WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

ISSUE 86 | JULY 2014

alternatives to globalisation

WHITHER COSATU: FIX OR NIX?

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A season of discontent at Cosatu House drags on, punctuated by intrigue, rumours of splits and alliance interventions, while a new movement is percolating on the margins of society. The once mighty union federation, who could threaten to ’bring South Africa to a halt’, seems to be demoblised and its terminal crisis confirmed by the multi peace-deals brokered by Cosatu founder-turned billionaire-turned-deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa. Even during the platinum strike, instead of solidarity, NUM actively tried to break the strike, siding with the neoliberal forces of capital, state and media.

On the eve of its 30th anniversary, the federation should be celebrating its seminal

role in both anti-apartheid struggles and early labour victories. Yet, there is every sign that it is in slow demise as the star to which it hitched its wagon, the Zuma project, is imploding, coupled with deepening intra- and inter- union strife centred on Cosatu’s cooptation to the ruling alliance elite.

COULD MILITANCY BE REVIVED?

A twofold question emerges: Could Cosatu be resuscitated as nerve centre of worker struggles? Secondly, should it be saved given signs that it has not led a concerted class

struggle force for many years – at a time when the streets are stirring. And how is this to be judged? At stake is its track record in the tripartite alliance, in worker struggles, and in class solidarity with social movements.

Some have argued that Cosatu had not been at the forefront of struggles for a number of years. From 1994 it increasingly showed a closer affinity to social dialogue than class struggle, tolerating the compromises with capital that came with gains for workers, such as the CCMA, collective bargaining and the right to strike. To be fair, however, Cosatu was among the first to protest the ANC’s sell-out of the RDP to GEAR. Yet it continued to

The crisis in COSATU continues. Cartoon: www.businessday.co.za

Whither COSATU: Fix or nix? Christelle TerreblancheSiqalo: A community under siegeMichael Blake The World Cup in BrazilWilson H. da SilvaWomen, water and sanitationMzi MngeniNUMSA & the UF against NeoliberalismJonathan PaynHow the WCCC was formedSiyabulele Hulu-Hulu

Continued on page 2...

This distance between the labour elite and struggles of the poor is coming home to roost

2 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

Lead Story National News

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Just off Mitchell’s Plain’s Vanguard Drive a giant sore thumb sticks out as testimony to the failure of successive City administrations – both ANC and DA – to address Cape Town’s housing backlog. Siqalo is the biggest new informal settlement on the Cape Flats, having mushroomed to 1800 households in barely two years. Land occupation is the inevitable result of people willing to take extreme risks to improve their living conditions. Most Siqalo residents moved from overcrowded and unaffordable backyard shacks in nearby areas such as Samora Machel and Philippi. Siqalo means ‘first born’ and it expresses the hope of a new and better life. ‘I am desperate for a home. I was a backyarder, unemployed and unable to pay rent. I moved here with my three children … so that we can have a place to stay. It is not easy, but we have to try our best’, resident Sylvia Xhego told People’s Post.

THE (UN)CARING CITY

Residents occupy two pieces of privately owned land and now face eviction by the High Court; and so a mood of fear and uncertainty prevails. It was the City that pressured landlords to evict from the first onset. Now it has massive resettlement headache: ‘emergency housing for the number of residents involved in this litigation is unprecedented’, according to its court documents. Until recently the City provided the 6 000 residents with only six taps (eight more have been added in recent weeks). This is an outrage. According to official basic national guidelines for ‘Emergency Housing’, Siqalo should have at least 72 taps and 340 toilets. The City’s neglect, through such restricted and dispersed water supply, has jeopardized the health of all residents. Siqalo is an extreme case in the province (the second wealthiest) that has the highest incidence of diarrhea for children under the age of five.

Mayor De Lille has boasted that the City distributed 2000 portable flush toilets in Siqalo. From the comfort of her suburban home in Pinelands she declared that they ‘provide…the same privacy, dignity and safety as a normal full flush toilet’. Degraded by having to use them on a daily basis, Siqalo residents have rejected the Mayor’s claim with contempt. Moreover, the City has flatly rejected residents’ demand for electricity – even just high-mast

lighting. Authorities argue the Municipal Finance Management Act prohibits it from installing services on ‘private’ land. It seems evident that this is just a ruse to fob off residents.

