Fosatu
Congress, April 1982
Address
by Joe Foster
"Three
years ago - almost to the day - we met in this very same place to
form Fosatu. Today we have set as our theme - the Workers' Struggle -
in an attempt to further clarify where we as worker representatives
see Fosatu stand in this great struggle . As these unions grow then
the question is what role do they play in the wider political arena.
There has been a great upsurge in political activities over the last
few years and many different political groups are looking to the
union movement to state its position. We must be sure our
organisation and our leadership can confidently state its position
and continue to organise in the way that will strengthen and not
weaken that position. The purpose of this paper is to set out the
issues we should debate if we are to meet the challenges.
Working
Class Movement
"As
a trade union federation we are clearly concerned with workers and
their aspirations. If we were to think in terms of our members only,
we would have a very limited political role. If, however, we are
thinking more widely of the working class then we have to examine
very much more carefully what our political role is. In particular we
need to look at this role in the South African context.
If
we look at the advanced industrial countries then we see what can be
called working class movements. These are a number of different
organisations - trade unions, co-operatives, political parties and
newspapers - that see themselves as linked to the working class and
furthering its interests. These working class movements are,
therefore, powerful social forces in those societies.
"In
the capitalists economies these working class movements have power
and organisation yet politically the working class is still subject
to policies and practices that are clearly against their interests as
the activities of Thatcher and Reagan show. This is increasingly
leading to intense political and organisational activity to give the
working class and the union movement a clearer direction so as to
gather together the working class movement into a force that will
more definitely put workers in control of their own destiny.
"In
the Socialist countries similar battles are being fought. Whilst
social, political and economic relations in these countries have been
greatly altered and there have been great achievements to the benefit
of workers, there is still a need for workers themselves to control
their own destiny. So Solidarity was not struggling to restore
capitalism in Poland, its struggle was to establish more democratic
worker control over their socialist society.
"Now
my purpose in briefly looking at the working class movement in the
advanced industrial countries was twofold:
"Firstly,
so that we can be clear that worker activities such as strikes and
protests do not in themselves mean that a working class movement or
working class politics exist. These latter are more than that - they
are large-scale organisations with a clear social and political
identity as the working class. Secondly, I wish to show that the pure
size of working class organisation is itself no guarantee that
workers will control their own destiny. In fact as the struggle of
Solidarity shows, even the fact that a country is said to be
socialist does not guarantee that workers control their own destiny.
In short it could be said that workers must build a powerful and
effective movement if they are to succeed in advancing their
interests against some very hostile forces, but they must also ensure
that this movement is able to take a clear political direction.
"The
experience of the great working class movement in the advanced
industrial countries is a very important guide and lesson to us.
However, it cannot provide all our answers. Firstly, in South Africa
we cannot talk of a working class movement as we have defined it
above. Secondly, whilst there is undoubtedly a large and growing
working class its power is only a potential power since as yet it has
no definite social identity of itself as working class.
The
questions we should, therefore, address ourselves to, are:
- Why has no working class movement emerged?
- What are the prospects for such a movement emerging?
- What role can Fosatu play in such a process?
Political
History and Workers
"It
is not possible in a paper such as this to deal fully with all the
developments in South Africa's history that has led to the
non-existence of a workers' movement in South Africa. South Africa's
history has been characterised by great repression and the major
political and ideological instrument for this repression has been
racism. Yet the major effect of this repression has been to very
rapidly establish a large capitalist economy.
"Racism,
and the violence and injustices associated with it, is a very stark
and clear form of repression. Alongside this only about 5-10 per cent
of population has ever had the franchise. Clearly, therefore, there
is a very identifiable oppressive force and the major political task
of the oppressed people has always been to attack that oppressive and
racist regime.
So
what has developed in South Africa is a very powerful tradition of
popular or populist politics. The role of the great political
movements such as the ANC and the Congress Alliance has been to
mobilise the masses against the repressive minority regime. In such a
situation mass mobilisation is essential so as to challenge the
legitimacy of the state both internally and internationally.
"Where
virtually all the population is voteless and oppressed by a racial
minority then a great alliance of all classes is both necessary and a
clear political strategy. Furthermore, building such an alliance was
a great task. The ANC had to overcome racial division so as to rise
above the divisive racism of the oppressors. They had to deal with
the opportunistic tribal leadership, to organise thousands upon
thousands of people and they had to do all this in the face of harsh
repression by the state. In achieving this there is little wonder
that they ANC rose to be one of the great liberation movements in
Africa.
"In
this context it is also easier to see and understand why the trade
union movement acted in a particular way. The racial divisions in the
working class, linked as they were to other objective factors, made
it possible for capital to quite quickly suppress any serious
challenge to their supremacy. It was possible to create the
conditions that led to a politically tame union movement and thereby
forced more militant and progressive unions to bear the brunt of
state action, which in turn affected the politics of these unions.
