COSATU strike against global economic crisis

While former South African President Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday on July 18, the struggle for economic justice among the working class and its organizations continued. The largest labor federation known as the Congress of South African Trade Unions held numerous work stoppages and mass demonstrations on July 16 to protest the rising costs of fuel, food and energy services.

Mandela, who is the past president of the governing African National Congress, was elected as the first head of state during the first non-racial, democratic elections inside the country in 1994. Though this democratic advance was historic, it left the ownership of the South African economy in the hands of the old settler ruling class and the imperialists.

Mandela, who served one five-year term between 1994 and 1999, is still hailed throughout the world as a freedom fighter. He spent over 27 years in prison for his political beliefs while Western imperialists benefited from the superexploitation of the majority African population who worked and created the wealth in the mining, manufacturing and agriculture industries in South Africa.

Because South Africa has been well integrated into the world capitalist system since the late 19th century, when the mining of gold and other resources began, the current economic crisis engendered by the failures within the financial markets worldwide have been felt sharply in this country and throughout the region.

Workers seized the streets in the Free State, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga on July 16 protesting the escalating prices for fuel, electricity services and food.

Demonstrators in the Free State’s major city of Bloemfontein demanded that the government stop allowing working people to pay for the failure to invest in the power industry during the early days of democratic rule during the 1990s.

COSATU’s deputy general-secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said, “We cannot afford the 27.5 percent increase in electricity.” The labor official pointed out that any further price hikes would mean that workers would suffer even more, particularly if the current downturn creates even more unemployment. (Mail & Guardian of South Africa)

Marchers also went to the Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff’s office on July 16 to deliver a memorandum demanding that the electrification program to poor households not be compromised in light of the recent price increases.

The one-day strike disrupted all operations at the Beatrix mine of Gold Fields. Nearly 80 percent of the clothing and textile workers in the Free State and Northern Cape participated in the demonstrations, according to the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union. However, the diamond producers DeBeers reported negligible impact on their operations in three of four mines in the Northern Cape and Free State.

In Mpumalanga, COSATU spokesperson Raymond Mnguni stated that 60 percent of businesses were closed as well as many shops, factories and companies. “Many production industries operated on skeleton staff.”

According to COSATU’s July 16 statement, “The economy of Mpumalanga ground to a complete halt as thousands of COSATU members supported by the South African National Civics Organization, the South African Communist Party, the Young Communist League, the African National Congress Youth League and organizations of Civil Society took to the streets in support of COSATU’s call for protected action against the electricity crisis.”

The Mpumalanga COSATU statement concludes by giving a breakdown of demonstrations that took place on July 16 where “estimated numbers of the different marches in the province are as follows: Witbank 18,000 people, Nkomazi 15,000 people, Nelspruit 15,000 people, KwaMhlanga 10,000 people, Secunda 12,000 people, Ermelo 7,000 people and Bushbuckridge 5,000 people.”

“These actions are but a warm up to the National strike planned for Aug. 6, 2008,” the statement continued. “We are delighted by the support we received, which is beyond the traditional support base of COSATU. To us this is an indication that COSATU is campaigning on issues that affects the poor majority of this country.”

Additional actions were also planned for July 23, including provincial strikes and demonstrations against the electricity crisis in South Africa and mass protests in the provinces of Gauteng, Eastern Cape, North West and Limpopo.

Recent power cuts and shortages have been described by COSATU as a “national crisis,” which is impacting all South Africans.

This current upsurge in labor actions in South Africa reflects the worsening capitalist economic downturn that has swept through Western Europe and the United States. The decline and failure of major financial institutions following the U.S. housing-market collapse, coupled with runaway military spending to carry on the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the maintenance of hundreds of military bases throughout the world, have also confronted workers and oppressed people inside the Western industrialized states with rising unemployment and a significant decline in living standards.

With the present situation of workers and the oppressed worsening all over the world, the current crisis provides new opportunities for international solidarity. For example, we have recently seen a greater interest among American workers in the situation of labor unions in Colombia.

Also with respect to the revolutionary processes unfolding in Venezuela and other countries in Latin America, workers and oppressed people in the U.S. have begun to see the connection between struggles for self-determination and socialism in this region and the plight of labor in the United States.

In Africa, many countries are facing food deficits and energy crises. There have been food rebellions in various parts of the continent over the last few months. In Somalia, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Egypt, working people, women and youth have struck back through mass actions against the failure of world capitalism to meet the elementary needs of the people.

The widespread labor actions in South Africa provide a glimpse into how powerful organized workers can be in a global recession heading toward the potential of a complete financial meltdown. Joint endeavors by workers and the oppressed throughout the world will strengthen class-consciousness and provide a mechanism to effectively challenge the agenda of imperialism, which seeks to enhance its control over the labor and resources of the globe.