Protocol
We wish to start by extending the revolutionary greetings of the African National Congress (ANC)’s provincial executive committee and the provincial cabinet of KwaZulu-Natal to this important occasion where we are here to celebrate what is, by all accounts, a milestone in the history of this illustrious organisation, the National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) of South Africa.
From the onset, allow me to take this opportunity to apologise on behalf of our premier and our provincial chairperson, Dr Zweli Mkhize who could not be with us today because of other pressing engagements.
Comrades, anniversaries are important events in the history of any organisation because they afford us the time to reflect on the journey that has been travelled, the lessons that have been learned and also allow us to plot the way forward.
But, when an organisation is celebrating 30 years of existence, its anniversary takes on a significant meaning because not many organisations live to see so many years. Many organisations wither and die along the way while others fall by the way side. What also makes this anniversary noteworthy is that it takes place at the time when the glorious movement, the African National Congress, is celebrating its centenary.
But, what makes this milestone all the more important is that NUM is not a run of the mill trade union, but it is a torch-bearer of trade unionism in South Africa. The history of the struggle of workers and, indeed, the struggle of our people cannot be written without the contribution of this colossal union in the labour movement of our country.
In this regard, NUM is not only a living example of what is the role of a trade union in society, but has taught us the lesson that the struggle of workers and their political struggle cannot be separated, that the two are interconnected. As many of us would recall, NUM was the first union to adopt the Freedom Charter and also adopted Comrade Nelson Mandela as its honorary lifetime President.
This was at the height of apartheid repression when many of our leaders were still in jail and the country was in political turmoil.
“Through these gestures, NUM cemented the relationship between worker aspirations and the national liberation question as it defined its struggle at the shop floor within the broader context of the aspirations of progressive freedom loving South Africans”.
Indeed, Comrades we must point out that NUM’s progressive position came at the time when workerist tendencies and the idea that workers should only concern themselves with what is happening at shop floor level was gaining political currency.
However, NUM was brave enough to recognise that the struggle for better working conditions cannot be divorced from the political struggle of our people. Even today this is the philosophy which, we believe, still guides NUM.
The fact that NUM organises in a sector which has for a long time been a mainstay that powered the South African economy makes its contribution to the country all the more important. While over the years the South African economy has been diversified with mining now contributing at least 10 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, this sector is still important as evidenced by the fact that the total market capitalisation of mining companies that are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is more than 1 trillion rands.
Comrades, as stated above, an occasion such as an anniversary offers us an opportunity to do an honest introspection to take stock of what has been achieved with a view to improving the way we do things going forward. It, therefore, means that during such an occasion we must, while basking in the past glories of this illustrious union, not shy away from talking frankly about the challenges facing NUM today.
We must do an introspection based on the need to build rather than to destroy. Critically, we must, as we meet here, be seised with discussing the critical question of what kind of a union is NUM going to be going forward. As all of us know, this anniversary takes place against the backdrop of the Marikana tragedy which has been a rude awakening to all of us in the country and shattered our collective sense of invulnerability to the social upheavals that plague other countries.
But, more importantly it has forced us to ask many difficult questions about the role of trade unions in the country and the challenges that they face. In this regard, other commentators have even posited that the Marikana tragedy is symptomatic of the troubling phenomenon of the nexus between unions and power. Comrades, we all know that a commission of inquiry has been appointed to look at the events that led to this unfortunate tragedy. We, therefore, think we should allow this commission of inquiry to carry out its work unhindered by our pre conceived judgments. But there are issues that, we believe, we need to deal with.
We feel that this tragedy should provide us with a moment of reflection about the challenges facing trade unions in general. For example, we must ask questions about whether trade unions are serving their members as they ought to. We need to also ask whether to what extent has the setting up of, for example, investment wings by trade unions helped the cause of unions.
This question is important because the reputation of any organisation is its biggest asset. Any perceptions that unions have abandoned their traditional roles can erode their credibility and their standing in society.
Put simply, the perception, real or perceived, that there is a growing gulf between union leaders and their members that they represent is something that we all need to work doubly hard to eliminate. Comrades, this was evident in the confusion which ensued in the Gauteng’s e toll debacle after it emerged that an investment wing that is linked to Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had invested in one of the companies that was going to benefit from the e-tolls.
But, more importantly, this should offer us an opportunity to build a stronger NUM that can continue to be a torch-bearer of workers’ struggle. In these difficult times where counter revolutionary forces and political opportunists are on the loose, workers should look up to NUM for leadership and this glorious union should rise up to the challenge.
