SOUTH AFRICA
A milestone
A
1985, after four years of discussions, the Congress of South African Trade Un- congress for ions (COSATU) was undoubtedly already the most powerful union confederation in the history of South Africa's Black workers. The number of paid-up members at the time of the confederation's second congress in midstructures, have difficulties in living together. These are inherited from the previous period, but they have sometimes been aggravated by the new debates.
Such conflicts have led to organizational difficulties, as the COSATU executive's 1987 message to the membership regretted: "To let differences lead to a split in a union, as happened in the NUTW [National Union of
July strongly reconfirms that
THE STAKES and pressures in the fact.
strategic debates within the Black unions
In the space of 19 months, are mounting alongside the tumultuous there has been impressive growth. From 430,000 paid-up growth of the movement. The following members organized in 33 unarticle looks at the issues involved in ions, paid-up these discussions, in particular following increased to 769,000 workers in
13 unions and industry tures, and about a million workers have signed up. [COSATU's objective members in each industry in one industrial union.]
In its recent development, some outstanding features have been the broadening of COSATU's activity, the concentration of its forces in each industry and the maintenance of trade- union militancy, despite the repression. In 1986, strikes increased in number, duration and in the number of workers involved. The present year can already be regarded as one of a sharp increase in the economic struggles of the workers' movement.
COSATU in the forefront of social conflicts
Despite the repression focused on them by the state, the bosses and clandestine extreme-right groups, the
COSATU unions have been in the forefront of most of conflicts. Imthese social portant victories have been scored in the state sector
(railway and postal workers).
Moreover, in a three-week strike, the miners gave a demonstration of gigantic strength.!
Broader categories of workers (building, domestic, municipal and railway workers)
are now covered by COSATU.
Others, such as agricultural workers and the unemployed, are being organized. Accelerating this process was one of the tasks set by the recent congress of COSATU.
This positive evolution cannot, however, conceal the unresolved problems of internal organization and the important political debates that are stirring the confederation.
The attempt at unification into one this year's COSATU congress.
### TONY ROUX union for each industry has run into considerable resistance. The fusions have been much slower than the sixmonth time limit at the founding congress provided for. This fact has been publicly recognized by the union leaders. Sydney Mufamadi, assistant general secretary of COSATU, has explained, for example, that the "general unions feel they are being pushed too fast and need more time to discuss practical changes. But the industrial unions feel general unions are dragging their feet and it is the central executive's task to try and strike a balance." 2 Fusions are still to be carried out or completed in transport, wood and paper, and among municipal workers.
In most cases, two things combine as obstacles to unification: One is differences in orientation. The other is that unions already organized on an industrial basis, and those general unions less prepared to dissolve and integrate themselves into the confederation's
Textile Workers]; or to hold up the organization of a region, as happened in the Eastern Cape and Witwatersrand regions; or weaken a branch, as happened in Johannesburg, is terrible, comrades.
The gravest problems have been in commerce and the catering industry. For the first time, a union belonging to COSATU, with 56,000 paid-up members, has seen internal political tensions lead to an open battle over legitimacy and a split. This was a revelation of the split threat that could be involved in the political discussions that are going on today.
Differences emerge publicly
The differences came out publicly in the congress of the Commercial, Caterand Allied Workers' Union of ing
South Africa (CCAWUSA) in mid-June.
This gathering was to define the union's political orientation and establish the framework for fusion with two
Hotel and small unions - the
Restaurant Workers' Union
(HARWU) and the Retail and
Workers'
Allied
Union
(RAWU). On these two questions, a line of cleavage appeared between several regional branches of CCAWU-
SA and the Johannesburg branch.
At the end of a congress marked by conflict, the positions upheld by representatives of the Johannesburg region were adopted. Thus, the Freedom Charter was not adopted as a programmatic reference, the grounds on that the union should not be
A current in the divided.
membership identifies with
AZAPO's Azania Manifesto or with the National Forum.
As a commentator noted in the South
"congress end-
African Labour Bulletin, ed with a number of branches obvious-
1. See TV 125, September 14, 1987.
11
2. Weekly Mail, October 24, 1986.
3. COSATU document.
October 12, 1987 • International Viewpoint
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TITS LAUNCHING in COSATU
SOUTH AFRICA ly unhappy with proceedings and the decisions taken. These tensions were to be carried forward to the merger talks, opening up greater division." 4 The re sult was that two wings of CCAUSA turned up at the congress of unification with RAWU and HARWU at the end of
This unification congress was held finally without the endorsement of the Johannesburg branch of CCAWUSA, and adopted resolutions conflicting with those of the previous congress of the commercial and catering union. Notably, it adopted the Freedom Charter and decided to change the name of the uni-
A single framework for debate and action
Far from combining the organized workers in the industry, the unification process stumbled over a political debate and resulted in a new fragmentaof forces. Conciliation meetings are underway, but this episode shows clearly the dangers involved when union fusions are combined sion of strategic orientations.
The founding of COSATU in 1985 did not put an end to discussions and dif-
It did create a new situation by establishing a single framework for debate and action. But important differences in approach remained. This step forward in unifying the workers' movement was an essential element in the rapid growth of COSATU. It was a demonstration of the viability and effectiveness of a workers' united-front framework involving union traditions, when democratic functioning is the rule for resolving political conflicts.
This evolution was guaranteed by the commitment of a broad trade-union current to maintaining this framework of united work. Undoubtedly this was what made possible an evolution in the terms of the debate itself.
Consideration of the socialist perspective has now been explicitly put on the agenda for discussion. The great majority of the COSATU leaderships working class assuming the leading role in the present struggle. So, it is questions of what form and programmatic content to give to this general orientation that are arousing numerous
These differences, nonetheless, hark back to what are sometimes very different strategic outlooks. Into what stages should the ongoing struggle be divided? How should the fight against apartheid be linked to the fight against capitalist exploitation? To what extent 12 should the trade-union movement get involved in socialist propaganda and in International Viewpoint • October 12, 1987 concrete struggles today for workers' control? Such general themes underlie the current trade-union debate.
After being the center of ideological disputes on the fringes of the union movement, the question of a socialist perspective and of the trade-union movement's role in the fight for socialism has now become the focus of COSATU's discussion.
Over these last three months, the discussion has centered above all around evaluating the content and function of the Freedom Charter, the political program of the ANC, as well as the Chartist current that it influences and which dominates the mass movement. This was illustrated throughout the industrial union congresses that preceded COSATU's Second Congress.
All currents in the trade-union movement recognize the minimal nature of the Freedom Charter's demands. Nonetheless, several orientations toward it emerging. An initial position seems to be to view the adoption of the Freedom Charter by COSATU as an end in itself. This program of democratic demands is judged sufficient to carry through the struggle's democratic stage. As for the question of a socialist perspective, it is simply not supposed to be on the agenda.