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Volume 13, No. 27, 10 July 2014 |
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Red Alert The travesty of Bargaining in Disunity |
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By Cde Frans Baleni
This input holds that it is always important to support and welcome workers when they are ready to fight for their demands in improving their living and working conditions. The right to strike is one of the most powerful weapons the workers have at their disposal. But without a careful thought process it can also be a weapon that can be used against workers such that the losses outweigh the gains .The platinum strike was the typical theatre of the exercise of the right to strike and win on the mining oligarchy's terms.
It cannot be disputed that mobilising workers in the manner the platinum belt strike demonstrated was a good display of unity which is important. Their state of readiness was important in many ways, a positive outcome or reflection which also boosted psychological preparation and galvanised the morale to engage in the battle for a living wage. This was a will to fight one of the most organised and highly resourced enemies of the workers, the mining oligarchy with both national and international tentacles.
Unity of the workers imperative
Overall the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) correctly supported the platinum workers when they undertook the battle for a living wage which is what NUM stands for, and Cosatu upholds. But such a battle can never be undertaken and decisively won by a divided workforce. Unfortunately a commitment to divide workers was a precursor to the battle for a living wage in the platinum sector.
Timing the strike
At the time workers in the platinum belt were led to strike action the commodities were not doing well in platinum sector .The financial health of the mines was not in a healthy state. Against this background the strike effectively bailed out the employers in reducing overheads for a period of five months. By implication the strike was an unproclaimed advantage to the employers.
The timing of the strike in the platinum was poor, hence the employers endured five months of strike action but still settled in their own terms. For example no worker received R12 500 as planned by AMCU but the arrangement is on the terms of the employer over a period of time determined by the employer, 3 years - NOT instantly, contrary to workers' demand.
Divide and rule
It is a historical tactic of the employer to divide and rule. But in the instance of the platinum strike the strikers unwittingly executed the divide and rule tactic by firstly attacking everything that related to the NUM - a perfect situation that emboldened the employers.
So from this angle a degree of defeat was already spelt out on the striking union by its sheer will to unleash a spectre of terror on the very same battalions it needed to undertake a long war against the employer. This was a plus for the employer and, to guess, when they plastered the coalition the word was 'game on'.
Financial costs
Analysts speculate that striking workers sacrificed R42 501 per worker to gain only R932 per month. It is estimated it will take 126 months for the workers who were on strike to be where they were before the strike. Direct loss in workers' income is estimated at R10.7 billion.
A number of properties have been destroyed belonging to workers such as houses, car repossessions, and furniture taken away for default, to mention but a few. Some workers were displaced from their homes for the entirety of the strike in fear of being killed which affected family life with local economic activity impacted negatively, all this while those who own, control (manage) and monopolise the proceeds of the mines bask in comfort.
Restructuring and retrenchments
It is inevitable that companies will resort to restructuring and this means retrenchments. The first victims of this strategy will be the very workers who were on strike and not necessarily the owners of the mines and their managers. Already the platinum sector has shed 16 000 jobs across the three Platinum mines that faced strikes.
The second victims could be the migrant workers who could be dealt with on the basis of an overstay which is not consistent with the Immigration Act (No. 13 of 2002, Sec 50(1)) as amended.
Already the NUM offices have experienced visits from workers seeking the union's assistance to renew their contract, a clear oversight on the battle plan of those who planned the strike. The NUM is helping them because its agenda in uniting workers and contributing to the overall unity of the working class is bigger than the recent strike.
Similarly, the NUM will confront corporate restructuring and fight against retrenchments regardless of the character and configuration of the conditions facing the democratic right to organise and the freedom of association. As regards these conditions, there is just no alternative but to work to defeat intimidation, violence and bring to an end the murder of workers, all used as an organising strategy of the barbaric and backward elements and forces that have been committing these atrocities in the area.
Discovery to bye-pass unions
It is a dangerous discovery for employers to communicate with workers without unions. This phenomenon could create difficulties for unions as the true representatives of the workers in a resolving disputes in the future.
Furthermore, there is now talk in government circles of the need to curb long strikes by legislation, a move which will be paranoid and definitely play into the conservative elements that view the exercise of workers' right to strike as both anarchy and a threat to the entire economy. This on its own could lead to the right to strike being limited due to a populist venture that failed to appreciate the dynamics of the mining economy. However, the NUM will not fold its arms and watch. The union will defend the right of workers to strike.
Meanwhile, the union that led the long platinum strike rejected the establishment of the bargaining council which would unite workers to bargain better, but the employers themselves formed a coalition that defended their interest not just against the yellow union but the workers as a whole. Hence some of the defeats the union has suffered which is unfortunate because these has a negative impact of the workers.
