2005-02-10,+On+the+Fiftieth+Anniversary+of+SACTU

=**On the Fiftieth Anniversary of SACTU**=

"On the 5th of March we shall mark the fiftieth anniversary of SACTU – the predecessor of COSATU and in July mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Charter and on the 1st of December we shall mark the twentieth anniversary of COSATU". (COSATU Message of Solidarity to the African National Congress - 06-01-2005). Of the three closely-connected anniversaries being celebrated by COSATU in 2005, that of SACTU may be the least well understood by today's trade unionists.

SACTU was the South African Congress of Trade Unions. It was established in 1955 less than four months before the Congress of the People which first adopted the Freedom Charter. The continuity between SACTU and COSATU is openly recognised today, just as much as the Congress Alliance cemented at the Congress of the people is continued today in the tripartite alliance of the ANC, SACP, and COSATU.

Michael Harmel ("A. Lerumo") summed up SACTU's place in the struggle as follows:

"Faced with rising living costs, though all strikes of Africans were and remain illegal, numerous strikes in fact took place for higher wages, followed by mass arrests and imprisonments. Following the precedent of the first Freedom Day, the workers came out time and again at the call of the Congress movement (joined from 1955 by SACTU - the newly founded SA Congress of Trade Unions) in massive 'stay-at-homes' to back their political demands. As Sol Dubula later commented in //The African Communist// (No. 24,1966) the years of the treason trial were all the years in which, for the first time in our country, the //national general political strike// made its appearance. Time and again the great industrial complexes of the Witwatersrand, the Eastern Cape, Natal and elsewhere were brought to a standstill, as hundreds of thousands of African and other workers answered the Congress call, and stayed at home. They struck for basic political demands, despite lack of recognized trade unions, loss of pay, police intimidation - and despite repeated scabbing appeals by most of the people who now lead PAC.

"SACTU was formed following the cowardly desertion of principle by the leaders of the Trades and Labour Council, who dissolved that body to establish the colour-bar 'South African Council of Trade Unions' whose constitution excluded African workers. The Unions which had fought against this surrender joined in 1955 to join the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade unions to set up, on 5 March 1955, the first South African trade union federation truly to fight both the political and industrial colour bars, in word and in deed, the South African Congress of Trade Unions.

"Rejecting the treacherous slogan 'No politics m the trade unions' SACTU boldly tackled the great main problems - the industrial colour bar, the pass laws, the absence of political and civil rights - of the mass of workers, as well as demands for better wages and conditions. It adopted the Freedom Charter and associated itself in the Congress Alliance. It launched a major campaign, around the demand for a national minimum wage of £1 a day, for the organisation of the mass of unorganised workers in town and country. Its leading organs - unlike those of the former TLC - reflected the composition of the working class of our country, including, as well as White, Coloured and Indian workers, African trade unionists such as Leslie Massina, J. Gaetsewe, and M. W. Shope (successively general secretary) and S. Dhlamini (national president)."

(From "Fifty Fighting Years", http://www.sacp.org.za/docs/history/fifty5.html )

There had been previous attempts to build national combinations of organized black workers in South Africa. One was the Industrial and Commercial Union (ICU) which rose and fell in the decade following its founding in 1919. A "Non-European Trade Union Federation" was founded in 1927, and a "Council of Non-European Trade Unions" (led by J. B. Marks) in 1941. But SACTU was the first national and non-racial trade union federation in South Africa.


 * SACTU and the Congress Alliance**

(Note: It is fitting that one of the best and most easily accessible sources of information on SACTU is the web site of the African National Congress, at http://www.anc.org.za/books/ . The following wonderful free e-books from the site are particularly useful:

'**To Change the World!** Is Reason Enough?' - Autobiography by Ron Press (Aug 1995) "**Freedom in our Lifetime**". Book by Archie Sibeko (Zola Zembe) with Joyce Leeson (2000).)
 * Organise… or Starve!** The History of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, by Ken Luckhardt and Brenda Wall, 1980.
 * Working For Freedom.** Black trade union development in South Africa throughout the 1970s, by Ken Luckhardt and Brenda Wall, 1981.

