Today's Topics:
1. Greece, anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rosinante: We demand
decent life - Solidarity with the 'R workers, George SA (gr)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire From our lands to the Earth,
Notre-Dame-des-Landes, July 8-9 by AL Nantes (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #272 - history, 1937: In
Spain, the triumphant counter-revolution (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Mexico, Ruptura Colectiva (RC): Students and ESIME-AZC
libertarian groups take over the campus AND BLOCK STREETS by
imposition of new director (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. zabalaza: Renewal and crisis in South African labour today:
Towards transformation or stagnation, bureaucracy or
self-activity? - eNCA/Sethembiso (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
The struggle of migrant workers in sweatshop Costas Georgiou, recognize the most authentic
expression of labor solidarity, such owing to an inspiration and model for everyone / s.
That's why we support and stand to win next to the redundant worker Asif Mahmud and his
colleagues: Why is the conflict itself to outright exploitation and authoritarianism, gave
birth to a new world of solidarity and equality. And we will make sure this world to grow
up ... ---- We demand decent life and does not fit the terrorism of employers. Solidarity
in RN and employees of "Costas Georgiou SA" By Rocinante ---- company plastic "Costas
Georgiou SA" in Vlora, other than plastic and paper bags supplied by stores of Sklavenitis
of Jumbo, of Wind and several others, through the history of the worker Asif Mahmud, he
showed that specializes in the wood, when the occasion demands.
In fact, when Asif worker from Pakistan, went to the 30th of the month in the factory to
ask for papers of dismissal and health certificate had left when hired, the employer began
to vulgar swearing and pushing him. While the Reg insisted on getting his papers, was
again attacked not only the employer but also by his son, who punched injuring him. The
attack only stopped when they entered the middle of the employees who were present.
For 'handbags with signature "as the launch, this of course far from" isolated incident
"was not. The employer, who is known by the old and the trampoukikes and racist attitudes,
constantly violating their labor rights and collective agreements. The 80 workers,
immigrants from Pakistan for the most part, they work seven days a week, without even
break. And if you stop to eat causes them to stay above. Owes holidays, night, overtime
and apparently not supplying them with "useless" things such as hygiene and protection
equipment. Eat between machines, no clean drinking water and hot water could be washed,
put padlock. The scene of the employers' terrorism supplemented with surveillance cameras
and loudspeakers are everywhere at work to give O Georgiou commands, assuming the workers
of slaves.
They did not stay idly, nor sit endure the George for a pittance and that rotten. They
have already set up their own Association clearly indicating to employers that are against
the organized to claim better working conditions. No wonder, then, that the beating scene,
sparked an immediate reaction of the sacked colleagues that day already staged a
spontaneous indefinite strike which use as a weapon kyryssontas again and 9,10 and 11 June.
The struggle of migrant workers in sweatshop Costas Georgiou, recognize the most authentic
expression of labor solidarity, such owing to an inspiration and model for everyone / s.
That's why we support and stand to win next to the redundant worker Asif Mahmud and his
colleagues: Why is the conflict itself to outright exploitation and authoritarianism, gave
birth to a new world of solidarity and equality. And we will make sure this world to grow ...
We call on June 14 at 9 am in the Military courts that will continue the trial of "Costas
Georgiou SA" after the lawsuit Asif beating.
Immediate PAYMENT OF ACCRUED TO, ANY INTERCEPTION WAGE COSTS COMPANY, ALL MEASURES HEALTH
AND SAFETY
-Do not let be or imply KAINOURGIAS MANOLADAS
-ALLILENGYI TO STRIKERS AGAINST COMPANY Costas Georgiou SA
anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rosinante
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30335
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Message: 2
Join Alternative Libertarian at the "From Our Land to the Earth" event on July 8th and 9th
in Notre-Dame-des-Landes. ---- Resisting, acting, living ... ---- Again, the Coordination
des Opposants invites us, neighbors, fighting groups, local organizations ... and far
beyond, to gather here in Notre-Dame-des-Landes against the project of 'airport. We need
this unifying and convivial moment, the expression and instrument of an intact
mobilization. ---- From our lands to the Earth ---- Reaffirmed on October 8, 2016 during
the " swearing of the sticks ", our base remains the defense of our agricultural lands,
of the peasants and inhabitants threatened with expulsion, and that of this territory: we
have prepared ourselves. Actively this fall, while continuing the political, legal and
information actions of the citizens.
Our local struggle, together with many others, contributes to the search for a better
general, solidary life for all the peoples of our Earth. Our previous concerns remain
(global warming, democracy ...).
Demonstration of October 8, 2016, "oath of the stick" (in the wheels of the great useless
project)
Copyright Daniel Maunoury
Resist, act, live
These three verbs complement each other and answer each other. Far from a " passive "
resistance , we act together, weave bonds, we already live other possible. The active
participation of a collective union opens us prospects of reciprocal solidarity, as in the
great hours of the workers 'and peasants' alliances of Loire-Atlantique.
From here and elsewhere, we meet again on July 8 and 9 ...
Whatever the outcome of the long 2017 electoral tunnel, and the new government decisions
that will ensue, on the subject of NDL, we will maintain our positions:
NO to the airport project ! Resistance !
Official website of the event: http://www.notredamedeslandes2017.org/
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?De-nos-terres-a-la-Terre-Notre-Dame-des-Landes-les-8-9-juillet
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Message: 3
The Spanish revolution had begun well, but as early as 1937, under the impact of the
Stalinist blows as errors of the anarchists, it retreated. ---- The Spanish Revolution of
1936 constitutes a page, or even the most important page in the history of our current,
with the mass practice of our libertarian communist ideal. This creative dynamic was,
unfortunately, prevented and stopped as of December 1937. ---- The retreat of the
revolutionary process is due to external causes (the advance of the Francoist armies) but
also to internal causes in the anti-fascist camp: the weight of Stalinism on the one hand,
the hesitations and strategic mistakes of revolutionaries on the other . ---- And if the
social work of this revolution, like the idea of fighting fascism in hand, is part of the
" heroic heritage " of the international libertarian movement, it is not the same with
the positions taken Policies of the CNT-FAI Directorate. Here we touch the most sensitive
aspect of this revolution. For it is a question of understanding and analyzing the reasons
for its failure, including by sifting through the obvious responsibility of certain
sectors claiming our ideals.
Cc http://www.socialisme-libertaire.fr
Stalin and the German lesson
First and foremost, the role played by the USSR and the Spanish Communist Party, which
will be at the forefront of this counter-revolution.
