From Baltimore to South Africa
Worker solidarity needed to defeat privatization
By Andre Powell
Baltimore
"Our democracy, our own liberation is not for sale,"
proclaimed Congress of South African Trade Unions First
Vice-President Joseph Nkosi. He addressed an audience of trade
unionists and community activists on the campus of Morgan State
University, a historically Black college here, on Dec. 11.
Nkosi talked about COSATU's continuing battle against
privatization in South Africa. He explained that privatization
has already taken place in education, public hospitals, the
transport system, electricity, water, parks, swimming pools,
telephone lines and all areas related to
telecommunications.
Privatization has made almost 2 million people unemployed in
South Africa.
But, he told the audience, COSATU has done a lot of work in
mobilizing against privatization in many areas of the
country.
During the World Conference Against Racism in Durban this
summer, COSATU organized a massive march of 100,000 and brought
the city to a standstill.
When the threat of privatization of the railways arose, the
railway union staged sit-ins in the minister's office and
successfully stopped it in its tracks.
"We have held pickets in every area where there is
privatization," Nkosi added. "We are mobilizing every person
around this issue, including students and pensioners."
COSATU has had many discussions with the government about
the need for nationalization instead. "We have sacrificed our
lives. We have sacrificed everything," Nkosi stressed.
Rich get richer
Nkosi linked the battle over privatization to the world
struggle against globalization. "We must say there are
alternatives to globalization."
He defined what the International Monetary Fund and World
Bank mean when they talk about poverty relief for Africa:
"There is no poverty relief in Africa that is going to take
place through the IMF and World Bank. It is an alternative
structural adjustment program that they are putting into place.
They know they must come up with a new terminology that says it
is a poverty relief program in Africa.
"In Africa there are countries that are owned by IMF/WB
through this globalization. Advisors from think tanks outside
of the borders of Africa are putting pressure on the
governments. These consultants have been trained by IMF/WB and
are strategically deployed to advance and push for structural
adjustments through programs which camouflage their true role
as agents for IMF/WB."
Unions in Zimbabwe are waging a similar struggle against
privatization. Mathilda Shakuda, the Treasurer-General of the
Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, outlined the misery
brought to her country by privatization and globalization.
"When hospitalization is needed ambulances don't have gas to
come and get you. There is a shortage of medicine. People with
AIDS are sent home to die without medicine."
She concluded, "IMF policies are just to enhance the rich to
get richer and the poor to get poorer."
Reprinted from the Jan. 10, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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