UNION NEWS: SOUTH AFRICA ..... When it comes to election time, even those Cosatu affiliates that are at loggerheads with union federation bosses perceived to be too close to the ANC still vote with their hearts. At least five of the nine affiliate unions that are upset that Cosatu is being increasingly marginalised by its alliance partners, especially by the ANC, will still urge their members to vote and campaign for the ruling partys re-election. They will not follow the example of Cosatus largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which resolved at its special congress in December that it will not campaign for the ANC or support the party financially, as was traditionally the case. The nine affiliates are also in favour of suspended Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavis reinstatement. Vavi was suspended last year after admitting to having an affair with a junior Cosatu employee. More charges against Vavi have since been added by Cosatus national office bearers. The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), the Communication Workers Union, the South African Commercial and Catering Workers Union (Saccawu) and the South African Football Players Union (Safpu) will endorse the ANC. Only valuable structure The ANC is the only valuable structure for workers to vote, said Fawu general secretary Katishi Masemola. Saccawu president Louise Thipe said her union will be out in full force, convincing voters to choose the ANC. As and when Cosatu deploys us, we will carry that deployment like we always do, Thipe said. Saccawu would prefer Cosatu affiliates unhappy with the ANC-led alliance to discuss it within the group. Denosa agrees. In order for the interests of workers to be achieved, there should be an implementer to spearhead that, said Denosa spokesperson Sibongiseni Delihlazo. The ANC is the one that can help workers advance on their rights and economically. Safpu general secretary Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe said his union has still not revisited its congress resolution to support ANC. We are a member of Cosatu and we are bound by decisions of the federation, he said in reference to Cosatus decision to support the ANC. ANC undermined Cosatu This week the disgruntled affiliates said that the ANC had undermined Cosatu. The fact that the government has been able to implement e-tolling and youth subsidies and to backslide on labour broking and on a progressive economic policy indicates how Cosatus paralysis and disarray is being wilfully exploited, the unions said. Despite staying in Cosatu and backing the ANC in the elections, the affiliates say they are frustrated with Cosatus failure to convene a special congress to discuss, among other things, Vavis suspension and the political regeneration of the organisation. The nine affiliates plan to go to court to force Cosatu to hold a special congress should the leadership of president Sdumo Dlamini fail to meet an end of March deadline. Ticked-off unions still back ANC ... @ mg.co.za/article/2014-01-30-ticked-off-unions-still-back-anc and: The pro-capitalist media are ignoring the dawn of socialism in SA: The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa may become the first mass workers party to oppose the ANC, writes Jane Duncan. 17 Jan 2014 00:00 Jane Duncan The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa may become the first mass workers party to oppose the ANC, writes Jane Duncan. Socialism At its special national congress last month, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa took a significant decision not to support the ruling ANC in the next elections. Numsa is the largest union affiliated to the troubled Cosatu and its clout is considerable, so its decision is a turning point for the countrys politics. Numsa supports socialist ideas and, as a result, at the congress it resolved to explore establishing a movement for socialism as the working class needs a political organisation committed in its policies and actions to the establishment of a socialist South Africa. The union may well spearhead the formation of a workers party, which could become the first truly mass-based political alternative to the left of the ANC. Many media commentators were ambivalent about this development, welcoming the break as a sign of political diversification but expressing great discomfort at Numsas ideological trajectory, which was portrayed as being loopy, eccentric and out of date. Media responses to the Numsa declaration reveal a much bigger truth about the public sphere they help to constitute. There can be little doubt that socialist ideas continue to enjoy widespread support in South Africa. The most significant progressive organisations have either committed themselves to socialist ideas or have socialists within their ranks. But any visitor unfamiliar with South Africas political landscape would not realise from the media how popular socialist ideas are. When spaces do emerge for a real contest of ideas, media bosses may find them threatening and squash them. In the media hullabaloo about the removal of Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois by the new owner of Independent Newspapers, Iqbal Survé, there has been little reflection on the staff allegation that he removed her because she was too left leaning. She became known as an editor who attempted to counterbalance systemic centrist and right-leaning biases in media discourse. This did not make her biased, merely fair-minded. In spite of their importance in South African politics, leftist debates are often caricatured in the media and important nuances are missed. For instance, Numsa and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are often lumped together as being part of the left. But the EFFs stance is anti-capitalist, not socialist, which means that it does not as yet offer a fundamentally different vision of how society should be organised. Numsas approach to socialism is mass based. This may allow it to avoid many of the traps that more vanguardist leftist groups have fallen into and which have often turned the left into an object of derision rather than a serious political contender. Media commentators have mocked Numsa for embracing a failed ideology. But they ignore the fact that capitalism has also failed, and millions of South Africans live with that failure daily. Socialism is a simple idea: workers, who form societys productive base, should control the means of production. They, more than anyone, understand the productive process and should lead how it is organised. It should be clear from this definition that democracy is fundamental to socialism. What emerged in the Soviet bloc was anti-democratic and a perversion of the original vision. However, the South African Communist Party discredited itself by parroting the Stalinist line for decades and to this day has never entirely shed this disgraceful legacy. Needless to say, socialism has conceptual weaknesses. The classical Marxist definition fails to take account of the new twin realities of structural unemployment and reduced workforces, realities that make over-reliance on the factory as the epicentre of organising inappropriate. These weaknesses are not insurmountable, but they do require ideological rethinking and renewal. However, what is also not well acknowledged are socialisms successes. As a transformative ideology, it encourages ordinary people to see that they have the inherent ability to shape their own lives and makes them realise that life can be lived very differently to how it is lived now. To this extent, it provides a substantive vision for equality and democracy. Socialism is not just an economic philosophy. It adopts a whole of society approach, encouraging people to reimagine social relations afresh. It argues that people do not have to accept a dog-eat-dog, everyone-for-himself (and less so for herself) society. Societies based on care and compassion, which encourage both mutual solidarity and individual creativity, can be built. The political landscape shifted fundamentally in December in favour of greater genuine political diversity. This means that, in spite of depressing recent developments, culminating in the Marikana massacre, the current period is filled with great promise. But the media and other opinion makers must come to accept that this diversity may not be on terms and conditions that they have become used to, or even feel comfortable with. That, after all, is what diversity is about. — The South African Civil Society Information Service Professor Jane Duncan is the Highway Africa chair of Media and Information Society at the Rhodes University school of journalism and media studies @ mg.co.za/article/2014-01-16-the-pro-capitalist-media-are-ignoring-the-new-dawn-of-socialism-in-south-africa
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 06:20:07 +0000
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