In truth, 100 chemical toilets have been installed in the middle of the settlement. So, why could the City not seek permission to install taps while the eviction case remains unresolved? Surely, the Constitution, as the supreme law of the land, overrides other legislation – meaning the right to an adequate supply of water and other basic needs should take precedence over the right to private property.

HOSTILE RATEPAYERS

With ominous undertones of apartheid, neighbouring ratepayers have demanded the immediate ‘removal’ of Siqalo residents. These are residents of Mitchells Plain, itself the outcome of the forced removal of their parents from District Six. Ratepayers also blame Siqalo residents for the spike in theft and other crimes in their areas. However, in 2011, before Siqalo even existed, Mitchells Plain Police Station recorded South Africa’s highest drug-related crime figures.

After neglecting the needs and demands of Siqalo residents for adequate taps and electricity for over two years, the City was quick to respond to the demands of nearby ratepayers. It announced at a meeting attended by the Mayor and the Mayoral Committee that two CCTV cameras and a barrier on Vanguard Drive have been erected at an estimated cost of about one million rand. The people of Siqalo rejected these ‘protection measures’. Resident Mandisi Ngcwangu told Cape Argus, ‘These barriers are not about traffic… the city is trying to separate us from the richer areas… It is just like apartheid... A wall of shame indeed!’

POLICE REPRESSION

In February, the police raided Siqalo in an apartheid-style operation. Residents’ doors were kicked in and windows smashed in the middle of the night. Cops called people ‘kaffirs’, assaulted several residents and brutally handcuffed and dragged several arrestees along the ground. Residents felt that the police

bankroll the SACP and prop up ANC election support. As contradictions multiplied, it opted not for class struggle unity, but to focus on ousting Thabo Mbeki: blamed for GEAR, and its manifold consequences – casualisation, de-industrialisation and shrinking social spending.

At a special policy conference at Cosatu’s 20th anniversary, Jacob Zuma was unveiled as the ‘unstoppable tsunami’ that would sweep out Mbeki and give workers a seat at the policy table. Instead, union leadership and even shop stewards were sucked into the patronage trap of the now imploding Zuma project, resulting in a growing distance from shop-floors.

TERMINAL COOPTION AT THE HEART OF FRACTURES

Cosatu’s tacit role in oiling the wheels of a system geared at big and petty bourgeoisie class formation has led many to ask whether the federation had by default become just an expedient lightning rod for worker anger. A moot question remains whether ANC-SACP leaders instigated a divide-and-rule strategy to keep workers’ distracted enough from the white capital and BEE accumulation path. The multiple protestations continue: Cosatu wants a ‘Lula moment’ for economic transformation; they haven’t given the ANC a ‘blank cheque’; nor do they act as ANC ‘labour desk’.

There is no doubt: the tripartite marriage had been tumultuous and its imminent demise prophesised often, as successive Cosatu’s national congresses since the mid-1990s threw up ever-larger contestation over the alliance. Such polarisation deepened around the conservatism of white-collar public sector union NEHAWU as it rapidly grew by virtue of state patronage, and solidified in NUM – as opposed to the increasing militancy on Cosatu’s blue-collar leftwing, notably NUMSA. A split was finally heralded with NUMSA’s December

special congress resolution to form a United Front and potentially a workers’ party. But the ‘NUMSA moment’ could still evaporate as the ‘peace deals’ threaten to redirect its militant agency back to saving embattled Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, and, indeed, Cosatu itself. NUMSA, however, insisted ‘there is no turning back’ on the United Front as it embarked on the engineering sector strike.

CHANGING CLASS AND WORKPLACE TRENDS

Cosatu’s absence from protracted worker struggles speaks perhaps most stridently about its ‘crisis of leadership’. Especially glaring was virtual silence in the build-up and aftermath of Marikana. This laid bare a growing workers revolt – against the biggest labour federation – even as the unemployed, precarious and poor grew to world record proportions. This is in stark contrast to the position of power-broking AMCU amassed through the sacrifices of 80 000 workers and their tenfold dependents (notwithstanding doubts over its organisation and future).

