THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) Special National Congress December 17 to 20, 2013 issued a declaration of war on the lack of progress since apartheid.
NUMSA’s Special National Congress was attended by 1,200 delegates representing 338,000 metalworkers from 50 Locals throughout the provinces of South Africa.
Marikana is a turning point
‘Since the first post-apartheid massacre took place in Marikana, it has been the view of NUMSA that what happened on that day, similar to the 1922 Rand Revolt and the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, marked a turning point in the social and political life of South Africa.
‘What happened in Marikana is one of the reasons why we convened this Special National Congress.
‘As a union we said that after the mowing down of 34 miners in Marikana, it can’t be “business as usual” in South Africa. How do we explain the killing of striking workers in a democracy?
‘As a union we have conducted a sustained and thorough analysis of the political meaning of Marikana.
‘What we wanted to do at this Congress was to look closer home and ask what Marikana means for trade unions and the entire labour movement…
‘Marikana was a deliberate defence of mining profits and mining capitalists!
‘Delegates at this Congress were shown a new documentary that gives an alternative narrative to what we have been fed, that the police in Marikana were acting in self-defence.
‘What we saw was that Marikana was a well-planned and orchestrated strategy by the state to defend the profits of mining bosses.
‘With all this evidence, delegates at this Special National Congress resolved as follows:
‘To call for a full and impartial investigation of the causes of what happened in Marikana as the 11th National Congress of COSATU had called in September 2012. This investigation, unlike the Farlam Commission, would look not only at who pulled the trigger or who gave instruction to murder the workers in Marikana but would also investigate the root causes of the massacre such as the persistent migrant labour system and super exploitation of labour by capital in South Africa.
‘To call upon the South African government to make available all the necessary resources and requirements to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the massacre, and more especially, accede to the demand for necessary assistance to the families of the miners and the injured miners and their lawyers.
‘To call for the dismissal of the Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega.
‘To demand that all the politicians and individuals who are in complicity with the police and state in the murder of the Marikana miners be brought to book.
‘To demand that the mining bosses accept full responsibility for the deaths of all the workers on the mines, and that where appropriate, necessary prosecutions must follow.
‘To demand the immediate absolute dropping and withdrawal of police charges against all the arrested Marikana miners.
‘To call on our trustees to investigate how workers, through withdrawal of pension fund monies, can punish those involved in the massacre…
‘The Special National Congress committed, on behalf of the entire membership of NUMSA, that if the above demands are not met, we commit ourselves with our allies to an International Day of Action in support of our demands.
‘Through personal pledges by worker delegates at this Congress and the entire staff of NUMSA, we collected an amount of R80,000 from worker delegates, R70,000 from NUMSA staff and R200,000 from the NUMSA Investment Company (R350,000 in total) which will be donated to victims and the children of victims of the massacre…
On the Alliance
The Congress noted that the Alliance (ANC, SACP and COSATU) is ‘dysfunctional and captured by right-wing forces…
‘Although there are protests everywhere and every day in the country, the Alliance is not an instrument in the hands of these struggling masses, nor does it provide leadership to these struggles, which are largely leaderless struggles.
‘The reality is that there is a political vacuum and the working class is on its own.
‘There is no chance of winning back the Alliance to what it was originally formed for, which was to drive a revolutionary programme for fundamental transformation of the country, with the Freedom Charter as the minimum platform to transform the South African economy.
‘The South African Communist Party (SACP) leadership has become embedded in the state and is failing to act as the vanguard of the working class.
‘The chance of winning it back onto the path of working class struggle for working class power is very remote.’
The working class needs a political organisation
‘For the struggle for socialism, the working class needs a political organisation committed in theory and practice to socialism.
‘The Congress therefore resolved the following:
‘NUMSA calls on COSATU to break from the Alliance. The time for looking for an alternative has arrived.
‘NUMSA will lead in the establishment of a new United Front that will coordinate struggles in the workplace and in communities, in a way similar to the UDF of the 1980s.
