NUMSA
and its attack on the Alliance of ANC, SACP and COSATU
Historically, as a federation affiliated
to the Congress
of South African Trade Unions (COSATU),
NUMSA has been part of the Alliance of the African National Congress (ANC), the
South African Communist Party (SACP) and COSATU, which has governed South
Africa since the end of Apartheid in the early 1990s. Considering the vast
economic inequality, which still characterises South Africa over 20 years after
the end of Apartheid, NUMSA now attacks the ANC and the SACP head on. The
decrease in industrialisation would not be the result of an accident or
incompetence, it is argued in the Declaration. ‘It comes from the fact that the
leadership of the ANC and SACP is protecting the interests of white monopoly
capital and imperialism against the interests of the working class. The ANC and
SACP leadership defends the ownership and control of the mines, banks and
monopoly industries in the hands of white monopoly capital and imperialism’
(P.2).
Unsurprisingly, the attack on the Alliance also comes in
response to the massacre of workers at the mine of Marikana in August 2012, seen as a
turning-point in South African labour relations (see also The Dance of the Undead).
'What we saw was', the Declaration reads, 'that Marikana was a
well-planned and orchestrated strategy by the state to defend the
profits of mining bosses' (P.4).
The ANC’s most recent National Development Plan is heavily criticised for its neo-liberal policy contents. Instead of the Freedom Charter and its challenge to property relations in South Africa, the ANC has now adopted ‘the programme of our class enemy’ (P.3). Nevertheless, NUMSA does not only criticise the National Development Plan as a project by the class enemy. It also states that ‘the ANC has been captured by representatives of an enemy class’, it is argued. ‘It has adopted the strategic plan of that class’ (P.4).
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| Photo by Dinki Mkhize |
The ANC’s most recent National Development Plan is heavily criticised for its neo-liberal policy contents. Instead of the Freedom Charter and its challenge to property relations in South Africa, the ANC has now adopted ‘the programme of our class enemy’ (P.3). Nevertheless, NUMSA does not only criticise the National Development Plan as a project by the class enemy. It also states that ‘the ANC has been captured by representatives of an enemy class’, it is argued. ‘It has adopted the strategic plan of that class’ (P.4).
As a result of this assessment, NUMSA
decided at its special congress to call on COSATU to break from the Alliance.
Moreover, it resolved that ‘NUMSA as an organization will neither endorse nor
support the ANC or any other political party in 2014’ (P.13). Hence, NUMSA as a
federation has stopped its support for the ANC and SACP as well as the Alliance
as a whole. This also includes the ending of paying into the COSATU/SACP
political levy (P.13). Ending support for the Alliance does not, however,
signify a retreat from politics by NUMSA. ‘The working class needs a political
organisation committed in theory and practice to socialism’ (P.7). Hence, it
calls for the establishment of a new United Front ‘that will coordinate
struggles in the workplace and in communities’ (P.7).
NUMSA
and the struggle for COSATU’s soul
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| Photo by Egui_ |
Equally, when focusing on developing a
new strategy, NUMSA will push ahead with a move towards socialism. ‘NUMSA is a
revolutionary union and as such plays a leading role in the defeat of
capitalism and the exploitation that is associated with it’ (P.15). It, thus,
moves ahead to explore ‘what may constitute a revolutionary programme for the
working class’ (P.7)
Lessons
for European trade unions?
Do developments in the South African
labour movement have any lessons for European trade unions? It is quite common
and would be quite easy to argue that South Africa is a completely different
country with a different economy and different institutions from European
countries and, therefore, there are no lessons to be found there. Moreover,
there has been a tradition by trade unions in the Global North to lecture
labour movements of the Global South about how to organise and interact with
employers and the state. After all, have not European trade unions had a much
longer and more successful history at representing workers’ interests?
And yet, once such a Eurocentric perspective
is left aside, parallel developments are easily visible. Do trade unions in
Europe not face the same situation as NUMSA in South Africa, in that labour
parties, once an essential political ally of workers, have turned against them?
Have not social democratic parties across Europe participated in the
implementation of neo-liberal restructuring and the imposition of austerity as
much as conservative parties? In the UK, the current onslaught on the welfare
state by the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberals is vicious, no
doubt, but most of the restructuring had already been initiated by the previous
labour governments. Should European trade unions not learn the lesson from
NUMSA and declare their independence from these social democratic parties,
which have adopted the policy agenda of the class enemy? Should European trade
unions not stop supporting these social democratic parties financially?
And it is not only social democratic
parties, which have turned over towards capital’s agenda. Trade unions too have
often too easily accepted the policies of the right. NUMSA warns against COSATU
becoming a labour desk for ANC policy. Do we not face similar dangers in
Europe, where many trade unions remain locked into a social partnership
ideology, which privileges social dialogue with employers and the state over
mobilising workers in support for a transformative strategy? In Europe too, not
only South Africa, will it be essential to ensure that trade unions become
again an independent, militant force.
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| Photo by GovernmentZA |
Back in June 2013 at the Futures
Commission meeting in Johannesburg, NUMSA representatives reported on two of
their current initiatives. First, they were investing union pension fund money
into production facilities for sustainable energy. Second, they had started to
form alliances with farmers in support for demands of land reform and re-distribution.
Although a metalworking, industrial union, NUMSA, thus, acknowledges the need
to work towards environmentally sustainable production as well as to broaden
the social basis of resistance through alliances with other social movements. And
the constant increase in membership making NUMSA with 338,000 members not only
the biggest trade union in South Africa but the whole continent of Africa
indicates, that workers are willing to mobilise, if they are provide with a
militant, independent alternative.
European trade unions can clearly learn a lot
from studying the strategies of NUMSA and the trade unions in the Global South
more generally!
13 January 2014
Prof. Andreas Bieler
Professor of Political Economy
University of Nottingham/UK
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
Posts
Good analysis, Andreas, as far as it goes ... what do you think the role of the Economic Freedom Fighters, SOPA, AZAPO and the other left-dissident political formations will be?
ReplyDeleteNUMSA speaks about the need of a new political organisation of the working class, the establishment of a United Front. Perhaps an alliance with these forces you mention could be a step into this direction?
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