Comrades, it is an objective reality that some among us, particularly those who benefited immensely from the apartheid system, have sought to downplay the dire effects of this systematic exclusion of the majority of our people from all spheres of our nation’s public life. These forces, who were compelled to relinquish state power as a result of our struggles, did not demobilise as they want the whole world to believe. In fact, they have re-emerged either as elitist opposition parties; some as lobby groups or as analysts, concerned groups and even as radical trade unions.
What this means, therefore, is that the gains made over the past eighteen years of democratic rule, must be guarded jealously. Pointedly, this means that those of us who are at the coalface of the struggle should exercise revolutionary vigilance and, at all material times, avoid blunders that may give anarchist trade unions a chance to undo decades of gains earned through selfless struggle.
Critically, NUM is one of the biggest unions within Cosatu, therefore, whatever happens within NUM can have a domino effect across the labour union landscape in our country. Comrades while we were preparing for this address we did a little research which showed that the challenges facing NUM are not dissimilar to the challenges facing other unions elsewhere in the world.
But, the question that we have to answer is how do we deal with these in the context of the forces at play which are beyond our control. One of the biggest challenges facing unions is the high unemployment rate in the country which currently stands at almost 25 percent. As all of us know, the higher the number of people who are unemployed in any country the lower the pool of workers from which unions can recruit.
This, invariably, affect the state of our unions as membership is the lifeblood of unions from a financial point of view. Trade Unions have only one source of income which is money that they receive from their members, other than other investments that they make elsewhere.
Another challenge, is the emergence of the phenomenon of globalisation which has led to improved technologies thus gradually reducing the human element and making companies to adopt capital intensive production methods. Added to this, is the mobility of capital which has produced an individual who owes no allegiance to no one but to his money which he can follow to any corner of the globe.
In a paper titled, The Impact of Globalisation on Trade Unions, Arnold Nepgen, captures the challenges facing unions thus: “The unions of the world face a fundamental disadvantage, stemming from the fact that labour is constrained by the borders of the nation state. Except for highly skilled and educated people, labour remains inevitably local; people have to find employment within a country and have little or no influence in the policy considerations of governments.
The challenges posed by globalisation includes governments liberalising macro-economic policies making it easier for capital to flow over their borders and thus enabling companies to gain the upper hand. The diversification of the workforce and changing patterns of employment utilised by firms is another offshoot from increased globalisation working against organised labour. “
Clearly, Comrades it stands to reason that organised labour is going through a period of unprecedented challenges. Because of the mobility of capital and globalisation the fate of workers is now decided in the gleaming and tall sky scrapers of some of the world’s metropolises such as London etc. But, critically it is depended to vagaries of the markets.
Given this, the challenge facing unions such as NUM is to reinvent themselves in order to ensure that they are able to remain relevant. This means that NUM should always remain vigilant in defense of workers’ gains. While South Africa is one of the countries in the world which boast some of the most progressives labour legislations trade unions should always be on the guard to defend these gains. In this age of rapid globalisation where there are multi nationals which have a market capitalisation of more than some small countries in the world, more than ever before we need unions which will locate their struggle in the broader context of what is happening globally.
But, critically trade unions need to be always aware that they are part of the greater civil society movement, the alternative movement outside the hallowed corridors of power. Therefore, they need to foster partnerships with other civil society players to ensure that this alterative centre of power remains strong and is not hijacked by counter revolutionary forces, keen to reverse the gains of the revolution.
In a discussion document which was released by the ANC in 2007, titled challenges facing workers and unions: the role of the ANC, the ANC proposes the following steps for unions to remain relevant in the context of the shifting sands of economic relations.
“The first point of departure is that the trade union movement has to be capable of advanced analytical and policy work so that it can foresee events and interact in the realm of policy formation within the state and organised business. It has to have, in its disposal, the same skills and professional capacity as do the state and organised business. Secondly, national unions have to become major organisations in their own right. The old traditions of hard working but small cadres will have to change without losing the values of service, solidary and collective success. Thirdly, workers have to be capable of mobility within the labour market. Fourthly, workers should not unfairly bear the costs of change. Unions have to expand their capacity beyond the workplace to assist workers in times of a transition.
Indeed, Comrades a weak trade union movement can only embolden organised business to be the only dominant voice in society. But, worryingly, it can also ensure that policy formulation only favours big business. In a diverse society like ours a vibrant and strong trade union, can go a long way towards counterbalancing the ideology that the markets are our only salvation.
Comrades, Karl Max once noted that the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas in every epoch. Even though this statement was made decades ago, it is still as relevant as it was made long time ago. In this information age where companies invest millions of rands in knowledge production we need unions which will be able to compete in the battle of ideas.
