Some news on Numsa and the United Front: The war of position just got warmer, at the Coastlands Hotel in central Durban, with an army of activists emerging from a sweltering conference hall to support Numsa - and to help the union divert its gaze from the ANC-SACP-Cosatu alliance on high, downwards to the masses. More than 1000 red-shirted comrades – mostly shopstewards from Numsa and three allied KZN unions (Fawu food workers, Denosa nurses, and Pawusa, a new public workers union), as well as a few dozen activists from United Front community groups – got a great intro from Numsa regional chair Mlungisi Mhkize: “We spent yesterday in a very fruitful meeting with community-based organisations. There was frank debate. The way that comrades have welcomed the idea of the United Front means that it is no longer a Numsa idea. They have managed to elect their committee in KwaZulu-Natal. The United Front is alive in KZN. Comrades were very clear, representing their different organisations. If you open your TV, you can see a number of community protests. That tells you what is happening outside the political space. The people of South Africa no longer want to be confined to electoral politics. They now demand accountability. One of the biggest mistakes we ever made after 1994, was to allow the social movements to die. What the comrades yesterday told us clearly, is that the freedom we are enjoying is an illusion, its not really freedom.” Mbuso Ngubane, Numsas KZN general secretary, took up the welcomes: “We welcome the Front, because it is a way to link our shopfloor struggles to community struggles… It is not cold outside Cosatu, it is very warm. Numsa was there before Cosatu. There is no one from Cosatu, ANC or SACP that goes to our plants and services our members. Now, if you decide to join a party, you do that as an individual. Our politics is about class struggle. Whose class interest? For us, it is our responsibility to be a class for itself. Then we can stand together and unite the working class behind the fundamental challenges that unite us. We must be revolutionary unions, not sweetheart unions. We must oppose any neoliberal agenda. We must do so as a class.” Then Mkhize again: “When we talk of United Front, we know that there are some persons’ stomachs running in fear. But now we are clear about this. We have people who will defend us. They are clear about where they stay in the community. Even EFF has been clarified: no collusion with Numsa, only invited in through the United Front. Numsa’s national education officer and UF coordinator Dinga Sikwebu: “Phambili the United Front! Since Numsa announced the United Front, people thought there was no way it could happen in KZN. But yesterday, we were joined by 41 organisations throughout the province and these organisations said, the idea of a United Front is a good idea. Of the steering committee of 15, only 1 is from Numsa. It looks like it is coming together, it is going to happen. Phambili the United Front national conference on 13-15 December, phambili!” Faith Manzi: (long isiZulu speech linking free trade and deindustrialisation, feminism, AIDS and the Treatment Action Campaign, economic justice and the United Front) Other speakers had some bits of gossip: · Samwu was meant to be in the group of 9 progressive unions but is injured and needs redemocratisation · Economic Development minister Ebrahim Patel and his former union Sactwu played a central role in Numsa’s dismissal · last Friday, the Cosatu National Office Bearers met without Vavi – there is no rush to dismiss him as Cosatu GS but they will do so on a pretense later · in any case, where he is, Vavi can’t do a damn thing, he is outnumbered Quite an inspiring time, especially as the community movement’s protests songs and the union movements aren’t the same, but meld they will. Here are some news reports, though some of the information below appears naive if not outright dodgy. sabc.co.za/news/a/1dd99680463891498151f596d4703d1f/Numsa,-other-groups-in-talks-to-form-a-new-movement-20141611 Numsa, other groups in talks to form a new movement Sunday 16 November 2014 06:48 Nhlanhla Nxele A national consultative Numsa meeting will be held in December to make a final decision.(SABC) Representatives of various political parties, community organisations and Numsa have met in Durban to discuss the possibility of forming a movement for socialism, which will be known as the United Front. They say they want to establish a body that will present community voices at grassroots level. United Front National Coordinator, Dinga Sikhwebu, says the front is aimed at uniting the working class after the break-away from the ANC and SACP. He says the ANCs adoption of the National Development Plan and the deaths of 34 miners at Marikana are among the reasons for the formation of the United Front. He also makes it clear that it is not just Numsa that is taking part: “We are hoping provincial delegation will come to that meeting to talk about the formation, policies and the platform of this united front. It’s not a Numsa conference, its conference of the United Front, a vision of what is needed; it’s like a coalition that brings people together,” he explains. Communities Justice Organisation leader Bandile Mdlalose says their organisation is cautiously committed to joining the United Front. She says she is concerned about the formation of another political party as most new parties collapse in the face of elections. She admits that: “the United Front is good. I will not dispute that the only thing that I’m concerned about is an issue of building another political party. I don’t think South Africa needs more political parties, we have enough people, yet because we need to find what makes the whole South Africa burn and shake. I believe we are sitting on a time bomb. People are now worried about more