When an army of workers has been drained by a long war it is difficult for any leader to take the very same battalions for a new fight. The right to strike may be seriously under threat. It remains trite law of the art of collective bargaining that: 'United we stand divided we beg'. There could have been best outcomes had there been unity of all forces.
Cde Frans Baleni in NUM General Secretary
Stereotyped writing, distortions, subjectivism and sectarianism: The case of EFF's Floyd Shivambu
By Kgaogelo Kgolomodumo
In his piece titled 'Oppose stereotyped Party writing' (8 February 1942, also see Selected works of Mao Tse-Tung, Vol. III, pp. 53-68), Mao Tse-Tung discusses the ways subjectivism and sectarianism use what he calls stereotyped Party writing as their instrument of propaganda or form of expression. He does this by way of exposing where the evils of this stereotyped writing lie, and through eight major indictments. All the indictments are interesting, but the first and the eighth refer, for now; they are basically sufficient for us to start (this is the first instalment) addressing the malady we find in the EFF's Floyd Shivanbu's Party writing.
Mao writes:
"The first indictment against stereotyped Party writing is that it fills endless pages with empty verbiage. Some of our comrades love to write long articles with no substance, very much like the "footbindings of a slattern, long as well as smelly". Why must they write such long and empty articles? There can be only one explanation; they are determined the masses shall not read them. Because the articles are long and empty, the masses shake their heads at the very sight of them. How can they be expected to read them? Such writings are good for nothing except to bluff the naive, among whom they spread bad influences and foster bad habits."
Look at the other side of the coin in order to understand our point on Shivambu's writing; this is best captured by Mao:
"If long and empty articles are no good, are short and empty ones any better? They are no good either. We should forbid all empty talk."
Indeed empty talk is absolutely unnecessary, regardless of the form in which it appears, long- or short-writing, speeches characteristic of those one 'Commander-in-Thief' is fond of, and so on. This is what Mao had to further say about it in its written form:
"Articles devoid of substance are the least justifiable and the most objectionable."
The spread of stereotyped Party writing, states Mao in the eight indictment, "would wreck the country and ruin the people".
Misreading and misunderstanding, quoting or paraphrasing writings or a part thereof that one has not directly read, and thereby converting their content into distorted hearsays presented as if they are what one has read, are both a part of the forces behind and in themselves constitute, especially when written, stereotyped writing.
Just listen to this.
In his opinion piece published by the Sunday Independent (6 July 2014), Floyd Shivambu, who identifies himself as "EFF political commissar and parliamentary chief whip" states that:
"South Africa is a capitalist society and in any capitalist society, the state is nothing but a committee for the management of the common affairs of the bourgeoisie."
Shivanbu doesn't acknowledge the 'Manifesto of the Communist Party'by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (1848) which, by the way he distorts. Marx and Engels understood the state that they could not have emptily written about it the manner in which Shivambu does.
This is what actually Marx and Engels had to say in context:
"The executive [our emphasis] of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie."
It must be noted that parliament, in which Shivambu serves, is part and parcel of the state, which has many branches. One of these is the government which the executive leads, another the judiciary, and so on. Shivanbu does not even distinguish between the government and the state, one a component part of the other. He conflates the two, and reduces them into one.
Is everyone who serves in the state, the executive or any branch of the state an activist committed in entrenching capitalist interests?
Definitely NOT.
In 'Left-wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder' Vladimir Lenin (April-May 1920, or see V.I. Lenin's Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 17-118) provides a basic answer to this question, particularly in relation to the participation of the communists in state institutions such as parliament in a capitalist society and reactionary states. The SACP sums the answer very well in its further development of the theory of the state. The Party correctly states that the state is a contested terrain even in a capitalist society (e.g. in South Africa), regardless of which class force is dominant at the time. In fact if the capitalist class was to be left alone in the state, uncontested, the outcome in the daily life of the working class and the poor will be worse.
Just think about this, on the other hand. Had it not been of the South African Receiver of Revenue (SARS), Shivambu's commander Julius Malema would still be owning his farm on a capitalist private basis in Polokwane. And thanks to national intervention that brought five Limpopo provincial departments under national administration. Otherwise they were looted. Just look at this.
Malema wears overalls (actually personal protective equipment or PPE) inappropriately. He owed SARS R16 million in taxes without an honest day's work in those overalls that he now together with Shivambu disguises his essential class character in. If Shivambu was to read he would advise his commander that Communists are not fooled by appearances. In order to understand individuals they distinguish between what those individuals say of themselves and want people to believe from who they really are and do in practice. In short, Communists move from the appearance to the essence. Similarly, many people who know where Shivambu, his commander and the EFF come from will not fall deception to what they say.
