Contradictions suspended
International Viewpoint #257 June 1994
LANGA ZITA is an organiser for the metalworkers union, NUMSA, in the Pretoria-WitwatersrandVereeniging (PWV) region, and has been described as the South African Communist Party's (SACP) leading young left-wing intellectual. International Viewpont spoke with him following the ANC election victory. INTERVIEW
A S part of the triparti-
te alliance, COSATU supported the ANC's election campaign. With that support they have managed to get a number of COSATU nominated leaders elected to the National Assembly, some even in ministerial positions (Sydney Matumadi as Minister of Police, and Jay Naidoo) in addition to getting the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP) accepted by the ANC as its plan to be implemented as government. How will COSATU have influence over their elected representatives and what will COSATU's role be in the implementation process of the RDP?
"There have been some debates but not very formal as to what relationship
### UNIONS are held with these comrades to get reports and to forward our concerns. Some of those who are new to the ANC will continue to look to cosATU for support because they do not feel too comfortable in the ANC.
*The critical aspect of the RDP is the proposals around the democratisation of State structures and which outline the need for the participation of popular forces such as trade unions, civics in the conception and implementation of policy. Again in the Pretoria-WitwatersrandVereeniging (PWV) region we have a structure, the Transitional Task Team where CoSATU, the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) and the SACP oversee the implementation of the RDP. It plays a monitoring and watch-dog role.
"Where we feel in COSATU that the RDP is not being implemented and that the measures taken in terms of the RDP are not in our members' interests we reserve the right to take independent action to oppose such measures. As a trade union we have specific sectional interests (ie. organised workers) which must be defended and that must be understood by all.
"There are two processes driving the RDP. On the one hand, there is the budgetary aspect which allocates specific resources for the delivery of necessities such as housing, electrification, clinics, and so forth. On the other hand, there are measures which are aimed at restructuring the economy, industry, and so on. With regard to the latter, all sorts of struggles could emerge where sections of capital refuse to implement the proposals, for example in relation to training programmes, the refinement of raw materials, and so on."
With the ANC in government and committed to carrying out the RDP do you believe that the unions will feel constrained in asserting their independence? In other words, will
COSATU be independent in name only? In which areas will
COSATU assert its independence?
*This question highlights a problem. The ANc is not an organic movement of the left as it was before 1990 - before it decided to begin the negotiations. In the light of the question we need a dual approach. First, left forces inside the ANC continue to pursue a left project in the ANC. Second, the popular mass forces constantly assert their members' interests and demands as a way of backing up those left forces in the ANC. Therefore, in terms of this approach, COSATU must vigorously assert its independence."
Much has changed since the heady days of the mid-1980s. Is
Organise for democracy, economic will exist between our elected worker leaders and the federation. In general the reconstruction and socialism traditional approach is being followed when people leave the union to work for a political party — they operate under the mandate of the political organisation, in this case the ANC. An idea has been put forward that CosATU would provide on-going support and information to these Members of Parliament (MPs) and in this way it would put these MPs in a position to articulate the approach of COSATU on a number of issues. In the Johannesburg region of CoSATU we have opened this discussion and have put forward the idea that there should be structures set up where formal meetings socialism still on the
COSATU agenda?
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COSATU
International Viewpoint #257 June 1994
What potential exists for conflict with the ANC-led
Government of National Unity
(GNU) over economic policy,
Sunset Clauses, wage policy, and so forth?
"As far as the GNU is concerned, a number of comrades on the left both inside and outside of parliament took a very critical position towards this idea. I took a different position. We were not able to overcome the ruling class compromises. Though painful, these were necessary. A "managed transition", so long as its effect is not to prevent or limit future struggle, was a necessity. I believe it is possible, depending on the balance of forces, to offset its effect as the transition unfolds. It does not cancel the contradictions in society, it only sus-
"With regards to the deal with civil servants, it is important to remember that it only guarantees their jobs, and not the office they presently hold. This gives us some room for manoeuvre.
"The task we face on the left is to mobilise civil society to disturb the guarantees given, so that the social cost of maintaining them becomes too great and they are overturned."
What role do you see the
National Economic Forum (NEF)
and the Manpower Commission (MC) playing? Are there forums where COSATU endorses class collaborationist policies?
*The Mc has a critical role to play but it must be restructured and as part of that restructuring it must be re-staffed. There is a debate on the role of the NEF. There is a view that we need a sort of socio-economic council that encompasses the NEF and the MC where industrial policy, labour legislation and economic policy can be examined. In my view that role should be more of a negotiation-type forum where struggles can break deadlocks, rather than a forum where decisions are made by consensus. This conception pre-supposes some rethinking in COSATU concerning the role of these structures. I doubt that this will happen in the short-term.
"One can approach forums of this type in two possible ways. One way is from a social democratic perspective, where we enter the forums and are part of the process, and accept the underlying 14 assumptions of the labour market and the mechanism for regulating labour.
"Another possible approach is that of entering such a forum to highlight the contradictions of the system. It gives us the opportunity also to put forward proposals that go beyond the confines of capitalism. For example, when dealing with the issue of unemployment one can put forward policies that are clearly directed towards ending the labour market as such."
In the last few days of the TEC a call was made for a moratorium on strikes. COSATU rejected this but nevertheless was reported to be trying to rein in the public sector strikes in various ex-homelands and independent States. Do you think that now that the ANC has won the election so convincingly that a renewed request on its part for a period of social peace would receive a more favourable response from
COSATU, in the interests of implementing the RDP?
"While this call was not formally discussed in cosTu, a lot of workers were alarmed by it and were critical. In NUMSA, we were critical of this call. We saw no connection between the election and the need for a moratorium on strikes.