‘The task of this front will be to fight for the implementation of the Freedom Charter and to be an organisational weapon against neo-liberal policies such as the NDP (National Development Plan). For this to happen our members and shop stewards must be active on all fronts and in all struggles against neo-liberal policies, whether these policies are being implemented in the workplace or in communities.
‘Side by side with the establishment of the new United Front, NUMSA will explore the establishment of 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. NUMSA will conduct a thoroughgoing discussion on previous attempts to build socialism as well as current experiments to build socialism. We will commission an international study on the historical formation of working class parties, including exploring different types of parties – from mass workers parties to vanguard parties.
‘We will look at countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Greece. We will examine their programmes with the aim of identifying elements of what may constitute a revolutionary programme for the working class. This entire process will lead to the union convening a Conference on Socialism.
‘This work to explore the formation of a Movement for Socialism must be regularly reported to constitutional structures and the work must be finalised by the first NUMSA Central Committee in 2015.
‘In addition, in all the work being done, whether on building a new united front or exploring the formation of a Movement for Socialism, we must be alert to gains that may present possibilities of either the new united front, or any other progressive coalition or party committed to socialism, standing for elections in future. The NUMSA constitutional structures must continuously assess these developments and possibilities.’
Special resolution on possible inappropriate use of taxpayers’ money to upgrade the President’s home in Inkandla
Executive Committee has called on all facts on Inkandla to be put on the table and in public…
‘The Congress called on President Jacob Zuma to resign with immediate effect because of his administration’s pursuit of neo-liberal policies such as the NDP, e-tolls, labour brokers, youth wage subsidy, and the track record of his administration which is steeped in corruption, patronage and nepotism.’
The situation in Cosatu
‘The federation is currently in a complete state of paralysis and about to implode if no serious measures are undertaken to save it, unify it, rebuild it and reclaim it from forces who want to destroy or liquidate it…
‘There are two voices, crystallised into two camps, coming from within and amongst COSATU’s top leadership:
‘A camp that wants COSATU to continue to fight for socialism and against neo-liberalism; another camp that wants a COSATU that acts as the “labour desk” of the ANC, thereby consciously or unconsciously advancing the neo-liberal project under way in South Africa…
‘At the centre of these problems are concerted efforts to turn the federation into a conveyor belt that feeds ANC-led government policies into the working class and thus turn COSATU from a revolutionary, militant and independent union movement into a “yellow federation”…
‘Instead of uniting the labour movement, the South African Communist Party (SACP) has been the leader of criticising those who are for an independent and campaigning COSATU, labelling them as counter-revolutionary.
‘Motivating the SACP to launch this attack is the official criticism that COSATU levelled at the Party, arguing that since Party leaders went into government, the SACP has been absent in mass struggles and has become an apologist of the government…
We need unity in action around a
revolutionary agenda
‘There is no priority more important than safeguarding the capacity of the working class to act in its own interests. The unity of the working class is critically important, but it has to be based on unity in action.
‘We need to continuously assert, in action, that we need a united, independent and campaigning COSATU that is able to implement its own resolutions without favour or fear.
‘For this assertion to happen in action, the unity and independence of COSATU is sacrosanct and of paramount importance.
‘COSATU must at all times advance a revolutionary agenda…
‘We need COSATU leaders that are first and foremost accountable to the federation, who adhere to its constitution and are committed to implementation of the federation’s policies, resolutions and programmes…
‘We must fight for the unity and independence of COSATU. It should not be influenced by outside forces and that we must resist COSATU from being reduced into a toy-telephone…
‘Only a Special National Congress of COSATU can help us move out of the current crisis in the federation…
‘As part of the fight, NUMSA should adopt the tactic of withholding our subscriptions to COSATU as an ultimatum for the convening of the Special National Congress of COSATU…
‘If COSATU is incapable of remaining united around a militant programme of action we should begin the process of forming a new federation…’
