SACP – mask now off

NOW that Numsa is resolute to form a new political party, what will become of Cosatu? Can the 29-year old federation be saved from a possible break-up? A similar question applies to the SACP.

The SACP has never been so challenged in its claim as vanguard of the working class as it is today.

Does the formation of a rival worker’s party suggest the party has become irrelevant?

Talk of saving Cosatu suggests doing so would be a seamless exercise. That’s far from reality. What has become of the federation is a result of factors beyond the control of well-wishers. Cosatu suffers from deep-seated problems. Many unionists are indifferent to workers’ interests, but are pre-occupied with personal benefits. They make money, some in unscrupulous ways, through the investment arms that many of the unions have created.

Attendance to day-to-day union activities has consequently suffered.

The net outcome has been relative silence on workers’ issues.

This is part of the discord within Cosatu. And they’ve turned on each other to silence criticism against the pursuit of personal comfort.

The save-Cosatu campaign will obviously have to remake the federation in order to rescue it. And, given the entrenched financial interests, such attempts are likely to face vehement resistance. So, this has become a source of tension that had to come to some form resolution, in one way or another.

At some level though Cosatu’s present travails were always inevitable.

Their source lies not only in the present, but also stems from the past. And, this brings me directly to Numsa’s proposed new party.

Cosatu affiliates were never entirely unanimous on the workers’ alliance with the ANC.

In what became known as the “workerists vs populists debate” towards forming the federation in 1985, some unionists wanted trade unions to remain independent, while others agitated for collaboration with political formations.

Workerists argued that taking part in political campaigns posed the risk of neglecting to form strong shop-floor structures and not pursuing workers’ interests.