A 2012 worker survey showed a sharp decline in membership of most Cosatu affiliates, bar exponential growth in some public sector unions. It also revealed diminishing shop floor participation.

Pertinent here is Cosatu’s consistent failure in organising an estimated three million casual and 2.2 million informal workers – in addition to the eight million plus unemployed – those hardest hit by neoliberalism. This failure to adapt to the changing nature of work and class composition – along with Cosatu’s tacit endorsement of capitalism through its investment funds and political immersion in the faltering Zuma project – have been singled out as core reasons for its current fragility.

A COLD SHOULDER TO SOCIAL MOVEMENT STRUGGLES

Cosatu’s history with social movements is, however, key to its continued relevance. The ‘organic labour-community alliances’ that marked the formation of Cosatu and its predecessors were ‘lost’, it has been argued, when the federation and the UDF were collapsed into the ANC-led alliance. Poor communities – half of South Africans – were left to their own devises. At its 1998 congress

Cosatu took a resolution with two faces: to support social movement struggles – but – as it confirmed in subsequent congress resolutions, making common cause would be conditional on social partners not seeking the ANC’s downfall.

In practice, therefore, it consistently supported the alliance over solidarity with escalating struggles of the poor.

Significantly, the federation has been absent in the ongoing service delivery protests, in the struggles of platinum belt communities, at Marikana and the 2014 platinum strike – which is significantly set to change the terms of super accumulation in mining.

Dissatisfaction with central bargaining, the ‘distance’ that developed between union officials and workers, the division of workers through new forms of employment and relentless retrenchments, violent repression of community protests, all contributed to a growing wedge between Cosatu and the broader working class struggles.

A STARK CHOICE BETWEEN MILITANCY AND IRRELEVANCE

This distance between the labour elite and struggles of the poor is coming home to roost

While the initial social movements have largely collapsed, a new movement seems to be stirring at the grassroots and it remains doubtful whether they could pardon the breach of trust incurred by Cosatu’s neglect. In the event of a settlement to keep together Cosatu and thus, the tripartite alliance – despite its internal shattering – it may yet survive its crisis.

But the ‘NUMSA moment’ for united class struggle would be lost. If the shell of Cosatu lives on, it will do so under siege, as a wave of wildcat strikes are likely to follow the platinum victory, along with signals of more severe repression of industrial action to come.

SIQALO: A COMMUNITY UNDER SIEGE

WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

Flooding in Siqalo. Photo: People’s Post

STRUGGLE

FOR HOUSING

4 5WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

International NewsNational News

International News

THE WORLD CUP IN BRAZIL: STRUGGLES OUTSIDE OF THE STADIUMS

The World Cup is happening in Brazil, exactly one year after of what Brazilians call ‘The Journeys of June 2013’: a huge wave of protests which swept the country last year. At the beginning, they were against bus fare increases in São Paulo and a number of others cities. Then, brutal repression by the much hated Military Police led to further protests that saw hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets.

As discussed in CSP-Conlutas (an organisation of radical unions and social movements in Brazil, which the writer is an activist in), this process, which was followed by ‘worker’s day

of paralisations and struggles’ in July, opened up a ‘new period’. In fact it opened a new stage in class struggle in Brazil, which is still echoing at the present moment much louder than even the shouting at the stadiums during the World Cup. In fact during this ‘new period’ there has been an increasing intensification of struggles against the ruling class.

THE DISPUTE GOING ON

During this current time and in the lead-up to and during the World Cup, a major struggle has been happening in Brazil. On one side, there are the workers, the youth, the homeless, the landless and the historically marginalised and oppressed peoples (black, in the majority, women, LGBT and indeginous people). On the other side has been the state, at all levels (municipal, intrastate and Federal), FIFA and the people profiting from the World Cup: the bosses, the bankers, the contractors and the bourgeoisie as a whole.

