NEHAWU+calls+for+Alliance+Summit+after+Polokwane




 * NEHAWU Media Release, 10 December 2007**

=NEHAWU Central Executive Committee Statement=

The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of NEHAWU held a very successful meeting on the 6-7 December 2007 where we made a thorough assessment of the union politically and organisationally. This was the first CEC of our 8th national congress amongst others tasked to map out the programme of action for the next three years.

Our 8th national congress theme to “consolidate the union – consolidate working class power” found concrete expression in the activities we have undertaken since our 2006 CEC, particularly our political education activities, public service delivery campaign, and our largest and longest strike in history – 2007 public service strike. The central executive committee once again salutes the role played by public service workers during our recent strike action. This strike has served as an important benchmark across all sectors of the South African economy.

Our CEC took place at a time of significant historical moment for our national democratic revolution, a moment at which the very direction of our revolution, a revolution in which many have fought and died for, hangs in the balance. It is a moment in which our revolution stands a danger of de-generating into a national bourgeois reformism, enmeshed in corruption scandals, factionalism and immense accumulation of wealth in the few black and white hands, whereas the great majority remain unemployed and locked in cycles of poverty.

For several years we have been part and parcel of massive political and ideological efforts to rescue our revolution from losing its direction. The year 2007 has thus become a decisive year, a year of decision for the working class. There is no other event in which a decisive working class intervention is required than the ANC 52nd National Conference. This historic and crucial Conference will have broad implications for the ANC and the Alliance and indeed the national democratic revolution.

The CEC affirmed the decision taken by COSATU’s 4th Central Executive Committee for workers’ preferred leadership of the ANC. We believe our preferred leadership possesses capacity not only to unite the ANC and the Alliance, but to contribute to the dislodging of the 1996 Class Project that has been the contributing factor to the crisis in our movement.

The CEC strongly supports the COSATU proposed list for the ANC NEC. We believe the election of these worker leaders will contribute to the strengthening of working class bias leadership in the NEC. We further welcome the decision of the SACP Augmented Central Committee to support its national chairperson to stand for the position of the General Secretary of the ANC.

We welcome the tidal wave of support among the ANC rank-and-file branch members for Comrade Jacob Zuma, which is driving the process towards change in the leadership of the ANC and for the popular renewal of the ANC and the reconfiguration of the Alliance. We call on our members, in their own right as ANC members and delegates to the ANC Conference, to support the collective leadership led by Comrade Jacob Zuma and actively advance working class perspectives to the issues and policies discussed at the Conference.

We welcome the SACP’s political intervention in its “open letter to members of the ANC” pamphlet. We agree that whatever the outcome of the elections in Limpopo, the unity of the ANC must be safeguarded. We call for an urgent Alliance Summit immediately after the Limpopo conference to discuss the outcomes of the COSATU Congress and its Central Committee, the SACP Congress and the ANC Conference.


 * Issued by NEHAWU Communications Department**

For further information, please contact Priscilla Khumalo (NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer) at email: **Priscilla@nehawu.org.za**

Visit NEHAWU website: **[|www.nehawu.org.za]**

610 words