Don’t vote for ‘anti-worker’ parties, Numsa tells members
SA’s largest trade union, Numsa, has given its more than 450,000 members and the broader working class a shopping list of “anti-worker” political parties they should not vote for, describing them as the “worst political butchers”.
It is thus up to workers which political parties they vote for in the 2024 general elections on May 29, but the DA, ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, Patriotic Alliance, Build One SA, Rise Mzansi, and ACDP are out.
“If these political parties are not stopped by workers and the working class, if given the chance to lead, they will take the working class back to slavery,” Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said at a media briefing in Boksburg on Monday.
Jim accused the political parties of promoting xenophobia, being patriarchal, championing apartheid spatial planning, being on the forefront of the right-wing agenda and being blind to the socioeconomic hardship faced by black people.
“Their mission is not just to privatise and collapse the role of the state in the economy, they are also about privatising our country’s energy provision so Eskom and electricity does not remain in public hands,” he said.
Numsa, an affiliate of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), had traditionally supported the ANC during elections until it was expelled from labour federation Cosatu in November 2014 for refusing to support the governing party in the 2014 general election. It went on to form the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) to contest the 2019 national and provincial elections but mustered a mere 24,439 votes nationally.
BENEFICIARIES
Jim said Numsa would not dictate which political parties workers should vote for. “But the parties we did not mention are likely to be the beneficiaries of this decision by Numsa. We are not deciding for our members.”
The parties not mentioned include the ANC, EFF, MK, UDM, PAC, and Azapo.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said: “Yes, the ANC is not on the list of the political parties that workers should not vote for. By virtue of that it is likely that the ANC will benefit from this decision too, but the general secretary is not saying workers must vote ANC.”
Numsa’s stance comes as the country holds watershed 2024 national and provincial elections on May 29 in which the ANC could lose its electoral majority, according to several polls.
Political parties have been trying to woo the crucial working-class vote before the elections, promising to implement many reforms including implementing lifestyle audits, professionalising the public service and ending cadre deployment.
“Worker votes are important because unionised workers are generally quite politically aware and do therefore vote,” labour analyst Terry Bell said.
“But it does seem, on available evidence, that the influence of decisions by union leaderships is not very strong. A classic example is the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, founded by Numsa and headed by ... Jim. Numsa had about 300,000 members yet SRWP scored just 24,439 votes,” Bell said.
Jim said though the SRWP was not contesting elections, “as the union and the SRWP we are very clear that in a class-divided society there is nothing neutral”.
“We cannot keep quiet and allow the working class to vote for their worst political butchers simply because we are not contesting this round of elections,” he said.
Numsa, a vocal critic of the governing ANC’s policies, said for the past three decades the country had been plunged into a “deepening crisis where the masses have continued to be dispossessed, landless and economically marginalised, as it was during apartheid”.
“Therefore, it is Numsa’s political posture that these coming national elections on May 29 must be about a political and ideological clarion call on all political parties whose constituency is the working class and the poor of our country, who are the victims of all failed neoliberal policies that were advanced by the ANC government,” said Jim, adding SA needed a “revolutionary political agenda” to take it forward.
‘LITTLE INFLUENCE’
Tshwane University of Technology political analyst Levy Ndou said Numsa had “very little influence” in terms of workers’ voting choices.
“Numsa members are still members of the ANC. In terms of which way workers should vote, they should leave it to mainstream politicians. They have no influence over workers’ [political choices],” Ndou said.
Ali Ncume, a labour analyst at Ncume Labour Consulting, said it was of utmost importance that every voter exercised their right to vote. “Casting of votes during elections serves [a] significant relevance in establishing the allocation of voting powers for political parties in parliament, especially when dealing with workers’ rights and/or the enforcement of such,” he said.
Every vote during election mattered and could influence the outcome, he said.
“We cannot underestimate the number of workers in the labour market. In terms of Statista, there were nearly 18.9million people estimated as employed in SA in 2023. Compared to the previous year, being 2022, this was an increase from 17.9-million individuals.
“This is a significant number and therefore, in the event that workers do vote, there could be an influence in the outcome. Moreover, owing to the principle of solidarity which exists within the workforce, when acting collectively, workers can influence the outcomes as they share similar issues regardless them being from different workplaces,” Ncume said.
He noted that trade unions had already built trust between themselves and workers: “As a result of this, they can influence the manner in which workers cast their votes.”