Think about how much has Malema appropriated for him to owe SARS R16 million, his Ratanang Family Trust and its mode of making income? There is no evidence that Malema has stopped participating in capitalistic engagements. The claim that the EFF has adopted the red colour because it is opposed to private ownership of the means of production cannot therefore be taken seriously. Neither should Shivambu's empty explanation of the link between the colour red and the character of the EFF.
By the way Marx and Engels were NOT opposed to private ownership, neither were they opposed to private property: "Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property!" as they characterise it. If Shivambu stops stereotyped writing and distortions, and starts reading, at least before he writes, he will appreciate that Marx and Engels, and the Communist Party, are opposed to private property in a specific social, political-economic and legal character, i.e. CAPITALIST PRIVATE PROPERTY.
By the way the opposition to capitalist private property by Communist Parties has advancing, deepening and defending the struggle for socialism as a transition to communism, both of which their achievement requires the overthrow of capitalism, as the way forward. All this is not mentioned anyway in Shivambu's stereotyped EFF party writing. In fact, neither was the EFF's founding based on a programme to advance the struggle for socialism and communism, which programme, as explained in Comrade Justice Piitso's piece, adjacent to which Shivabu's stereotyped writing was published, is symbolised by the colour red in identities of the Communist Party internationally.
Kgaogelo Kgolomodumo is an ordinary SACP member based in Sephaku, Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality, Limpopo Province.
Declarations by the EFF: Not a measure enough to be the political leader of the working class
By Phatse Justice Piitso
The pseudo anarchists of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) do not possess the necessary high moral ground to lead the struggles of the working class. Historical materialism teaches us that the interests of lumpen proletarians are always far much parallel from those of the revolutionary struggles of the working class.
Vladimir Lenin says that no force on earth is capable of taking from us the principal gains of our revolution, for they are no more ours but have become the gains of world history. The indispensable role of the party, as the vanguard and the political leader of the working class, cannot be substituted by the vigilantism of the economic freedom fighters.
Communists have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole. They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
The main political task of our party is to lead the world revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism. Our supreme goal under the political leadership of our vanguard party is to achieve the highest form of human society which is communism.
This most important political mission of the working class can only be carried forward by the most advanced elements in society. A detachment of the most tried and tested students schooled in the scientific revolutionary Marxist-Leninist theory.
Our scientific revolutionary Marxist-Leninist theory is the weapon to make us judge and define the methods of struggles correctly. It is a weapon that helps us analyse and understand correctly the cause of development of human society at every moment, to analyse and understand correctly every turning point of society and to carry out the revolutionary transformation of society.
It is therefore absurd to assume that the pseudo anarchists of the economic freedom fighters can lead the South African working class into our future of socialism. The economic freedom fighters is not guided by the scientific revolutionary Marxist-Leninist theory.
Declarations about the appropriation of land without compensation, nationalisation of our mines and even our democratic government taking control of all the commanding heights of our economy are not enough a measure to make us revolutionaries. The declarations of revolutionary sounding phrases are not enough to assume the political leadership role of the vanguard of the working class.
The character and posture of any revolution is derived from our analyses of the concrete material conditions of a particular historical period. The character of any revolution is determined by objective realities and not by the wishes of individuals.
Our people must be able to distinguish the truth from falsehood. The posture of the EFF appearing more revolutionary than the revolution itself, is nothing else but the work of the foot soldiers of the forces of imperialism and neo colonialism.
I am convinced that upon the declaration of the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the leader of the economic freedom fighters Mr Julius Malema, will be the first to agitate a revolt against the socialist state we seek to build. He is a complete antithesis of what a true revolutionary leader of the struggles of the working class seeks to represent.
It is against this background that we take political education as a nucleus of our ideological and political forms of our revolutionary struggles. Without a revolutionary theory there cannot be a revolutionary movement.
The working class is the most resolute, disciplined and organised class in the struggles of the people. When mobilised and infused with far-sighted, revolutionary class consciousness and struggle it is the only class that has the capacity and power to liberate itself and the people from oppression and exploitation.
The past century of the history of the struggles of our people has distinguished the SACP as the political leader of the South African working class movement. Our vanguard party of the working class has laid a great foundations for the liberation of the people from the shackles of oppression and exploitation.
The SACP has a long history of rich traditions and unbroken record of heroic struggles with our revolutionary movement in our country, the continent and the whole world. Our party has always occupied the forefront trenches in the cause of our struggles against imperialism and colonialism of a special type.
The communist party has always understood the dialectical relationship between the class content of our national struggles and the national content of our class struggles. We have always understood the theoretical thrust that our national democratic revolution is about the construction of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society.
Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.
