SOUTH AFRICA The state of emergency and the trade unions JAY NAIDOO is the general secretary of the 600,000 member Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). At the time of this interview, July 3, Jay was in hiding after the imposition of the state of emergency in South Africa. The interview was first published in the August edition of the South African Labour Bulletin.
Question. What has been the effect of the state of emergency on COSATU?
Answer. During this emergency trade unions have come under quite direct attack from the state - our offices have been raided and trade union personnel harassed. The major impact is that in the initial period our communications were disrupted, and structures were not able to operate normally - meetings were either disrupted or banned outright. In the Western Cape our publications have been banned, and on the highveld our meetings banned.
In local areas, facilities for shop stewards have been denied to us. Scores of key leadership figures involved in sensitive negotiations have been forced into hiding. These were the practical effects in the first period. We sought other means of re-establishing contact and to get our structures operating again.
In the second week of the state of emergency meetings took place at various levels and that was when various steps were outlined. In cases where shop stewards had been detained, the unions should immedi ately elect a replacement. When officials had been detained, the shop stewards should take over. Communications should be set up at a local, regional and national level. Shop stewards should demand time off to attend to trade union business. Moral and material support should be given to the families of those detained. Our structures, especially the Shop Stewards Councils and Regional Executive Councils should meet regularly in spite of harassment. We called for the return to offices of officials except those being hunted more than others.
Contact at national level was established, and a decision was taken to hold a Central Executive Committee (CEC) on July 1. A whole range of demands were also prepared and circulated for discussion at all levels of the organization. The CEC meeting also involved local representatives. Arising out of the CEC was a broad plan of action.
The state of emergency was seen as an attack on the people of South Africa and on their democratic and human rights. It was also seen as an attack on COSATU and its affiliates through harassment, detention and office raids. It is a political attack on the labour movement and an attack which we could not allow to go unchallenged. Consequently a systematic programme of action was drafted to achieve the demands that we set out. We called for an end to all harassment of workers, shop stewards and officials; the release of all detained leaders; an end to repression and a move towards democratic solutions to the problems of our country.
We also made demands that related specifically to our continued operation on the shop floor. [The demands included paid time-off for shop stewards to attend to union business; guaranteed jobs and pay for detainees; the right to hold union meetings on company property in company time. These demands were largely conceded by the major employers' federations. Editor, SALB].
We further decided that if these demands were not met by July 10, COSATU would be forced to take further action. This would fundamentally place the whole system of industrial relations into serious jeopardy, but our belief is that these structures that have been won through bitter struggle and negotiation depend on there being a balance in the power relations between labour and capital. The repressive actions taken against us have severely disadvantaged trade
7
20П unions in their continued participation in these structures. COSATU therefore reserves its right to initiate further action.
COSATU launches journal
After the first spate of detentions there was a spontaneous reaction with thousands of workers coming out on strike, especially in the retail sector, but what began to emerge very rapidly was a more co-ordinated response to the attack on us. The attack on us raised great anger and bitterness among our members. Because of our depth of organization and the way it has developed there is an intense loyalty to our organization and its leadership. Our structures are very deeply grounded on the shop floor and what is growing is an intense pressure from the grassroots to respond to the attack on us.
Q. What has been the response of employers to the emergency?
A. Clearly there are different responses but substantial numbers have distanced themselves from the state of emergency while others have come out in support of it. As workers see it, and for clear historical reasons and experiences, the employers share joint responsibility for the attack being made on us, and for us there is no evidence that they have brought substantial pressure on the state to end the emergency.
IN AUGUST, the Congress of
South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) launched the first issue of its journal, temporarily called
COSATU until a name is chosen.
This independent federation of workers now has an important means of unifying its struggle. The journal will also be invaluable for following the situation in South
Africa from the point of view of international solidarity.
The first issue contains articles on: the state of emergency; wage struggles; the recent fusion of the foodworkers' union in order to build a single federation in this sector; the organization of the unemployed; the present development of COSATU; and, finally, a series of articles on the new unions.
Some employer organizations have openly welcomed the state of emergency and say that it has restored economic stability to the country. Our response is that it would be naive for employers to believe that the state of emergency has crushed or pacified the workers movement. It has in fact strengthened our commitment to end
In the editorial the general secretary of COSATU, Jay Naidoo, explains: "Today the major newspapers and radio and TV are controlled by bosses. Our children are taught bantu education which prepares them only to slave in factories for the starvation wages we are paid. The state of emergency is also an attempt to hide from us what is really happening in our country.
"COSATU says we must educate ourselves about what we want as workers. Let us all use the newspaper."
We welcome the attitude of certain employers, but statements of disassociation do not really resolve the attack on trade unions. The employers have conceded us facilities, while many employers are using the state of emergency to attack us and regain
Black women at a training school for hotel workers in Bophutatswana (DR)
ground that they have lost. We are saying that this will not go unchallenged, and we will not forget those employers who are using the present phase of repression to attack us.