For the USSR of Stalin, and in connection with the new policy of the Communist
International, the Comintern, the idea is to promote Popular Front policies and a policy
of conciliation with the progressive aid of the bourgeoisie, The socialist parties.
In this, this Popular Front tactic takes the absolute opposite of the offensive period "
class against class " (1928-1933) which had precisely determined a very sectarian
attitude of the Communist Party with regard to the Socialists.
In the eyes of the Soviets, the danger has changed: brown Europe directly threatens the "
fatherland of socialism ". The German example is the fundamental element which is
changing the international policy of the USSR and the Comintern. It is indeed in Germany
that the tactic " class against class " is pushed to the extreme.
Electoral poster of the German Communist Party (KPD) of July 1932. At the time, Moscow's
"class against class" line sends socialists and Nazis back to back.
Taking advantage of the political and social crisis, the German Communist Party (KPD) won
6 million votes in the 1932 elections. This electoral success led the KPD to two
conclusions: once the struggle for the establishment of a Communist regime Is the order of
the day, we must consider all the forces which oppose it as a bloc of the bourgeoisie. In
arguing that the KPD is the only alternative to the fascist danger and to Hitler, the
socialists opposed to the proletarian revolution are considered as enemies on the same
footing as the other factions of the bourgeoisie. Socialists are called " socio-fascists ".
Cette tactique sera maintenue jusqu'à l'avènement d'Hitler au pouvoir. Sur la base de
l'échec de cette politique qui a, finalement, facilité la prise de pouvoir d'Hitler,
Staline et le Komintern lui préférèrent désormais la tactique de Front populaire.
La lutte antifasciste devient désormais la priorité du Komintern, à l'heure où les visées
expansionnistes à l'Ouest de l'Allemagne et à l'Est du Japon, menacent l'intégrité
territoriale de l'Union soviétique. D'où désormais une politique faite de modération et de
conciliation avec la social-démocratie.
Another factor, finally, feeds the fears of Stalin: the revolution in Spain represents a
danger because its essence is an anti-authoritarian alternative of rupture with
capitalism. A model that is still opposed to the " barracks communism " of the USSR of
the Peoples' Father, where the GPU, the purges, the domestication of the unions and the
Gulags have definitively killed any revolutionary ideal.
However, there is a big problem for the Kremlin. If he wishes to intervene in the land of
Spain, and to counteract this revolutionary influence, he must rely on an organization
capable of putting his plans into practice. But this organization does not exist or does
not exist. The history of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), before July 1936, is that of
a party without influence, without real implantation except in Asturias and Seville. An
anonymous member of the PCE, author of a Historia del partido comunista, revealed that it
barely counted " 800 militants in 1931 ".
On 23 July 1936, in Catalonia, several socialist and Stalinist groups merged into the PSUC.
During the civil war, however, its weight continues to grow for several reasons. In
Catalonia, he merged with the Catalan Socialists to found the Catalan Unified Socialist
Party (PSUC). But it is especially Soviet aid (military and food) to the Spanish Republic
in its fight against fascism that will increase its prestige.
Soviet aid is not totally disinterested: The USSR is delivered beforehand 500 tons of gold
from the Bank of Spain, following secret agreements between the Prime Minister Largo
Caballero and the Russian representative in Spain [1].
Using this weight and the support of the Russian big brother, the Spanish Stalinists,
assisted by Russian " advisers " (Osvenko, Rosenberg), will do their utmost to counter
the influence of the revolutionaries. They skillfully weave their web. And quickly, the
army, the police, the intelligence services (SIM) are all under communist control.
At the same time, the PCE wins new militants. Indeed, the revolution and its
accomplishments have caused many dissatisfaction among the middle classes in particular.
The PCE will be their Party. The program of the Spanish Stalinists is very moderate, and
the PC is the champion of the defense of private property. Shopkeepers, a part of the
intelligentsia, bourgeois employees and republicans joined the Communist Party.
The PCE is now in a strong position to tackle the revolutionary achievements. Pravda , the
official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party, announced on December 16, 1936: " In
Catalonia, the elimination of Trotskyites and anarcho-syndicalists has begun ; It will be
conducted with the same energy as in the USSR. "
Government Involvement
Andrés Nin, one of the leaders of the Poum, was tortured and assassinated by the
Stalinists on 20 June 1937.
In fact, Andres Nin, leader of the POUM, an anti-authoritarian Marxist party, and the
Italian anarchist Camilo Berneri, will thus be found dead after being tortured in the
aftermath of the barricade week in Barcelona in May 1937. Soon the POUM will be officially
declared illegal. Other anarchist militants and the POUM will be liquidated later on. At
the institutional level, the PCE is at the forefront of all measures aimed at reducing
revolutionary gains.
While the role of the PCE and Stalin is indisputable in the retreat of the revolutionary
process, another factor relates to the strategic errors committed by the revolutionaries
themselves (the CNT and the POUM in particular). By accepting to participate in republican
governments, the leaders of these organizations will be complicit in the revolutionary
setbacks. In fact, the governmental participation of the CNT-FAI in the Governments of the
Generalitat de Catalunya and Madrid in October and November 1936 has serious consequences.
For the Spanish libertarians, it is punctual to join the Popular Front anti-fascist the
time to beat the armies of Franco. The Spanish libertarian historian César Lorenzo
summarizes the arguments of the " circumstantialist thesis " defended by an overwhelming
majority of the eminent members of the CNT-FAI.
This " circumstantialist thesis ", as its name implies, defends the idea that particular
circumstances justify a particular policy. It will serve to justify the entry into the
government of Madrid of four members of the CNT. César Lorenzo, in his book The Spanish
Anarchists and Power writes:
" The government and the parties were beginning their great offensive against the CNT.
