Sunday Independent.png
NUMSA is simply courting more trouble: Dlamini Craig Dodds, Sunday Independent, Johannesburg 7 December 2014 COSATU president S'dumo Dlamini has slammed metalworkers' union NUMSA for appealing through the right channels against a decision by the federation's executive to expel it - while mounting a court challenge against its expulsion. Dlamini said NUMSA had lodged the appeal on Friday, as required under the COSATU constitution, after a meeting of the central executive committee took the decision to expel it last month. "If NUMSA is trying to come back, they know the constitution of COSATU - it says appeal - and at least yesterday they did write an appeal," Dlamini said at an SACP provincial council meeting in Philippi, Cape Town, on Saturday. "What is confusing is that. they write an appeal and show no remorse, but they still take us to court for having expelled them." Dlamini said he had "noted" that NUMSA was seeking a special national congress to hear its appeal, but "that is not in the constitution". NUMSA, with the affiliates supporting its call for the special national congress, would have to wait for the COSATU congress in September, Dlamini said. He said that if NUMSA wanted to be reinstated before then, it should participate in the political process initiated by the ANC and intended to resolve the differences in the federation. NUMSA, with its seven supporting unions, filed papers in the high court in Joburg last month seeking to enforce their call for a special national congress to be convened. But Dlamini said: "It doesn't work like that." He said whenever COSATU came close to resolving its differences, such as through the ANC-led political process, some tried to create "perpetual paralysis" by saying, "No, no, we don't trust that process - we're going to go outside and be the Magnificent Seven". Recalling the history of COSATU, Dlamini said that one of the principles on which it was founded was "one industry, one union". Compromising on the founding principles - as NUMSA has been accused of doing by seeking to organise across a value chain instead of one industry - ran the risk of destroying the organisation. The founding leaders of COSATU, among them then-general secretary Jay Naidoo, had continually sought the counsel of the ANC and SACP on how the workers' struggle could be advanced, yet today there was this "new notion" of ditching the alliance. He had asked Naidoo to "shut up" because he was not helping to build the federation, Dlamini said. "How can you go to a land of nowhere and (tell) two million workers of this country, 'Let's get out of the alliance'. Where are we going? 'No, we're still on the way, we still do not know where we're going'. "We refuse to be led into oblivion." The SACP's first deputy general secretary, Jeremy Cronin, said it was important to recall the history of the formation of COSATU to understand "what it is that we need to defend, the victories that have been scored through the unity of workers and struggle in our country, and how we need to condemn those who play, as if it's just a game, with this critical unity that many workers and others have died for, fought for, over many years". Allowing a "free market" in the workplace by abandoning the principle of one industry, one union was "a recipe for disunity". Cronin said progressive thinkers in the government who were trying to drive policy were "not feeling the power and unity, that organised force of COSATU. Unless we have strong support - and even criticism - from COSATU, to say 'No you're going in the wrong direction'. Unless we have that, the state itself gets captured by other interests." [email protected] Independent Media From: http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/numsa-simply-courting-more-trouble-dlamin i-1.1791849#.VIRttzGUeD8 -- -- 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] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