In fact, millions of workers, the youth, and oppressed people in general have been fighting against:

• low pay which is getting worse as precarisation and outsourcing advance

• growing homelessness

• land grabs by greedy farmers, loggers and constructors

• and the killing of indegenous people and communities

Struggles too have been taken up against the situation in Brazil whereby black women on average receive one third of the salary of white men and where black youth face massive violence: the possibility of a black young man being killed is 153,4% higher than compared to a white counter part. Along with this, are struggles against homophobic killings of LGBT people (312 LGBT people were murdered during 2013).

WORKERS: KICKING THE BALL

This year started with young black people occupying malls, demanding recreational facilities that were ‘Fifa Standard’. Poor people from the favelas (townships) have been blocking roads and burning buses demanding housing and transportation – also to ‘Fifa standard’.

During this years’ Rio Carnival things got even hotter when the street cleaners, who are mostly black, went on strike and protested on the streets – by-passing their sell-out trade union

raid was an act of retaliation for their militant protests over inadequate services. Despite reporting these obvious breaches of human rights to both the police and police oversight officials, community leaders say they suspect a cover-up.

FREQUENT FLOODS

Many Siqalo residents had to vacate their shacks during last winter’s floods. Still the City failed to dredge and stagnant pools remained until this year’s rain. Residents express concern about the health risk, especially to their children, of the sluggish water.

The 2014 floods wreaked further havoc, but as another resident explained, ‘The city doesn’t help us because they say we are on private land’.

WHAT NEXT?

We have heard that the Western Cape Province is a ‘Home for All’ and that the City ‘Works For Us’ – is a ‘caring city’, a ‘safe city’ and an ‘inclusive city’: BUT, CLEARLY NOT FOR THE RESIDENTS OF SIQALO!

The Grootboom judgment declared: ‘the Constitution’s promise of dignity and equality for all remains for many a distant dream…

The root cause of their problems is the intolerable conditions under which they were living while waiting in the queue for their turn to be allocated low-cost housing’. These words speak directly to the plight of the people of Siqalo. Until the ‘root cause’ is tackled, people will move or be shunted from one bad situation to another.

The people of Siqalo must resist the efforts to silence them or deprive them of the right to protest. The fight is on to realize the Siqalo slogan:

No more shack to shack – shack to house!

A huge wave of protests spread through Brazil leading up to the World Cup. Photo: CSP-Conlutas

the game is far

from over

leaders. In the end they won their struggle, defeating the bosses and the local government (an ally of president Dilma Rousseff, from the ruling Workers’ Party). The street cleaners were supported by the population, who celebrated their victory.

Brazil is holding the most expensive World Cup ever From February onwards, strikes spread. Bus drivers in different cities went on strike; construction workers in cities hosting the games and on infrastructure projects of the government (to satisfy bourgeois interests) went on strike; workers of the Oil Complex of Rio de Janeiro had a massive strike. Along with this homeless people and people that have been evicted occupied buildings and land.

At the end of April, poor black people marched on the streets of the world famous Ipanema – a wealthy area and tourist attraction in Rio. The reason for the march was the racist killing of another black youngster, a dancer known as DG and an incident in which the police dragged a black woman named Cláudia behind their car until she died.

Just days before the World Cup, subway workers went on strike in São Paulo. Despite

being supported by most of the population, it ended with state repression. After the subway strike 42 workers were illegally dismissed. Now, their reinstatement is one of the main campaigns of CSP-Conlutas, with the support of all other major Central Unions.

In each of these struggles it was raised that at the very same time as people face low wages, racism and evictions, Brazil is holding the most expensive World Cup ever (it has cost R121.3 billion).

DIRTY PLAY

The state has been trying to repress the struggles that have been taking place in recent years and in the lead up to the World Cup. Social movements and activists are currently being criminalised. We are living under a kind of State of Emergency, which brings back bad memories of the military dictatorship in Brazil from 1964 to 1985.

Two examples perhaps highlight this. During the subway strike, a student, Murilo Magalhães, activist of the National Assembly of Students/Free (ANEL) and LGBT Sector of CSP-Conlutas was arrested, suffered homophobia, was tortured and put in jail. On the 12th June, in a protest in front of the branch of the Metro Labor Union: protesters were attacked by the police and the building of the labor union, where protestors had retreated

to, was surrounded by police, cavalry, and shock troops.

