Unions not likely to rock Cosatu boat at congress
September 18, 2009
 By Terry Bell
The often confusing political tensions within the ANC-led alliance will almost certainly be evident from time to time at next week's Cosatu congress. The tensions will emerge in some statements and in resolutions, but there will be nothing new in this.
Nor is there likely to be any of the overt bitterness seen at the last congress when the first attempt to topple the then Cosatu president, Willie Madisha, narrowly failed. At the time there was a considerable degree of unity between the two major tendencies within the ANC: the Africanists and the communists.
Both lay claim to what is referred to as the soul of the ANC. Since the ANC is the government, this comes down to who should command the ship of state on a course that will complete the journey to an ill-defined national democratic revolution.
The SACP paints this revolutionary goal more in class terms, while the Africanists are more concerned with ethnicity and colour. It is a nationalist concept, although the SACP does occasionally genuflect to the icon of internationalism.
But while these undercurrents may well bubble to the surface at the congress next week, more practical issues are likely to keep any potentially serious fissures from developing. In the face of a potentially catastrophic period of job losses, combined with the drive for universal health care, the need for unity will probably be the clarion call.
This was the case last week at the congress of the biggest US labour federation, the AFL-CIO. It was attended by a Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) delegation led by general secretary Dennis George, who found common cause in the demand to prioritise decent work and health care.
This focus on jobs and health care will also be underlined at the meeting in the US of the Group of 20 that starts in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The international labour movement will be there in force, to put forward some fairly frightening projections about job losses and to call for immediate action on a global basis.
On a global basis, the International Trade Union Confederation (Ituc) estimates that the global crisis will cost 59 million jobs by the end of this year.
In a statement issued this week, Ituc general secretary Guy Ryder noted: "The full impact of the crisis is now being felt by the most vulnerable, and 200 million more people are expected to fall into absolute poverty because of it. Any talk of recovery has little meaning until people are getting back to work."
Ryder blamed the banks and financial institutions for the crisis, saying "some bankers and company chief executives are setting new records for greed by paying themselves massive salaries and bonuses".
He added: "The seeds of another crisis are already being sown, and political leaders need to do much more than just condemn this kind of behaviour. They need to show the world that they are prepared to govern in the interests of all."
But as several trade unionists point out, this view ignores what seems to be the fundamental problem: the overcapacity and overproduction that exists. It calls for reformist tinkering with mainly the banking and financial institutions when the problem may lie with the economic system.
Although there seems consensus that a very stormy passage lies ahead, the idea of radical transformation remains a minority view. An awareness that further turmoil and loss of jobs is on the cards should ensure that the Cosatu congress will hear little or no serious talk of mutiny aboard our ship of state.
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