Undaunted by the crackdown on the truckers’ blockade, Turning Wheel is gearing up for more action. By Sibusiso Nxumalo
IN an exclusive interview, the leader of the Turning Wheel International Workers’ Movement has shed the first light on the mysterious organisation behind the Mooi River Plaza truckers’ blockade.
Richard Madime is a member of the Trotskyist Workers’ List Party. But, he said, Turning Wheel was neither affiliated to the WLP, nor a front for it or any other organisation or party. At least one other member of the movement, spokesman Sam Williams, was a member of WLP.
Madime said Cosatu and its transport affiliate, the Transport and General Workers’ Union, “were becoming sweetheart unions” and that Cosatu was behaving like “strike-breakers”. Cosatu has hit back at Madime’s “faceless” organisation, accusing it of manipulating workers’ grievances for selfish reasons.
Denying accusations that the Mooi River Plaza blockade was timed to sabotage negotiations in the transport industry aimed at establishing a national industrial council, Madime said the blockade had been mounted because the “bosses and Minister of Labour Tito Mboweni failed to meet their promises.
“Workers were disgruntled because Mboweni failed to get back to us on our demand for the abolition of tax on overtime pay,” said Madime. He added that the “bosses” had failed to reinstate workers at Lehmbecker — one of the demands made at the first blockade a month ago.
Madime said press reports branding his organisation as “underground” were unfair: “Since our first blockade we have been in the open and you all know who we are.”
He said the recent blockade, mandated by “most” workers, proved the movement had worker support. “And there would have been more had they not been turned away by the police.”
Responding to Cosatu’s charges that Turning Wheel was “a one-man band”, Madime claimed a membership of 2 000 since his movement was launched a month ago. It was organising nationally and was setting up structures and preparing to register as a union, he said.
Reacting to accusations that Turning Wheel had set out to undermine the T&GWU, Madime said he was not interested in poaching members from other unions. “At the first blockade we acted as an umbrella body for all workers.”
He believed the T&GWU could no longer represent workers effectively. “As a shop steward for the T&GWU I realised that it was ineffective and out of touch with the interest of workers,” he said. Discussions to form Turning Wheel began “months ago”, when workers realised that they could not rely on the Cosatu-affiliated union.
Said Madime: “It is not me who is saying that the T&GWU cannot represent workers — it is the workers themselves who are saying this.”
Workers who joined Madime’s movement would not be asked to relinquish their membership of any other union, he added. “There won’t be a witch-hunt, since we do not represent any single tendency.”
Madime said Turning Wheel was undaunted by the crackdown on the latest blockade, adding that it was looking at other forms of action. “We will lead workers into action even if the government sanctions the use of the army to stop legitimate protest. Turning Wheel is here to stay.”