Trade unions reviewing support to ANC Govt.?

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, AUG. 25. Though by now hardly perennial, the latest criticism by powerful affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party of the substance and direction of the economic policies is sharper than ever before.

This is evident in the resolutions and debates of the 6th National Congress of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the biggest affiliate of Cosatu, at Mmabatho in Western Province, and the Congress of South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) in Durban earlier this week. Cosatu itself is holding its national Congress next month (September 18-21) in Johannesburg where too the focus will be on these issues, as is clear from the Discussion Document of the Congress.

Indeed, there has even been some talk, unrealistic as it is, that the ANC should be removed from its position as the leader of the Tripartite Alliance and replaced by the SACP. The proposal, in the form of a draft resolution tabled by one of NUMSA's regional delegations and debated on Monday, did not form part of the final resolution adopted by the NUMSA Congress and the leadership of all Alliance components had underplayed it as a `storm in a tea cup'. But that such a proposal was tabled and debated at all is significant, even allowing for the tradition of `vigorous internal debate' in the Alliance.

Central to these polemical exchanges is the deep conviction of the unions and the SACP as well as sections within the ANC itself that these policies, far from resulting in any meaningful economic growth and the alleviation of the condition of the poorest of the poor, the ANC's own natural constituency, have had quite the contrary results, including massive job losses. Specifically, the polemics have revolved round the proposed amendments to labour laws, the ongoing process of the restructuring of state assets, a euphemism for privatisation, and globalisation. The issues are contested not merely by the unions and the SACP but also within the ANC itself - an important feature of the political debate in South Africa going back to the days of the liberation struggle.

Speaking at the NUMSA Congress at Mmabatho yesterday, both Mr. Blade Nzimande, General Secretary of the SACP, and Mr. Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu General Secretary, returned to these fundamental concerns of the organised working class. Referring to the `tensions' in the Alliance, Mr. Nzimande called for an Alliance consensus on economic policy as a basis for nation-wide consensus involving all the key role players in the economy. ``The longer we postpone this, the more unnecessary problems and tensions we will have.''

Referring to `Globalisation as Imperialism', Mr. Nzimande was particularly scornful on ``a notion ... expressed within the ranks of our own movement that capitalism is by its very nature global and therefore there is nothing we can do about it since it is an objective process''. Significantly, the foremost leader of the Alliance who has been expressing such views is the President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, himself, the most recent instance being his address to the ANC's National General Council meeting in Port Elizabeth last month.

Mr. Zwelinzima Vavi was even more forceful in his criticism. While welcoming the resolution of the Congress to continue with the Alliance, Mr. Vavi said that there must be ``visible and qualitative changes'' in the manner in which the Alliance operated. ``It certainly cannot be business as usual.''

In an even more explicitly forceful intervention at the SAMWU Congress in Durban, its president, Mr. Petrus Mashishi, said the ANC deserved support only if it delivered the goods. ``If it fails, we must do what we have done to the apartheid regime,'' echoing the words of Mr. Nelson Mandela to the Cosatu Special Congress in Johannesburg in September, 1993: ``You must support the African National Congress only insofar as it delivers the goods; if the ANC government does not deliver the goods you must do to it what you have done to the apartheid regime.''

Such `fighting talk' has always been a feature of the robust debates, not always internal, among the partners of the Alliance. Obituary notices of the demise of the Alliance have again and again turned out to be premature.

This is likely to be so even now, though the stakes as always are high, more so than ever in the context of the coming nation-wide elections to the local bodies likely to be held in November. The support of the unions is crucial for the ANC in these elections. Mr. Vavi pointedly noted that ``this government is our government and to the extent that it implements progressive measures we will support it''. He too recalled Mr. Mandela's call that if a government, democratic or not, deviated from its mandate, workers should not hesitate to criticise it.

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