The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) began its 20th birthday celebrations in Durban on Thursday.
The trade-union federation was formed at a colourful mass rally at Durban’s Kings Park Stadium in 1985, with Elijah Barayi its first president.
Now sporting about 1,8-million members and 23 affiliates, its formation took four years and united a number of union bodies, providing a strengthened platform to lobby for workers’ rights and resist the extreme racism and oppression that characterised the time.
”We represent everybody now,” spokesperson Paul Notyhawa said. ”Construction workers, actors, playwrights, poets, doctors, nurses.”
The four days of celebrations, to be held at Durban’s exhibition centre, will include performances by cultural groups and a World Aids Day candle-lighting ceremony, as well as addresses by leaders including its general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi; alliance partner the South African Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande; founding general secretary Jay Naidoo; and current president Willie Madisha.
African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, whom Cosatu has rallied around since he was indicted on corruption charges, will deliver a solidarity message on Sunday.
Paying tribute, Vavi said on the movement’s website that until about the late 1970s, black workers were not allowed to form or belong to trade unions and racially mixed trade unions were not tolerated.
”Thus Cosatu’s formation marked a qualitative leap forward in the struggle to build democratic trade unions and tilting the balance of forces to deal with the extreme levels of exploitation of workers.”
At the time, launch chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa referred to it as ”a giant that has risen”.
Its brand of trade unionism was a link between political and economic struggles.
”From the onset, Cosatu always understood the link between struggles at the point of production and political power.”
As a ”transformative” body, it had built and contributed to the emergence of strong unions and could boast being a home to all workers, from blue-collar workers to professionals.
It was actively involved in the formation of economic policy and provided a basic school of politics, economics and organisation for its members and shop stewards.
”Everything I know, I learnt from the struggles of workers and I am just one example of many cadres,” Vavi said.
It is important that Cosatu adapt to changing conditions and ensure that the second decade of democracy benefits workers and rural poor the most.
Although there are women in leadership positions in the union moment, it must also redouble its efforts and encourage women’s leadership and empowerment.
He urged members to build on the alliance with the ANC and the SACP.
”Not only have we developed a vibrant trade-union movement, we have defied both the employers and the apartheid state. Today, we have one of the finest trade-union movements in the world, respected and revered by both friends and foes,” Vavi said.
The celebrations coincide with the launch of a rival labour federation by the Federation of Unions of South Africa, the National Council of Trade Unions and the Confederation of South African Workers’ Unions. — Sapa