Documents

statement to the meeting of CosAtU and other organizations of 22 August 2005 by communities.

The following statement was released by a group of organisations before the launch

of the ‘new UDF’, and included Concerned residents of Delft, Cuba Heights AEC, Eastridge AEC, Elitha Park AEC, Freedom Park AEC, Hanover Park AEC, Ikwezi Park AEC, Intatho Nxaxheba (Crossroads, Boys Town), Intshukumo Yabantu (Gugulethu), Lentegeur AEC, Madala Bos Area Committee, Mandela Park AEC, Newfields Village AEC, RR section Area committee, QQ section Area committee, 7de Laan AEC, Silvertown AEC, Site C AEC, Tafelsig AEC, Valhalla Park AEC, Vrygrond Action Committee, Woodstock AEC.

Unemployment in our country is above 40%, one of the highest rates in the world. The responsibility for this situation lies with the ruthless economic system of capitalism, which works to secure profits for the few rather than to serve the needs of the majority. Capitalism in our country is championed by the big banks and the big monopolies.

Unemployment in our country has worsened since 1994, largely because of the neo-liberal economic policy of GEAR introduced by the ANC government. A black capitalist elite has joined the white capitalist elite and inequality has worsened under this ANC government.

As a consequence of GEAR, with its job- destroying policies and high interest rates, the masses have been impoverished. Bond-payers and rent-payers have fallen into arrears, people have not been able to pay water and electricity

charges. Social movements have developed in the communities to resist evictions and water and electricity cutoffs and policies of privatization. In recent months, all over the country – in the Free State, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Gauteng and the Western Cape – communities have risen in protest

at the lack of delivery of housing and basic services. They demand an end to the indignity of the bucket system, they demand adequate taps and toilets and decent housing for all – in a situation where there is a national housing backlog of 2 million and in the Western Cape of 360,000. The unemployed need to be put to work to build houses in a massive public works programme.

The launch of the campaign for jobs and against poverty by the COSATU leaders at the meeting

of 22 August 2005 is very belated. It should have been launched in 1996, when GEAR was launched. COSATU has the muscle to take on the government and compel it to change its policies, but time

and again its leaders have backed away from confrontation and been humiliated by government spokespersons. How seriously has the COSATU leadership resisted the attacks by the state on working people resulting from GEAR? When did the COSATU leaders assist the social movements opposing GEAR-related evictions? When did they assist those protesting against water and electricity cutoffs? When did they oppose the arrests and trials of those engaged in these actions?

If this campaign was a genuine campaign to unite organized workers with communities in struggle we would welcome it. Such a campaign would need to be built from the bottom, through COSATU shop stewards forming locals as in the 1980s and linking with social movements in the communities. But the COSATU leaders have launched this campaign in

the Western Cape without consulting with or trying to involve the major social movements in the region, or any of the communities in struggle over service delivery. Most social movements are thus excluded from the campaign.

What is the purpose of this campaign? The press has labelled it a ‘new UDF’. The UDF was a political movement against the apartheid government of the day. But now COSATU regional secretary Ehrenreich speaks with two voices. On the one hand, in the Cape Times (12/8/2005) he says the Tripartite Alliance

is “not working” and that it was “unrealistic” to rule out the possibility that this campaign has “political aspirations”. But in the Mail and Guardian of the same date (12/8/2005) he says that the ANC

will be invited to join the campaign! The ANC

is the government, and is wedded to capitalism. If this campaign embraces the ANC rather than challenging the ANC it will be a paper tiger.

There is a new movement of protest developing in the country among working people in the workplaces and in the communities. The recent strike wave – including the mineworkers’ strike, the SAMWU strike, the Pick and Pay strike, and

so on – is a sign of this, as are the service delivery demonstrations. Organised workers inside and outside of COSATU need to link up with their comrades in the communities around demands for a living wage, decent jobs, decent housing, education, health and so on – against the ANC government.

For this campaign to be meaningful, COSATU needs to break from the Tripartite Alliance. So long as it remains a junior partner in the governing alliance, it cannot lead the working class in genuine struggle. If COSATU breaks with the alliance the movement in the workplaces and communities could be developed on the basis of a programme to

really solve the problems of working people – to put the unemployed to work to build houses, to create decent education and health care for all.

The ambiguities in the present campaign will simply confuse, divide and demobilize people. We are worried that it is intended to defuse protest rather than to mobilize protest.

The local elections are approaching. They will be an acid test for this campaign. In the past many of us have voted for and even campaigned for the ANC – but we have been bitterly disappointed by the empty promises and the lack of delivery. We have been used as voting cows. Does COSATU still intend to encourage people to vote for the same corrupt ANC councilors?

We call on the membership of COSATU not to campaign for an ANC victory in the local elections. The ANC is responsible for anti-working class policies that entrench poverty and inequality.

We will not vote for any bourgeois party. Communities must take their own decisions on how to act in the local elections. Some will support the lead of the SAMWU workers who said to the City Council “No living wage, no vote!” and will add “No house, no vote!, No job, no vote!, No land no vote.” Others will put forward independent candidates to oppose the ANC from the left. COSATU members should support these actions.

 

Phantsi capitalism! Forward to workers’ democracy and socialism! Amandla ngawethu! Phambili!

13 August 2005