Workers won’t be exploited
BOSSES BYPASS UNIONS AT THEIR PERIL
I AM 48 years old and have spent my life serving workers.
I grew up in Eastern Cape, a wretched province that was the site of all forms of apartheid-era capitalist colonialism. I am the son of a brutally exploited workingclass family in this vicious system that has kept black South Africans at the bottom of the food chain.
I know the brutality of racist white male capitalists who heartlessly exploited my father and ruined our family life. This continues 22 years into our democracy. Yet, we remain together as a family.
People have been the victims of deception in politics. They always will be until they learn to seek out the interests of their class rather than follow religious or political assertions and promises.
Champions of reform will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that old institutions, however barbarous and rotten, are kept going by the forces of ruling classes.
There is only one way to smash the resistance of ruling classes. It is to mobilise the working class, who constitute the only power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new.
For the black majority, Africans in particular, regaining our land and freedom means fundamental change, as demanded by the Freedom Charter. Most importantly, it means the promise of a national minimum wage and abolition of contract labour and the tot system.
Our shameful past necessitates these demands. The 1910 union between English and Afrikaner capital cemented the super exploitation of black people, leading to a racist, white male dominated economy, which endures.
This was facilitated by the 1913 Land Act, which pushed black people off their land, forcing them into mines and to the cities in search of jobs that built a whiteowned and controlled economy. The Land Act fast-tracked the proletarianisation of the African majority who were at the centre of the migrant labour system.
The ANC’s failure to introduce a national minimum wage means that the apartheid wage structure and exploitation of African labour continues in our democracy. Black South Africans still languish in the gutters of our society.
Sadly, forces hellbent on bashing trade unions now want to destroy centralised bargaining. They view the army of unemployed black youth as cheap labour to be exploited. Meanwhile, they make every effort to bypass the unions. This is why they support the youth wage subsidy.
But they must be warned that our youth won’t tolerate the shameful conditions produced by the flawed macroeconomic policies of GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution) and the NDP (National Development Plan). Our youth are sick and tired of desperate poverty, mass unemployment and deepening inequality.
We have witnessed highly militant young people in squatter camps, universities, factories and mines demanding free education, quality service delivery and a living wage. They say “no” to the outsourcing of labour, “no” to wage cuts, “no” to the dismantling of hard-won labour gains.
Those employers who seek to destroy centralised collective bargaining will face the wrath of militant young workers on the shop floor whose immediate task is to unite with old workers at the point of production to defend all workers’ rights and pursue a militant struggle to improve benefits and conditions. That’s the Numsa we are privileged to lead.
In South Africa today there’s no better cause than building militant revolutionary organisations of the working class to challenge this pathetic economy that’s constantly shedding jobs. We consistently tell bosses that workers shouldn’t have to pay for the capitalist crisis. Bosses must work with Numsa to stimulate economic growth, defend existing manufacturing capability and create new jobs.
Destroying centralised bargaining will give all workers the right to defend themselves. If employers frustrate collective bargaining, they must know that we will be forced to go back to basics. In the ’80s and ’90s, when an employer dismissed a worker, it triggered a solidarity strike.
So, if we want to initiate a strike, we will proceed as was done in the past. Elijah Barayi, Cosatu’s founding president, used to issue a 48-hour notice for a strike. He didn’t allow bureaucratic procedures at Nedlac to hold back industrial action.
So bosses beware – if you destroy centralised bargaining, Numsa will take the path of militant industrial action. We reserve our rights in this regard.
Numsa celebrates the court victory against the Free Market Foundation and employers seeking to destroy centralised collective bargaining. Meanwhile, we work tirelessly with employers and interested parties who defend it, in particular, the Metal & Engineering Industries Bargaining Council.
Ultimately, we look to government to defend jobs and combat deindustrialisation. We urge government to bring back capital controls to stop capital outflows. This is money that must be invested in the productive sectors of our economy.
Government must also increase tariffs on locally manufactured products to stop the dumping of imports into our economy. Moreover, high interest rates militate against manufacturing and job creation. Thus, the Reserve Bank must stop its policy of inflation targeting, but target jobs and cut the interest rate. Finally, we demand the nationalisation of Evraz Highveld Steel and ArcelorMittal SA.