With patience, they reconstituted the state, a classical army. At the same time, they did
not provide any financial assistance to the industrial or agrarian communities, leaving
them destitute for lack of capital. They hampered commercial operations by making their
relations with foreign countries difficult, blocking their imports and exports by a
skilful distribution of licenses. At the same time, they systematically refused to give
arms to the CNT columns ... Thus, day after day, the libertarian militias were weakening
compared to the militias under Communist command, day after day the collectivized economy
risked succumbing by asphyxiation. The CNT was in an untenable situation: It had neither
been able to destroy power, nor possess it; It coexisted with power, but this existence
became a real war which would cease only with the disappearance of one of them. Since it
was not possible to defeat power, the CNT was condemned to defeat. There was only one way
for the anarchists to share power, enter the state, prevent it from devouring everything,
participate in government to protect communities through republican law and order. In a
word, to melt into the state machine to prevent it from the inside of any grinding, to
brake it at least. " Since it was not possible to defeat power, the CNT was condemned to
defeat. There was only one way for the anarchists to share power, enter the state, prevent
it from devouring everything, participate in government to protect communities through
republican law and order. In a word, to melt into the state machine to prevent it from the
inside of any grinding, to brake it at least. " Since it was not possible to defeat power,
the CNT was condemned to defeat. There was only one way for the anarchists to share power,
enter the state, prevent it from devouring everything, participate in government to
protect communities through republican law and order. In a word, to melt into the state
machine to prevent it from the inside of any grinding, to brake it at least. " In a word,
to melt into the state machine to prevent it from the inside of any grinding, to brake it
at least. " In a word, to melt into the state machine to prevent it from the inside of any
grinding, to brake it at least. "
Anarcho-syndicalists showcase the UGT-CNT alliance.
For the leaders of the CNT-FAI, the social revolution, which is above all the fact of the
base of the CNT and partly that of the UGT, the socialist union, becomes secondary. The
priority remains to defeat fascism, according to the expression " Sacrificamos a todo
menos la victoria " (" We sacrifice everything but victory "). They are convinced that
victory against Franco is inevitable. The revolution is simply postponed by strategy.
Capitulations of " comrades-ministers "
As libertarian communists in 2017, just over 80 years after events that we have not
experienced, it may seem easy to take a critical look. Nevertheless, we can, because the
historical facts give us reason, estimate that this " circumstancialist " way has
failed, and this on a double level.
The constitution of an anti-fascist Popular Front, with a view to making victory a
priority, failed. In March 1939, in spite of the sacrifice of the social revolution, in
spite of the state unity of all the anti-fascists, despite the Soviet help, the sound of
the boots of the Francoist armies returning to Madrid symbolized the end of this hope of
life Better for the exploited of Spain.
Anarchist speaker Frederica Montseny, "Comrade Minister" of Health.
Government participation, conceived as the best means of controlling the
counterrevolutionary impulses of the Republican " partners ", was a failure. The "
comrade-ministers " did not control anything. By their presence in the ministerial
offices, their repeated calls for calm and responsibility during the crucial hours of the
revolution, they and their accomplices were complicit in the setbacks. In particular, at
the time of the dissolution of the anti-fascist militia committee, a real guarantee of the
armed power of the people. Then when the various revolutionary institutions were destroyed ...
Finally, in the course of events in May 1937 in Barcelona, when the CNT base revolted
against the weight of Stalinism, barricades rose as in July 1936, the CNT leadership was
guilty of political capitulations Dramatic consequences. On radio Barcelona, GarcÃa
Oliver, a historical activist of the Iberian libertarian movement and Minister of Justice,
summoned his comrades to leave the barricades and fraternize with the Stalinist enemy. He
denounces those who resist and do not hesitate to treat them as irresponsible in the pay
of Franco.
Lenin and Stalin on the Hotel Colon, seat of the PSUC in Barcelona.
Some sectors of the CNT will defend, despite the blackmail of the governing bodies of the
CNT-FAI, a hard line and the idea of a radical break with the various republican
components. We find these sectors, first of all, among the libertarian youths, but also
within certain libertarian militias fighting on the front of Aragon. This is the case, for
example, with the iron column. The opposition sector, nevertheless, the best known is
found around the group The Friends of Durruti, in reference to the mythical libertarian
leader.
"Alert the 5 th column ! "
Poster of the Provincial Council of Valencia (1937). But who can constitute this " fifth
column" ready to betray the Republic for the benefit of the fascists ? The Lung ? Anarchists ?
In a leaflet, the latter proclaim: " The revolutionary and anarchist spirit of July 19 was
mystified ... The CNT and the FAI which, during the first days of July, were the ones who
best expressed the revolutionary sense and the" Potential energy in the streets, are now
in a diminished position for not having given full value to their personality during the
days mentioned above. We have accepted collaboration on a minority plan while our strength
on the street has a great majority value. We have strengthened the representatives of a
decrepit and counter-revolutionary petty bourgeoisie. In no way can we tolerate the
postponement of the revolution until the end of the military conflict. Workers, do not
give up the street. Revolutionary junta. Execution of the guilty parties. Disarmament of
armed bodies. Socialization of the economy. Dissolution of political parties that have
assaulted the working class. We salute the comrades of the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist
Unity) who have fraternized with us in the street. Long live the social revolution. "
These critical sectors will, alas, be gagged, by the CNT-FAI management, who will not
hesitate to exclude these preventers and preventers from going round in circles. Violent
reality which poses, in substance, also another fundamental problem. The CNT, a
libertarian organization, supposed to develop a self-managed and horizontal functioning,
ends up reproducing an authoritarian and vertical operation with a bureaucracy and a
direction that decides by itself, and excludes opponents and opponents.
Also to be read, in the editions of AL: Valentin Frémonti , Solidarité internationale
antifasciste (1937-1939). A humanitarian and libertarian action in the Spanish war , ed.
Alternative libertarian, 2017, 156 pages, 6 euros.
The teaching of this Spanish revolution, if we are to derive anything from it: it is
because in a revolutionary situation, not to break with the old world and its institutions
has consequences. Notably, when this absence of rupture is materialized by the alliance of
the revolutionary forces and the defenders of the republican order. An interclassist
alliance, it could only endanger the very fate of the social revolution.
A topical debate, during these hours of election campaign. A debate which reminds us once
again that the only alternative, as Cornelius Castoriadis defended, remains today, today
and tomorrow: " Socialism or barbarism ".
Jérémie Berthuin (AL Gard)
[1] Part of this gold will be used also to build the CPF Pharaonic office in Paris, metro
Colonel Fabien, after the Second World War. It was used to finance, as early as 1936, the
Communist daily Tonight, directed by the poet Louis Aragon.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?1937-En-Espagne-la-contre-revolution-triomphante
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Message: 4
#EnEstosMomentos #ElParoVa Students, teachers and libertarian groups of ESIME-Azcapotzalco
of the IPN north of Mexico City, have taken the campus in protest of the imposition of the
new director, Engineer Abraham Medina Ovido, who "has been indicated by The community for
its bad practices of imposition of officials from the top of the General Directorate "and
also already played an important role in the bureaucracy of the campus to be appointed
Interim Director since June 2016. ---- They denounce that during the election of the
candidate there were different irregularities and a vacuum in the consensus with the
students and teachers, mainly the displeasure by the nepotism of the new director and its
connections with the authorities of General Direction that have been in charge to
criminalize and to violate To various students organized from various schools since the
2014 polytechnic strike. The most recent case is the expulsion of 3 activists from the
CECyT 5 in early 2017, due to their courageous action to declare an indefinite strike to
make visible the corruption and links With the porrismo of the director Ernesto Leon
Pineda. Several children were injured when they were beaten outside the campus during the
days when this work stoppage took place.