Q. What has been the international response?
A. COSATU and its affiliates have consistently been calling for the strengthening of international solidarity. We have said in the past that actions taken by workers in other countries could mean the difference between life and death for thousands of workers in this country and it is now - more than ever before -that we need concrete forms of solidarity action.
One aspect is that for us it is the most outrageous hypocrisy, the stands taken by the Reagan, Thatcher and Kohl administrations. For Black workers in South Africa, their actions only demonstrate the naked racism and self-preservation of their economic and political interests in this country and we call on the people of those countries to show by their actions that they disassociate themselves from the shame that their leaders want to plunge their nations into.
We welcome the support given to the COSATU representatives from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Cyril Ramaphosa and James Motlatsi, who are in Britain at this time, and support fully their demands that effective pressure be brought on the apartheid system so that fundamental change could take place in South Africa. We warn that any action taken against these leaders on their return will only aggravate an already tense situation.
Q. What is your response to the claim that unionists have been detained for their political involvement rather than for trade union work?
A. In response to Le Grange's [Minister of Law and Order] statement that no trade unionist has been detained for trade union activities, we believe that the attack on the labour movement is a political attack, and our response, of necessity, has to be a political response.
In the South African situation it is impossible to separate the struggle for workers' rights on the factory floor from the broader struggle for political freedom. Worker leaders on the factory floor have a democratic right to represent and lead workers in the townships where they live.
The fact that the vast majority of people in South Africa are denied access to the structures of political decision-making would mean that political grievances would be channelled through the only avenues available to them - the trade unions.
Therefore leaders and workers who take up problems that face our communities - housing, rents and forced removals - see this as a legitimate extension of their activity on the factory floor.
If the state attempts to attribute the problems of South Africa to "agitators", , then that would make every union member an agitator.
Q. How does the current state of emergency compare with last year's emergency?
A. The concrete difference is the level of organization of the labour movement and of the community-based organizations. The labour movement has developed over a decade of bitter and militant struggles, and its organization had, of necessity, to develop in such a way that would ensure that it survived in a repressive system. The basic principles have been those of worker control and worker democracy, and that has rooted the labour movement very deeply on the shopfloor and ensured that a substantial layer of leadership emerged.
The guiding slogan of our organization is that the union must be on the factory floor and not in the offices. That would mean that the labour movement in South Africa will survive any onslaught made on it. The political climate is also very different
DHALL in that there is a very high level of political awareness and confidence.
Q. One trade union is unscathed by the emergency. Is it significant that UWUSA [Inkatha backed union] has been left untouched?
A. UWUSA was formed with the full sanction of the apartheid system and the fact that it has been taking advantage of disruption by the state indicates their opportunism. We are convinced that their formation was a reactionary act taken by the state in collusion with some employers.
Q. What has the state of emergency meant for you personally?
A. The state of emergency has meant a dramatic change in the way one operates and lives. We are forced to take precautions just to ensure survival: not staying in one place, changing the way you look, meeting in different places. There is also a lot of stress that accompanies this -constantly aware of being hunted and arriving at meetings which have taken time to prepare - such as today's MAWU [metal workers union] Congress - and then having to beat a hasty exit. What is very heartening is the depth of support whilst facing attack and being hunted - and the material and moral support people are prepared to give.
### Polish inprekor
ISSUE number 22 of Polish Inprekor is just out and contains articles on:
• Documents of the Workers Opposition Alliance (POR), including the POR's action programme - the first text of this type from Poland since the famous Open Letter of the POUP by J. Kuron and K. Modzelewski in 1964;
• A debate on the nature of the state in Poland between a clandestine Polish militant and Zbigniew Kowalewski;
• An analysis of the social consequences of the economic crisis in capitalist Europe by Ernest Mandel;
• A dossier on the Chernobyl catastrophe, including a critique of the current nuclear programme in Poland. To order Polish Inprekor, write to 2 rue Richard Lenoir, 93100, Montreuil, France. One copy, 2.5 US dollars or $1.20. Subseriptions (6 issues), 12 US dollars or £7.50. Cheques and POs should be made payable to International Viewpoint and marked on the reverse "For Polish Inprekor".
BEZ "SOLIDARNO:
MEDZYNARODOWA
INPRI
KORESPONDENCJA
PRASOWA
Program walki bieżącej
Porozumienia Opozycji Robotniczej
ZACHODNIOEUROPEJSKA
KLASA ROBOTNICZA W OBLICZU
KRYZYSU KAPITALIZMU
- samoksztalcenie —
O społecznej naturze biurokracji totalitarnej
CHLEBA MI WOLNOŚCI I nr 22
EKOR
LATO 1986
Podobno karaluchy.
ktore to zbudowały.
petraly na dwoch lapach..
BARNOW
DZIŚ CZORNOBYL,
JUTRO ŻARNOWIEC !
ane 75 at 15 FF. 2.5
1, 100