South African Communist Party Central Committee statement at the NUM Central Committee as presented by SACP General Secretary Cde Blade Nzimande, July 3 2014

Build and defend working class unity: Drive the second, more radical phase of our transition

Thursday, 3 July 2014

NUM Acting President Comrade Piet Matosa, General Secretary Comrade Frans Baleni, all National Office Bearers, the entire leadership and delegates from all levels and regions;
Leaders from fraternal unions;
Distinguished guests,

Allow me on behalf of the SACP to convey revolutionary greetings from our Central Committee.

Developments since the NUM Congress: Defend the unity of COSATU, defend the unity of the revolutionary forces!

Since your last Congress, our country has held the fifth democratic elections, an important step in the further consolidation of especially our representative democracy, including the realisation of one of a key objectives of the Freedom Charter: "that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people".

The SACP has hoisted the Red Flag high, saluting the ANC-led alliance electoral victory, secured with an overwhelming 62% majority of the vote. This popular mandate was achieved under extremely difficult and challenging conditions that included the impact on our country of the current global capitalist crisis and the unremitting anti-ANC alliance hostility from most of the commercial print and electronic media, with some few exceptions. The electoral campaign also coincided with serious challenges to the unity of COSATU, and the emergence of a right-wing, populist demagogic movement, the EFF, posing as left wing.

In the run up to the 2014 elections, the SACP had called on the working class to close ranks to ensure an ANC election victory to advance, deepen and defend the gains achieved over the past 20 years. We are pleased to say that tens of thousands of our SACP cadres rose to the challenge and campaigned for the ANC electoral victory. SACP cadres were also in very difficult and challenging areas like Bekkersdal, Bronkhorstspruit and Malamulele. A major highlight of the electoral campaign was the 123 000 strong march in April, at eThekwini, organised by the SACP together with COSATU.

We therefore also take this opportunity to congratulate the NUM and its membership for the role it played in ensuring this overwhelming ANC electoral victory. It is important for the organised working class to ensure that, if it is to be part of the motive forces to drive a progressive national democratic revolution, especially the second, more radical phase, that it must take responsibility for this revolution by not isolating itself from the broad national liberation movement.

We must also bear in mind the fact that it has always been the intention of imperialism, monopoly capital, and the apartheid regime, to work towards driving a wedge between the national liberation movement and the progressive sections of the organised working class like COSATU. Also, it has been the intention of these very same enemy forces to particularly drive a wedge between COSATU and the SACP.

When we addressed you at your last Congress, we particularly focused on the necessity to understand that the offensive against the NUM was part of a larger agenda to drive a wedge between COSATU and the ANC. In particular we pointed out that the attack on the NUM was the beginning of a renewed attack on COSATU itself. We are now being proven right, including the fact that this offensive against the NUM, COSATU and our Alliance, is being waged together with sections from within COSATU itself. And as has always been the case, the offensive against COSATU from within the ranks of COSATU itself, always seeks to dress itself as more radical than COSATU and our Alliance. Yet, it is an offensive that works together with all the enemies and detractors of our movement and Alliance, using notions of "civil society" or "united front", whose civility or unity is that of wanting to destroy our Alliance!

For us as the SACP, and the working class as a whole, the ANC electoral victory constituted a defeat of these and other hostile forces, and is a decisive popular mandate to advance boldly with the second, radical phase of the democratic transformation of our country. Now is not the time to demobilise our forces or to indulge on matters that divide and divert the working class. Now is not the time to become hesitant in the face of threats from the side of monopoly capital. The great majority of the working class and poor have once more placed their trust in the ANC-led alliance, but popular patience in the face of persisting crisis levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment cannot be taken for granted indefinitely.

The urgent necessity of convening a multi-stakeholder Mining Indaba

Our last Central Committee spent a considerable amount of time analysing recent and current developments in the mining industry in general, and the platinum belt in particular. Whilst the strike in the platinum belt is over, it has left very serious social and worker turmoil in its wake. It has had a disastrous impact on the lives of mineworkers, their families and communities, both around the mines and in the rural areas from which workers are largely drawn. Since the tragedy leading up to and including August 2012, violence directed by vigilante forces against NUM members and their families has now resulted in further deaths, more than 28, including two prospective witnesses to the Farlam Commission. Despite cases being opened and perpetrators being well-known in some of these cases, no successful prosecutions have been achieved.

