BusinessDay.gif COSATU to keep fighting to strengthen working class Karl Gernetzky, Business Day, Johannesburg, 30 November 2015 The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will continue to push for a reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance to strengthen the hand of the working class. The federation said on Monday its strength on the ground would inform its role in the alliance, however, and it had emerged from its 12th national congress last week with plans for numerous campaigns for rolling mass action over socioeconomic issues. The federation would not be involved in early debates over African National Congress (ANC) leadership succession, but was still adamant a "reconfiguration" of the tripartite alliance was necessary, COSATU president Sdumo Dlamini said at a briefing in Johannesburg. COSATU's newly elected COSATU office bearers briefed the media on Monday regarding preparations for its 30th anniversary celebration in Durban on Saturday. The federation has also finalised the declaration from its four-day national congress, which concluded on Thursday. During the congress the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) proposed reaffirming a commitment dating back to 2005 that the ANC deputy president would accede to the head of the party. While resolution was made without the use of names, and in the interest of stability, media reports have suggested ANC leaders had sought to prevent the indirect endorsement of deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa. Mr Dlamini said on Monday that the ANC had declared that the debate on succession was not open during its national general council in October - and the federation was in line with this. "The congress resolved that the (central executive committee) of COSATU should take forward the discussions on the succession debate, and that there are going to be clear principles guiding these discussions." Among these were the unity of tripartite allies and the alliance, he said, while respecting the independence of its various constituents. The issue of reconfiguring the alliance was not a simple matter of meeting allies for discussions but would come "from the ground" through mobilisation and swelling the ranks of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ANC. "You would not go to a boardroom, negotiate and agree ... history has taught us it cannot work like that," he said. COSATU general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said on Monday the federation had resolved to mobilise fully in support of the ANC in the 2016 elections, along with a strengthening of the alliance "as the only vehicle available to the workers to advance a second more radical phase of our transition". "Going forward, we will launch a radical campaign against privatisation which goes beyond section 77 based protests but which will include rolling mass action," said Mr Ntshalintshali. Other COSATU campaigns include fighting retrenchments, outsourcing and casualisation and the imposition of a wealth tax, banning labour broking, and even a campaign against the expansion of the Gautrain service. From: <http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2015/11/30/cosatu-to-keep-fighting- to-strengthen-working-class> http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2015/11/30/cosatu-to-keep-fighting-t o-strengthen-working-class -- -- 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.
