COSATU Weekly: 04 October 2002
www.cosatu.org.za

Huge crowds countrywide supports the strike

Thousands of workers belonging to the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and members of supporting organisations such as the South African Communist Party, the Treatment Action Campaign and the SA Non-Governmental Coalition, turned out in thousands countrywide on the first day of the two-day general strike against privatisation of state assets, interest rates hikes and rising food prices.

In Johannesburg, over 70 000 workers and members of the public brought the Johannesburg traffic to a standstill on the first day. Marchers were addressed by, among others, leaders of the COSATU trade unions and student organisations. Memorandums were presented at the major government parastatals currently being privatised: Telkom, Eskom, Transnet and at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

A memorandum was also presented to a representative from the South African Broadcasting Corporation [SABC] concerning the concerns and dissatisfactions the federation has with the public broadcaster. The handing over of the SABC memorandum was in line with COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi‚s announcement during last week‚s march to the SABC offices that there would be further marches against the public broadcaster if no satisfactory response was received by the federation. National Union of Mineworkers regional secretary, Oupa Komane, said outside Eskom offices that workers and members of communities, especially those in townships and rural areas, were going through hard and unacceptable experiences as a result of government‚s privatisation policy.

The NUM is also organising in the electricity sector. He said, amid earth shaking angry applause, that his union and COSATU were frustrated by lack of opportunity to engage with government on economic issues. "More and more people are losing their jobs everyday; we see more electricity cuts and electricity prices going up everyday. How can an old rural woman with many dependants afford privatised water and electricity?‰ asked Komane. He said that it was unbelievable that the partially privatised Eskom was now employing only 28 000 as compared to 66 000 in 1986.

The memorandum was presented to Mpho Letlape, a managing director at the company, who promised to respond within a month. During the presentation of the memorandum outside Telkom offices, a leader from the Communications Workers Union [CWU] said his union was worried about the continuing selling of shares to private companies at the parastatal. Government currently owns only 51 percent of the company‚s shares and has announced it is to sell a further 21 percent of ist shares next year.

"Telkom has announced that it is going to retrench more than 2000 workers. Half of telephone lines government installed since 1996 have been disconnected. We cannot go on like this "privatisation has to stop," said the CWU leader. The memorandum was presented to Telkom representative, Jaques Mothuku, who said his company in conjunction with the government were going to look at the concerns. Speaking outside the Gauteng Legislature building where a memorandum was handed over to the Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, COSATU‚s general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi dismissed statements from the ANC that COSATU viewed the organisation as its "common enemy‰ and that it was an extreme leftist movement.

"If we are being extreme leftist by speaking against job losses, by fighting for better and affordable services, by calling for the basic income grant to tackle poverty, by fighting privatisation ˆ then we are proud to be ultra leftist,‰ he said amid thunderous applause. He stressed that COSATU was not going to be relevant to workers if did not service its members. He called to workers to strengthen their unions and COSATU.

Other marches that took place in other cities got a massive turnout with Durban and Cape Town being big crowd attractors after Johannesburg. Other small towns such Polokwane and Bloemfonteing got extremely convincing turnout for their sizes. COSATU said the two-day action was merely a beginning as more actions were being organised in all regions of the federation.

Unions, supporting organisations back strike

All affiliated unions of COSATU and other sympathetic organisations, in the run-up to the two-day nationwide strike against privatisation of state assets, expressed total support for the action. The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union [SATAWU] said it was fully in support of the COSATU action to call for job creation, poverty eradication and an end to privatisation. It said privatisation was bringing misery to the country and called to the government to stop it. It said the strike was an expression of the serious situation workers were faced with.

SATAWU is organising in government parastatals that are undergoing privatisation such as the SA Airways, Spoornet, Transnet and Metrorail. "Half of SATAWU members are employed by the transport parastal Transnet, many of who are directly threatened and affected by privatisation. SATAWU‚s private sector members are also affected by privatisation, especially as consumers of basic services. Because of government‚s GEAR policy, Metrorail and bus operations are receiving insufficient subsidies. Commuter rail and bus services are the transport of the very poor.

Passengers are suffering through bus cuts in services and insufficient capital investment,‰ said the union. SATAWU said the privatisation policy was undermining any attempt to grow the economy to the benefit of the South African people, especially the poor. COSATU‚s second biggest public sector union, the South African Democratic Teachers Union [SADTU], said its members - as members of the community - were being directly affected by privatisation.

The union dismissed arguments by the Minister of Education Kader Asmal that educators had no reason to strike as they were not going to be affected by privatisation. Said the union‚s President Willie Madisha: We are members first before we are teachers. We need all these common goods to sustain our lives. We are in solidarity with all teachers - all the workers, all the poor and all learners at home and internationally. We cannot privatise our love and caring. In addition, millions of parents of the learners we teach are jobless. About 1 million have lost their formal jobs during the last 10 years due to privatisation and profit driven restructuring of the economy.

When workers lose jobs, it does not only impoverish families concerned but communities and institutions, hospitals and schools.‰ The National Union of Metalworkers of SA [NUMSA] said the capacity of the state to ameliorate the social crisis in terms of the rise in unemployment, starvation of the people and poor services for the poor in this country was being undermined by the privatisation policy. "South Africa is undoubtedly a highly unequal society where the rich 20 percent consume 80% of the public and private resources, while the 80% is relegated to consume a mere 20% of the public and private resources. The state of affairs is totally unsustainable and it calls for higher degree of state intervention to eradicate it,‰ said NUMSA.

The Congress of South African Students [COSAS] and the SA Student Congress [SASCO] also expressed their unqualified support for the action. COSAS President Julius Malema said the protest against privatisation was a struggle for affordable services, which included free education for all. He said that his organisation was going to push for free education for all learners next year. He said privatisation of water and electricity was a direct attack on learners as members of the community. He slammed those within the government who regarded COSATU as a counter revolutionary organisation. The Aids lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign, and the Aids Consortium also commended COSATU for protecting the interest of the poor and the vulnerable.

Strike a major success

COSATU said at the end of its massive two-day general strike that the action had received an overwhelming support from the workers and the members of the public. The federation has slammed the government‚s propaganda that its action was a failure. Just as in last year‚s August strike, COSATU had reliable people deployed in every corner of the country to feed the head office information on the turnout. It said the government, just like last year, was in denial about the statistics of the strike and behaved just like a typical employer.

Government made similar attempts last year to downplay the numbers on the turnout. According to the federation‚s monitors placed at, among others, various workplaces, taxi and bus ranks, train stations and at various venues of assembly countrywide, the action attracted huge crowds from all sectors. In Johannesburg alone, the march receive support 70 000 people. All the venues where marches were held on the first day of the strike experienced a turnout of between 40 and 90 percent.

At the COSATU‚s head office, Telkom could not sent technicians to fix the email lines that went down, citing insufficient workforce due to the strike. At the largest train station in Johannesburg, the Park Station, a large number of drivers heeded the action. A message was clear on the station‚s information board that there was irregular flow of trains due to the strike. COSATU said government‚s denialist view on the strike‚s success was a reflection of their denial on the negative impact of privatisation, rising unemployment and job losses.

"Nonetheless, we hope that the massive demonstrations yesterday, as well as the high levels of participation in the strike, will break this refusal to deal with the realities we face. The fact is that working people in this country face a crisis that must be addressed urgently. One of the main causes of this crisis is that privatisation and commercialisation of basic services have led to soaring tariffs and cut offs for the poor, as well as aggravating job losses,‰ COSATU said.

The federation plans to intensify its protest against privatisation through regional actions, lunch-time actions and picketing at workplaces and by continuing working closely with supporting organisations.