The underlying reason for this continuous tragedy is the profit-maximising monopoly domination of the platinum sector. The three transnational corporations -hAmplats, Lonmin and Implats have avoided centralised bargaining in the sector, flirted with vigilante unionism, and competed amongst themselves on remuneration, in a manner that gave rise to a conflict between workers. All of this has resulted in chronic labour market instability. To add insult to injury, the senior management have been paying themselves huge and insensitive salaries and perks.

The SACP welcomes that the strike in the platinum belt has been settled - incidentally at percentages that are not much higher than those secured by NUM and other unions in the mining sector. However we are concerned that the settlement has narrowly focused on remuneration, albeit an important but not the sole component of the transformation in the mining industry.  This settlement still leaves the initiative for and direction of restructuring in the hands of the mining monopolies. Already we are aware that the mining houses are looking to further disinvest, mechanise, close some shafts and operations, and retrench, all at the cost of workers. If this succeeds, not only will it impact upon employment and economic growth in South Africa, but it will also have a grave impact upon our downstream industrialisation objectives. This is a call to duty to progressive forces and trade unionism in defence of workers.

In the aftermath of the platinum belt strike, a story has surfaced that the conclusion of the strike was synonymous with the NUM and our movement being dislodged as a leading formations in their respective spheres in our society. Whilst this is essentially an anti-alliance sentiment, we should not underestimate attempts to use the strike to dislodge the NUM. It is important that we continue the work we have been doing on the ground as an Alliance, both in the mining shafts and communities, in order to ensure that progressive forces remain the leader of our working class communities. The SACP pledges to continue working with the NUM on this front.

We are also concerned that matters relating to the social wage -eaccess to decent housing and education for the mining workers and their families -ccontinue to occupy lesser prominence in the settlement of the platinum belt strike, in addition to the narrow focus on remuneration.

It is for these reasons that the SACP has called upon government to convene a major minining indaba. This indaba must be used as a key platform for driving the second, more radical phase of our democratic transition. On the agenda of this indaba must be:

a. taking forward the resolutions of the ANC mandated "State intervention in the Mining Sector;

b. moving towards centralised bargaining for all mining sectors;

c. changes to the grading system in mining. Grading currently fails to sufficiently recognise the dangers and difficulties of certain work categories, notably underground rock-drilling;

d. the role of contract labour in mining

e. a range of social and economic problems impacting upon many mining communities - housing, the role of mashonisas, the failure of SAPs to provide community safety and security

It is indeed a shame that the workers who produce billions in Rand value terms appropriated as profit by the bosses, are increasingly living on shacks and with their children having no support to access especially higher education and other basic necessities.

Given the NUM's decades of experience of struggle in the mining industry, it must seek to play an important role towards the convening of such a summit. Most critically we must drive the strategic alignment of the mining sector with our critical re-industrialisation priorities. This alignment is and will be resisted by the mining houses and we must be prepared to face them down. This year, 2014, is the deadline for mining corporations to fully comply with the conditions of their mining rights licences. According to our information, not a single mining house will have complied. The NUM must come out of this gathering with a very firm response to this non-compliance and actions to be taken by organised workers.

Build and solidify the motive forces to drive a second phase of our transition!

The most important strategic and, potentially unifying programmatic, points of unity in our Alliance coming out of the Mangaung Conference of the ANC is that of the absolute necessity to drive our second, more radical phase of transition. This commitment has focused all our formations on what should be the main content of this phase of our struggle. We are all agreed that this phase requires a more sustained focus on transforming our economic trajectory away from its semi-colonial path of dependence on mineral extraction - a 'pit to port' kind of accumulation regime - to the development of a manufacturing sector, driven by, though not exclusively, beneficiation of our minerals and building local productive capacity to drive job creation, infrastructural development and confronting the triple challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty.

Advancing and driving a second phase of our transition is not taking place in conditions and circumstances of our own choosing. We are embarking upon this path on a terrain characterised by both negative factors as well as positive aspects of our transition upon which we can build a better South Africa, especially for workers and the poor.

