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Some reports of the United Front People's Assembly Media of 15 December 2014 As the meeting of the United Front was about to wrap up on Sunday afternoon, and NUMSA deputy general secretary Karl Cloete was calling on people to rise to sing the anthem, some delegates started murmuring: "Where's Vavi?" Indeed, where was Zwelinzima Vavi? The COSATU general secretary was billed to speak on the second day of the United Front meeting, attended by about 350 people from a range of organisations. The United Front would have essentially been Vavi's to lead had he been bold enough to leave the trade union federation when he should have. Instead the big United Front launch fizzed out to become a consultative forum, which Vavi did not attend at all. Ranjeni Munusamy, Daily Maverick <http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-12-15-left-revival-united-front -takes-flight-as-udf-2.0-but-fails-to-ignite/#.VI5qWSuUeD8> It remains unclear if the United Front, spearheaded by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (NUMSA) will succeed where previous attempts to build broad coalitions between social movements and trade unions have failed before. Shanti Aboobaker, The Star <http://www.iol.co.za/the-star> (article not on web site at time of this post) Amid disagreements on issues such as the use of the term "socialist", delegates formed a 21-person interim leadership body. It resolved that entrenched elites in SA were incapable and unwilling to "give one inch" on policies that could benefit the socioeconomically marginalised. Reading the United Front declaration on Sunday academic Noor Nieftagodien said it must "unite in struggle against the national austerity budget". The interim leadership structure includes former African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Ronnie Kasrils, activist Zackie Achmat, and former Nelson Mandela Bay metro mayor and MP Zanoxolo Wayile. They were among 12 individuals elected during United Front commissions at the weekend, while nine others, one elected by each of the provinces, constituted the rest of the steering committee. Karl Gernetzky, Business Day <http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/politics/2014/12/15/united-front-delegates -ratify-interim-leadership-body> The nascent United Front, NUMSA's initiative to create an umbrella that is neither political party nor trade union, spent Saturday and Sunday locked in a Johannesburg airport hotel trying to define itself. By the end of the weekend, however, and despite sometimes heated debate, the meeting had not agreed whether the United Front would be socialist - nor even what, exactly, socialism is. Other areas where delegates agreed to disagree, at least for the time being, is on whether or not the United Front should be regional, or continental, or just South African, how it should be structured, whether or not only individuals or only organisations can become members, and whether or not it should ever get directly involved in any way in elections. Membership should be open to all who share the (yet-to-be-defined) vision of the United Front, the meeting agreed, but definitely not to "the bourgeoisie". Unfortunately, there was no agreement on what, exactly, would constitute being bourgeois, and whether or not the bourgeoisie includes the likes of taxi drivers, taxi owners or informal traders. Notwithstanding such rather fundamental disagreement, the mood was self-congratulatory. "There is sufficient consensus," Cloete declared to nods and claps. That consensus, especially where strongest, seemed to consist almost entirely of a long list of things and people the United Front is not, or is against. If anything does unite the United Front, it is loathing of the Tripartite Alliance - and its leaders. Loathing of the ANC and its alliance, however, is not in itself a course of action. Philip de Wet, Mail and Guardian <http://mg.co.za/article/2014-12-14-numsas-front-united-only-in-opposition> -- -- 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.
