billion - a huge sum for them, but equal to only 4,5 months of western military spending
 * In 1993, the US population had a combined income greater than the poorest 43% of the world's population.
 * Nearly 25 million people in the world die each year because of lack of clean water and adequate sanitation.
 * Africa accounts for about 2% of world trade.
 * The number of Africa's poor has grown and Africa's share of the world's absolute poor increased from 25% to 30% in the 1990s.
 * According to UN statistics, women do 60% of the world's work, yet only get 10% of the world's income and own only 1% of the world's property.

Most of the information is obtained from World Summit facts and figures - Sawubona magazine of SAA, January, 2002

The summary here is that more and more people are getting poorer and a few are getting richer. Most of those getting poorer are from sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of whom are women.

This explains why the situation of Swaziland must be located in the context of a global order that serve the interests of a tiny minority of rich elites, both in the rich countries of the north and the poor countries of the South. Therefore, the problem must be understood very clearly as both and international and national problem.

A study published in April 2001, for example, indicates that the share of income going to the poorest 10% of the world's population declined by 27%, while that going to the richest 10% increased 8% (Robert Wade, the Economist, 16/4/2001).

5. The workers struggle is a struggle for an alternative economic system

When workers engage in struggle for better wages, improved working conditions, maternity and paternity rights, they are fundamentally struggling for a society that will guarantee them these rights on a sustainable and guaranteed basis, and that society is certainly not the tinkhundla royal misrule. It is a society based on social justice, gender equality, democratic ownership of the economy and workers power.

A society built on the foundations of inequality and exploitation of workers cannot guarantee dignity and satisfy the needs of workers, but must be entirely abolished to make way for a new, democratic and just society based on the will of the people.

Workers cannot satisfy their own needs separate from those of the majority of the people, who happened to be poor and exploited by the same system.

There is a fundamental need to re-organise economic priorities from too much pre-occupation with high GNP growth rates towards broader social objectives such as the eradication of poverty and elimination of huge income inequalities.

Economic development is when society develops economically as its members increase jointly their capacity for dealing with the environment for maximum gains out of it.

It is important to understand the redistribution of resources and economic development as not opposites. Part of the demand for the redistribution of wealth and resources are means for social consumption and means for further creation of resources and wealth.

Development raises labour productivity to a higher level, which leads to increased wealth accumulation. This can be done by investing more resources in the productive initiatives of communities, by working more efficiently and diligently, as well as by raising the technical standards of the means of production.

The central goal of our economic understanding is that key to any economic policy is the democratization of the economy and empowering the poor and marginalized, as well as eliminating the economic disparities created and consolidated by colonialism and its off- spring, tinkhundla. This shall involve the stipulation of social and economic development targets and the removal of prevailing imbalances and entrenched privileges.

It is a fact of life that women;


 * Bear much of the responsibility of house work;
 * Spend more time on child care;
 * Are paid less for equal work as their male counterparts;
 * Are less educated and have less opportunities for upward mobility in life.

In this regard, the liberation of women shall come with a society that is based upon justice and equality. It is not automatic, but a process to transform the oppressive gender relations - the existing relationship between men and women, specifically those which have defined and assigned a subordinate social position for the women, which have had deep roots in the socio-economic and cultural norms, have shaped the attitudes and values of the people from time immemorial.

In general, women are marginalized in the decision-making process. Within some circles there is a demand for power sharing rather than dismantling of the present/existing power relations. Since power sharing does not necessarily challenge the institutions that reinforce gender inequalities, there is a need for the total dismantling of such institutions.

Aggressive efforts should be made to improve the living and working conditions of women, by direct campaigns and policies aimed at eliminating poverty, particularly targeting women.

Such efforts may include the provision of training and employment opportunities as well as improved access to the necessities of production, all of which can enhance the productivity of women and their full participation and development in the country’s economy.

The patterns of development, particularly as they favour urban development, in our country have led to a widening gap in income between men and women, such policies make it difficult for women to get training and employment in favour of men.

Several trends related to this bias have had similar consequences, thus increasing urbanization, further widens the gap in income as women have fewer income earning opportunities in the urban sector economy, as a result of its highly skewed character.

The system of education in our country is a reflection and a fruit of the surrounding underdevelopment, from which arise its failures, its quantitative and qualitative weaknesses.

Human resources of a country constitute the ultimate basis for a country's natural wealth. Capital and natural resources are passive factors of production, human beings are the active agents, who accumulate capital, exploit natural resources, build social, political and economic organizations and carry forward national development.

Clearly, a country that is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of its people will be unable to develop their productive participation in the national economy and therefore, will be unable to do anything else.

By reflecting the political structures of the societies in which they function, educational systems serves to perpetuate, reinforce and reproduce these structures. On the other hand, education transformation has the great potential for bringing about fundamental social and economic transformation in the country as a whole.