This is a continuation of what we saw by the Military Police last year when hundreds of protestors were imprisoned, and many more injured by tear gas and rubber bullets, and some were even shot and killed.

Since the approach of the World Cup and its kick off, things have gotten worse. The first protest against Fifa was in January, one month later there were already 397 activists in jail (more than the 374 arrested during 2013).

THERE WILL BE MORE STRUGGLE

In spite of all this, there is no sign that the mobilisations, strikes and protests will end. Definitely, the game is far from over. And, independently of the results inside of the stadiums (which poor and black fans could not even approach) there is something for sure:

the Brazilian exploited and oppressed people will be playing an important role and struggles will continue.

WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014 7

Centre SpreadCentre Spread

A WORLD CUP OF PROTESTS

Over June and July this year, the

football World Cup took place in

Brazil. It was the most expensive

World Cup in history – even more

expensive than the one held in

South Africa in 2010.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE WORLD CUP:

R121 BILLION

Many working class people were angry that the Brazilian state spent billions of dollars on the World Cup; while there was racism, massive unemployment,

huge inequalities, low pay, and issues around a lack of basic services such as

housing, healthcare and education.

AN ANGRY WORKING CLASS

Huge marches in fact took place around the country against the World Cup and for

better wages, housing, education and healthcare

A wave of strikes happened in 2013 against bus fare increases, police brutality and the spending on the

World CupProtests erupted

MILLIONS of workers in different sectors went out on strike in the months leading up to the World Cup in 2014

THESE SPREAD AS THE WORLD CUP GOT CLOSER

Homeless people and people that had been evicted due to the gentrification associated with the World Cup also staged huge protests and occupied land and buildings

Poor communities, in which black people make up a majority, also marched on rich

areas demanding the roll out of quality ‘FIFA standard’ social services

Working class people were also angered because they knew the ruling class in Brazil, corporations and FIFA officials were the ones who were going to benefit out of the World Cup

Indeed, working class people in Brazil were excluded from watching the games at the Stadiums

Only the wealthy could afford the ticket prices; and the money spent on the World Cup went to corporations and FIFA

WHO BENEFITED FROM THE WORLD CUP?

The state in Brazil tried to violently put down these protests

Policing, directed at the working class, to stop any protests during the World Cup was massively increased

Struggles and even peaceful protests were essentially criminalised

Many activists were and have been arrested and even tortured

Despite this state repression, struggles have continued

After the World Cup many people believe struggles will also intensify

STATE REPRESSION

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WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014 98

Educational SeriesGender News

Three toddlers from Boitumelong Township died in May after contracting diarrhea from drinking tap water. The local government said the problems with the water had been due to a sewerage spill. Such water and sanitation problems in the area started in 2012 and led to a series of protests in North West‘s Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipality – which comprises of Bloemhof, Boitumelong, Chistiana, and Utlwanang.

The reality is this situation exists due to the state’s implementation of neoliberal policies, under which water services have been based on cost-recovery, privatisation, commercialisation, and outsourcing. While the state tries to claim this is more ‘efficient’; for women, this system often means less than ‘sufficient’.

BACKGROUND

In 2012, protests erupted over the poor state of water, sewerage and sanitation in Bloemhof. The government undertook research into the

crisis, but excluded Bloemhof residents in the process. Two years later their demands remain unmet and their problems unresolved. In April 2014 protests again broke out over the situation.

Sadly, it was too late for the three children – and 170 people hospitalised with diarrhea. The municipality responded by shutting down the water system, leaving the area without water for almost a week: schools were closed, toilets could not be flushed and people were forced to use the bushes to relieve themselves. Although people were advised to boil water before using it, the water was still brown and stinking. Water tanks deployed by the state were not accessible enough, forcing some to haul water from swimming pools. The smell of sewerage penetrated the air for almost a week, while animals and pets also succumbed to the putrid water.

