THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) National Office issued its outlines on the ‘Progress on the United Front and the Movement for Socialism’ on Sunday.
‘The leadership of the national liberation movement as a whole has failed to lead a consistent radical democratic process to resolve the national, gender, and class questions post 1994. . . It is nothing more than parasitic and crony capitalists. . .
‘It is these circumstances, combined with the worsening situation of the South African working class as a whole post 1994, which has lead NUMSA to rethink and revisit its relationship with the ANC and its Alliance.
‘Work is well underway to mobilise the working class in all their formations, into a United Front for the radical implementation of the Freedom Charter and against neoliberalism.
‘During our January NUMSA Marxist-Leninist Political School we met with the leaders of some of the social movements and community structures, to begin the process of mapping out how we will work together.
‘In order to reach out far and wide, NUMSA shall convene Provincial and National consultative meetings to share the content of our resolutions on the United Front and Movement for Socialism.
‘We are happy to note that many social movement organisations and community organisations are joining us in our Section 77 campaigns starting with a national strike on 19th March 2014.
‘During the course of this year, work will be done to assess the state of the world socialist movement and its formations, to inform our work towards the Movement for Socialism.
‘The NUMSA Marxist Leninist School in the first week of April 2014 shall receive representatives of Workers and Communist Parties from countries such as Brazil, Greece and Venezuela to share experiences and to lay the basis for our international research.’
Engineering and Eskom negotiations in 2014 – The Numsa National Bargaining Conference (NBC)
‘As always, NUMSA has begun our Ear to the Ground Campaign in workplace general meetings to listen to the aspirations of NUMSA members with respect to collective bargaining demands in the Engineering industry and Eskom.
‘In collecting these demands our key and strategic objective is to improve the benefits and conditions of employment. The demands from the nine NUMSA Regions shall be consolidated and tabled for discussion in our NUMSA National Bargaining Conference scheduled for 10-12 March 2014 in Saint Georges Hotel, Centurion.
‘Without pre-empting anything, we must be upfront that we are preparing for the mother of all battles as we shall champion the struggle for a living wage for workers in the Engineering Industry and Eskom in particular.
‘The union will use this round of negotiations not only for wages but also take up a very important campaign of defending existing jobs and to fight for more jobs.
‘In extending our work beyond the factories, NUMSA shall on the 19th of March 2014 embark on a national strike to demand the scrapping of the employment tax incentive act or the so called youth wage subsidy.
‘We shall do so in defence of existing jobs as we have reason to believe that the current spate of retrenchments notices across various sectors are directly linked to this stupid incentive scheme.
‘We refuse that the working class of SA must be forced to pay for the global crisis of capitalism.
‘That is why we are calling on the mining bosses and government to quickly resolved the current strike in the platinum belt. It has become abundantly clear there is a joint pact between government and mining capital to destroy union activity outside of the NUM.
‘With respect to Eskom, NUMSA shall not rest until workers at Eskom receive a fair increase. We view the arbitration award that imposed 5.6% as an insult that constitutes a wage freeze.
‘We do need equity of pay. Currently white workers sit at the top of their pay grades while many black workers still languish at the bottom of their grades.
‘We can no longer tolerate Eskom and Government hiding behind the skirt of Nersa to justify paying lip service to a negotiation process where the power (the only power) of workers to withhold their labour is removed.
‘We call on all workers at Eskom to unite behind their legitimate right to demand a living wage if in these rounds of negotiations Eskom management doesn’t move swiftly to make a real offer that will settle workers’ demands and stop hiding behind essential service but pay workers peanuts.
‘They have to take full responsibility for a load shedding that would come as a result of workers insisting that their demands must be met.
‘Eskom now has a shareholder compact with government, but it does not call for fair wages – rather it focuses on profit targets. Profit targeting means Eskom is under pressure to moderate wages.
‘Our members are victims of high standards of living as a result of administered prices that continue to rise and affecting negatively their basket of food and all aspects of their lives.
‘They continue to receive low wages as there is no National Minimum Wage that can guarantee them a living wage.
‘Workers are taking loans from loan sharks in-order to make a living.
‘There is poor or virtually no assistance from the employers.
‘Unemployment which makes those who are working to support those not working imposes a heavy burden on our members as a result of the triple crises – poverty, unemployment and inequalities.
‘It is our members who are victims of Privatisation and Commodification of basic needs/services.
What is to be done?
‘Twenty years into our “democracy”, we the Black and African South African working class are sick and tired of listening to the same stories about us having to wait for the rich to grow their profits for us to see some minor improvements in our lives.
‘The working class can only be defeated because it is not united. United, no force on Earth can defeat us.
‘As immediate tasks, we state the following:
• NUMSA is calling ALL South African workers, Black and White and African, to join us in our United Front to demand the immediate and radical implementation of the Freedom Charter as the only basis for a truly democratic South Africa and in our fight against all neoliberal manifestations.
• We are calling on all members of affiliates of COSATU to demand that their national leaders explain where they stand today, on the ongoing crisis in COSATU.
• We call on all members of affiliates of COSATU to stand up and defend their federation from the vultures who want to turn it into a toy telephone of the ANC and the SACP.
• We call on all mineworkers to stand together, united against the mine bosses and the government who are both fighting mining workers in their just struggle for a living wage.
• As NUMSA, we fully support the just demands for a living wage for the mineworkers. We remain convinced, however, that with the increasing marriage between the ANC and its government and the mine bosses and shareholders, no just wage will be secured by mine workers.
‘We therefore call upon all workers to intensify the struggle to nationalise South African wealth, including the mines and land.
‘Our consistent Marxist-Leninist inspired class analysis of the world and South Africa today informs us that we have no option but to fight to the bitter end, for a Socialist world and Socialist South Africa.’
