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Media Release, 11 December, 2014
NEHAWU CEC Statement
NEHAWU convened the second Central Executive Committee of the 10th national
congress on the 08-09 of December 2014 to assess the performance of the
organisation in implementing its resolutions and its adopted organisational,
socioeconomic and political tasks. The CEC was addressed by the COSATU
President, Cde S'dumo Dlamini, a shop-steward of NEHAWU, who cut his teeth
from our own ranks. Amongst others, the President called upon the union to
unwaveringly fight for the interests of our members, including in the
current public service wage negotiations.
The CEC acknowledged that both our union and the federation are passing
through a special period, which demands extraordinary dedication and urgency
on the part of all our structures and leadership collectives in defence of
our union and federation. As we bring the year 2014 to a close, we emerge
from this difficult year emboldened and confident as we head towards the
30th anniversary and the 12th congress of COSATU, as well as the public
service wage negotiations.
The CEC noted that the global economy is still in the midst of the multiple
and systemic crises of capitalism that erupted in 2008. Global capitalism is
still in the clutches of these crises, which has resulted in widespread
austerity attacks on public sector unions, especially in the global-north
where recently there have been reported pockets of economic growth.
Whatever economic recovery or "greenshoots" there may be, only the
bourgeoisie and its top 1% benefits from it, whilst the average wage levels
are declining as underscored by the recently released ILO's 2014/15 Global
Wage Report, which starkly shows that "global wage growth has stagnated and
lags behind the pre-crisis rates". The economic situation in the European
Union and Japan in particular bear testimony to the fact that the system
remains fragile and that this reported growth is taking place on the back of
mass retrenchments, wage freezes, privatisation and other draconian
Neoliberal measures.
Political
NEHAWU, as a principled affiliate of COSATU, is committed to adhering to
resolutions passed by workers at congresses, including the 11th congress of
the federation. We are proud of our contribution in support of the ANC
elections campaign which culminated in an overwhelming victory for the ANC
on the 7th May 2014. We believe that this victory dumbfounded the
self-deluded detractors of our movement and their narrative of the elections
as a "game-changer", and this includes some within the fold of our
federation. We believe that this overwhelming victory is a potential
bridgehead towards a radical second phase of our democratic transition,
provided that the ANC acts decisively in implementing its manifesto and in
dealing with the ongoing havoc of the EFF-DA alliance in the National
Assembly.
In our analysis, the convergence within the ANC-led Alliance around the need
for fundamental transformation in the second phase remains largely at the
level of intent and objectives rather than on the content of what needs to
be done in concrete and practical terms. Amongst others, this is underscored
by the recent policy pronouncements, especially the provocative MTBPS in
which the Treasury undertook to cancel all vacant posts in the public
service, to privatise some "non-strategic" state's assets and to raise wage
levels of public service workers by no more than 6,6%. This once again
reinforces our perspective ,that unless the working class raises itself to a
hegemonic position in key sites of power, including within the progressive
coalition of class forces that is the ANC, this envisaged radical second
phase of our transition is at risk of being diluted or at worst being
derailed.
Unfortunately, the organised workers' component {Cosatu} of the working
class is at the moment organisationally and politically at its weakest point
and in disarray. We are convinced that a united force of class-conscious
organised workers cannot afford the luxury of isolating itself by standing
on a self-indulgent high-moral ground, merely satisfied with militant
sounding slogans and ideological purity when other class forces are shaping
the future of our country.
The material conditions of this conjuncture indicate that we cannot escape
the heavy duty of building working class power in the work place,
communities and all other strategic centres of power including the ANC. This
we shall continue to strive for as part of our federation's political and
strategic orientation, whilst recognising the impact of monopoly capital and
the sharpening fundamental contradiction in our society, i.e. class
contradiction, on the political landscape.
In turn, this sharpening class contradictions find expression within the ANC
itself in the contestation on the content of what must become the radical
second phase of our transition. The CEC directed the national union to
organise a national political school, meetings of the national and
provincial political commissions and classes to engage with the SACP's
discussion document, Going to the Root, as part of preparations for the
SACP's Special Congress, as well as to prepare for the ANC NGC and COSATU
12th congress.
Whatever, the dominant narrative in the media and what the detractors of the
ANC have to say, we are convinced that the ANC remains the leader of our
society and continues to spearhead the national democratic revolution.