Most concerning was the additional hazard for women and children who had to face a risk of attack and rape as they relieved themselves in the open veld at the edge of settlements. While

caring for the sick, women also had to venture further out to find clean water, increasing their burden.

GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE

Bloemhof’s municipal manager Andrew Makwapane was suspended (and has since resigned) on charges of negligence after the diarrhea outbreak, while the ANC mayor, Moeder Mokodi, was ousted. The manager was quick to blame a contractor appointed to fix water contamination from a sewage spill in Boitumelong, but apparently abandoned the work during the April protests. Yet, Makwapane was unable to say when the deadly spill had occurred; nor could he specify which protest he was referring to.

Government officials reduced the whole tragedy to denials – of an actual diarrhea outbreak – and that the cause lies with a sewerage spill. They shifted the blame to certain individuals, through suspensions and dismissals. The only practical response to the problem of collapsing water infrastructure and management has been the appointment of another joint national, provincial and local task team. Again, Boitumelong’s residents have been excluded, even as they were disproportionately affected.

HITTING THE POOR

Notwithstanding the government’s claims that it has met its Millennium Development Goal of ensuring access to sanitation and clean water, the reality for poor people – and women especially – is that many still don’t have access to these basics.

During recent countrywide hearings held on water and sanitation, most people claimed corruption is a main cause of a lack of service delivery. The areas that are mostly affected by a lack of water and sanitation are poor black households – a reflection of the apartheid-era geographical exclusion.

About 60% of the poorest half of South Africans are women and among these, 70% are single mothers. Non-provision of basic services hits them the hardest and makes it so much more difficult to escape the grinding poverty traps in which they survive.

WOMEN, WATER AND SANITATION

Polluted tap water in Boitumelong. Photo: www.enca.com

SYSTEMIC EXCLUSION

Given the government’s neoliberal policies water has become a commodity that is now often managed by the private sector and/or based on cost-recovery. Many municipalities’ water systems are outsourced to private companies and some even to multinational companies. Moreover, business – especially mining and agribusiness – are by far the biggest users of water in the country, often at reduced bulk rates. The state also prioritises the delivery of water to mines and other corporations.

In fact, the right to a healthy environment and clean water is continually undermined by the pro-rich policies of the state, and court decisions that endorse neoliberal outsourcing. Bloemhof and Boithumelong’s crisis is not an isolated example to be put down to a ‘few rotten apples’ in government. Due to infrastructure breakdowns, cost-cutting and turning a blind eye to companies polluting – all associated with neoliberalism – even main water sources like the Vaal River are continuously getting contaminated. Wildlife too is affected from raw sewerage run offs into such rivers.

A systemic crisis, therefore, is brewing nationally, with 38% of municipalities at risk of not being able to properly treat water, and 9% are already in crisis, such as Madibeng local municipality where diarrhea is recurrent due to substandard water. The reality is marked by protests over sanitation and water in areas such as Damonville, Mothutlung, Mbombela, Bushbuckridge, Tshwete and Pinaar – and Cape Town’s ‘poo wars’ over the bucket system.

This is a complete infrastructural failure that has put a big burden on women as the people who care for households and their families, while rich and corporations get prioritized and subsidised.

Throughout South Africa and the region, women bear the heaviest burden of lack of access to water and sanitation. This places women at high risk of diseases; it places an extra burden on mostly women to find water sources for their families, but also increases the potential of violence against women.

toddlers die

of diarrhea

fromtap water

WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

NUMSA AND THE ‘UNITED FRONT AGAINST NEOLIBERALISM’

The resolution adopted by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) to form a ‘United Front Against Neoliberalism’ – as well as its decision not to endorse the ANC in the elections – represents an interesting development in the political landscape, one which activists should look at carefully and engage.

Due to the language used by the media, the Left, NUMSA’s critics and even NUMSA itself much confusion surrounds the debate – leaving many questions: Is the ‘United Front’ an organisation or attempt to build a new labour federation or political party? Is it an attempt to revive the 1980s United Democratic Front (UDF)? Why NUMSA’s sudden interest in community struggles?

