Declaration+of+the+Third+COSATU+Central+Committee



=Declaration of the Third COSATU Central Committee=


 * //August 2005//**

1 The Context
The Third Central Committee of COSATU, the highest decision-making structure after the National Congress, comprising delegates from our 21 affiliates and the COSATU national office bearers, met on 15-18 August. We were joined by representatives of our Allies and civil society formations with whom we have developed close working relationships. Having considered reports from the COSATU Secretariat, and following deliberations, we adopted many measures and strategies to take forward our 2015 Programme, consolidate working class power and build our organisation.

We met in the context of the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter and the 20th Anniversary of COSATU. We also met as our country was marching into the second decade of democracy, and against the backdrop of a wave of strikes for a living wage and militant worker actions against the job-loss bloodbath.

Our meeting was characterised by a buoyant and confident mood as well as robust and frank debates. We are proud of the last 20 years of the Federation and are committed to spare no effort to defend our gains and take our organisation to new heights. On us rests a historic duty to preserve and nurture this movement for future generations.

We reviewed progress on the 2015 Plan adopted at COSATU’s Eighth National Congress. On the basis of this assessment we believe that the programme remains relevant but must be taken forward more strongly.

2 Progress in the National Democratic Revolution (NDR)
Remarkable progress has been made in the first decade of democracy. The foundations on which to achieve the aims of the NDR, as contained in the Freedom Charter, have been firmly established. Still we note that more needs to be done to meet the economic and social aims of the Charter. We reaffirm our commitment that the second decade of democracy must belong to the working class, the rural poor in particular.

All South Africans have equal rights on paper, yet actual access still depends on your economic situation. Our political democracy is largely limited to representative democracy. More must still be done to achieve the participatory democracy that would give practical meaning to the demand: “The people shall govern!”

In economic terms capital has gained the most from the first ten years of democracy. This is manifest in the rising share of capital in the national income on the back of retrenchments, casualisation, subcontracting, the soaring wage gap and poverty. Workers’ increased productivity has created the basis for bosses to reap enormous profits. In these circumstances, the workers’ share in the national income has declined steadily.

Bosses have selfishly rewarded themselves at the expense of the workers and the growth of the country. They have squandered profits by paying out generous dividends to shareholders, granting millions to top management and exporting capital rather than investing in South Africa.

We noted that organised labour and the broader working class must do more to ensure that this decade of democracy belongs to workers and the poor. We have made political, social and workplace gains in the law, but often our legal protections are not translated into practice. For this reason, we have launched a campaign to Pick up the Gains. It must ensure that every worker in every workplace enjoys their rights under the law. We will also take up the anti-racism campaign with greater vigour, and act against sexual harassment and the abuse of women and children. We shall use whatever leverage we have, including the control of our retirement funds, to discipline capital and achieve our economic and social aims.

Free market capitalism has proven incapable of leading the thoroughgoing transformation required to eradicate centuries of colonial oppression and decades of apartheid capitalist exploitation. We have only seen progress where the state itself has intervened.

Capital has not been placed under pressure in the first decade of democracy. As we march into the second decade of democracy we must place capital under pressure in order to transform the brutal capitalism that still exists in South Africa.

To that end we support the call for state-led development, in which the state plays an active and interventionist role on the basis of a coherent industrial strategy.

Shifts in class formation in South Africa have affected both capital and labour. Big white capital has increasingly integrated with international capital at the cost of workers and the poor in South Africa. On the other hand a small class of black capitalist has emerged, often based initially in the state. This group has used political connections to increase its influence and power. This has been accompanied by the emergence of a black middle class.

The working class has also undergone tremendous change. A large number of workers have been retrenched and joined the millions who are unemployed. Casual and atypical forms of employment have also grown, as employers avoid labour laws and seek to hold down costs. This could have long-run implications for the unity and power of the labour movement.

Changes in the forces that were arrayed against apartheid have far-reaching implications for the unity of the democratic movement and, in that context, working class leadership. Some within the black community have become wealthy although the vast majority remain trapped in poverty. As a result, class differences and contradictions are increasingly coming to the fore within the black community and the liberation movement.

