The resolution to keep intact the tripartite alliance — led by the African National Congress (ANC) — has been passed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), but not without questions being raised from the floor about whether working-class interests were being fostered.
The most strident view about the coalition was expressed by the Anti-War Coalition’s Altheo Macqene — a guest rather than a delegate to the Cosatu congress that ends on Thursday — who said that the ANC had become “a bourgeois” political party. The comment was greeted with applause.
She argued that continuation in an alliance would undermine the federation’s — Cosatu’s — commitment to socialism and “the class struggle”.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said he expected a central committee meeting in September to thrash out the matter of the alliance — emphasising that the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Cosatu needed to explore further ways of fostering the interests of the working class within the alliance.
Vavi said there appeared to been a welcome recent shift to a more expansionary fiscal and monetary stance, but noted that this too not been canvassed in the alliance.
The resolution was proposed by the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu), the Communication Workers’ Union, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the Police, Prison, Civil Rights Union.
ANC representative and Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi, however, came under congress flak when he suggested that there were “fantastical” analyses of the current world — apparently referring to certain trade unionists.
He said the ANC government’s programme — apparently a reference to its economic programme — was “unfolding in conditions which are not of your choosing” — pointing out that the adoption of a socialist programme, first adopted at an ANC congress in exile in 1969, had taken place in different conditions.
Now there was no Soviet Union, he pointed out.
Mufamadi — who is also a member of the SACP — said: “We are executing the struggle where threats have become bigger.”
But he said these threats, which he did not define, existed side by side “with opportunities”.
The question was “how do we take maximum advantage of such opportunities and how do we create room for ourselves to manoeuvre”, he said, apparently referring to the conservative Growth, Employment and Redistribution programme (Gear).
He also suggested that there were no fundamental differences between Cosatu, the SACP and the ruling movement, the ANC, but there were doors open to discussions.
His remarks were made during a debate on how to achieve a socialist South Africa led by the SACP, captured by a resolution motivated by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, Ceppwawu and Nehawu.
Various speakers from the union affiliates said there had not been sufficient discussion about economic programmes of the tripartite alliance. A National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) delegate said: “The challenge facing revolutionary forces is to read correctly the international balance of forces to make the correct choices.”
The delegate referred to Gear as “unilateralist and centralist”. — I-Net Bridge