This series, of which this article is the first, aims to clarify these and other questions by looking at the proposal and history of united fronts locally and internationally to clarify key issues and draw lessons that activists can use

when engaging the pros and cons of NUMSA’s United Front proposal and if and how they think it should be developed.

GLOBAL CAPITALIST CRISIS AND A STALLED REVOLUTION

To understand NUMSA’s decision to break with the ANC and SACP, and the potential its call for a united front could offer for building a working class-based alternative to the ANC-led Alliance and its neoliberal policies, activists must contextualise these decisions and unpack what NUMSA understands by the United Front.

NUMSA has noted that, twenty years after the democratic transition, the majority-black working class has not experienced meaningful improvements in its conditions. At the same time, however, a small black elite has become super wealthy. In South Africa NUMSA

NUMSA: The United Front is a weapon for uniting the working class. Photo: www.algoafm.co.za

years after democracy, condition for the black working class have not improved, while a black elite

has become super wealthy

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11WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

My Organisation

WCCC stands for Working Class Co-ordinating Committee. The structure was formed by the ex-employees of Iscor; now known as Mittal. The movement is situated in the Vaal/Sebokeng. It involves in particular those people who live at Kwa-Masiza hostel who used to work at Iscor/Mittal. These former employees were retrenched and now are still waiting for their surplus pension monies. These people have also been to many demonstrations such as pickets and marches to the company itself (Mittal).

Eventually we made inroads into environmental struggles and then managed to gather people

together and eventually launched Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance to struggle against Mittal and the damage such companies are causing. We decided to take the initiative in the Vaal and then gather other organisations in the Vaal and then launch the project which is viable now. It has moved to a level where we have even developed an environmental plan for the Vaal and we are part of the monitoring with the government, industry and other bodies and we have made an impact. The focus now is on the pollution of water and air quality and waste management and we are engaged with municipalities.

We see it as vital to participate in struggles.

Most of the ex-employees have already lost their lives due to chemicals and pollution related diseases. People now are still waiting to be compensated but it has been long overdue.

The Mittal management decided to hire doctors on their own to examine the affected ex-employees. Some of the doctors have diagnosed that those people who died, died of natural causes and not due to chemicals or pollution related diseases. As a result and part of the struggle we also managed to take legal steps, but Mittal also admitted that they are responsible for the pollution although they launched an appeal. The issue now will be heard in Bloemfontein High Court very soon.

The struggle continues.

HOW THE WCCC WAS FORMED AND HOW IT WORKS

The struggle to be compensated continues for ex-Iscor/Mittal employees. Photo: http://vaalenvironmentalnews.blogspot.com

the strugglecontinues

10 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

Educational Series

has noted that the neoliberal restructuring, implemented by the ANC government and supported by its Alliance partners, has been aimed at benefiting the capitalist class and has resulted in the increased dominance of finance capital, in massive job losses and increased poverty and inequality.

‘A WEAPON FOR UNITING THE WORKING CLASS’

NUMSA claims not to see the United Front as a new organisation or party but a mechanism ‘to mobilise the working class in all their formations into a United Front against neoliberalism’. Whereas NUMSA sees the Alliance as ‘simply a mechanism for mobilising a vote for the ANC’, it envisions the United Front as a ‘mobilising tool to organise and coordinate working class struggles’.

The United Front is also not about building a new labour federation as NUMSA is calling on COSATU to join it in breaking with the Alliance and building a new movement. Nor is it an attempt to simply revive the UDF. Rather, it is ‘a way to join other organisations in action, in the trenches’, through sharing common struggles.

NUMSA says that ‘better working conditions are inseparable from the working class community struggles for transportation, sanitation, water, electricity and shelter’ and that it wants to break down the barriers that exist between worker and community struggles. The two pillars on which its United Front would stand are gaining community support

for NUMSA campaigns and building ‘concrete support for other struggles of the working class and the poor wherever and whenever they take place’.

‘NUMSA IS PART OF THE COMMUNITY, AND NOT THE COMMUNITY’

For many community activists the question then is why now, after ignoring community struggles for so long, does NUMSA claim to want to support them? Moreover, why does NUMSA think it should lead this unification process? After all, community activists long ago identified the ANC’s neoliberal character.