Furthermore,
at all times there were occasions when workers resisted by strike
action, protest and organisation. Yet this by itself cannot
constitute a working class movement. Whilst the unions were prominent
they were always small and weakly organised both nationally and in
the factories. They could not provide an organisational base for a
working class movement as we have defined it above.
"Progressive
and militant unions were continually the subject of state harassment,
but, never managed to seriously challenge capital nationally or on a
sustained basis. As a result the effective political role of
progressive unions and of worker activity was to provide a crucial
part of any popular struggle and that was to give it its 'Worker
Voice'. No mass popular movement can be effective or be seen to be
effective if it does not have some worker involvement or
representation. By the 1950s with the growth of South Africa's
industry and the size of the working class the need to include
workers became essential and as a result SACTU became an important
element of the Congress Alliance.
"In
these circumstances the progressive trade unions became part of the
popular struggle against oppression. They did not and probably could
not have provided the base for working class organisation. There is
of course no doubt that their activities have been very, very
important in creating the conditions that led to the emergence in the
last 10 to 15 years of the present progressive trade unions. However,
these unions are operating in a different environment.
Workers
and their struggle became very much part of the wider popular
struggle. An important effect of this development was that capital
could hide behind the curtains of apartheid and racism. The political
energies of the oppressed masses and of international critics were
focused on the apartheid regime and its abhorrent racism. The
government and Afrikanerdom became the focus of the attack. In fact
the position was such that learned liberal academics saw in capital
the great hope for change despite the fact that capital and its
lackeys were undoubtedly the major beneficiaries of apartheid.
"Capital
did its very best to keep in the political background and as a result
this helped prevent the creation of capital's logical political
opposite which is a working class political movement. However, of
crucial significance was that capital was growing rapidly and
changing its very nature into a more monopolistic, technologically
advanced and concentrated form. Its links internationally were
growing, as was its importance for international capital.
We
find, therefore, that behind the scenes of the great battle between
the apartheid regime and its popular opponents that the capitalist
economy has flourished and capital emerges now as a powerful and
different force. It
- is highly concentrated in truly gigantic corporations;
- has access to international information on how to deal with working class challenges;
- has access to the state's security information;
- is able to rapidly share and assess information;
- is able to use the objective circumstances in its favour such as unemployment and influx control to weaken worker organisations;
- is now an important part of international capital and cannot therefore, be lightly discarded by international capital;
- is able to hide behind politics and as a result can hide its sophisticated attacks on labour because no-one is paying any attention.
"Yet
as the upsurge of popular political activity emerged again in the
1970's some of its new forms such as Black Consciousness also place
little emphasis on capital. So there is a growing gap between popular
politics and the power of capital and as a result the potential power
of workers. It is in this context we should look at the likelihood of
a working class politics emerging.
Need
for a Working Class Movement
"The
growing size of the economy and the dramatic changes taking place in
capital, have created important new conditions in the economy. We
also have to take into account the speed and manner in which the
economy has developed. In discussing the working class movements in
the advanced industrial economies, we have to bear in mind that in
most cases they took about 100 years or more to fully develop.
Industry started first by building larger and larger factories and
bringing people together in these factories.
"The
new capitalist had to struggle politically with the older ruling
classes over labour, land, taxation policy, tariff protection,
political rights and political power. The mechanisation became more
important and there was a definite change in production processes. As
this happened the skilled workers who had usually given leadership to
the craft unions found themselves in a very difficult position. As a
result leadership problems in the organisation of trade unions and
the political environment, developed in a complex and relatively slow
way.
"In
South Africa this has been condensed into 60-70 years and from the
outset large scale capitalist enterprises dominated. The birth of
capitalism here was brutal and quick. The industrial proletariat was
ripped from its land in the space of a few decades. At present
capitalist production massively dominates all other production. There
are no great landlords on their agricultural estates and there is no
significant peasantry or collective agriculture. Virtually everyone
depends for all or part of their income on industry or capitalist
agriculture.
"The
working class has experienced a birth of fire in South Africa and
they constitute the major objective political force opposed to the
state and capital. There is no significant petty bourgeoisie or
landed class that will assist in the organisation of workers:
- The great concentration of capital has also meant a greater concentration of workers. These workers generally have a higher level of basic education and skills than before and their links with the past are all but broken so that more and more a worker identity is emerging;
- This is reinforced by the sophisticated strategies that are designed to 'deracialise' industry and some other areas of society. The effect of this is to divide off certain privileged members of Black society leaving workers at the bottom of the privilege pile;
- the concentration of workers in industry has also concentrated them in great urban townships;
- The particular structure of the South African economy with its high degree of state involvement, price controls and heavy dependence on international markets has made it a very sensitive economy. As a consequence attempts to 'buy off' the major part of the working class will fail. It is more likely that as some readjustments of privilege are attempted that it will have to be workers that suffer through inflation and the lack of basic commodities;
- the above factors and South Africa's international economic importance are likely to force capital into the political open and as a consequence develop a worker response;
- although capital can at present hide behind apartheid it is also the case that if workers organise widely enough they can get great support from the international labour movement. Also international public opinion has to be carefully watched by capital because both international and South African capital are dependent on their links with the rest of the world.
