2 November 2003
Mobilise the working class for an overwhelming ANC electoral victory! Follow in the footsteps of the 1973 working class heroes and liberate KZN!
Introduction
The SACP wishes to take this opportunity to congratulate COSATU, as well as the ANC and SACP in this province, for taking this very important step to commemorate and celebrate 30 years of the historic 1973 strikes. A nation that forgets its past cannot have a future!
The significance of the 1973 strikes
Let us also not forget that today we have our trade unions and trade union rights not least because of the struggles fought by the heroes of the 1973 strikes. These heroes, and the 1973 strikes, dealt a lasting blow to the hopes of the apartheid regime to destroy progressive and non-racial trade unions in our country, after they had suppressed SACTU in the 1960s. The 1973 strikes were also critical in placing the working class, once more, at the centre of the struggles against apartheid.
It is these heroes who defeated that sweetheart federation TUCSA, and the toothless works and liaison committees. The strikes laid the foundation for the rebuilding of unions currently in COSATU, whilst simultaneously building upon and taking forward the great tradition of non-racial trade unionism built over decades by the SACP and later SACTU. They also laid the foundation for the progressive labour laws that we have in our country today.
Just as it was the working class that was at the head of the struggle to defeat the apartheid regime, it is an organised and politically conscious working class that should be at the forefront of the transformation of our country and the liberation of this province in particular. Our liberation remains incomplete whilst KZN is not under the rule of the ANC! Our people will not be completely free as long as the IFP still remains the governing party in this province! Therefore, the key challenge for the working class and all progressive forces in this province is to ensure a majority for the ANC in the 2004 elections! This is not because the IFP does not deserve to exist as a party, but it is only the ANC that has the vision and policies to radically change the lives of the people of this province for the better.
We must also not forget that those who run this province – the IFP – were at the forefront in opposing the very growth of the progressive trade union movement in our country, COSATU in particular. We dare not forget our history. When you formed COSATU in 1985, they went to Kings Park and formed UWUSA, and carried a coffin with COSATU written on it in 1986. But who is buried today? It is not COSATU, but UWUSA, which was essentially a project of the apartheid regime. We liberated workers from UWUSA, and must do the same by leading the battle to liberate this province.
The SACP also calls upon the Indian working class to join hands with their brothers and sisters, just as many did in 1973, to liberate this province and ensure an ANC victory. The future of the Indian working class is with the ANC, not the DA or IFP. We call upon Indian workers to join COSATU to ensure that we build a strong non-racial trade union movement in our country. This should be the most appropriate way to celebrate the heroic struggles of those workers who led the 1973 strikes. Theirs was a strike for workers’ rights irrespective of colour or ethnic background, strikes for a non-racial trade union movement, and strikes for a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.
Defeat the forces of backwardness
As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of these strikes, we must ensure that we do not allow the regrouping of forces which have no interest in transforming the lives of ordinary people in this province and the country as a whole. We must ensure an ANC victory in this province in order to defeat the IFP-DA alliance.
Who is the DA? It is a party of bosses and madams, a party of the past and not of the future. It is a party that argues for the scrapping of many of the progressive labour laws that the 1973 strikers fought for. If we adopt their policy of labour market flexibility, the victory of the workers will be reversed and they will live under the same working conditions as in 1973 and before.
The DA is a party that wants to maintain the casual labour conditions that SACCAWU is currently fighting against at Checkers/Shoprite. The DA does not have a problem with workers being employed as casuals for 15 or 20 years with no rights, no medical aid, no provident fund and no protection under the law. In short, the DA is a party that stands for all that the 1973 strikers fought against. It is party that is dead against the working class and decent working conditions for workers.
Why does the IFP want to subject the people and workers of this province to such backward working conditions? We call upon ordinary IFP members and supporters, who are workers, unemployed and the rural poor, to stand up and ask the IFP leadership why it is being taken into the fold of the party of the bosses and madams! By flirting with the DA, the IFP is not acting in the interests of the ordinary working people, the poor and the rural masses of our country and this province.
We call upon our people in the rural areas not to be misled. They must free themselves from the chains of poverty and undemocratic control by voting for the ANC. The ANC is the only movement that since 1912, and later working with the SACP and the progressive trade union movement, has fought and defended the interests of rural people.
