COSATU leader in New York
By Sue Davis
New York
"COSATU was founded during apartheid. Our overall approach
was and still is social trade unionism," said Zwelinzima Vavi,
general-secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU), at a standing-room-only meeting of the Cornell Global
Labor Institute in New York City Sept. 24.
"We knew we would never be successful if we just focused on
wages and working conditions and didn't defeat apart heid,"
Vavi explained. "We had to form broader alliances."
Explaining that the tripartite alliance of COSATU, the
African National Con gress and the South African Communist
Party led the struggle against apartheid, Vavi continued, "We
recognized that workers were members of society first before
they were workers, so we had to lead the struggle for housing,
education, health care, electricity and land in order to
improve the living conditions for our people.
"Trade unions ought to fight for the needs of ordinary
people, not focus only on narrow bread-and-butter issues."
In order to build a revolutionary union movement, Vavi urged
labor unionists to never forget why workers join unions. "They
join unions to be empowered, to protect their interests, to
promote their rights. If unions don't do that, they'll find
themselves in the dustbin of history. We need to make the trade
union movement relevant to workers every day."
Founded in 1985, COSATU currently has a membership of 2
million workers.
Soaring unemployment
Since apartheid was legally defeated in 1994 and the ANC has
headed the government, Vavi said that COSATU has attempted to
"position the working class as a whole to lead all sectors of
society." But that is extremely difficult when thousands of
jobs have been lost as companies either left South Africa or
downsized.
"There is 40-percent unemployment in South Africa today,"
noted Vavi. "Two out of three people under the age of 30 don't
have jobs." He added that some industries continue to flee to
other African countries so they can pay lower wages.
"There have been some serious tensions between COSATU and
the ANC government," Vavi stated. In the late 1990s, he
explained, the government adopted a policy of privatizing the
public sector, leading to more job loss. "But since 2000 the
government has increased spending and created jobs. We believe
the government should do more."
Vavi stressed that the South African state is one of only a
few in the world that strongly supports workers with laws that
protect the right to organize, bargain collectively and strike,
and restrict child labor and discrimination.
He said, "Soaring unemployment makes it increasingly hard to
enforce the laws because people are desperate to get work."
Noting that COSATU has not grown in the past three years, he
said, "Unless we can overcome unemployment, having a sympath
etic state and strong laws is not enough."
COSATU is holding a conference in South Africa in November
to analyze the years since the end of apartheid and address the
current problem of unemployment. "Our core commitment is to get
government and industry to work with us to create jobs and
lower trade barriers," Vavi said. "We need strategies to
restructure and rebuild the economy to create jobs and meet the
needs of our people."
Vavi had served on the International Labor Organization
commission that analyzed the effects of globalization on
workers. He reported, "Globalization has led to greater
unemployment, the impoverishment of the world's citizens and
workers vying with each other for jobs. Only capital gains from
that."
Vavi urged unionists here to lead workplace struggles but to
also take a "broader vision for labor" and to work closely with
other progressive groups in society.
"The international trade union movement must close the huge
gaps between the rich North, led by the United States, and the
poor South," he said. "The only way to counter globalization is
to make governments allow workers to organize into trade
unions. You must get the state to live up to its obligation to
protect workers.
"Which class will win?" he asked in conclusion. "The world
working class is sorely underpaid, even in this country. We
need a real redistribution of economic power--a race to the
top, not the bottom."
Vavi invited unionists to visit its website to learn more
about COSATU: www.
cosatu.org.za.
Sue Davis is second vice president for external
organizing of the National Writers Union, United Auto Workers
Local 1981.
Reprinted from the Oct. 7, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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