In the virtual communication space of the student community "ESIME Azcapotzalco Informa",
the following is narrated and a call is made for the mobilization:
"(...) For all the above, teachers and students who were during the event, made the
decision to close the avenues surrounding the school in protest. Shortly afterwards more
teachers and more students joined the repudiation of designation and concentrated on the
front door.
Once again the Directorate General of the IPN shows a clear deafness to the demands of the
polytechnic community, imposing on the people who best suit them, which has nothing to do
with academic development.
Let us not forget, comrades, that this is not the first time they have used these
practices, in all IPN units, after the GENERAL STRIKE in 2014 have tried to impose
officials in all schools to try to prevent the community from Listen and fight for what is
right for you.
We make an attentive call to all the companions of ESIME AZCAPO so that they come to the
facilities to inform themselves, to give their opinion and to support the future actions
that decide the community. "
http://rupturacolectiva.com/estudiantes-y-agrupaciones-libertarias-de-esime-azc-toman-el-plantel-por-imposicion-de-nuevo-director/
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Message: 5
South African unions are large but fragmented, substantial but politically weak. They
represent different political traditions and all are marked by serious organisational
problems. They have little impact on the official public sphere. The unions need to work
towards realizing a stateless, classless, self-managed society without hierarchy, based on
political pluralism and freedom. ---- Renewal and crisis in South African labour today:
Towards transformation or stagnation, bureaucracy or self-activity? ---- by Lucien van der
Walt (ZACF) ---- South African unions are large but fragmented, substantial but
politically weak. They represent different political traditions and all are marked by
serious organisational problems. They have little impact on the official public sphere.
The unions need to work towards realizing a stateless, classless, self-managed society
without hierarchy, based on political pluralism and freedom.
Among South Africa's distinctive features is the largest union movement in Africa (as a
proportion of the waged population), itself a reflection of another distinction, the
country's largely proletarian population and capitalist order. However, this movement is
also deeply fractured, and at this stage, crippled. It has contradictory tendencies,
towards unity and division, towards revolution and reform.
This paper provides a critical survey of South African labour, considering all the main
forces. It starts from the premise that unions remain here, as elsewhere, indispensable
forces for deep social transformation. There is no substitute for mobilisation on the
labour front, given the structural power, numbers and resources that unions can bring to
bear in workers' struggles, and in the struggles of the oppressed more generally. Unions
also play a key role as reservoirs of working class identity, and in keeping socialist
ideas and spaces alive. With the potential to unite oppressed and exploited people across
ethnic, gender, linguistic and other divisions, unions are also an essential foundation
for internationalism and universalism. Unions have a demonstrated capacity to develop
workers' capacity to take control of production and the larger economy, as shown, for
example, in the 1936 Spanish Revolution.
That said, unions in South Africa, as elsewhere, often fail to meet their potential.
Unions are not inherently capable of making radical change. They have tendencies towards
economism, conservatism, reformism, sectionalism and bureaucratisation, which have to be
resisted. The routines of bargaining, and entanglement in state-run negotiations and
processes, and in political party patronage systems, all dampen union power and workers'
control. Union leaderships often emerge that are positioned as a conservative layer of
brokers between workers and bosses. Divisions in the working class and among the oppressed
are often carried into the labour movement. This is certainly the case in South Africa, as
discussed below.
Without a clear project for social change that rests upon the development of popular
capacities and organisation, self-activity, ideological counter-hegemony and the
construction of a class-based counter-power able to resist, then displace, the ruling
class - including through workplace occupations by the unions - unions cannot
fundamentally change society.
Size and scope
There were around 3.7 million union members in South Africa in 2015, out of a formal
sector workforce of slightly over 10.8 million, and an informal sector workforce of
slightly over 2.6 million.[1]Union membership is almost always voluntary (closed shops are
extremely rare). This gives a union density of 27.6% (both sectors), or 34.2% (formal
sector only).
Union size is remarkable, given the country's frightening unemployment (5.2 million - or
7.6 million using an expanded definition),[2]massive processes of casualisation,
outsourcing and mechanisation, low economic growth, aggressive employers and the impact of
the world capitalist crisis of 2007 onwards.
It is facilitated by a Constitution (1996) entrenching union rights. The 1995 Labour
Relations Act (LRA) provides union rights for all workers, and the 1999 General
Regulations of the South African National Defence Force even permits military unions.
Ultimately, however, union strength rests on long-standing working class traditions, a
politicised society, and material benefits. Unionists earn 6-7% more than non-union
workers, rising to 16% in the private sector, and 22% in the state sector, when statutory
bargaining councils are also involved.[3]
Left traditions
Unions have never been state-run, unlike in many neighbouring countries. There is,
however, a long history of union links to political parties, notable examples being close
links between white-only unions and the South African Labour Party (founded 1909), and the
alliance between the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU, formed 1955) and the
African National Congress (ANC, founded 1912).
Also worth noting is the deep imprint of socialist politics on the two of the most
important union formations, with few parallels in the region. The Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU, formed 1985, claiming around 1.9 million members in November
2015),[4]and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA, formed 1987,
claiming 340,000 members in December 2016)[5]both describe themselves as
"Marxist-Leninist," i.e. orthodox Communist.
COSATU is formally allied to the now-ruling ANC, as well as the South African Communist
Party (SACP, founded 1921). COSATU's Marxist-Leninist claims and SACP ties help explain
why it hosted the 2016 World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) congress in South Africa.
Here, the president of COSATU's 250,000-strong National Education Health and Allied
Workers Union (NEHAWU) was elected WFTU president. COSATU remains one of the most
important working class formations in Africa, with a long history of struggle, including
mass strikes post-1994.
