E-mail+from+Ron+Press+re+Terry+Bell,+SACTU+and+COSATU

E-mail from Ron Press, 16-Sep-2006 08:51
=Terry Bell=

Terry Bell in the Business Report does not know of the history of the relationship between SACTU and COSATU.

At the time of the formation of COSATU the SACP held a meeting in the university in Zambia which I attended. I remember there was widespread discussion of the issue. Moses Mabida, Jo Slovo, and others were there. The SACP was an interested party, and many SACP members were in SACTU unions in SA and were active in the leadership of SACTU in exile.

There was a debate about COSATU’s formation. It was the only Trade Union formation in South Africa that was in the general line of the congress movement. Many old SACTU unions were in it. It’s policy seemed correct. There was some debate about if SACTU should dissolve and what we should recommend our supporters to do. There was some opposition but the general consensus was that we should welcome the formation of COSATU, and encourage our unions and supporters to join.

This we did. Later there was a meeting in exile between SACTU and COSATU in Zambia, I remember it was near a river. It was very constructive and a joint statement was agreed. We, SACTU, agreed to dissolve and urged our supporters to go into COSATU.

I grant you it took us a long time to finally dissolve and close our bank accounts but this we finally did.

For further details John Nkadimeng would know even better than me.


 * Ron Press.**

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