political power”. Community members who attended the meeting agree that they welcome a new movement but are also sceptical about a new political party. Some say they want clarity on whether the new party is being formed on the basis of frustration or for happenings that affect people at a close level. The United Front coalition says it envisions representing the voice of communities at ground level while accommodating ideological differences to build a working class movement through the idea of socialism. A national consultative meeting will be held as Numsa from the 13th to the 16th of December. *** NUMSA and other unions plan new federation Posted on November 16, 2014 | Leave a comment Mail and Guardian Disgrunted union leaders are working to form a new federation after the expulsion of Numsa, Cosatu’s largest affiliate. Plans to form a new labour federation that will rival Cosatu appear to be gaining momentum. With the expulsion of Cosatu’s largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), this week, disgruntled union leaders are working to form a new federation. The former president of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), Thobile Ntola, is at the forefront of establishing a new public sector trade union that will work closely with Numsa to build the new federation to rival Cosatu. Ntola was expelled from Sadtu earlier this year after he defied Cosatu’s instructions to deny then suspended general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi a platform to address workers in the Eastern Cape. Read: Cosatu split: How the ANC will suffer Read: Numsa’s replacement is waiting in the wings Read: Cosatu’s blue-collar workers left out in the cold Read: Numsa set to hurt ANC in 2016 polls Ntola told the Mail & Guardian this week that plans to establish the new union were at an advanced stage and that a detailed announcement on its formation would be made by the end of November. Ntola claimed many workers were dissatisfied with trade unions, “particularly in Cosatu because of the brutality that they are being dealt with when they hold different views”. He said there was “lack of openness and freedom of speech” in Cosatu and that talks were at an advanced stage with the seven Cosatu affiliates that have continually supported Numsa in its fight with the anti-Numsa faction in the federation. In the meantime a new union to serve social workers is being formed at social development departments across the country, Ntola said. It is set to develop into a general union that will service workers in the public sector and then later be involved in forming a trade union federation in opposition to Cosatu. Public sector workers The co-ordinator of the new union, Paul “Bazooka” Mbele – who was also expelled from Sadtu last year – told the M&G that, although the new union was initiated by disgruntled Sadtu members, they were creating a formation open to every public sector worker. This means it would not recruit teachers only, but also those workers aligned to Cosatu in unions such as the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union. Cosatu’s public sector unions are closely aligned to the pro-Jacob Zuma faction in the federation and include its president Sdumo Dlamini, who is originally from Nehawu. “[The union] will not have limitations,” Mbele said. “Anybody that is employed in the public sector should be able to join. The meeting is talking massive here, not sectoral. Its context is that you must unify all the workers in the public service under one umbrella and be able to pursue all their interests and protect their rights within the embodiment of an organisation that is fully representative of everyone.” Jihad Seonya, another co-ordinator of the yet-to-be-formed union, said: “In the whole endeavour, we’re not proving to anybody that this is the power that we can build. We’re merely responding to the outcry of members on the ground.” Mbele added: “These [disaffected members] are [the ones] building the union on the ground. It is the members that are going to own and shape this organisation. It’s not going to be shaped by those that were in this meeting. Those in this meeting are co-ordinating on the basis of a clarion call made by people on the ground that they want a better life. Not a better life for a few but a better life for the majority.” Mmanaledi Mataboge is the Mail & Guardian’s political editor. *** ecr.co.za/post/numsa-to-launch-own-labour-movement/ Numsa to launch own labour movement 16 November 2014 at 13:12 by Troy Lunde - The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa will launch a labour movement that will be the precursor to a new leftwing political party next month. The United Front is expected to be launched on December 13. It will start out as a loose, grassroots organisation that works in poor communities. The political party that grows from this movement will advance socialism and is expected to contest the 2016 election in some municipalities and then go on to build its profile ahead of the 2019 national elections. Numsa General Secretary, Irvin Jim, is reluctant at this stage to comment on how much support this new party is likely to receive saying that there are fundamental things that need to be understood before we talk elections or numbers. Workers, he says, needs a political organisation that represents them and raises levels of consciousness in the working classes. -- To view previous posts, create a Google account with your current email and log in using gmail to access the archives. https://accounts.google/newaccount?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups [email protected] group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at groups.google/a/fahamu.org/group/debate-list/.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:15:46 +0000
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