The South African revolution takes place in the context of a rich history of liberation struggles from which we can learn. To that end, our Central Committee drew the following lessons from the Zimbabwean revolution:


 * A revolution ceases to be progressive if it does not advance the interests of the motive forces. In Zimbabwe the revolution is off the rails and the state has turned against the working class and the peasantry.
 * Failure to transform the colonial economy means the NDR there was pursued on an unsustainable economic base. Liberation cannot coexist with a colonial economy based on extraction of raw materials, cheap labour and exclusion of the masses from productive activity.
 * The use of left rhetoric to justify or mask right-wing economic interventions may let a progressive liberation movement turn against its popular base.
 * It is difficult for unions to avoid being affected by divisions within political parties.

In reviewing progress in South Africa, we noted the ANC’s decisive electoral victory in 2004, combined with the crisis of neo-liberalism globally as well as some progressive modifications of government policy, at least since 2000. These trends have shifted the balance of forces in favour of the democratic movement.

In the past few years, government has increased its emphasis on restructuring the economy, with a somewhat more relaxed fiscal stance. At the same time, the basic tenets of GEAR, in particular the focus on exports and free markets, still largely guide government policies.

In these circumstances, any shift in government policy remains limited and contested, and at times full of contradictions. COSATU will continue to fight for the transformation of the economy to benefit workers and the poor. In this Third Central Committee, we have developed detailed and more coherent proposals for an industrial strategy. We are working with Naledi to audit government policy across the board, and will present the results to our November 2005 Central Executive Committee. This work will be fed into our structures for further debate and analysis, as part of the process of drawing lessons from the first decade and taking forward our resolve that this second decade shall belong to workers and the poor.

The Third Central committee stressed that government policy will only favour the working class if workers and the poor organise and act to support their demands. We welcomed the militancy of workers in the recent strike wave, as well as workers’ support for the general strike for jobs and against poverty in June.

Shifts in the balance of power in part are a product of popular struggles waged by the working class globally and at home.

This has opened up a confluence of opportunities to accelerate the pace of the NDR.

The ANC’s decisive victory places a burden on all Alliance members to meet the demands of our constituency. At the same time, COSATU must make sure that its strong role in the elections campaign translates into real gains for the working class.

We want to realise our demand that the Alliance as a whole drives transformation.

We must seize this historic moment as no balance of forces remains static. Inaction in the context of a largely favourable balance of forces would be counter-revolutionary.

3 Commitments from the Central Committee
Against this background our Central Committee committed to the following actions.


 * //3.1// //Consolidating Working Class Power//**

As stipulated in our medium-term vision captured in the 2015 Plan, building working class power means the following:


 * Building strong working class organisation, and in particular the labour movement;
 * Fighting for sustainable quality jobs; and
 * Asserting working-class hegemony nationally and internationally.

This requires creative combination of our mass power, access to state power and other tools of engagement. To that end we commit to the following:

a. To sustain and take working class action and mobilisation to new heights on a number of fronts. b. To contribute to the development of an industrial strategy to fundamentally change the accumulation regime inherited from apartheid. In that context, we will challenge the narrow approach to BEE. c. To strengthen our organisation and build the unity of the working class. d. To develop, and do more to refine and co-ordinate, our engagement strategy and mobilisation. e. To build a strong Alliance and implement the Alliance programme of action and to build tactical alliances with other civil society and other forces on a range of issues. f. To intensify our contribution to the movement challenging global capitalism.


 * //3.2// //The Jobs and Poverty Campaign//**

We noted the success and overwhelming response to the Jobs and Poverty Campaign, most recently the general strike on 27 June. The strike has yielded some positive results, even though not all our demands have been met. These outcomes include:


 * The establishment of Alliance task teams to discuss urgent interventions for clothing, mining and other sectors. The clothing and textile task team has made important progress but the others have made virtually none. We call on all the task teams to meet urgently and develop strong proposals for their sectors.
 * Some of the threatened retrenchments in mining and in the clothing industry have been reversed or at least substantially reduced.
 * Government has reiterated its commitment to developing an industrial strategy and sectoral strategies in that context.
 * There is agreement across society that our currency be placed at a competitive level. More engagement is needed to define competitive level and the instruments that must be used to achieve it. In this debate COSATU will be guided by the resolutions of our Eighth National Congress.
 * NEDLAC has begun to engage on proposals from the Department of Labour to protect casualised and outsourced workers.