The following quote is from "Organise… or Starve!":

"The next speaker at the COP was Billy Nair of Durban, one of SACTUs most militant leaders. He stated: "'Now, comrades, the biggest difficulty we are facing in South Africa is that one of capitalism in all its oppressive measures versus the ordinary people - the ordinary workers in the country. We find in this country ... the means of production, the factories, the lands, the industries, and everything possible is owned by a small group of people who are the capitalists in this country. They skin the people, as a matter of fact in exploitation. They oppress in order to keep them as slaves in the land of their birth.

"'Now friends, this is a very important demand in the Freedom Charter. Now we would like to see a South Africa where the industries, the lands, the big businesses and the mines, and everything that is owned by a small group of people in this country, must be owned by all the people in this country. That is what we demand, and that is what we fight for and until we have achieved that we must not rest. I appeal to you all to fight and struggle towards this end until we have achieved it. '

"In this speech, Billy Nair articulated clearly the conditions of exploitation of the South African working class, particularly African workers. SACTU represented these workers and as a class-based organization, differed from the other members of the Congress Alliance representing the various national groups. Nevertheless, the formation of the Congress Alliance was as important to the political struggle as SACTU's formation was to the trade union struggle. In both cases, tremendous advances were made in the struggle for non-racial unity and the fight for liberation. This was the first of many campaigns carried out jointly by SACTU and the Congress Alliance throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, campaigns which focussed on both national and class oppression. SACTU held true to the belief that the struggle for immediate economic demands was inherently bound up with the struggle for political rights for all South Africans. However, SACTU also recognized the workers as the driving force in the liberation struggle, those who owned no property and had nothing to sell but their labour-power - and consequently, nothing to lose.

"Out of the COP, a National Consultative Committee (NCC) was formed, incorporating representatives from each of the five Congresses. The stated aims of the NCC were firstly to popularize the aims and objectives of the Freedom Charter, and secondly, to coordinate the activities of the Congress Alliance on matters of common interest."

The "five congresses" referred to were the African National Congress, The South African Coloured People's Organisation, The South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats, and SACTU.

What opponents of the tripartite alliance of the ANC, SACP and COSATU in the present time fail to realise is that the alliance is where our origins are. Both SACTU and its direct successor, COSATU, were born in this alliance and have no separate history other than their history in the alliance. When the three partners together celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter this year, they are celebrating a shared origin and history that can never be broken or taken away. Here, COSATU comrades, are our common roots.

SACTU was a success from the time of its launch in 1955.
 * SACTU's Growth and Success

The detailed organising work involved in building up the affiliated non-racial unions is on record. Readers of The Shopsteward are in a good position to judge what a heroic work was being done in the conditions of 1955, mid-way between the banning of the Communist Party of South Africa in 1950 and the banning of the ANC in 1960.

SACTU as a federation is historically associated with two famous campaigns which it became involved in soon after its founding. One was the Alexandra worker's Bus Boycott launched in January, 1957 under the slogan Azikwelwa! (We Will Not Ride!), a very famous event of the freedom struggle.

The second was the Pound-a-Day campaign which grew out of the bus boycott and went under the slogan Asinamali! (We Have No Money!).

This is what Luckhardt and Wall have to say about these campaigns in "Organise… or Starve!":

"The £1-a-Day Campaign is regarded as SACTU's most successful achievement in the 1950s and 1960s. Demanding a legislated, national minimum wage of £1-a-Day for all workers, the campaign touched a central nerve and pinpointed the cause of the misery suffered by the majority of the people: the perpetuation of the cheap labour policy fostered by the South African ruling class. The event which provided the impetus for the prolonged campaign was the Alexandra Bus Boycott of 1957, a spontaneous demonstration of mass resistance to increased exploitation in the form of higher bus fares. This action by the masses reflected a seething undercurrent of working class hostility and highlighted the need for significantly higher wages for African workers."

It is hard to exaggerate the significance of the 1957 Bus Boycott. Tens of thousands of workers could be seen daily walking long distances to and from work in the summer heat and rain. Workers in other parts of the country joined in. The boycott resulted in a victory.

