Countries >  South Africa
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COSATU:

Contemporary Influence and Action [eh]

Cosatu has a history of mostly parliamentary actions within the tripartite alliance of the African National Congress (ANC) and South Africa Communist Party (SACP), however in October of 2002 this traditional means of political and economic action had failed enough to call for a less common means—mass labor strike—of which there have been three in the past three years[eh1].  President of the federation, Willie Madisha^eh, has taken a strong stance to deny the majority ANC government the ability to overwhelmingly privatize industries and services within the country.[eh2]  In this way, Cosatu, and particularly its leadership, that has been accused of, but denied, “ultra-left” attempts to hinder the neo-liberal attempts of Thabo Mbeki.[eh3] 

Members of the labor federation have reported inner divisions between those who wish to reject their official alliance with ANC and SACP in connection to Mbeki’s socio-economic reforms, and those who claim that to do this now would be to irreversibly split the membership of all three organizations, a move that would greatly diminish the alliances political influence.  Within Cosatu, factions are arguing for small independent unions with no official political connections, while others wish to form more of a workers’ party.[eh4]   

More divisions are created by the concern of some in Cosatu (a nonracial organization) that influential members of ANC are attempting to create a wealthy black capitalist elite instead of focusing on the poor majority, and South Africa’s workers.[eh5]  This, and other divisions along social policies are directed through the alliance of ANC with South African National Civic Organization (Sanco), and Sanco’s disagreement with the political tactics of Cosatu (though they have now pledged support for their common goals).[eh6]  Members of the tripartite alliance and Sanco are differ in opinion on the most pertinent issues facing South Africans, and so Cosatu is calling for a People’s Summit to “unite the people's camp as part of engaging other forces in an effort to build a national consensus” on privatization, job losses, and inflation.[eh7]

Tensions have cooled somewhat since the October strike in opposition to privatization, rising interest rates and food prices, and job cuts, and Cosatu is once again emphasizing its connection with ANC, most recently retracting federation rules that forbid members from running for positions in the National Executive Committee.  A previous strike against privatization was held in 2001 when alliance negotiations could not achieve results.[eh8]  Conversely, because Cosatu’s 2002 strike failed in its demands, the decision to realign, coming after a mass meeting on the changing political landscape, appears to be a sign that Cosatu is loosing leverage and is more willing to begin making concessions and working within the ANC to influence its decisions.[eh9] 

Those who now have control over the federation seek stronger alliances with ANC and SACP through strengthening of the individual organizations.  Cosatu is not willing to abandon their overall grievances with ANC, however they are now willing to compromise.[eh10]  The federation is acknowledging that, “effective regulation can make liberalization palatable”, and ANC is in return taking a stronger stance on employment cutbacks.  Macroeconomic stability, coming elections, and loss of political leverage have been sited as motivating factors for organizational realignment.[eh11]  Connected to this, Cosatu has recently stated that it is deliberating on whether to engage in an even stronger “Election Pact” that would insert a clause on job losses and privatization into the ANC’s next election platform.  Members of Cosatu are worried that even this most direct association with ANC will not bring the sought after results, as a former maneuver such as this, in the 2000 local government elections, resulted in the subsequently elected government’s disregard for the clause.[eh3]

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 Countries >  South Africa