As Cosatu marks 39 years of existence, the state of organised labour in South Africa is a far cry from its historic role in defeating apartheid.
Members of Cosatu protest fair pay in this file picture taken in Durban. Picture: DOCTOR NGCOBO/Independent NewspapersOrganised labour was the driving force behind the defeat of apartheid and the ushering in a democratic order in South Africa.in 1985 introduced a formidable, organized force in the struggle against apartheid that, combined with the anti-apartheid BDS movement and the uprisings in the townships, forced the racist regime to capitulate and ultimately relinquish state power.
The theoretical foundation of the strategic objectives of the ANC-SACP-Cosatu Alliance, the national democratic revolution , was blown to pieces when the ANC embraced the DA, IFP and the FFF+ as its political partners in the GNU. A lot of innocent blood was shed during the negotiations such as the massacres in Boipatong and Bisho, the commuter train massacres, the reign of terror of the apartheid-sponsored Witdoeke in Crossroads, Cape Town, and the killing fields of KwaZulu-Natal in which the IFP was secretly armed and trained by the apartheid regime.But the fruits of victory were to be enjoyed by white monopoly capital and its Johnny-come-lately sidekick, the aspirant black bourgeoisie.
Cosatu leaders have long pretended that they have the ear of the ANC, a lie often repeated by the enemies of the working class when putting pressure on the ANC to protect and promote the interests of the capitalist class. In reality, at the moment of taking power, the ANC was listening with one ear to the masses and another ear to the bosses.
Under ANC rule, even before the GNU, the working class and the poor have been living in a neoliberal hell in South Africa.More than 40% of workers are unemployed. The top 1% owns 45% of the country’s wealth. Inequality is the highest in the world with a Gini coefficient of 0.67. Murders are at a 20-year high of 27,000 people killed in a year.Employed workers face retrenchments in the public and private sectors.
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