Dale McKinley
CROSSFIRE
For the past several years there has been a tendency among those on the left of the political spectrum (both domestically and internationally) to take a generally cautious approach when it comes to critically analysing the South African workers’ movement.
However, the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) recent job-loss campaign provides a good opportunity to take a closer and more critical look at the strategy and tactics of South Africa’s largest and most progressive trade union federation.
Despite shows of worker power and militant statements directed against the consequences of South African capitalism, a large portion of the leadership of Cosatu (and its affiliates) are in danger of becoming cheerleaders of the “capitalism with a human face” club. More frequent arguments about the “hegemony of capitalism”, “new global realities” and the need for social compact politics (witness Cosatu’s recent alliance with the doyen of corporatist unionism – the Australian Congress of Trade Unions) indicate a trajectory in which unions must fundamentally alter their strategic (socialist) vision in order to remain “relevant”.
The associated political tactics adopted by the Cosatu leadership revolve around seeking to win concessions from their African National Congress “alliance partner” within a framework that consistently waters down the demands being made (for example, the bases for job creation, resource redistribution and socialisation of basic services). Ostensibly, this approach is designed to ensure an acceptable degree of ideological and organisational “unity” with the ANC, to maintain a “national democratic revolution [NDR]” that is seen as the only viable political/organisational vehicle to meet the needs of the majority of workers and poor.
The reality, however, is that these tactics, while bringing some very moderate relief to that majority, have failed to make the connection between the capitalist path pursued by the ANC and the parallel organisational/class lessons in relation to the workers’ movement.
The kind of unity that the ANC has fashioned is one that revolves around a mass of radical-sounding rhetoric about “transformation”, “a progressive NDR”, a “developmental state” and the “national interest”. All the while, however, the ANC- led government has been using the space created to further entrench capitalist relations of production and distribution, and in the process actively attacking the critical questioning and engagement with the substance behind such rhetoric. The result is that organised workers are left in a state of political and organisational confusion about where their class interests lie.
While Cosatu leaders have taken to placing blame for the social and economic ills being suffered on other “classes” (that is, finance and industrial capitalists), it is the class agenda of the ANC in government that is itself consistent with the attacks on workers and decommodified basic service delivery. A good example of the practical effects of this strategic and tactical confusion is the character of opposition to the growth, employment and redistribution strategy (Gear).
Despite all the noises, it has been fragmented and selective and has failed to tackle Gear on the political terrain that provides its raison d’etre. Instead, the focus has been on a “non-inclusive” process and appeals to retool this or that policy area in the hope that a more progressive outcome will result. It is a hopelessly economistic approach that seeks to pick and choose different aspects of a macroeconomic framework without tackling the class politics that provides the foundation for Gear itself.
Arising out of this self-induced conundrum has come the bizarre notion that the present situation demands a “creative management of contradictions”. Simply translated, this means that the present political and economic framework has to be accepted and that the role of organised workers is to squeeze as much out of the resulting “contradictory process” as possible. Practically, this leaves the mass of workers on the sidelines, to be lined up behind this or that particular “contradiction” being “fought out” among the various layers of leadership inside and outside the government.
It seriously weakens the basic class weapon of workers – the withholding of their labour power – as something to be turned on or off depending on the specific battle being waged, rather than as part of a political battle to force the ANC government and the capitalists to back down, and create real space for increased worker power, democracy and non-capitalist relations of production and distribution.
The recent nationwide mass action campaign against job losses, in spite of the broad support received from workers, reveals the serious weaknesses inherent in the macro- strategy of the Cosatu leadership. Simply put, a series of marches, work stoppages and a one-day national strike – aimed at cajoling the capitalist bosses and the ANC government into a change of heart- will do little to fundamentally contest the macroeconomic framework underlying the attack on jobs and services.
This will be true as long as the strategic and tactical approach to confronting capitalist economic fundamentals is kept within a narrowly defined and elite-led process of social and political compactism that can be easily “managed” by the state and capital.
Cosatu has called for a “Codesa-type” gathering to deal with issues raised in its campaign. And yet, there is little indication that rank and file workers (or the leadership for that matter) have a clear understanding of the connection between the rhetorical “demands” and the practical means proposed to implement them, or of how an “economic” Codesa will produce anything different from past corporatist attempts to resolve antagonistic class interests.
The reality is that unless there is a politically informed class struggle to change the framework for policy decisions and organisational accountability, the “demands” will remain pleas with little force.
Dale McKinley is a freelance researcher and a member of the South African Communist Party
ENDS