Equitable development also involves a broader perspective, first and foremost, it needs to be viewed in the context of far reaching transformation of economic and social structures, institutions, relationships and processes in rural areas. The goals of rural development cannot simply be restricted to agricultural and economic growth. Rather they must be viewed in terms of a balanced economic and social development with emphasis on the more equitable distribution, as well as the rapid generation of the benefits of higher levels of living.

Among these broader goals, therefore, are the creation of more productive employment opportunities both on and off the firm, more equitable distribution of rural income, more widely distributed improvements in health, nutrition, housing and finally, a broadened access to both formal and non-formal education for adults, as well as children of a sort that will have direct impact on the needs and aspirations of rural people.

Finally, the Academy must have an immediate interest in defending and advancing both the social and economic interests of workers, linking them to the fundamental questions of seeking to create a new society based on respect for human dignity.

This is where it is important to establish the link between issues, for instance, the struggle against privatization, unemployment, retrenchments, etc, and for economic justice, is at the same time a struggle for a new economic policy, and therefore a fundamental struggle for a new socio-economic system.


 * The response of the Swazi regime to the socio-economic crisis**

It is against this background that we assess the restructuring agenda of the Swazi government in view of the huge challenges facing the country and its people. The regime has taken the neo-liberal road to the restructuring of the socio-economic crisis facing Swaziland. This is what the Swazi government calls an " Internal Adjustment Programme". As other forms of structural adjustments programmes driven by the world bank and the IMF, this programme is based on the logic of transforming everything into a commodity and putting people's lives under the dictates of the market at all levels of social life. It includes, privatizing much of the public sector, deregulating the whole economy, de-subsidizing basic goods, cutting social expenditure (basic needs, wages and infrastructure development), etc. On the other hand, the state plays an important role in creating new conditions for the maximisation of profitability and private accumulation, by strengthening its repressive capacity; army, police, judiciary, intelligence forces, etc.

An equally important aspect of the government's agenda is to restructure the economy in such a way that the redistribution of the country's wealth will be extremely difficult.

The launch of the Internal Structural Adjustments Programme (ISAP) in the fiscal year 1995/96, which expressed itself in the form of the Public Sector Management Programme (PSMP) and its implementation plan, the Economic and Social Reform Agenda (ESRA) were an attempt by the regime to develop a response to its crisis, particularly in view of the intensified struggle by the poor for their rights and basic needs.

However, as the 2002 report of the Central Bank of Swaziland indicates, "the country's current economic slowdown is exceptionally deep and broad, with no evidence that the downward spiral that began two years ago will see a recovery". Almost all of these impact directly on the working class, rural masses, women, children and youth, as well as all poor people in general.

Therefore, the battle lines will have to be drawn around first reversing the effects of the current state initiatives and at the same time launching the offensive for a new economic order based on the needs of the poor, instead of profit and the narrow material desires of the privileged few.


 * The role of the Academy**

In view of the above and more challenges facing workers in Swaziland, given the picture painted above, the Academy seeks to provide workers with the necessary weapon of research, support and capacity building in their effort to defend the interests of workers and society as a whole.

The main problem facing Swaziland is the lack of a labour service provider and support centre, an institution, whose main duty will be to specialize in providing the requisite tools and weapons of worker development in all spheres, so as to fight the evils of a system that disempowers workers.

The emergence of the era of globalization and its attendant outcomes, such as privatization, casualisation, outsourcing and deregulation of the labour market, all which adversely affect workers, both at the workplace and in the community, has forced workers to realize that there is only one condition necessary for their defence, and that is worker education, research and organized strength at the workplace and in the community in general.

The Academy would also serve to promote unity amongst the different worker federations, as well as different forms of worker organisations in the country. It shall also work with other social structures, amongst them; youth, students, women, community organizations, academic institutions and other components of social development.

Finally, it would also serve the critical purpose of developing alternative and progressive development paradigms for the forces for change, particularly in support of trade union and workers demands for radical change in society, with the full backing of scientific facts and information, as well as the necessary capacity building.

3. Special projects of the Academy


 * Workers Culture project – an initiative to popularize workers culture and promote information about the rich history of workers struggle
 * Gender and economy project – building women leadership and deepening gender and class consciousness in society
 * Youth and work – a project meant to promote the active participation of young people in trade unions, engaging with school curriculum to promote working class values in the education system

The Author, Bongani Masuku is founding Chairperson of the initiative. He is also the Secretary General of the Swaziland Solidarity Network and co-ordinator of its Trade unions sector. He is the serving National Educator of COSATU.

This Paper was presented before the highly successful DITSELA support school for the Swazi trade union movement, held on the 09 – 13 May, 2005, here in Johannesburg, which had about 42 participants from the two federations (SFTU and SFL) in Swaziland and the independent teachers union (SNAT). It included evening exchange sessions with South African trade unions, from COSATU affiliates in many areas of trade union work.