We are seeking to drive more radical phase of our transition against the backdrop of half a decade of the worst global economic crises since the economic depression of the early 1930s. In fact the fourth administration of our democratic government has had to operate within this context, thus limiting possibilities for more radical transformation in favour of the workers and the poor.

However, the last five years of the global capitalist crisis was preceded by a decade or so (from 1996) of our democratic government's flirtation with a neo-liberal economic experiment, Gear, which curtailed many possibilities for radical economic transformation in the wake of the 1994 democratic breakthrough. Whilst our movement had adopted a potentially radical programme of Reconstruction and Development (RDP) in 1993, as a programme to be followed by an ANC government after the 1994 elections, it was a programme that was to be quickly abandoned, if not undermined completely, by the neo-liberal Gear programme. The outcomes of the 2007 ANC Polokwane Conference, and the inauguration of the fourth ANC-led Administration in 2009, with Cde Jacob Zuma as President of both the ANC and government, marked an important shift. Amongst other things it marked a rupture, albeit incomplete, with the neo-liberal dispensation of Gear, as well as a break with attempts to liquidate the ANC as a broad liberation movement leading an alliance with the SACP and Cosatu.

It is against the backdrop of the fourth democratic administration that some major advances and gains have been made towards the transformation of the semi-colonial growth path. These advances include the adoption of the New Growth Path, which included the adoption of IPAP, and most significantly the prioritisation of infrastructure development as a key driver for job creation and transformation of our economy. It is also an administration that prioritised skills development and the building of a democratic developmental state that saw some important socio-economic achievements. It is upon these advances that we must build in order to drive a second, radical phase of our transition.

However, we are not going to drive a second, more radical phase of our transition unless the working class is strong and united. Therefore it is important that we focus on rebuilding the unity of COSATU, but a COSATU that remains part of the Congress movement. We need to isolate and defeat all attempts to try and separate COSATU from the Congress movement, irrespective of the quarters from which they come from; as it is a COSATU that is part of our revolutionary movement that will be best placed to lead the struggles of organised workers with progressive content. In fact the attempts to drive COSATU out of the Congress. Ovement are extremely reckless, short-sighted, and dangerous, and therefore are not going to succeed. They pose the most immediate threat to the interests of the working class.

Transform the financial sector to serve the people!

The SACP calls upon the NUM to join us as we revitalise our financial sector campaign this year. Building a movement for the transformation of the sector is a critical component and dimension of driving a more radical phase of our transition. There are four critical dimensions in the struggle for the transformation of our financial sector.

The first is that our financial sector is dominated by four major banking oligopolies. It is a financial sector that is also oriented towards financing consumption to such an extent that retail food, clothing and furniture chains are becoming more of financial services providers than sale of goods. This feature is closely related to the ballooning of micro-lending, that is, often reckless, with a large unregulated sector of loan-sharks. This being part of the causes of the problems facing the workers and industrial relations. We need a diversified and de-monopolised financial sector, with a healthy mix of state and co-operative banking as well.

Another key structural feature of the South African financial sector is that it is largely made up of trillions of Rand of workers' pension, provident funds and insurance products. Yet workers have very little say and benefit over how these monies are invested. In fact billions of Rand annually end up in the hands of middlemen and other providers that have developed a parasitic relationship to our financial sector. As we revitalise our financial sector campaign, it is perhaps important to also reflect on the possible influence of business unionism within the ranks of the trade union movement in being unable to decisively take up issues on the developmental use of union investment funds and workers' pension and provident funds.

The second dimension of our financial sector campaign must focus on matters related to the struggle for a decent social wage for the working class. The fact that large sections of South Africa's working class falls through the cracks in terms of finances for housing and higher education is an indictment on primarily the financial sector of our country. The capitalist financial sector is very smart and efficient in creating innovative financial products to exploit and fleece the working class. Yet this sector has not been innovative in creating financial products that will address the social needs of the working class like housing, education and health. The primary reason for this is that the organised working class has not taken up this struggle in earnest.

