‘I give you two years, tops,” Frank Meintjies ominously said to me, as I took over from him as Congress of South African Trade Unions information officer on May Day in 1989. Six months later, in the chaos of Cosatu head office, I was wondering whether I would even make that arbitrary target. Sixteen years later, I am preparing to go to Durban to celebrate Cosatu’s 20th anniversary.
At the time I joined the mighty Cosatu, after three years ”underground” during the state of emergency, working for the United Democratic Front from street corners, it seemed like graduating to a comfy office job, with all mod cons, like telephones, and a fixed abode — positively civilised and even pedestrian.
There was a sense in the movement at the time, hard to believe now, that our trade union comrades had it a little easy, and were perhaps slightly aloof from the insurrectionary conditions in the country.
Now I was to get a picture from the inside of a rapidly evolving labour movement, which had numerous strands and political cultures.
All this took place in the context of a popular national liberation tradition, the intensity of which reflected the wave of national struggle sweeping the country. These currents were in time all combined into one melting pot of revolutionary social unionism, which made previous debates about workerist versus populist unionism rather academic, and ultimately irrelevant.
The initial existence of fairly hostile political ”camps” that had characterised the unity talks leading up to Cosatu’s formation in 1985 suggested to observers that there might be fundamental strategic differences which would continue to divide the federation for years to come.
Remarkably, with the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1987, and the decision to enter into a formal alliance with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party in 1989, there was overwhelming support from the federation’s membership for this direction, and few significant divisions.
This is not meant to airbrush a history of robust political engagement and debate. In the healthiest traditions of the movement, debate continued on strategic and tactical questions, but the political trajectory of the federation soon became clear. Given the different organising and political cultures of its constituent parts, this cohesion was a remarkable achievement.
One of the first things which struck me about the organisational discourse in Cosatu, and which continues to impress me, is the vigorous culture of political debate, openness to engage with different viewpoints, and an almost religious respect for democratic processes.
Coming from a movement like the UDF, which had to project its strength under conditions of extreme repression, I was surprised to discover in Cosatu a culture of self-criticism that sometimes seemed to exaggerate weaknesses. Cosatu embodied the dictum of the famous African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral: ”Tell no lies; claim no easy victories.”
While the headlines about Cosatu tend to focus on the sexy political issues, what is often forgotten is the hard, painstaking organisational work that transformed Cosatu into the powerful mass movement it is today.
The hard-nosed approach of the Cosatu leadership to organisational and social challenges is summed up in the sayings of the three generations of Cosatu general secretaries.
Jay Naidoo (1985 to 1993) used to say that, ”paper will accept anything which is written on it” — underlying this statement was the recognition that without organisational power, resolutions by themselves would have little impact. This understanding informed Cosatu’s evolving engagement strategy, which combined a powerful mix of sophisticated negotiations, and a mobilised constituency of politicised workers.
Mbhazima Shilowa (1993 to 1999) used to berate the Cosatu central executive committee when it stayed stuck in old debates and failed to implement its own resolutions. He joked with committee delegates that they were doing the mshongolo, a Shangaan dance, which involves dancing on the same spot.
Zwelinzima Vavi (1999 to the present), who was once described by the Sunday Times as the ”hard man” of Cosatu, typified the growing ascendancy of worker leadership in the organisation. He pioneered the ”Back to Basics” campaign, to assert the primacy of workers’ organisational concerns. He has been known to advise Cosatu leaders to ”show the necessary level of arrogance” — an unapologetic assertion of working class power in the context of a society which demonstrates little concern for the vulnerable and economically marginalised, unless they seize control of their own destiny.
These three generations also broadly correspond to three phases of the federation:
The era of mergers, consolidation, and the living wage campaign;
Negotiating the transition, political alliances and the reconstruction and development programme; and
Back to basics, the fight for jobs and economic transformation.
The formidable challenges we have faced include dealing with the repression of the apartheid state; the union-bashing tactics of employers; negotiating the transition to democracy; maintaining organisational power and cohesion in the face of mass retrenchments; managing its relationship with its alliance partners in a hostile policy environment as well as dealing with new forms of workplace organisation and casualisation.
Despite all these pressures, Cosatu has the internationally envied reputation of being: one of the fastest growing federations in the world (from 450 000 members in 1985 to 1,8-million in 2005, despite mass retrenchments); one of the most influential and well respected movements, not only in South Africa, but on the continent and beyond; one of the most militant and democratic mass organisations and a sophisticated pioneer of engagement strategies.
Charting this course has required intense debate and reflection on the challenges facing the federation as we plan to take forward Cosatu’s 2015 vision.
This is an edited version of Neil Coleman’s article
The third decade debates
- How to deal with challenges arising out of its alliance, and its relationship to governance. The overwhelming majority of Cosatu’s membership continue to believe that Cosatu needs to engage as a powerful and independent formation, but as part of the alliance. Nevertheless, recent political developments demonstrate the complexity of the issues facing Cosatu and the country.
- How to consolidate its relationship with civil society, assert a working class morality of solidarity and equity, and relate to sometimes hostile social movements. What is the meaning in this context of asserting socio-economic alternatives as part of a longer-term socialist project?
- How to confront organisational challenges in the context of rapid changes in production, work organisation, and new strategies of employers. How will we organise young workers, casual and informal sector workers? How do we ensure that women play a more assertive leadership role?
- The spectre exists of a conservative trade union centre emerging, positioning itself as an alternative to Cosatu, based ostensibly on its ”political non-alignment”. While some may view this as an advance for independent worker organisation, and the basis for national trade union unity, in reality it may usher in a backward form of narrow ”bread and butter” unionism, which weakens the voice of workers in national, political and economic debates.
- How to use Cosatu’s political, organisational, and even its financial muscle, to leverage significant transformation in the economy. In theory, Cosatu collectively has access to billions of rands, through the retirement funds invested throughout the economy. In practice, workers have little say over these investments. Command of these resources, as well as use of organisational muscle to benefit members and act against unpatriotic employers needs to be combined with ongoing campaigns to transform public policy to achieve pro-worker and pro-poor economic policy frameworks.