The smaller National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU, formed 1986) has at times also
declared adherence to socialism. NACTU's numbers are disputed - the long-claimed 370,000
members is questionable - but were recently boosted by the growth of NACTU's Association
of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). Starting as a 1998 splinter from COSATU's
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), AMCU now claims 200,000 members.[6]It played a key
role in the 2012-2014 strike wave, indelibly associated with the 2012 massacre of strikers
at Marikana.
Low-wage Black labour
However, these points all need to be qualified. Agriculture remains almost completely
non-union. Most South African workers are not union members. Casual workers are rarely
unionised. Many union members are inactive. Over 400,000 workers do not know whether they
are union members.[7]
Many unions are small and weak. Out of 484 unions, only 184 were "registered" in 2016,
enabling access to the statutory bargaining system.[8]Branches of larger unions often lack
effective bargaining rights. Big unions have often failed casual workers, who have then
relied on splinter unions or on ad-hoc strike committees. Only "23% of workers' wages are
determined through collective bargaining with only 9% determined through centralised
bargaining."[9]
Real wages stagnated between 1997 and 2013; some sectors like construction and mining have
shown important gains, but median real wages have declined in agriculture and
manufacturing.[10]Monthly median earnings in 2013 were low: R2, 200 in agriculture, R2,
700 in construction and business services, R3, 400 in manufacturing and R4, 650 in
mining.[11]Most wage settlements are very modest in real terms, around 2%.[12]In contrast,
CEOs' average monthly remuneration was R1, 279, 976 in 2014 (excluding long-term
incentives), and "executive directors took home more in a month than ... a low wage worker
would earn in 94 years."[13]
These reproduce the racist cheap labour system that has long marked capitalism in South
Africa.
Confining laws
The core of industrial relations law dates to 1924-1926, and is designed to limit strikes,
contain unions and entangle their negotiators.[14]The law has been deracialised since
1979, and expanded to almost all sectors with the 1995 LRA - a major victory - but the
basic system remains. Strikes (outside essential services) are only "protected"[15]after a
lengthy procedure for conciliation has failed, and then only after a 30-day period plus 48
hours' notice. Arbitration is prescribed in essential services (affecting life, health and
safety). Solidarity and political strikes are only "protected" after a lengthy process,
and 14 days' notice.
Thus the system promotes a centralised union structure reliant on paid leaders tied up in
negotiations. This is reinforced by the corporatism of the National Economic Development
and Labour Council (NEDLAC), where unions have input into state policy. When these
developments are coupled to union links to political parties engaged in the state, and the
patronage and outside interference such parties bring, the scope for union autonomy and
workers' control is further reduced.
The law has scope for extending bargaining council agreements to workers outside of
negotiations, and for sectoral minimum wage determinations by the Labour Minister. While
these measures can benefit vulnerable workers, they often substitute for shop-floor
organising. Minimum wages set by the Ministry are generally appalling.
Individuals can lodge cases fairly easily, but the system is slow and backlogged; employer
compliance is difficult to enforce.[16]Until recently, individuals could only be
represented by unions or lawyers - this disadvantaged the majority, with no unions and no
money.[17]
Left or centre?
The union movement should not be reduced to COSATU, which only represents half the
unionised workers, nor should union radicalism be exaggerated.
NACTU's socialist commitment, for example, is vague, and the federation has serious
problems. In the early 2010s, it closed its regional and provincial offices due to
financial and leadership problems.[17]
Linked to Pan-Africanist / Black Consciousness racial nationalisms in the 1980s, NACTU has
rarely been political since 1994. From 2005, NACTU was involved in merger negotiations
with the centre-right Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA, formed 1997, claiming
540,000 members) and the Confederation of South African Workers' Unions (CONSAWU, formed
2003, claiming 290,000 members).[19]This led to NACTU and FEDUSA forming a loose South
African Confederation of Trade Unions (SACOTU) in 2007. SACOTU still exists, but no merger
has taken place. The sustained liaison with FEDUSA says something about NACTU's politics.
In 2011, NACTU's important Metal and Electrical Workers' Union of South Africa (MEWUSA)
purged members of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM). DSM militants had played a
central role in revitalising the union, but challenged entrenched leaders. (The DSM later
helped launch a Workers' and Socialist Party in 2012, and a Socialist Trade Union Network).
NACTU's AMCU is a fighting union, notable for demanding a R12, 500 minimum wage. However,
AMCU's focus is explicitly on bread-and-butter issues: its outlook is militant economism.
It tends to dismiss socialism and politics because of their association with its hated
rival, NUM.
AMCU represents a majority of black miners in platinum, but is a minority in coal and
gold. No more than half of AMCU's members are in mining, the only sector in which it has
demonstrated an ability to win strikes. It has no strongholds elsewhere. In 2013 and 2016,
AMCU has settled for modest wage increases in platinum. Although substantial and hard-won,
these were well below the 50% increase required to reach R12, 500.[20]
The moderates, the right
FEDUSA rejects "ideological and party-political ties": it takes as its "real mandate"
"workplace matters and issues that affect its members."[21]Its roots lie in the
conservative tradition of the defunct Trade Union Council of South Africa (TUCSA, formed
1954). Centred on Coloured, Indian and white workers, TUCSA was side-lined by the new
unionism that led to COSATU, NACTU and NUMSA. FEDUSA today is a majority-black federation,
but it remains economistic, with a narrow focus on workplace issues. It projects itself as
a "stable" federation that advances "the interests of employees and of the economy" in a
"responsible manner,"[22]and avoids strikes.
Historically, FEDUSA represented more skilled, semi-professional and professional workers,
some with roots in old craft and staff unions. FEDUSA's South African Typographical Union
dates to 1898. FEDUSA's growth centres on attracting existing unions to affiliate, not
mass organising. It has been hampered by disaffiliation of large unions like the
70,000-strong Independent Municipal and Allied Workers' Union (IMATU) in 2012.
CONSAWU has similar roots to FEDUSA, and also includes a range of union types: general,
industrial, craft and professional - COSATU and NACTU instead stress industrial unionism.
However, almost half of CONSAWU's members (130,000) come from one affiliate, Solidarity,
itself a union centre. Solidarity's roots lie in white, segregationist, pro-apartheid
unions going back to the Transvaal Miners Association (1902) and its successor, the
far-right SA Mineworkers' Union.
Renamed Solidarity in 2002, it now identifies as an inclusive Christian-democratic union.
It is, however, firmly located in a strand in Afrikaner nationalism that positions itself
as a language and rights lobby in the new South Africa. Solidarity has a record of
cooperation with unions like NUM and NUMSA; it even attended the 2003 SACP congress.
