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Business Report, Johannesburg, LABOUR, September 15, 2006
=Cosatu goes to congress riven by worst dissent in 20 years=


 * By Terry Bell**

Beneath a facade of unity, which will probably be constantly stressed by the leadership, 3 500 delegates representing the 21 Cosatu-affiliated trade unions will gather in Midrand next week for the federation's ninth national congress.

But not since 20 years ago, when political battles raged between the workerists and charterists, has the country's major trade union federation been so riven by dissent. There are echoes of that earlier, bitter battle in the arguments that now reverberate throughout the movement.

The workerists of the 1980s saw the best interests of the working people being served by an independent political party, which many believed would rise from within the movement. The charterists saw an alliance with the dominant ANC, signalled by the adoption of the Freedom Charter, as the best means of achieving this end. A future non-racist parliament and government would be where working class interests could triumph.

But the various radical workerist factions never presented any unified political structure. Some saw parliament as a means towards a more revolutionary end, while others maintained that the institution was a barrier to progress.

At the time of the formation of Cosatu in 1985, the workerists, united only in their demand for a future workers' party and opposed to the Stalinist SA Communist Party (SACP) and the bourgeois ANC, seemed in the ascendancy. The movement that brought together workers of all shades of political opinion proved incapable of producing the desired party. With the black consciousness movement over, there was a political vacuum.

That vacuum was filled by the ANC and its SACP ally, but not before some vicious political infighting. When Cosatu was launched, the exiled ANC and SACP were initially hostile to the new organisation. Their position was that the workers of South Africa were represented by the ANC-aligned SA Congress of Trade Unions.

Such hostility was understandable, since leading workerist figures such as the charismatic Metal and Allied Workers' Union leader, Moses Mayekiso, publicly referred to the Freedom Charter as a "bourgeois document" and castigated the SACP for its "Stalinism".

But there were a number of older, experienced trade unionists who had ANC links. A new generation of oppressed South Africans were also rediscovering their history, epitomised by the jailed Nelson Mandela, and the ANC and SACP.

For many workerists, realpolitik soon demanded that they forge links with the exiled ANC as South Africa's alternative, anti-apartheid government. The call for a workers' party, separate from the ANC and SACP, did not die but began to fade away, helped in part by the defection of several leading figures from workerist ranks.

Mayekiso, first the general secretary of what became the National Union of Metalworkers, and some of his colleagues, including Alec Erwin, emerged in the post-1990 world as members of the SACP and went to parliament as ANC members. This is part of the complex background to the rifts and rows of today, although the ideological schisms are now much narrower. However, the fundamental argument is still the same: what should be the political and tactical orientation of the trade union movement and its priorities?

Much of this has been represented in media comment as a battle between those who favour President Thabo Mbeki and the supporters of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma. This is overly simplistic. Of course there are pro-Mbeki and pro-Zuma camps. But neither is static and the situation is more complex than a contest between two leading ANC figures.

There appears also to be a third and growing camp, comprising unionists who wish a plague on both groups because of the disunity the issue has sown. This includes those who feel that Zuma was unfairly treated, but do not necessarily support his candidacy for president. It is a position summed up this week by the Transport and Allied Workers' Union general secretary, Randall Howard.

But this simplistic Mbeki versus Zuma analysis has also been projected on to the differences between Cosatu president Willie Madisha and his general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi. Yet both men, mainly through their shared membership of the SACP - Madisha sits on the central committee and the politburo - publicly support Zuma.

However, there are major differences between them on the role and tactics that should be adopted by Cosatu. This goes well beyond the ANC leadership battle. It is also a reflection of the differences that permeate all levels of Cosatu.

To the fury of Vavi, Madisha accepted an invitation last year to address a Solidarity conference. Vavi felt that the racist traditions of the unions that made up Solidarity put it beyond the pale of the labour movement. Madisha thought by forging unity with all workers, distortions of racism and sexism could be overcome.

The current debate is about whether the priority should be to help determine the future leadership of the ANC and the government, or whether it would be best to build a stronger, independent voice within the governing alliance. Both tactics share the strategic goal of ensuring a change in government policy to "a more worker-friendly orientation".

The battle lines concern national economic and social policy. And for all the tactical differences, Cosatu remains quite committed to the ANC-led alliance as the way forward. If, however, this broad tactic fails, there is only one fall-back position, adopted at the 1997 congress: the SACP is "the workers' party".


 * From: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=553&fArticleId=3438784**

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