After Stagnation, Organised Labour Back on the Move
Written by Tinovimbanashe Gwenyaya
The Covid-19 pandemic served to intensify an already existing economic crisis. This has escalated the class war between the bosses and the working class. But the lockdown period cut across many working class struggles and deepened trade union paralysis, with union bosses capitulating to the most brazen restructurings of the ruling class.
The ANC government has embraced the role of the vanguard of the capitalist class in leading the charge against the working class. In addition to increasing the existing brutal austerity measures, they have announced wage freezes in the public sector and thereby giving a political signal to the bosses in the private sector.
Bargaining council wage agreements that guaranteed increases and bonuses are being wrecked. Bosses have threatened to withdraw from bargaining councils to force workers into accepting the wage freezes, accelerating the dismantlement of centralised bargaining of the past few years. The historic gains that workers have made since the end of apartheid to improve their working conditions are swiftly being eroded by the bosses and the state under the guise of pandemic necessity.
Only 543,000 of the 2,2 million who lost their jobs in the second quarter have returned to work leaving 1,65 million jobless in spite of the reopening of the economy for the most of the third quarter. Although it can be expected that the recovery will continue into the fourth quarter it is certainly clear that with the true unemployment rate rapidly approaching 50%, the levels of hunger and poverty will deepen.
In spite of this relentless onslaught, workers have taken up struggles over the past year. In addition to the struggles for PPE, hazard pay, and job security, which were a dominant feature of the early period of the lockdown, workers have now been fighting over wage freezes and to defend hard-won rights.
The October 7 strike and the momentum preceding it opened a period of renewed mobilisation by the labour movement. The calls for action, in particular accompanied by scandalous corruption by Covid profiteers, open up boundless possibilities for class struggle and political mobilisation of the working class.
While working class responses have played a crucial role in overcoming the trade union paralysis, they have been largely spontaneous and isolated. A big factor here is the glaring absence of trade union leadership. We have pointed out persistently that resolving the crisis in the trade union movement cannot be left to the trade union bureaucrats, many of whom will resort to class collaboration tactics in times of crises as we have witnessed this year.
It was WASP members in the trade unions who pushed for SAFTU to endorse the 7 October Cosatu General Strike and call on other federations to do the same. We also insisted on the adoption of a clear programme of rolling mass action going forward.
Despite legitimate Covid-19 concerns, poor mobilisation efforts and active sabotage of trade union leadership across all the federations including Cosatu which had called the action, workers turned-up in thousands across the country in acts of working class solidarity not seen since 1994.
In the weeks preceding and following the general strike, workers took action in a number of industries. Natures’ Garden workers embarked on a victorious 7-week strike in August, securing a wage increase and guaranteed job security, despite violent attempts to quash the strike. At Clover, over 2000 workers were on strike nine weeks from October to December. It forced the bosses to yield on fundamental demands for wage increases and an end to labour broking. Mass demonstrations also occurred in the public sector by NEHAWU, NUPSAW, private healthcare by YNITU, and the motor industry by NUMSA.
These actions are important in testing the mood and readiness for the February 24 all-out general strike called for by SAFTU. WASP supports the programme of rolling mass actions and calls on all working class formations to build towards it as well as Cosatu’s similar declarations. More work is needed to build momentum for these actions – it would be a mistake to think we can just snap out of labour movement paralysis into a working class offensive.
There is a need to rebuild as the economy reopens. That means SAFTU must support trade unions organising in sectors decimated by lockdown, eg hospitality. It means taking active leadership in every workplace issue, and supporting the community, climate change, anti-GBV struggles. It must link with the forces that united in the C19 People’s Coalition in the course of building working class solidarity during the pandemic.
WASP calls for a joint shop steward council of workers from across all federations and independent unions,