The third dimension of our financial sector struggle must seek to wage intensified struggles around a host of consumer issues, including the fight against housing evictions, unfair blacklisting and redlining, bank charges, funding for SMEs, access to credit and the creation of a fair and affordable credit regime.

The fourth dimension of our struggle must be the transformation of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in the hands of the state. This campaign must start with understanding and publicising the investment portfolios of all the DFIs (eg. Land Bank, IDC, DBSA, PIC, etc), so that their investment strategies are aligned with our overall development objectives.

The fifth dimension of the struggle to transform the financial sector relates to the need to adopt structural changes in the macro-economic management to roll back the destructive consequences of the Gear class project.    

All these struggles must act to catalyse and build a progressive, working class led financial sector transformation and consumer movement in our country!

The SACP continues to support all progressive working class struggles for a living and social wage!

The SACP wishes to affirm its continued support for the legitimate struggles of workers for a living wage, including the current struggles of the metalworkers of our country. We also wish to re-affirm the SACP's complete opposition to labour brokers as modern day slave-owners who have no place in a democratic South Africa. It is for this reason that we call upon all parties to find an urgent solution to the current strike in the engineering and metals sector. We particularly call upon employers to display a sense of urgency to ensure that negotiations are always concluded sooner rather than later.

The long processes of collective bargaining that are characterised by all manner of delaying tactics, lack of quality leadership on all sides, and a lame duck approach towards settlements, plunging workers into unnecessarily long periods of strikes with devastating consequences, must just come to an end. Equally, the SACP is calling on the institutions created in our labour legislation, the bargaining councils and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), to intervene timeously in resolving collective bargaining disputes and deadlocks.

It is for these reasons that we support efforts by government to facilitate speedy resolutions to all these disputes.

The SACP is also firmly of the view that the struggle for a decent social wage must not be de-linked from collective bargaining. This means employment must lift workers out of poverty. Employment must enable workers through their earnings to lead a decent life, adequately feed, clothe, house, educate their families and take care of their health and wellbeing. Workers must also have time for rest, recreation and to improve their skills and education, both formally and informally. They must have time for their families and to participate in the life of their communities. Better wages will also broaden the tax base which will enable the state to play a greater role in the expansion of the social wage and the improvement of the quality of life of our people.

Let us therefore deepen and defend the link between workplace struggles, the national democratic revolution and the struggle for socialism.

Defend workers struggles from predatory tendencies, defeat the vultures!

World history is littered with examples where genuine workers' struggles led by trade unions were captured by different forces including imperialist backed forces. In the case of nearby Zambia, a tendency led by the financially secure Frederick Chiluba, turned the trade union organisation into a party political platform. This was not in the interests of the workers. You cannot be a union, a political party and a united front, all at the same time! Also South Africa has a large Communist Party and an anti-workerist COSATU.

Chiluba managed to replace the government and became the President of Zambia. But what did he do thereafter? He became worse than the government that he replaced. He gave away state-owned copper mines to foreign monopoly capital whose servant he had become, and rudely dumped the workers after attaining power. 

Here in our country, several tendencies have been engaged in attacking our historical links, including the alliance between our national liberation and progressive trade union movements. Opportunistically, these tendencies have been seeking to use workers'ddemands in the Rustenburg platinum belt and turn both these and that area as their base for a country-wide agenda. Some of the individuals involved have always been hostile to our movement, however, others were previously in our ranks. Among COSATU affiliates, the NUM has been the focal point around which these forces coalesce their attacks on our alliance. An attack on the NUM is an attack on the Alliance.

This requires us to intensify the struggle against all forces that seek to hijack and exploit the genuine grievances of the workers in order to pursue agendas similar to those of Chiluba. We are calling upon all workers to close ranks against these tendencies and unite behind our Alliance!

We therefore have a reasonable expectation as the SACP, that meeting just after the general election from which we emerged victorious for the fifth consecutive time, you will reflect and share with us your policy perspectives on the second, more radical phase of our transition. This must include focus on the next five years and take into account the ANC-led alliance manifesto, both linked with our medium-to-long-term strategic goal, that is, the need to complete the national democratic revolution and achieve socialism.

The SACP wishes you successful deliberations from your Central Committee.

Issued by NUM, July 3 2014

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