SACTU seized the opportunity of the boycott to recruit workers to the movement en masse (the target was initially 20 000 new members), only allocating the recruits afterwards to individual unions. Pound-a-Day committees were formed in all major centres and industrial areas. As the campaign grew and gained success, the Pound-a-Day demand evolved into a Seven-Pound-a-Week campaign.

When looking at the history of SACTU it can be tempting to try to separate out the uniquely SACTU events, forgetting that SACTU was always integrated into the actions of the Congress Alliance. For example, SACTU was part of the potato boycott organised in 1959 by the Congress alliance in protest against the horrific abuse of petty offenders, including "pass law" violators.

"Poverty often forced Africans to literally give their lives in lieu of an ability to pay £1 or £2 fines" Luckhardt and Wall record. "By 1953, and estimated 32,582 workers had been captured in this manner."

These workers were used as virtual slaves on farms. The potato boycott and its accompanying publicity campaign had a major effect. SACTU's role was to go further, and actually organise farm workers into unions. " …one of SACTU's most impressive achievements in the basic industries was the formation of the Farm, Plantation and Allied Workers Union (FPAWU) in 1961".

The organisation of agricultural workers was initially performed largely by one person, Gert Sibande, ""Lion of the East", and also President of the Transvaal ANC. Then, following SACTU's 1959 Conference, "National Organising Committees" (NOCs) were set up in a number of basic industries, including Agriculture, Mining, Metals, and Transport. Working closely with Sibande, the Agriculture NOC (including John Nkadimeng) ran a text-book campaign of organising a very difficult industry, and the FPAWU was duly admitted to SACTU in 1962 as the first organised affiliate representing African farm workers.

The other NOC's also achieved great success. But by 1963 the state suppression of SACTU was in full swing. It is often said that SACTU was never banned. The fact that SACTU was technically legal was frequently used as a cover for ANC meetings in later years. But SACTU as an organisation was suppressed by the apartheid regime quite systematically and with great cruelty.
 * SACTU's Struggle and Agony
 * SACTU's Struggle and Agony
 * SACTU's Struggle and Agony

The regime hit SACTU with bans on its activities and above all with persecution of its leaders.

The leadership of SACTU deserve to be described as among South Africa's finest. Among the names will be found veterans of earlier struggles such as J. B. Marks, martyrs such as Vuyisile Mini and Looksmart Ngudle, womens' leaders such as Frances Baard, Liz Abrahams, Phyllis Altman, and Elizabeth Mafikeng, and rocks of strength like Oscar Mpetha, Eli Weinberg, Mark Shope, and Harry Gwala, upon which later structures of the liberation movement were to be built. Others, like the late Comrade Ray Alexander, seem to have contributed to every facet of the struggle, and came all the way through into the structures of COSATU.

Needless to say it is impossible to mention sufficient names and do justice to all. Fortunately the chroniclers of our movement's history have done well and in addition the Internet now allows access to works that would in the past have remained in obscurity.

Here we can mention three broad categories of oppression that the South African regime used against SACTU leaders.

The first was the Treason Trial. On 5th December 1956, in response to the growing unity and strength of the Congress Movement as a united front following the adoption of the Freedom Charter, the government arrested 156 leaders, including many SACTU comrades, all around the country. The trial lasted four years and collapsed completely in 1961, but it did take good comrades out of the struggle for long periods of time.

The second was "banning". A banned person was restricted to home, could not meet with others, had to report to a police station regularly, and so forth. "Organise… or Starve!" lists 48 leading SACTU comrades who were banned in this way. Many of their names have already been mentioned. Others included Shanthie Naidoo, Curnick Ndlovu, Christmas Tinto, Mary Turok, and Steve Tobias.

The third was the use of the Ninety Day Detension Act. This horrific measure allowed the government to hold people without charge indefinitely (after ninety days, a new ninety-day period was usually commenced). Some of those who suffered in this way included Stephen Dlamini, Billy Nair, John Nkadimang, Leon Levy, and John Gaetsewe. "Organise… or Starve!" lists 31 detained in this way up to March, 1964.