However, its conservative economic views and opposition to affirmative action have helped
entrench racial divisions in labour.[23]
CONSAWU, FEDUSA, NACTU and Solidarity are all reformist unions: their aims do not go
beyond modest changes in the existing order. They simultaneously defend and divide the
working class: products of class contradictions, they do not have a programme to remove
class exploitation.
Together, these reformist unions represent a third of unionised workers.
The Left unions: COSATU'S Marxism
Solidarity, unlike FEDUSA or the rest of CONSAWU, is a politicised union, like COSATU. But
unlike COSATU, it is on the right.
Both COSATU and NUMSA define themselves as revolutionary and socialist.
COSATU's links to the WFTU illustrates some of its politics' limitations. The WFTU is
committed to socialism and internationalism, but in the Marxist-Leninist tradition.
Obviously, many WFTU members and affiliates are seriously committed to profound,
revolutionary change. However, its political tradition identifies "socialism" with the
largely-collapsed Marxist dictatorships of the old East bloc.
The WFTU was closely tied to the then-Soviet Union, a labour-repressive state that did not
recognise basic human and union rights, and which operated an informal and formal empire.
This link is why current WFTU affiliates include fake state-run "unions" in Cuba, North
Korea and Vietnam, countries marked by bans on strikes and independent unions, by low
wages, heavy repression and a complete absence of any working class or peasant power.
COSATU'S social democratic problem
COSATU is actually to the right of many WFTU affiliates. Its formal Marxism-Leninism
co-exists with a strategy that can only be described as social-democracy with a large dash
of nationalism. Since the 1990s, both COSATU and the SACP have sought change through
expanding corporatism, co-determination, union investments, co-operatives, etc., and by
intervening in state policy through NEDLAC and the ANC.[24]This is sometimes given a
radical gloss with slogans like "Socialism is the future! Build it now!"
COSATU is completely correct that South Africa's burning national and social questions
cannot be resolved within a capitalist framework. COSATU is correct in identifying the
ongoing power of "white monopoly capital" as a major obstacle to justice for the black
working class majority (the term refers to the giant, white-run conglomerates that emerged
under segregation and apartheid). COSATU is also correct to draw attention to the
devastation that neo-liberal policies and restructuring have wrought on South Africa over
the last decades.
But COSATU's strategy is not a revolutionary one. It does not involve a decisive assault
on the citadels of capitalism, smashing the state, or the mass working class mobilisation,
not to march, but to take power and control production. Instead, it centres on the
incremental accumulation of anti-capitalist gains through a series of reforms, supposedly
shifting the balance of forces towards socialism.
In reality, none of the measures COSATU proposes abolishes capitalist relations or
undermines the capitalist state. For example, union investments do not provide workers
effective control over means of production: they fund capitalist companies based on
exploiting wage labour and selling commodities.
Posing the problem as "monopoly capitalism" or "apartheid-capitalism," rather than
capitalism as such, suggests the answer is a better variant of capitalism - not socialism.
What COSATU proposes is, actually, a variant of the Keynesian welfare state. However, the
Keynesian welfare state is in its death-throes everywhere, and, as I have argued
elsewhere,[25]is an extraordinarily improbable future for South Africa. COSATU strategy
and aspirations are trapped in a dead-end.
COSATU and its affiliates have achieved little through corporatism and efforts at shaping
economic and industrial policy, besides bureaucratising the unions.[26]
Blind to the state
The focus on white monopoly capital also blinds COSATU to major changes, like the ongoing
denationalisation of the economy, and the economic role of the state. The state is
responsible for almost a quarter of the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is the
largest employer and landowner, and operates its own massive corporations.
The state is not an organisation that can be wielded by the working class. Hierarchical,
centralised, an organ of minority rule that is used by political elites to accumulate
power and wealth, it is structurally allied to private capitalists and landlords.
The state, itself, is never criticised by COSATU, however - only specific policies,
politicians, personalities and parties. While COSATU condemns the way that Western
imperialism imposes itself on South Africa, it is almost completely silent on the role
that the South African state plays as mid-level imperialist power in Africa.
This sort of reasoning underlies COSATU's alliance with the ANC, a multi-class nationalist
party openly committed to neo-liberalism. COSATU doesn't deny that corrupt politicians and
powerful capitalists wield extensive influence in the ANC, but it treats this problem as
primarily organisational and subjective i.e. it claims "working class bias" can be secured
in the ANC through union and SACP interventions, more "working class" / "progressive"
representation, and a renegotiation of the terms of the ANC/ COSATU / SACP alliance.
This does not recognise that the South African state is irrevocably a capitalist state,
that the ANC is part of that capitalist state, and that the ANC-dominated political elite
is allied to the private economic elite by common interests. Or, furthermore, that the
South African capitalist state is deeply embedded in a global capitalist political
economy, in which South African imperialism takes place largely through private and state
capitalism, "soft power," and multi-lateral structures. These objective conditions cannot
be removed by fiddling around in the ANC.
Revolution?
Among the costs of COSATU's statism is that it has no real project of preparing the
workers to occupy, and self-manage, the workplaces. COSATU's programme has the opposite:
joint work with the bosses through co-determination and corporatism, and joint work with
the politicians through elections and the ANC/SACP/COSATU alliance.
COSATU presents the ANC as a force of the left, and the heart of a "revolution" under fire
- rather than a key enforcer of capitalist power. This logic led the NUM and SACP to
denounce AMCU as a counter-revolutionary force, backed by "imperialism," and to COSATU's
suspension and expulsion of NUMSA for rejecting the alliance with the ANC and SACP at a
special congress in 2013.
This politics of labelling, with its potential for violence, is very dangerous; its
flipside is intolerance to non-SACP leftists, a Stalinist-style politics.
"Revolution," in COSATU and SACP terms, actually means "national-democratic" revolution
(NDR) by a multi-class nationalist "people's movement" against apartheid and its legacy -
a "stage" towards socialism, by radically reforming capitalism.
But it is extremely unlikely that capitalism can be reformed to undertake "national" and
"democratic" reforms on the scale needed to uproot the apartheid legacy. COSATU admits
this, yet promotes a capitalist stage. Even if every single capitalist was black, this
would remain true: the role of black capitalists like ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the
Marikana massacre shows they share their white counterparts' reliance on cheap black
labour. Blacks do not have common interests or experiences, as NDR theory suggests.