Despite these gains, we are disappointed by limited progress with the retailers and other employers generally. COSATU had called for a commitment by retailers to sign a code committing them to procure locally and asked all employers to avoid retrenchments.

We remain committed to pursue our rolling mass action in support of the Jobs and Poverty campaign, which runs until February 2006 and includes periodic national stayaways as well as sectoral action.

As a goodwill gesture, to allow employers more space to reconsider their position, we decided to postpone the provincial strikes that were initially scheduled to begin on 29 August in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape so that they begin on 3 October. Gauteng and Northwest will have a strike on 10 October, followed by the Northern Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga on 17 October and KwaZulu Natal and Limpopo on 25 October. We will organise full day instead of half-day stayaways.

We hope that the retail companies and employers will use this gesture of postponement to pursue an agreement on the outstanding issues.

In the run-up to 3 October and beyond, we will mobilise our members to continue, through pickets and demonstrations, to target employers who casualise, subcontract and use labour brokers, as well as those who practise racism. Furthermore, we shall continue to struggle for better wages across all industries and will support actions taken by workers in pursuit of this objective.


 * //3.3// //Building a Strong and United Movement//**

The 2015 Plan set an ambitious target of growing our membership by 10 per cent a year to reach the goal of four million members in 2009. We note that instead, the past year saw a slight decline in paid-up membership in COSATU as a whole.

We must redouble our efforts to ensure an effective recruitment campaign.

We reaffirm that the basis of a successful recruitment and retention strategy is service to members. We recommit ourselves to do everything in our power to improve our work in this area. We will embark on a campaign to listen to our members, strengthen our internal systems and procedures, and focus on the needs of women and young workers.

We noted that achieving our aims requires maximum cohesion of the working class. Political contestation outside the union movement can foster factionalism and divisions. We can fight this tendency only by ensuring true democracy and open debate in every COSATU union, and by taking forward strong programmes of action. We will fight against destructive factions or cliques in our ranks in whatever form.

We again call for the unity of the working class. Ultimately we seek to unify all of organised labour, including independent unions and other federations. The Central Committee agreed to again approach NACTU and FEDUSA for serious talks. No one should imagine that it is possible to build effective unity without COSATU, which remains by far the strongest and largest labour movement in the country.

More must be done to organise farm workers and other vulnerable workers. We can no longer sit idly by while almost a million farm workers lack the protection of a union, leaving them exposed to the worst forms of abuse and exploitation. We will embark on a concerted campaign with our Allies, government and social movements to transform the rural areas and protect farm workers.

We reiterated COSATU’s commitment to ensuring the liberation of women, who continue to suffer from triple oppression in factories, villages, families and schools across our society. The Central Committee called on both men and women activists and leaders to struggle for the emancipation of women, grounded in a Marxist-Leninist understanding of the issue.


 * //3.4// //Engagement on Industrial Strategy//**

For two days, the Central Committee broke into commissions on an industrial strategy that will create decent work and deal with the mass poverty left by apartheid. The discussion documents presented to the plenary and the resolutions from the commissions will form the basis of our claims for economic transformation.

We are encouraged by the call made by President Thabo Mbeki, and echoed by the Minister of Trade and Industry, for more engagement on sector strategies. We particularly welcome the President’s commitment to more Alliance task teams on major sectors.

We will ensure a more strategic approach to tripartite engagements, including at NEDLAC and on sectors. COSATU must secure more targeted involvement of office bearers and an improvement in co-ordination and report-backs. We will analyse the impact of social dialogue on our ability and strategy to challenge and criticise capital.

We call on our government and the employers to recommit themselves to social dialogue through NEDLAC, the institution established by our democratic Parliament for that purpose.


 * //3.5// //Workers’ Capital//**

Workers control or have access to resources that, combined, are an important source of social and economic capital. This includes resources under the command of the retirement industry, cooperatives and union investments. These resources must be used as leverage to broaden social ownership, discipline capital and achieve other social and economic objectives.

