The Congress of South African Trade Unions has decided that it will not speak to the Weekly Mail & Guardian until its concerns about our coverage of the federation are addressed. Transparency, it appears, is for everyone in the new South Africa except the labour movement.
Coupled with the embargo was an instruction to the WM&G editor to present himself at Cosatu headquarters at short notice for a meeting. It is difficult to see in this anything but the arrogance of power.
General secretary Sam Shilowa complains that all our recent coverage of Cosatu has been negative. This is not true, but even if it were — so what? Cosatu criticised Defence Minister Joe Modise when he tried to use the courts to gag us. The embargo is an equally heavy-handed attempt at coercive media management.
We are alarmed that our premier labour movement, historically a standard-bearer for democratic values, is displaying the same defensive, secretive reflexes as the apartheid securocrats of yesteryear.
Cosatu successfully used boycott tactics against a daily newspaper some years ago. The WM&G will not submit to bullying, regardless of whether it comes from organisations of the right or the left.