There is also no reason to suppose "national-democratic" reforms must lead to socialism:
the ANC, supposed bearer of NDR, has proved a solid bulwark against further change. The
ANC's nationalist ideology - stressing national unity across class lines - is itself a
major obstacle to class consciousness, tying labour to capital. The focus on using state
power to achieve change - statism - helps entrench illusions in the capitalist state.
The left unions: where is NUMSA's moment?
The radical NUMSA remains the wildcard in South African unionism; it is the key force, at
this stage, which can shift unions onto a revolutionary track. At its 2013 congress, NUMSA
called for a "movement for socialism" and a "united front against neo-liberalism," and
correctly noted that Marikana demonstrated that the ANC was irredeemable. (It also
indicated its intention to expand beyond its base in metals / engineering).
To its great credit, NUMSA has taken bold steps. Of course, it takes a great deal of time
for a union - especially one like NUMSA, which is quite democratic - to shift gears. There
are no short-cuts to building an emancipatory movement.
NUMSA's achievements to date are uneven. The United Front (UF) was launched in 2014: it
has attracted a number of community-based and left formations, and significant goodwill.
However, NUMSA's relationship to the UF is not clearly defined, and it has not brought the
union's full power to bear: there are no strikes backing UF actions. Local NUMSA
structures have played a key role in building the UF in several places, but the UF is
under-resourced, weak and stagnating. UF candidates in the 2016 local elections fared very
poorly.
NUMSA's leaders clearly envisage the "movement for socialism" as a new Communist Party,
but this has yet to be formed. But the space for a radical party outside the ANC has,
meanwhile, been taken by the populist Economic Freedom Fighters, an ANC breakaway (formed
2013). Elsewhere, Pan-Africanism / Black Consciousness have expanded as the frustrations
of the black middle class and unemployed poor rise in a stagnant, unequal, racialised
economy. These traditions reproduce the flaws of nationalism and statism, but NUMSA has
not managed to contest their impact.
NUMSA struggles to project its voice beyond its traditional base. Initially, NUMSA planned
to challenge its unconstitutional suspension from COSATU, insisting on the right to make
its case at a special COSATU conference, where it would undoubtedly enjoy great sympathy.
In 2015, this was replaced by a debatable dismissal of COSATU as "dead," and plans for a
new federation.
A successful summit with other unions in April-May 2016 was meant to lead to a new centre
this year. However, the need to create a large centre is at odds with NUMSA's aim of a
Marxist-Leninist union movement, given that few of the unions engaging NUMSA are
Marxist-Leninist. Key unions at the summit included AMCU and Solidarity. NUMSA has
meanwhile cut itself off from the COSATU mass base.
NUMSA runs the risk of over-extending itself with such a wide range of projects, and these
in addition to its ordinary union work.
Which movement, which socialism?
NUMSA has investigated options for socialism in a range of processes. Again, this is to be
commended. However, there is little attention to issues like the self-management of
production, or the insights that can be gleaned from experiences such as the Paris Commune
(1871) or the revolution in Spain (1936), or from other left traditions, such as anarchism
and syndicalism.
The possibilities for a shift from Marxism-Leninism, steeped in SACP traditions, are
narrow. For many in NUMSA, the break with the SACP is organisational, not political i.e.
the SACP is rejected for capitulating to the Zuma-led ANC; the problem is posed as
betrayal or corruption - rather than as a failed model. So the solution becomes a return
to classical SACP politics. Thus, NUMSA's 2016 congress resolved that NDR remains "the
most direct route to socialism," and that the burning task is "to actively build a
Marxist-Leninist Vanguard Revolutionary Workers' Party."[27]
Marxism-Leninism is only one strand in socialism, understood as an expression of working
class interests and commitment to common ownership - and it is a strand that has serious
flaws. But in NUMSA, it is often presented as the only true socialism.
The political party mirage
The long history of political parties betraying unions - from the ANC in South Africa, to
the Democrats in the USA, to the Communists in the Soviet Union - needs to be engaged more
seriously.
The problem with COSATU's alliance with the ANC is not just that the ANC is a bad party.
It is the reality that alliances with parties involved in the state subordinate the
unions, entangle them in the state apparatus, and corrode them with patronage and
corruption. The NDR and social democratic approaches are, as argued above, inherently
flawed. But not even a perfect programme can survive the embrace of the state. No state
can act "for" the workers, since all states are, by their nature, anti-working class. And
every union will be damaged by immersion in the state and its parties.
As COSATU's experience showed, politicians buy-off leaders and entangle unions in
factional battles. In the late 2000s, COSATU (including NUMSA) threw its weight behind the
Jacob Zuma faction in ANC (purging unionists who disagreed). Today, COSATU (including
NEHAWU) is knee-deep in the inner-ANC battles, completely useless to the working class,
over Zuma's successor.
Unions can be political without parties, and parties do immense harm to unions.
Towards a brighter day
In closing, South African unions are large but fragmented, substantial but politically
weak. They represent different political traditions, and all are marked, to a greater or
lesser degree, by serious organisational problems. They have little impact on the official
public sphere, where the media is dominated by middle class and elite voices, black and
white, and have made few strides to build a proletarian public sphere and mass media. This
all helps to explain why there has not been a single general strike against job losses and
austerity in the ten years since the onset of the world capitalist crisis, and why there
is no union mass media.
FEDUSA and CONSAWU come from a bureaucratic tradition, based on a low level of
mobilisation and a passive membership. COSATU unions were founded on the principle of
workers' control, with shop-stewards kept accountable to assemblies, but this has been
significantly eroded since 1990. This has run alongside a decline in union life, debates
and education. The bureaucratic and authoritarian methods used to drive out NUMSA (and in
an earlier period, anti-Zuma dissidents) indicate the problems. NUM's splits, and NACTU's
decline, are the result of a similar bureaucratisation. NUMSA has fared much better, but
is not free of these problems. AMCU, meanwhile, has struggled to consolidate democratic
structures.
Simply setting up new unions does not resolve these ideological and organisational
problems, as the problems are easily reproduced in new unions. For unions to move forward,
it is important to have a lively internal culture and political pluralism. Intolerance
within unions, and between unions- a notorious example is violence between AMCU and NUM -
is a serious problem. Solidarity is needed: sectarianism pitting ordinary union members
against each other undermines the working class.
Instead of failed statist solutions - nationalism, social democracy, Marxism-Leninism -
unions need to work towards the democratic elaboration of a libertarian and left project
centred on self-activity. A socialism that does not just oppose capitalism, but aims at a
stateless, classless, self-managed society without hierarchy, based on political pluralism
and freedom.