Workers’ retirement funds will increasingly be used more consistently to back our economic demands.

We will convene a conference to assess the extent to which our capital is being used to achieve our objectives and to define a strategy to respond to the new initiatives around broad-based BEE. Each affiliate will be asked to report on the costs and benefits for workers of BEE in their sector.

We call for workers and unions to take a more active role in the affairs of retirement funds, in line with COSATU’s longstanding policy. This should include the manner in which these funds are invested or managed.

In this context we support the declaration of the trustees’ summit last year, which calls for members’ democracy, trustees’ training and a code to guard against trustees enriching themselves.

Union investment companies have the potential to change patterns of ownership and to provide benefits to our members. In fact, however, the management of investment companies remains a challenge to our solidarity. We agree that we need to assess whether they have in fact helped transform the economy. We must make stronger efforts to stop them from competing at the cost of unity in the Federation and from undermining union objectives, in particular around solidarity and the effective representation of workers.

We salute affiliates who have managed to establish a tight control of their investment companies. These unions have also extended real benefits to members and their families.

We reaffirm the Federation’s policy guidelines for union investment companies and urged the investment council to ensure that these companies and unions adhere to our policy.


 * //3.6// //Corruption//**

The system of capitalism breeds and thrives on corruption. Every activist who is tempted by the desire to amass wealth in the shortest possible period by any means possible has a political responsibility to resist this temptation. Corruption remains a major risk and should be attacked wherever it occurs. Only a strong democratic movement and open government provide some protection. We are encouraged by the pronouncements of the recent ANC NGC on this matter. We call on COSATU leaders and indeed the Alliance and leaders of the democratic movement as a whole to lead by example.

We call on the Alliance to develop clear guidelines on when and how political leaders and officials can invest in the private sector. We call for speedy implementation of the ANC NGC call for development of a more detailed policy to have cool-off periods for government leaders and senior officials before they can be allowed to invest in areas they regulated whilst in government. Regulations should ensure that no government official or leader may advantage specific BEE partners outside the framework of government policy. Our formations should aggressively deal with corruption through more effective internal structures, as well as through external means such as the courts.


 * //3.7// //Intensify the struggle and against HIV and AIDS//**

We reiterate our concern about the continued lack of firm and determined action to combat the HIV and AIDS epidemic, despite the existence of a comprehensive government programme. In this regard we make the following demands:


 * We call on the Department of Health to convene an urgent National HIV and AIDS Prevention Summit to devise a more effective implementation strategy before the end of 2005. The new strategy should take into account gender, poverty, and access to information, and must go beyond the simplistic ABC model.
 * We support the national treatment target of at least 200 000 people to be put on antiretrovirals by the end of 2006. We shall encourage voluntarily testing and counselling of workers as part of the new implementation strategy.
 * We call for the extension of the deadline for submissions on the draft national health charter and human resources framework for the public sector, in order to allow key stakeholders such as trade unions to submit their proposals.
 * We call on the CEC to develop proposals on nurse/patient, doctor/patient and general support staff/patient ratios, in order to relieve the huge burden placed on health workers and deliver quality health care to our people

4 International
In our analysis of the international situation we noted the unilateral actions by the USA and its allies. We noted the dominance of global politics and economics by a powerful alliance of transnational corporations and the triad consisting of USA, Western Europe and Japan. It also analysed the rise of China and India as an important development in the international balance of forces.

We welcomed the global action to challenge the hegemony of capital and the dominance of the developed countries. We noted the emerging alliances amongst developing countries led by Brazil, South Africa, China and India, which also have their own contradictions.

In this context, we welcome the merger between the ICFTU and WCL as an important contribution towards worker unity and we call for even broader international trade union unity.

We noted that the movement to challenge global capital lacks cohesion and direction, and called for a minimum global programme as a basis to rally progressive states, political parties, social movements and trade unions. The World Social Forum signals a new internationalism and offers a platform to define and develop a minimum global programme of action.