Cosatu
"Unity must be won, and only the workers, the class-conscious workers
themselves can win it - by stubborn and persistent effort." Lenin
The NEHAWU CEC is convinced that under the circumstances, the bitter and
agonising decision that COSATU took to expel NUMSA was a correct one,
notwithstanding the fact that one of our federation's cherished goals is to
unite the overwhelming majority of the South African workers informed by our
founding principle, "One union - one industry, one country - one
federation". However, the unity and cohesion for which we stand in our
federation is a principled one, which includes an unwavering adherence to
the founding principles and policies of COSATU.
We seek to realise this mission not for its own sake, but because we know
that when workers are united, they can never be defeated. This is the basis
of our solidarity that is informed by our battle cry "an injury to one, is
an injury to all", which recently has been disgracefully undermined by
NUMSA's competitiveness against other progressive unions.
We wish to let all Cosatu unions ,and the rank and file membership, to know
that we are ready and keen to engage in the ANC facilitated process towards
the attainment of a principled unity and cohesion within the federation. We
close this year of the 20th anniversary of our bloody, bitterly and hard won
democracy and freedom hoping that, we can rebuild our federation and stop
its slide to political irrelevance.
Socio-economic
The CEC welcomes the decision of the ANC NEC, calling for the release of the
NHI White Paper, and reaffirm our commitment to the federation's campaigns
against the e-tolls, labour broking, for a minimum wage and other pressing
socioeconomic issues. As NEHAWU, we believe that at the heart of the drive
to forge a radical second phase of the transition must be a shift away from
the current macroeconomic framework derived from the fourth administration.
We pledge to continue engaging the Public Service Commission on its
discussion document on the developmental state, which must be linked to the
research that the PSCBC is initiating on PPP's, outsourcing and
agencification, as well as the outcomes of the Public Service Summit of
2010. NEHAWU is concerned about the continuing load-shedding that is
currently taking place in the country, which undermines the growth potential
of the economy and threatens jobs. We call on government and Eskom to step
up their work towards resolving this crisis.
We are appalled at the reported corruption in the roll-out of infrastructure
projects at the costs of 5% of allocations, irregular state expenditure that
is skyrocketing as reported by the Auditor General and the excessive
reliance on private sector consultancies. Hence, we reject out of hand the
offer tabled by the employer at the PSCBC, including the 6,6% increase
announced in Parliament.
In the first place, we demand the speedy resolution of the outstanding
issues from the 2010 bargaining round, including the government employee
housing scheme ,which must be carried out by a state agency and financially
underpinned by GEPF. In addition to this pervasive fruitless and wasteful
expenditure within the state, the Economist reports that the South African
lawmakers, per capita are earn better than their counterparts in Italy,
India, USA, Australia, Germany and other countries. Thus, we expect the
employer to meet the wage and other demands of our members.
International
We pledge solidarity with the Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa, in
particular with the health workers, who face the full brunt of the disease,
and we also pay tribute to the courageous health workers, from the western
countries and around the world, who are making their own sterling
contributions there in the spirit of solidarity. Above all, we salute Cuba
and its distinguished internationalist cadre of health workers that have
been selflessly mobilised in the fight against Ebola.
We undertake to make our own input in support of South Africa's contribution
in the fight against this scourge, whilst we recognise that even more people
are dying from AIDS and malaria on our continent, and that all of these
diseases could be better resisted if governments mustered the courage to
build strong public health systems.
Within our region, we welcome the sustained popularity of the liberation
movements as underscored by overwhelming electoral victories in 2014 scored
by the ANC, SWAPO and FRELIMO. NEHAWU reiterates its condemnation in
strongest terms the recent banning of trade unions in Swaziland and
therefore call on SADC and AU to isolate the Tinkundla regime. We shall
continue with our own solidarity campaign, which we shall escalate by
exposing South African capital that has vested interests in Swaziland and
the ongoing construction of a military-intelligence complex by the USA in
that country.
We pledge our solidarity with the national liberation struggle of the
Palestinian people against the Zionist state of Israel, with the gallant
internationalist Cuban revolution against the Yankee blockade and the right
to self-determination of the Sahrawi, Kurdish and Basque peoples.
NEHAWU pledges to continue to take up our campaign for the release of the
Cuban Five, and to work towards ensuring that our ideological and political
education project with Cuba grows from strength to strengthen and
institutionalised, so that in time it yields an expanding layer of cadreship
not only within NEHAWU but across the federation. We shall support the
international legal review on the Cuban 5 case, to be held in South Africa
in July 2015.
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
For further information, please contact:
Bereng Soke (NEHAWU General Secretary) @082 455 2713 or
Sizwe Pamla (NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer) at 011 833 2902 -082 558 5962 or
email: [email protected]
Visit NEHAWU website: www.nehawu.org.za
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