Seeds of the new
Contrary to the pessimistic dismissal of unions as inherently reformist, or as captured by
capitalism, they can provide a key space for the development and experience of bottom-up
democracy, workers' education and the "new faith" of libertarian socialism, and
"solidarity and fraternal sentiment" between the "workers in all occupations in all
lands."[28]They can provide, through democratic structures and mass mobilisation, both a
lever for large-scale workplace takeovers and a core part of the administrative
infrastructure for a self-managed society, forming "the living seeds of the new society
which is to replace the old world."[29]
These organisational and political shifts require a reform of the existing unions, not
abandoning these key organisations that the working class has already built. It requires
building the unions, rather than narrow loyalty to any union brand. And it requires
serious reflection on the deep flaws in models centred on building political parties,
trying to capture the state: the ANC and SACP failed to free the working class, because
their leaders were incorporated into the capitalist state, and their leaders were
incorporated because they followed a statist politics that led, inevitably, to that
result. That is the fate of party politics.
* Lucien van der Walt (l.vanderwalt@ru.ac.za) works at Rhodes University, South Africa. He
has published widely on labour and left history and theory, and political economy, and on
anarchism and syndicalism. He is actively involved in union and working class education
and movements. Notable works include "Negro Vermelho: Anarquismo, Sindicalismo
Revolucionario e Pessoas de Cor na Africa Meridional nas Decadas de 1880 a 1920" (2014),
and "Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1880-1940"
(2010/2014, with Steve Hirsch). He was southern Africa editor for "The International
Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest" (2009). His Ph.D. on black and white radicals,
"Anarchism and Syndicalism in South Africa, 1904-1921," won both the Labor History and the
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) theses prizes.
End notes
[1]Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2, 29 July 2015, pp. iv, xvii, xi.
[2]As previous.
[3]C. van der Westhuizen, H. Bhorat & S. Goga, 28 May 2013, "How Much Do Unions and
Bargaining Councils Elevate Wages?," Econ3x3,
http://www.econ3x3.org/article/how-much-do-unions-and-bargaining-council...
[4]G. Quintal, 17 November 2015, "COSATU Membership Down by Thousands," News24,
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/cosatu-membership-down-by-thousan...
[5]"NUMSA 10th National Congress, 12-15 December 2016, Cape Town: Congress Declaration,"
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/numsa-congress-declaration-100-po...
[6]AMCU, "About AMCU," http://www.amcu.co.za/about-amcu/
[7]Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2, 29 July 2015, p. 52.
[8]NUMSA, 28 April 2016, "The Workers Summit and May Day
2016,"http://www.numsa.org.za/article/workers-summit-may-day-2016/
[9]NUMSA, 28 April 2016, "The Workers Summit and May Day
2016,"http://www.numsa.org.za/article/workers-summit-may-day-2016/
[10]T. Elsley and G. Mthethwa, 2014, "Wage Determination in South Africa since 1994,"
Bargaining Indicators 2014: Twenty Years - A Labour Perspective, volume 14, pp. 19-24.
[11]T. Elsley and G. Mthethwa, 2014, "Wage Determination in South Africa since 1994," pp.
21-23.
[12]T. Elsley and G. Mthethwa, 2014, "Wage Determination in South Africa since 1994," p. 10.
[13]M. Taal, 2015, "The Maximum Wage: Directors' Fees Report 2015," Bargaining Indicators
2015, volume 15, p. 57.
[14]R. Davies, 1978, "The Class Character of South Africa's Industrial Conciliation
Legislation," E. Webster (ed.), Essays in Southern African Labour History, Ravan,
Braamfontein, pp. 75-78.
[15]Participants cannot be fired simply for striking, although non-work-no-pay applies.
[16]E.g. B. Terblanche, 24 February 2012, "Conflict Reigns in the Workplace,"
Mail&Guardian, http://mg.co.za/article/2012-02-24-conflict-reigns-in-the-workplace
[17]S.F. Karim, 11 October 2016, "CCMA Victory for Non-Unionised Workers," GroundUp,
http://www.groundup.org.za/article/ccma-victory-non-unionised-workers/
[18]Raymond Kgagudi in K. Sosibo, 25 June 2013, "Why the Left Has Failed to Capitalise on
Post-Marikana Massacre Cracks in the ANC Hegemony," The Con,
http://www.theconmag.co.za/2013/06/25/why-the-left-has-failed-to-capital...
[19]CONSAWU, "Establishment," http://consawu.co.za/establishment/
[20]For example, the three-year deal struck with AmPlats in October 2016 is for an annual
average of R1000 a month or 7% (whichever is greater), for workers in the bargaining unit,
plus increases in perks: see Anglo-American Press Release, 28 October 2016, "Anglo
American Platinum and AMCU Sign Wage Agreement,"
http://www.angloamericanplatinum.com/media/press-releases/2016/28-10-201...
[21]FEDUSA, "About Us," http://www.fedusa.org.za/about
[22]FEDUSA, "About Us."
[23]See e.g. G. Mantashe, 2009, "The Decline of the Mining Industry and the Response of
the Mining Unions," MA thesis, Wits University.
[24]E.g. COSATU/ SACP, 1999, Building Socialism Now: Preparing for the New Millennium,
Johannesburg; SACP, 2012, The South African Road to Socialism,
http://www.sacp.org.za/docs/docs/2012/draftpol2012.pdf
[25]E.g. L. van der Walt, 2011, "COSATU's Response to the Crisis: An Anarcho-Syndicalist
Assessment and Alternative," ASR, number 56, pp. 11-13.
[26]E.g. P. Dibben, G. Klerck, and G. Wood, 2014, "The Ending of Southern Africa's
Tripartite Dream: The Cases of South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique," Business History,
volume 57, number 3, pp. 461-483.
[27]"NUMSA 10th National Congress, 12-15 December 2016, Cape Town: Congress Declaration,"
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/numsa-congress-declaration-100-po..., pts 43-45.
[28]M. Bakunin,[1871]1971, "The Programme of the Alliance," S. Dolgoff (ed.), Bakunin on
Anarchy, London, George Allen and Unwin, pp. 249, 252.
[29]Bakunin,[1871]1971, "The Programme of the Alliance," p. 255.
https://zabalaza.net/2017/06/11/renewal-and-crisis-in-south-african-labour-today-towards-transformation-or-stagnation-bureaucracy-or-self-activity/
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