We noted that capital mobility pits workers against workers, including on the African continent. We will do more to support workers’ organisation throughout Africa, including through union-to-union contact, to avoid the race to the bottom on production and wages. The international desk of the Federation must facilitate meetings with affiliates for the purpose of coordination and sharing information.

We support the move to grant a loan to Zimbabwe to avoid a total economic collapse, but only if it includes conditions to protect democracy and labour rights and an end to state repression.

We salute the work of the South African Council of Churches to highlight the plight of the Zimbabwean people and coordinate relief efforts.

We note the catastrophic famine engulfing Niger and other African countries. We salute the efforts of civil society and governments to address this crisis. We call for national and international effort to bring relief to the millions who face food shortages. It is ironic that famine coexists with overproduction and over-consumption in the developed world. We commit ourselves to do whatever we can to contribute to this national and international effort.

We salute the efforts of President Thabo Mbeki and the government to achieve peace and stability on the African continent. Peace is a precondition to development and no effort should be spared to achieve lasting peace. We declare our willingness to lend our support to efforts to find lasting peace in our continent and elsewhere in the world. We are encouraged to note that there are fewer active conflicts on the African continent today than there were a decade ago.

5 Local Government Elections
We believe that local government should be accorded the status that it deserves. Local government plays an important economic development and service delivery role, crucial to improving the living conditions of our people.

We acknowledge that the democratic movement must take blame for the deep-seated perception of endemic and widespread corruption. The democratic movement has often used generalisations instead of being more specific about problems of corruption and failure to deliver services. These statements also undermined the good work being done by many councillors to keep in dynamic contact with the people and serve their needs, often under very trying conditions.

Whereas many municipalities have made progress in discharging their developmental and service-delivery roles, we note that many face serious problems. Some municipalities do not have an adequate revenue base and capacity to discharge their constitutional mandate. In short, there is a mismatch between the resources available to municipalities and the enormous task to ensure local economic development in the midst of poverty and unemployment.

Devolution of responsibility by national government without the commensurate resources has added an extra burden. This is complicated by insufficient transfers of resources to this sphere of government, particularly municipalities that lack the requisite resources.

As we approach the local government elections, we believe that there should be a new deal for municipalities. Efforts should be directed to building the capacity of the local government, including allocation of resources by national and provincial governments. In this regard we welcome government’s Project Consolidate as an attempt to prioritise service deliver and capacity building in municipalities facing serious challenges. We remain opposed to privatisation and commodification of services.

While we recommit to support the ANC-led campaign, it must be based on a common commitment to support local government. The Alliance should be involved in the development of the manifesto. The demands stated in the Secretariat report form the basis of COSATU’s submission.

As we emerge from this Central Committee we commit to step up efforts to ensure massive voter registration on 3 September and to ensure a decisive ANC victory. In addition we call for the following:


 * Democratisation of the list process to reflect the decision of ANC and Alliance structures
 * A mechanism to monitor implementation of the manifesto after the election.
 * Adequate funding, development of capacity and effective organisational systems for local government as a key site of delivery.

6 Alliance
We welcome the improved relationship in the Alliance, and in particular the declaration and programme adopted at the Alliance Summit in April this year. We call for immediate implementation of all the elements of that programme. We note however that the Alliance still does not provide strategic leadership for the NDR. COSATU and its affiliates will track the participation of union activists in the ANC and the SACP, as part of the decision in the 2015 Plan to strengthen the Alliance partners and ensure working class leadership and bias.

We call for reform of the Alliance deployment strategy. The present system fosters patronage and careerism. A more open and inclusive decision-making process is needed, with strong input from all the Alliance partners. We welcome the ANC NGC call to reconsider the Mafikeng ANC national conference decision that gave power to the President to appoint premiers and mayors.

7 ANC
Under no circumstances should the ANC give up its traditions of working-class leadership, internal democracy and debate in exchange for a western-style bureaucratic political party geared only to winning elections.

We call for the speedy implementation of the ANC Stellenbosch conference resolution calling for creation of an ANC institution to build its own independent research capacity as well as capacity to develop and monitor policy.