"We were not able to overcome the ruling class compromises. Though painful, these were necessry."
"A critical challenge facing COSATU is to assert its positions without ghettoising or isolating itself. This demands a strategic approach where, for one, COSATU consolidates its relationship with other mass forces — the civics, youth, students, and so on. Moreover, it has to broaden this to include left parliamentarians so that the federation and the individual unions can put forward their demands and mobilise around them. The nature of these demands should not only be particular but should be global. For example, later this year NUMSA may strike on wages but it will be linked to the demand for retraining which is necessary to develop the skills base of the work force."
At its special congress last year,
COSATU passed a resolution calling for a conference of the left. Where did the call originate? Is it related to the need for a reassessment of socialism in the light of the failure of the post-capitalist States in Eastern Europe, or to something more than this? "The call originates in the discomfort of union and other working class activists with political developments after 1990 — the start of the negotiations and the compromises this entailed - and our concern in general for socialism in the country and internationally. The ANC's shift from radical solutions and from the goal of fundamental transformation has raised concerns among activists. For example, the ANC abandoned it comitment to nationalisation, a policy which came to symbolise anti-capitalist sentiment.
"A secondary concern for some activists might have been the role of the SACP and the issue of the political organisation of the working class."
What do you see as the main objectives of this conference?
"At present there is no clarity in COSATU on the conference's objectives. I believe that the conference should attempt to be more than a platform but not seek to form a new party. It is necessary to create something like the Sao Paulo Forum which seeks to assert the relevance of socialism and seeks to offer a re-thinking of what socialism could mean. But it should also go beyond such a forum by creating greater left unity on immediate issues facing us in the country where the coordination of left forces can take place.
"It should be some form of front with a socialist character but which would also include radical democratic forces that are not necessarily socialist. This front could come together to ensure the implementation of the RDP on a radical basis, to develop radical positions around land distribution and so on. We should not just come together to counterpose socialist demands to the present but to develop concrete alternatives which can be raised and popularised."
International Viewpoint #257 June 1994
The NUMSA conference passed a resolution calling on COSATU to end the alliance once the
ANC was in government and calling for the formation of a working class party. What does the future hold for this resolution?
"The Alliance is in a debate as to whether it is in the best interests of the working class to break the alliance with the ANC.
"I think that if we had broken the alliance we would have given the ANC a blank cheque to make deals that would have been against the interests of the working class. Today the ANC is forced to consult cosATu on almost all issues. The position of the ANC on mining and mineral rights is taken almost entirely from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Its manufacturing policy has been taken from NUMSA.
"I would argue that this issue also depends on progress with the unity talks with the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) and the Federation of South African Labour (FEDSAL). We would have to tackle this issue sensitivened. What initiatives do you think are necessary to reverse this tendency?
The present stage of COSATU's evolution reflects this tendency towards bureaucratisation. The critical question that we face, and it is a question of time, is that of finding a way to strengthen mass movements like cosATU while at the same time undermining this tendency.
"In a certain sense, one thing we should attempt to do is to recreate the culture of the 1980s of organisational initiative of the ranks themselves shop floor democracy, accountability and campaigns of mobilisation.
"But it is also important to not overstate this tendency. Sam Shilowa, the COSATU General Secretary, would not dare make decisions without consulting the unions. Bureaucratic tendencies may be reflected in the fact consultations are made primarily with those unions and structures that are more supportive of a particular position
"COSATU is facing a number of truth in the statement that we have emphasised issues of control and ownership at the expense of power. If workers are powerfully organised at the plants, they can exercise an influence over society as a whole. They can influence and change policy on a number of issues, for example on investment questions and so forth. If it is possible to do this, we will be able to make real progress in developing full class consciousness with the consequent impact on bureaucratism."
Do you think the ban on organised currents in the unions has stifled political pluralism in the unions and has contributed to bureaucratic tendencies?
"It would be incorrect to attribute bureaucratisation in COSATU to the ban on organised tendencies. The situation is that different platforms do exist and there is often a fruitful cross-pollination between them." * the future of the Alliance ly. We might have to redefine the allianbe determined by events.
ce to accommodate these federations.
If the situation develops
"But ultimately the future of the
Alliance will be determined by events. If the situation develops where we come increasing confrontation with into increasing confrontation with the the ANC ... or if unity with
ANC then maybe we might have to end the Alliance. Or as I said earlier, if unity other major trade unions with other major trade unions demands demands that the Alliance be that the Alliance be broken then we broken then we would have would have to seriously consider it.
"It is true that the alliance, as it is to seriously consider it."
structured today, runs the risk of becoming a transmission belt for government policy. To avoid this it is vital that we develop ideas, positions and policies on all issues that affect the working class. If we do not have ideas we will be in trouble. A critical challenge that we face is to raise the capacity inside the unions and inside CosATU to develop policy.
Also it is good to note that there is a growing understanding in the ANC of the importance for COSATU of remaining independent and of the dangers of creating transmission belts."
With the tremendous organisational growth of the trade union movement there has been a growth of bureaucratic trends while the shop floor structures have been weakeproblems which will aggravate the situaof
COSATU's best leaders have gone into parliament government, and this will undermine the strategic depth of the union movement.
We have failed to develop the critical challenges into concrete challenges that are understood and taken up by the members themselves. We can say that
COSATU is an army which can get things done - but only in the spirit of how armies operate, through orders and instructions. We need to develop a consciousness which seizes and inspires the masses in the same way that the liberation struggle affected our people - we need what I would call full class consciousness.
"I see the development of a shop steward movement taking place in the following way. In each of our factories we need a critical core of members who have gone beyond a trade union consciousness and have a political understanding that can begin to challenge relations at the factory. There is some
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where we come into 15