Meetings and conferences were closed down by police and documents seized. SACTU organisers were continuously being arrested. The resistance was heroic, and the spirit of organisation did not die, rising again in the early 1970s. Many SACTU comrades, however, were forced into exile, where they maintained the organisation and campaigned against the apartheid regime in labour and trade union forums worldwide.


 * SACTU and the revival of Trade unionism in the 1970s**

"In 1973 an estimated 100,000 workers participated in a massive strike wave centred mainly in Natal and precipitated by workers in the low-wage textile industry.

"The apartheid regime introduced the Bantu Labour Relations Regulation Act, a direct response to this rising worker militancy.

"In September (//the 11th//), South African police shot 38 black miners at Western Deep Levels gold mine: 12 were killed. The issue was the workers' demand for a living wage.

"1973-75 New unions for black workers emerged throughout the country, with new confidence generated by the 1973 strikes."

From "Working for Freedom", Luckhardt & Wall, 1981.

" …the (//1973//) Black working class eruption brought forward both political and economic demands. Following closely the spirit and principles of SACTU, strikers advanced economic demands that could not be accommodated without a total transformation of Apartheid society itself. Also, striking Black workers demanded the fundamental right to organize independent unions and to receive recognition by employers on the workers' terms." From "Organise… or Starve!", Luckhardt & Wall, 1980.

Working-class history in South Africa is one single story with many episodes. As the first non-racial trade union centre, in alliance with the Congress movement, SACTU took worker organisation to an incomparably higher stage. The 1973 Durban strike movement was able to start at the high point of class consciousness achieved by SACTU in the previous decade.

The multiplication of unions that resulted from the Durban strike wave led once more to the organic demand for a national federation on SACTU lines. This federation was being talked about already in the late 1970s, and by 1985 it was in being in the form of COSATU.

Nineteen years ago, when SACTU was celebrating its 31st Anniversary and COSATU was not yet one year old, a meeting took place in Lusaka, Zambia, between delegations of the ANC, SACTU, and COSATU. Here are two paragraphs of the communiqué jointly issued after the close of the two-day meeting (5th-6th March, 1986):
 * Continuity: SACTU and the formation of COSATU

"The meeting recognised that the emergence of Cosatu as the giant democratic and progressive trade union federation in our country is an historic event in the process of uniting our working class and will immeasurably strengthen the democratic movement as a whole.

"In the discussions between Cosatu and Sactu, both agreed that the widest possible unity of trade unions in our country is of utmost importance in our people's struggle against the apartheid regime and the bosses. Both agreed that there was no contradiction whatsoever arising from their separate existence."

Four years later, a joint statement was issued following a consultative meeting held on March 19th, 1990 in Kafue, Zambia. Here are some excerpts from that statement:

"SACTU and COSATU met at the highest level to plan their tactics and strategies for the final assault on the apartheid regime by the people of our country, led by the ANC, and the establishment of a unitary state in a nonracial democratic SA.

"The spirit of profound commitment and common purpose that prevailed throughout the meeting enabled us to take far-reaching decisions aimed at further uniting the trade union movement of our country.

"This meeting of SACTU and COSATU leaderships noted that;

"1) SACTU has played a vanguard role in the trade union movement in South Africa,

"2) SACTU and COSATU are committed to the principle of one country one federation, one trade union in one industry.

"3) SACTU has played a special role in consolidating the democratic trade union movement under the banner of COSATU.

"4) SACTU does not see itself re-emerging in South Africa.

"therefore resolves that: "2. 2.1 COSATU and SACTU agree to the phasing out of SACTU with the objective of achieving the principle of one country one federation

"3. A Facilitating Committee, composing 5 delegates each from both COSATU and SACTU be established to oversee the process of phasing out of SACTU.

"5. The report of the deliberations and resolutions of this historic meeting be given to ANC, SACP, COSATU, SACTU and UDF."

In trade union business the formalities are important. SACTU was absorbed into COSATU shortly afterwards. But aside from the formalities, the underlying reality is that SACTU lives on through COSATU, and the both organizations are and will always be rooted in the Congress tradition as exemplified by the 1955 Congress of the People in Kliptown and the great, inspirational Freedom Charter that came out of that Congress of the People. .