Iam very impressed by your analysis in terms of the class struggle and the position of the doctors in respect of the two existing classes in our society.The majority of people think that doctors are not part of the working class including the doctors themselves,that is why doctors never belonged/organised under a labour union. SAMA was just a body of academics whose interest was just to discuss patient care and the issue of renumeration was never been on top of their agenda,reasons were being that they so disorganised and they were too individualistic the never shared their frustration of the working enviroment.Secondly they used to sustain their life style through credit which the financial instituition use to give them some priviledges due to their social status among the society that before the national credit act it was easier to access finance just for being a doctor and that has to change after the national credit act.Lastly the formation of the bargaining chamber needed doctors to be organised,and to have a union which will represent them in the chamber. Therefore let me praise COSATU by assisting in the transformation of SAMA from what it was before in terms of race composition and becoming a union for all South African doctors more over by ensuring that is not swallowed by the reactionary forces.This analysis brings to say this experience is new the union leadership that is why they are failing to be incharge of the situation,as any crises can be seen as an opportunity by others to demostrate their leadership by causing chaos or by bringing a solution and that is where we are in respect of the doctors and the union leadership,the union is not incharge of the situation new leaders have emerged and they have occupied the vaccum which was left SAMA and technology is playing a role in organising and constantly informing the grassroots about development.
You are correct,this are the outcomes of the JULY 2007 strike where the government commited itselve to improve the renumeration of the health care workers and other proffessionals in the public service.Let me summarise by saying OSD was the last hope for the health workers to improve their salaries,nurses were the first one to receive it,in the beginning there was a lot of excitement huge monies and salaries but at the end it was a chaos and has caused division amongst the workers.The DoH increased the salaries of the recent graduates(prof nurses) operational managers but failed to recognise the experience of the PROF NURSE who were part of the system,that means those who suppose to supervise and teach the community nurses are earning like the new employees and this has cause a lot of friction and in some places has compromised the training the new graduates. Doctors hoped that the delays and postponement by the government was to rectify those short coming,while SAMA was busy researching the appropiate renumaration for doctor and it was discovered that doctors are underpaid by 70% when compared to other proffessionals who are having the equivalent qualification both in the private sector and the public sector therefore the call for the 50% emerged.The DoH made its offer of 0.5%- 5% and it was rejected because it was not improving their basic salaries.The minister presented the same document with few improvement namely by including the junior doctors who are classified as contract workers(interns & comm serv doctors ),registras(those who are specialising after completing their 6years degree + working 3years as a contract worke) but nothing much for the medical officers who suppose to teach and supervise the contract workers. The worst part of it is that ,they took the current allowances(scarces skill) and they included it as part of the package that means they took their current salary +the allowance to make a package then who is fooling who here.This means those who are in level 10 - 12 are currently earning better than what has been proposed by the DoH,remember that packege means you take 70% or75% as a basic and the rest is distributed over the allowances but unfortunate for doctors they do not qualify for car and house subsidies like the rest of the gov employees who are occupying the same level. In summary this is what made doctors to be so angry and uncontrolable and that the goverment is undermining them because they can not take to the street like the rest of the workers furthermore the state went on public to give them the impression that doctors are not reasonable while the reality is different from what has been presented.Despite all these the is a feeling that the minister was misinformed by the officials and there is still a hope that matters can be resolved and it is unfortunately that the poor has become the victim on this whole sagga. The progressive movement is suppose to assist SAMA and the gov in resolving this matter but not ending there,as leaders of the working class we need to bring the class consciousness into this sector starting from the university.SASCO must play a crucial role in mobilising and politising them by organising political school during their electives. AMANDLA!!!! MAVIYO NDINISA On Fri, 6/26/09, Sikhumbuzo Mdlalose <[email protected]> wrote: From: Sikhumbuzo Mdlalose <[email protected]> Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] But the doctors on strike have taken it too far (2) To: [email protected] Date: Friday, June 26, 2009, 12:31 PM …But the doctors on strike have taken it too far. Haven’t we been here before? When the public service strike in July 2007 as led by COSATU took place, non of these doctors and their ‘unions’ participated. The issue of the OSD was one of the intrinsic packages contained in the wage demands. These doctors and their so-called unions reproached nurses and other workers on essential