One of the unfortunate features of the South African economic discourse today is that the voice of the unions is not heard sufficiently in discussions about economic policies. For example, Comrades how many times have we been told that the sum total of the problems which cause unemployment in the country is the fact that we have an inflexible labour market.
Based on this logic if you liberalise the labour market, strip the workers of the little gains they have made all the unemployment challenges of the country will be resolved overnight. However, this negates the fact that the South African economy faces a number of structural challenges such as the existence of monopolies and oligopolies which simply means that there is not enough competition in many sectors.
This leads to collusion between the dominant players which inevitable prevent other new players from entering that sector. In the long run, it is the working class which suffers because of anti-competitive practices in the economy.
Comrades as we stated above one of the distinguishing qualities of this union is that it has always believed that the struggles of workers cannot be separated from the struggles of our people. While our people are now free politically, however, there is agreement that we need to take the struggle to the next phase to liberate our people economically. It is our belief that for this to happen we need a strong and united tripartite alliance.
As part of the Cosatu collective NUM has a bigger role to mobilise all the motive forces for the attainment of the National Democratic Revolution. Equally, NUM has an even bigger role to eliminate the tendencies which have crept up in our movement such as, ill-discipline, factionalism, populism and demagoguery. Unity is our only insurance for the future. A divided and faction-riven tripartite alliance can only reverse all the gains we have notched. But, more importantly, it will ensure the triumph of the “anti-majoritarian liberal brigade”.
Comrades, it was the former President of this outstanding movement the ANC, Comrade Oliver Tambo, who once said about the importance of the alliance:“Ours is not merely a paper alliance, created at conference tables and formalised through the signing of documents and representing only an agreement of leaders. Our alliance is a living organism that has grown out of a struggle. We have built it out of our separate and common experiences,” he said.
Comrades as we celebrate this milestone that has been reached by NUM we also remember the contribution that has been made by this union to the liberation of our struggle. Since its formation NUM has served as a breeding ground for future leaders who are not only steeped in the revolutionary culture and theory of our movement but who have political clarity, incisive and analytical minds. These leaders have not only excelled within NUM but have assumed huge roles within the tripartite movement. We speak here of Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa , Kgalema Motlanthe and Gwede Mantashe, to mention but a few cadres who have been produced by NUM. In this regard, NUM must continue to be a leadership grooming institution by producing leaders who are able to deal with new terrains of our evolving struggle.
Comrades, as stated, NUM’s 30 year anniversary is a momentous occasion that needs to be celebrated, but it poses a number of challenges to us as the current generation. The question that comes to mind is what type of a trade union do we want to build in the next 30 years?
This means that as part of the current generation of those who are occupying the forward trenches in the struggle for workers we need to understand that the challenges have changed and so is the terrain in which this struggle is being waged.
Before, we conclude our remarks, allow us to remind you of the words of Vladimir Ilyinch Ulyanov, otherwise known as Lenin, who when outlining the role of trade unions in a state that is in transition from an imperialist state to a socialist state said: “…when friction and disputes arise between individual contingents of the working class and individual departments and organs of the workers’ state, the task of the trade unions is to facilitate the speediest and smoothest settlement of these disputes to the maximum advantage of the groups of workers they represent, taking care, however, not to prejudice the interests of other groups of workers and the development of the workers’ state and its economy as a whole; for only this development can lay the foundations for the material and cultural welfare of the working class. The only correct, sound and expedient method of removing friction and of settling disputes between individual contingents of the working class and the organs of the workers’ state is for the trade unions to act as mediators, and through their competent bodies either to enter into negotiations with the competent business organisations on the basis of precise demands and proposals formulated by both sides, or appeal to higher state bodies”
We, therefore, have a duty to ensure that we create a NUM that will be able to service its members, while remaining true to its core values and objectives. In this era of demagoguery, where the promise of fame via a sound bite has become high fashion, we need a NUM that will act as a conscience of the government it fought for while, at the same time, protecting the same government from the wolves who threaten to derail our march towards a society characterised by peace, prosperity and equality.
As NUM members we dare not be swayed by silky-tonged pseudo revolutionaries whose mission is to seek personal glory at the expense of the workers. We need a NUM that is pragmatic; that is able to make and stick to sound decisions, even if they are not populist for the 1994 victory was not scored at the back lies and empty promises.
More importantly, we need to ensure that we bequeath to the future generation, a NUM that will make our departed heroes such Elijah Barayi proud. If every generation has its mission, the mission of the current cadres of NUM is to defend the gains of our struggle while advancing the creation of a society characterised by equality, democratic practice and prosperity. In this, the third decade of our existence, we cannot afford to be derailed by those who do not share our mission. This is our current mission as NUM members and we cannot afford to betray it.
Amandla!
Aluta Continua!