We also want to appeal to the traditional leaders in this province not to allow themselves to be used to pursue the interests of a political party. We say to the IFP, stop seeking to manipulate traditional leaders for your narrow party political objectives. We call upon traditional leaders to take up their reserved seats in the municipalities so as to facilitate development in their areas. We want to say to traditional leaders, you are leaders of your communities, stand up for the interests of these communities, and not those of a political party. Many rural areas have remained underdeveloped because they have been told that to take up their seats in municipalities is to destroy the institution of traditional leadership. It is only through a partnership between traditional leaders, municipal councillors and communities that we can deal with the scourge of poverty in the rural areas. It is these ideals that the workers of 1973 stood for when they went on strike against exploitation, poverty and inequality.
Our Red October Campaign
We are holding these 1973 strike celebrations in the midst of our 2003 Red October Campaign. This year, we decided to focus on the situation of the most vulnerable workers, under the slogan “Build Working Class Power to Defend Vulnerable Workers”. Of course, as communists, we know that all workers under capitalism are vulnerable, vulnerable to extreme forms of exploitation, casualisation and retrenchments. Some workers today, especially farm, domestic and casual workers, still experience the worst forms of exploitation and oppression. Farm and domestic workers in particular still experience conditions no different to those under apartheid. They are still being subjected by some employers to some of the worst forms of racism and sexism, and even violent abuse.
Our 2003 Red October Campaign seeks to mobilise all workers and our people to ensure that these workers enjoy the same rights as those enjoyed by others, and as fought for by the 1973 heroes. The 1973 strikes were not only fighting for the rights of urban factory workers, but they were fighting for the rights of all the workers. For this reason, the SACP has thrown its full weight behind the SACCAWU strike against casualisation at Shoprite/Checkers. In the true tradition of the 1973 strikes, we call upon all workers and our people to support the SACCAWU strike and demands. AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
We are also celebrating the 1973 strikes in the midst of some important advances and achievements for our Red October Campaign. In 2000, supported by you as workers and millions of our people, we launched our campaign for the transformation of the banks and the financial sector as a whole. The publication of the financial sector charter recently is a direct result of these struggles and is a very important step forward.
The financial sector has committed itself to putting R75bn into investments targeted at our poor areas and for job creation and low-cost housing. This is an important victory. There is also a commitment to provision of basic banking account services to all those who earn above R1 500, and to supporting credit unions and co-op banks so that there is access to affordable credit. Without your support and our struggles, there would be no such a charter today.
However, the Charter does not go far enough. We still want basic banking services for those earning below R1 500, including services for pensioners and all those receiving state social security grants. We are highly offended to see our elderly queuing from 4am for their pensions, mainly because of the high, unaffordable bank charges. We want to see the insurance industry commit to providing R100 000 automatic bond cover to all mortgage bond holders, in order to deal with the problem of orphans being evicted by banks when their parents die of AIDS, for example.
We have registered further victories in our campaign. Our government has recently released new regulations to regulate the credit bureaux, including placing the obligation on these bureax to ensure that the information they have is accurate, to inform people within a month of being listed, and to give them the right to appeal against blacklisting. Government has also tabled a new draft bill on co-ops and is working on new legislation for co-operative banks.
The challenge for us as workers in this regard is to continue to wage the struggle for the transformation of the financial sector and ensure that their commitments are indeed implemented. We must build our own savings and credit co-operatives to ensure that we destroy the loan sharks – omashonisa. The levels of debt of the South African working class are highly unacceptable, and we need to ensure that interest rates are effectively curbed in this sector. We also need to ensure that the resources in our stokvels and burial societies are effectively controlled by ourselves, and do not enrich the financial sector bosses. We are pleased to inform you of one of our recent victories to force AVBOB to change their policy of exclusion against those who die of AIDS. If they still do this, come and report these things to ensure that they honour their commitment. Let us mobilise further to make banks serve the people!
Jobs, Growth and Development Summit and the building of a co-operative movement
One of the biggest challenges we face in this country is that of jobs, sustainable livelihoods and communities. The recently held Growth and Development Summit provides a basis for us to tackle this issue. The working class needs to lead this struggle for job creation.
In addition, we need to explore all other means of ensuring that our people have a means of livelihood. The issue of building co-operatives is very central in this struggle. Our councillors and our municipalities must ensure that in their tendering processes they also target co-ops, rather than a few private individuals who benefit from these tenders. Our liberation will remain incomplete for as long as the wealth remains in the hands of the few, whilst the majority live in poverty.
Key tasks of the working class in the present and immediate future:
Build working class power, build socialism now!
Amandla!
Blade Nzimande
General Secretary
South African Communist Party