services for their ‘heartless’ conduct in participating on the strike while leaving the vulnerable patients in the hospital sick-beds. Through their gesture, we were made to believe that they were more than being patriotic and caring in their conduct. When only devil was looking, these doctors went on the rampage and put the lives of the most vulnerable at stake. Correctly so, these workers have a right to partake on a strike as articulated in the Labour Relations Act. But theirs was illegal yet the employer, the State, did not dismiss them, but instead offered to increase their salaries on an unprecedented hike in the history of our country. May be we must put it on record that none of these doctors’ dominant unions have a history of fighting for workers rights in the context of our National Democratic Revolution. No wonder that some of them only came to be known during this strike, which is based on workerist and selfish interests. As much as we sympathized with their plight in terms of their demeaning salaries, we must equally be able to identify elements of opportunistic tendencies that are at play in their continued ‘strike’. Working-class self-identity, more important than ever. In class terms, doctors are part of an important part of the working class, especially if we are to build a society where all shall work according to their abilities and be rewarded according to their needs. Doctors are not only a critical stratum of the working class towards ushering a truly democratic society where all shall have access to quality health care, but they are also part of the social forces that have to be politically mobilized as a collective towards partaking in the broader struggles of the working class. Their class-consciousness remains the core in persuading their practical engagement with the reality that they might seek to transform. Strikes and any form of mass action appear to be tactical instruments of drawing the attention of and compelling the employer to heed to the call of the workers demands. But in content, such tactics do not find appropriate expression unless they are confounded within the complex struggle for the emancipation of the working class from the yoke of the capitalists in overt or covert collaboration with the State. In Marxist terms, it has always been a concrete fact that in the capitalist economy “[t]he executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” Communist Manifesto, Chapter I, 1848, K. Marx and F. Engels.. Indeed, the current South African state of affairs could be partly viewed differently since our democratic breakthrough came as a result of a concerted revolutionary sacrifice. To us as communists it was a blueprint towards building socialism. It was not a trickle-down from the bourgeoisie. To others it presented an unprecedented opportunity for capitalist accumulation, nationally and abroad. Again, to others it presented opportunities of being co-opted -via the political office- within the well established capitalist class, hence the correct categorisation of the comprador bourgeoisie by South African Communist Party’s Program of Action, South African Road to Socialism (SARS). Is the South African State , since 1994, quite different from any capitalist State? The answer is openly NO. In the war of position, the white capitalist class and the small black elite saw the light of day in the last 13 years. The working class (not excluding doctors) did not allot significant benefits as compared to the white capitalist class and the small black elite since, albeit the remarkable achievements by the ANC-led government since 1994. It is only when the working class (including doctors) become better enabled to comprehend and embrace the principle of collectivism as opposed to that of individualism that we can be in a position to intensify the struggle for more equitable society (Socialist South Africa). If we are to view the consequences of the current doctors strike in class terms yet again, we are to arrive at the conclusion that those who are going to bear the whiplashes in the end are the ‘poorest of the poor’, who rely on the services of the public hospitals for medicinal attention. If truth be told, it is not the rich (the minority) nor “[t]he executive of the modern state..., that will suffer the consequences but the most downtrodden stratum of the working class which are the sick and helpless in government hospitals. Non-antagonistic contradictions are instigated among the working class, and the other stratum of this class (doctors) appears to be convinced that their conduct will hit mostly against the employer whereas in actual fact it is the poor patients that are hardest-hit. Borrowing from Mao’s analysis on Contradictions Amongst the People, we are to learn that: “Contradiction and struggle are universal and absolute, but the methods of resolving contradictions, that is, the forms of struggle, differ according to the differences in the nature of the contradictions. Some contradictions are characterized by open antagonism and others are not. In accordance with the concrete development of things, some contradictions, which were originally non-antagonistic, develop into antagonistic ones, while others which were originally antagonistic develop into non-antagonistic ones…In ordinary circumstances, contradictions among the people are not antagonistic. However, if they are not handled properly, or if we relax our vigilance and lower our guard, antagonism may arise.” Time and time alone will tell as to whether these doctors are authentically on strike due to mere wage demands or due to other masked ulterior motives aimed at undermining the foolproof attempts by the government to address their plight. Sikhumbuzo Mdlalose --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