Despite the fact that its members come from the communities NUMSA has not supported community struggles in recent years. Yet now it seems NUMSA wants to support community struggles and lead them in building a united front. While it might have a role to play, some community activists feel NUMSA cannot legitimately take the lead in uniting community struggles.

Instead they feel NUMSA should focus on building unity with other unions before approaching communities. Similarly, communities should first work together to unite their own struggles from the bottom up; a process that is already underway in parts of the country.

Only once community struggles are united and coordinated from below, by the activists involved, can they feel confident in uniting community and worker struggles without fear

of bigger, more resourced organisations like NUMSA imposing themselves on them.

CONCLUSION

A good thing about the United Front is that it accommodates ideological differences in order to build the unity of working class formations in struggle. However, Communist Parties have historically engaged in united fronts to create unity in action in struggles against the onslaught of capitalism, but also with the aim of winning over the majority – who mostly (but not exclusively as there were other revolutionary currents) supported reformist social democratic parties – involved in these struggles to their programme and lead as a Party. When engaging the NUMSA United Front proposal, then, it is important to ask whether or not NUMSA also sees the United Front as a tactic to win what it has sometimes unfortunately described as leaderless and unorganised community struggles to its perspectives and to ensure they accept its leadership in struggles.

Community activists across the country have, despite scepticism, responded positively to NUMSA’s call by supporting the 19 March actions against the Youth Wage Subsidy.

Will NUMSA reciprocate by putting its resources and capacity at the service of building ‘concrete support for other struggles of the working class’ and the poor ‘wherever and whenever they take place’?

The possibility of NUMSA playing any relevant role in fostering working class unity depends on the answer to this question.

COMPENSATION IS LONG OVERDUE

NUMSA and other organisations protest outside Parliament. Photo: www.numsa.org.za

12 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 86 | July 2014

Cultural Section

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The site will allow viewers to find out more about ILRIG, its history, staff and board. It provides an interactive space for interested people to engage

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issues of interest.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

WWN has been revamped into a new format and from this month will bring you more international, local and educational content as well as create space for poems and movie reviews.

We have a vision of increasingly hearing your voices in future editions: write to us info@ilrig.org.za or join our Facebook discussions: ILRIGSA or Twitter: #ILRIGSA. Join our Facebook Group: Workers World News.

WWN will feature a regular Educational Series on topical questions facing our movements. We hope this series will develop into a resource for activists. This series will help us to develop our knowledge about important questions, concepts and experiences whilst building our organisations and consciousness. This series starts in the July edition with a series on the United Front – its meaning, debates and history.

We will continue to host a My Organisation page. Write to us about your organisation, social movement or current campaigns.

021 447 6375 info@ilrig.org.za Room 14, Community House

41 Salt River RoadILRIGSA / Workers World News ILRIGSA

publicforum

I was raised in the streets by the people

All the struggles I"m facing is for my people

My people in the ghetto

Everything I do, I do it for the people

I was raised in the streets by the people Everything I do, I do it for the people

All the struggles I"m facing is for my people My people in the ghetto

My People is a track from Freedom Warriors II, which is a CD of revolutionary hip-hop and spoken word produced by Soundz of the South (SOS) in collaboration with various cultural activists and comrades (www.soundzofthesouth.blogspot.com).

You know we the products of the ghetto

Ekseni emini ebusuku siphul umthetho

Ngob iimeko esiphantsi kwazo zingunobangela mosindo

What do you do xawulala ungatyanga

Uhamba ngobusuk ubanjwe ungamoshanga

Esgela uyile uvuka ngonyezi kodwa akawutholi umsebenzi

Take a look outside vula iwindow

Batsha baphela abantwana ngumlilo

Yitik ngapha bavala itap ngapha

Yitax ngapha ibanga istress baba

We would also like your feedback on the new series. Please feel free to make suggestions.

ILRIG hosts a Public Forum on the last Thursday of every month

between 6 and 8.30 PM.

Food and transport home are provided.

Please do join us.