Notwithstanding important gains for workers and the poor, economically the capitalist class has been the main beneficiary over the past 10 years, according to the African National Congress’s two partners in the tripartite alliance, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Speaking on Wednesday after a 20-a-side bilateral meeting, the two partners said that the workers’ share of gross domestic product (GDP) has “declined dramatically, unemployment levels have escalated [and] thousands of workers casualised, whilst … productivity has increased”.
The gains of workers and the poor have, however, not been insignificant, the parties said. These include:
- the inauguration, nurturing and consolidation of a thoroughly progressive, democratic Constitution, including a serious commitment to women’s rights and gender equality;
- significant labour market reforms, ensuring many more rights for workers; and
- major transformation programmes in the provision of health, education and training, electricity, telecommunications, water and sanitation, housing, and the beginnings of land restitution and land reform.
“Many of these measures have increased the social wage of workers and the poor, in particular poor and working-class women.”
But the partners added that “notwithstanding these gains, the underlining structural economic crises of the economy stubbornly remains 10 years after the democratic breakthrough. These structural crises are characterised by high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequalities, low economic growth rate, low levels of investments in the economy” and others.
“The prevailing growth and accumulation path will not be able to resolve the systemic, structural crises of underdevelopment that continue to beset our society. The recent spontaneous social and civic uprisings in various townships demonstrate this reality: an expression of suffering by poor communities.
“The bosses have bypassed democratic institutions and sought to influence government behind the scenes. Indeed, government and the ANC must engage with all sections of South African society. But all such engagements with global and domestic capital must be based on discussions within, and reported to the ANC and the ANC-SACP-Cosatu alliance.”
The parties added that a “combination of persistent working-class struggles, the growing economic crisis and the failure of capital to reciprocate government market-friendlier economic policies” has led to mild but important shifts in many government programmes.
“We welcome these shifts, in particular the relaxation of fiscal policies, emphasis placed on the role of the state and the increasing levels of state-led investments.
“Internally, we have also witnessed the consolidation of key Cosatu affiliates and the significant growth in the membership of the SACP (30 000 active communist cadres) in the last five years. We are therefore encouraged by the steady growth of working-class confidence in challenging the entrenched power of the bosses both here and internationally.”
The partners agreed that the second decade of freedom must be the decade of the workers and the poor.
“Working-class forces have to escalate mobilisation and organisation to defend its gains, advance its interests and roll back capitalism in our country. In this second decade of freedom, working-class forces must intensify a sustained and mass-based class offensive on the power and interests of the capitalist class,” they stated.
“As the two central working-class formations in our country, we will focus this class offensive to challenge pro-capitalist economic policy and the management and ownership monopoly of the bosses in the workplace and the broader economy. We will intensify working-class mobilisation against retrenchments, casualisation, outsourcing and the HIV/Aids pandemic.
“We will intensify working-class struggles for a strong public sector and interventionist state, which play a developmental and leading role in the economy.
“We will intensify working-class struggles for accelerated land and agrarian reform, job creation, access to basic and essential services and ensuring worker control of retirement funds, the broader democratisation of the financial sector and the building of a progressive cooperative movement.
“We will also focus on mobilising poor communities and families who are unemployed behind their struggle for sustainable and decent livelihoods.
“In all this, we will also focus on building a working-class-led women’s movement and taking forward the struggle for gender equality in all aspects of our society.” — I-Net Bridge