8 SACP
We noted with satisfaction the growing profile and strength of the SACP. We are encouraged by the manner in which the SACP has been mobilising the working class behind important campaigns and demands. We shall continue to collaborate with the SACP in pursuance of these campaigns. In particular we shall effectively participate in the campaign to demand amnesty for the poor from credit bureaux and for agrarian reform. We seek a much tighter coordination of the demands of our 2015 Programme and the SACP’s medium-term vision, as well as pursuit of our common demand that this decade of freedom be a workers’ decade.

We shall engage effectively with the SACP Central Committee Commission on contesting state power and its attitude on developing an economic manifesto. We call on affiliates to deepen debates in their ranks on these issues.

9 Social Movements
We reaffirmed the need for stronger and more consistent cooperation with other formations in civil society, including expanding the coalition around jobs and poverty. These coalitions must be conducted within the context of the Eighth National Congress Resolution on work with social movements.

We reject suggestions in the media that these coalitions are a move to re-establish the UDF, or the beginnings of the creation of a so-called left party. These coalitions are tactical in nature and do not seek to replace the strategic alliance we have with the ANC and the SACP or seek to create an anti-ANC block.

10 ANC Deputy President
We discussed the situation around the ANC Deputy President at length. We are convinced that we are dealing with a concerted, politically inspired campaign aimed at destroying the political career of the Deputy President. We would look no further than the active collaboration between the National Prosecuting Authorities and some in the media as the main feature of this. This includes leaks from inside the highest structures of our movement and government that fed into the hysterical trial by the media. We resolved:

1. To call on the President of South Africa to review the decision to relieve Comrade Zuma of his responsibilities as the Deputy President of South Africa. 2. To call for the withdrawal of all the charges against Comrade Zuma. It is clear that he cannot get a fair trial. COSATU will start a petition campaign to call on the President to ensure a withdrawal of charges. 3. If the case goes ahead despite our calls, COSATU demands a fair hearing and a full bench to hear the case. We will ensure that whenever Comrade Zuma appears in court, our people will demonstrate //en masse//. 4. To call on COSATU affiliates, members and the public to contribute to the “Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust Fund” to support Comrade Jacob Zuma by assisting with his legal costs and well-being. 5. To engage the Alliance in the context of the NGC decision on this matter, in order to find a political solution and avoid divisions that could result from this saga.

11 Media
We noted that the media is consistently hostile to working-class culture and values. COSATU will embark on a sustained campaign for the transformation of media in particular the public broadcaster, the SABC, in order to ensure coverage and promotion of workers’ culture and values and to improve coverage of worker news. We demand representation on the SABC Board.

12 Transformation of the Judiciary
We recognise attempts to introduce legislation to transform the judiciary. Yet past inequalities in the racial and gender composition of the judiciary persist after the eleven years after we attained our freedom. Some judgements still reflects racial, class and gender stereotypes and bias.

While accepting the principle of the independence of the judiciary, we however reject efforts to hide behind this principle to block transformation or fair criticism of judgements that are patently prejudiced. Judicial officers are not unaffected or insulated from being influenced by race, class and/or gender when making decisions.

We reject biased judgements that have trampled on our rights, as in the NUMSA vs. Fry Metals case, which have created dangerous precedents that would allow employers to change working conditions with impunity. The attack on NUMSA members in Fry Metals is an attack on the entire members of COSATU and our hard won gains.

We also note that the LRA and the Competition Act are not helpful in protecting workers in the cases of company liquidation or job losses that occur as the consequence of company mergers. We instruct the CEC to set up a task team to analyse and propose new amendments to the Labour Relations and Competition Acts to close the loopholes.

We call for an open debate in society on the transformation of the judiciary and the legal profession. Transformation includes, but is not limited to, achieving racial and gender parity, changing attitudes towards the aspirations and needs of the working class and the poor; progressive gender perspective; change in the language of the courts; access to and the administration of justice, and building a prosperous non-racial non-sexist and democratic South Africa that would not tolerate inequalities inherited from apartheid capitalism.

Congress of South African Trade Unions 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets Braamfontein, 2017
 * Paul Notyhawa (Spokesperson)

P.O.Box 1019 Johannesburg, 2000 South Africa

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