Nzimande warns of ‘imperialist plot’ to divide Cosatu
SOUTH African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande said yesterday the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was being used in an “imperialist offensive” that sought to unseat the African National Congress (ANC) from power.
Much of his criticism, while indirect, appeared to target suspended Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
Speaking at a political school for members of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), Mr Nzimande warned of hailing civil society organisations as “good” and the state as “bad”. Such labelling was a veiled attempt to drive a wedge between the ANC and Cosatu.
“There is also an imperialist offensive here,” Mr Nzimande said. “Imperialists have never liked liberation movements staying in power for too long. Ours is in power for 20 years, it’s too long (for them). But it’s too short for us.”
Leaders of the ruling alliance used the political school session to air their views on the deep divisions in Cosatu, which reached a tipping point last week after Mr Vavi was suspended for his admission of an affair with a 26-year-old subordinate. Mr Vavi has accused fellow Cosatu leaders of a systematic campaign to oust him because they believed, as stated in an “intelligence report”, that he was working with “imperialists” to weaken the trade union federation’s ally, the ANC.
Last Friday Mr Vavi said he would use the same “intelligence report” to prove in court that there was a political conspiracy against him.
On Wednesday ANC secretarygeneral Gwede Mantashe blamed the running battle in Cosatu on the emergence of a “cult of personalities” and the abandonment of the principle of worker control. The latter had led to the general secretary, a paid “official”, being more influential than the president, who was meant to be a “worker leader” on secondment.
Mr Nzimande said imperialists were behind divisions in the tripartite alliance. “They drive a wedge within the trade union and (one) between the communists and the trade union movement.”
But he said SA’s alignment with the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India and China and SA) countries meant that it was “sleeping outside of the hands of imperialists”.
The reason some wanted to foment division within Cosatu was its push for affiliation with the World Federation of Trade Unions, which was historically Soviet Unionaligned. That was its “cardinal sin”, Mr Nzimande said.
Some of the unions in the north affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to which Cosatu is also aligned, were allied to “imperialists”. The affiliation to ITUC was apparently among the sticking points between Mr Vavi and his co-leaders.
Mr Nzimande said imperialism sought to encourage trade unions to define themselves as civil society, which was “naturally in opposition” to the liberation movement and its government. He laid into those critical of the government.
“The working class can’t cherrypick by only claiming and taking responsibility for the advances and victories,” Mr Nzimande said. “When it comes to setbacks and weaknesses it acts as an outside and oppositionist force.
“This is not leadership but dangerous opportunism. The working class can’t opportunistically regard itself as part of the NDR (national democratic revolution) when it suits it, but where there are difficulties it takes itself to be part of some independent civil society.
“We must dismiss this notion that to be outside government is to be clean and revolutionary and to be in government is … problematic.”
Mr Nzimande’s decision to take up a position in the Cabinet came under fire from sections of Cosatu that believed he would be more valuable as a full-time general secretary of the SACP.
In a tacit reference to the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, which has hinted at a split should charges against Mr Vavi proceed, Mr Nzimande said the SACP would not “lie down” when there were attempts to “steal workers” through breaking off from Cosatu. “Sometimes it’s easy to gamble with what we have built. But you don’t know that once … it is destroyed, it is hard to rebuild, if ever you get to rebuild,” he said.
Those threatening to walk out of Cosatu were “enemies of the revolution”, Mr Nzimande said. “Who are these leaders speaking for?
“Those threatening to walk out of the federation will first have to open this red door, (the SACP). Workers are not stupid. Cosatu is not for sale. It was built in blood.”