IOL
*Cosatu seeks to block 'demagogues' * *Carien Du Plessis, IOL, Johannnesburg, 30 June 2011*Cosatu has drafted a battle plan to restrain the ANC Youth League and those slugging it out for positions before the ANC's elective congress next year by calling for a ban on "premature" succession debates and saying the "new tendency", or those it referred to as "right-wing demagogues", should be stopped from capturing the ANC.
The plan includes launching a daily newspaper and a "mass political education programme" for young people.
The battle plan is given in a document detailing political resolutions handed to delegates on Wednesday, the third day of Cosatu's central committee meeting.
But not all unions are united on the political direction Cosatu should take, and sparks are expected to fly when the report is discussed on Thursday as there was heated debate in the commission dealing with the report.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi is said to have come under attack in the commission for political issues he raised in his secretariat report, with only metalworkers union Numsa and municipal union Samwu coming to his defence.
Some accused Vavi of causing divisions in the alliance with his criticism of President Jacob Zuma's handling of corruption and slow action on economic reforms.
Vavi said on Tuesday that Zuma should "pull up his socks" and tackle unemployment, the wage gap and corruption, which were the planks of the platform on which the labour federation supported his election as ANC president in 2007.
Although the document made no direct references to the youth league, much of the programme is targeted at the youth, while the "new tendency" the federation wants to stop referred to those who fought for positions in the league and the ANC to protect their business interests.
The commission proposed that the meeting resolve to call on alliance members to refrain from discussing leadership succession in the ANC, SACP and Cosatu, as all three were to have their leadership elections next year.
"Such a discussion is premature and has a potential of destroying our movement."
The commission said the incumbent leaders should be allowed to do their work until the end of their term of office.
The document also proposes that Cosatu call on alliance members to refrain from airing disagreements or attacking each other in public.
"This has the potential to weaken the revolutionary forces while emboldening the opposition and the right-wing forces."
But the document said each organisation had the right to speak out on its policy positions and decisions, and members had the right to "engage robustly on any political question as they try to find answers to the burning questions of our movement".
It said Vavi and his SACP counterpart, Blade Nzimande, should meet "urgently" to cement relations between their organisations.
Leaders from these organisations met last week and agreed to close ranks against "right-wing demagogues", a term that has become shorthand for Julius Malema's ANC Youth League. Malema, who was re-elected at the league's congress last weekend, has appointed the league as the "vanguard of the working class", saying Cosatu and the SACP have failed to lead.
Cosatu would also "vigorously implement" a plan towards its next congress in 2015, which included "swelling the ranks of the ANC and the SACP", and would step up its anti-corruption campaign.
-- Political Bureau*From: http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/cosatu-seeks-to-block-demagogues-1.1091113*
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