"These
then are some of the important factors that are favourable to the
development of a working class movement in South Africa. However,
this does not mean that this will automatically happen. To understand
this, we need to look at the present political environment more
carefully to see both the present political tendencies and to
establish why some active leadership role should be played by the
unions and Fosatu in particular.
"Workers
need their own organisation to counter the growing power of capital
and to further protect their own interests in the wider society.
However, it is only workers who can build this organisation and in
doing this they have to be clear on what they are doing.
"As
the numbers and importance of workers grows then all political
movements have to try and win the loyalty of workers because they are
such an important part of society. However, in relation to the
particular requirements of worker organisation, mass parties and
popular political organisations have definite limitations which have
to be clearly understood by us.
"We
should distinguish between the international position and internal
political activity. Internationally, it is clear that the ANC is the
major force with sufficient presence and stature to be a serious
challenge to the South African state and to secure the international
condemnation of the present regime. To carry out this struggle is a
difficult task because South Africa has many friends who are anxious
to ensure that they can continue to benefit from her wealth. The fact
that the ANC is also widely accepted internally also strengthens its
credibility internationally.
However,
this international presence of the ANC which is essential to an
popular challenge to the present regime places certain strategic
limitations on the ANC, namely:
- to reinforce its international position it has to claim credit for all forms of resistance, no matter what the political nature of such resistance. There is, therefore, a tendency to encourage undirected opportunistic political activity;
- it has to locate itself between the major international interests. To the major Western powers it has to appear as anti-racist but not as anti-capitalist. For the socialist East it has to be at least neutral in the superpower struggle and certainly it could not appear to offer a serious socialist alternative to that of those countries as the response to Solidarity illustrates. These factors must serious affect its relationship to workers;
- accordingly, the ANC retains its tradition of the 1950's and 1960's when because there was no serious alternative political path it rose to be a great populist liberation movement. To retain its very important international position it has to retain its political position as a popular mass movement. This clearly has implications for its important military activities.
"Internally
we also have to carefully examine what is happening politically. As a
result of the states' complete inability to effect reform and the
collapse of their Bantustan policy, they are again resorting to open
repression. Since 1976 in particular this has given new life to
popular resistance and once again the drive for unity against a
repressive state has reaffirmed the political tradition of populism
in South Africa. Various political and economic interests gather
together in the popular front in the tradition of the ANC and the
Congress Alliance.
In
the present context all political activity, provided it is
anti-state, is of equal status. In the overall resistance to the
regime, this is not necessarily incorrect. In fact without such unity
and widespread resistance it would not be possible by means of
popular mass movements to seriously challenge the legitimacy of the
present regime.
"However,
the really essential question is how worker organisation relates to
this wider political struggle. I have argued above that the objective
political and economic conditions facing workers is now markedly
different from that of 20 years ago. Yet there does not seem to be
clarity on this within the present union movement. There are good
reasons for this lack of clarity.
As
a result of repression most worker leadership is relatively
inexperienced and this is made worse by the fact that their unions
are weak and unstable organisationally. The union struggles fought
against capital have mostly been against isolated companies so that
the wider struggles against capital at an industry or national level
have not been experienced. This also means that workers and their
leadership have not experienced the strength of large-scale worker
organisation nor the amount of effort required to build and
democratise such large-scale organisation. Again state repression and
the wider political activity reinforce previous experience where the
major function of workers was to reinforce and contribute to the
popular struggle.
"Politically,
therefore, most unions and their leadership lack confidence as a
worker leadership. They see their role as part of wider struggle but
are unclear on what is required for the worker struggle. Generally,
the question of building an effective worker organisation is not
dealt with and political energy is spent in establishing unity across
a wide front. However, such a position is a great strategic error
that will weaken if not destroy worker organisation both now and in
the future. All the great and successful popular movements have had
as their aim the overthrow of oppressive - most often colonial -
regimes. But these movements cannot and have not in themselves been
able to deal with the particular and fundamental problems of workers.
Their task is to remove regimes that are regarded as illegitimate and
unacceptable by the majority.
"It
is, therefore, essential that workers must strive to build their own
powerful and effective organisation even whilst they are part of the
wider popular struggle. This organisation is necessary to protect and
further worker interests and to ensure that the popular movement is
not hijacked by elements who will in the end have no option but to
turn against their worker supporters.
"Broad
and complicated matters have been covered and it is difficult to
summarise them even further, However, I shall attempt to do so in
order for us to try and examine the role that Fosatu can play in this
struggle.
- That worker resistance such as strike action helps build worker organisation but by itself it does not mean that there is a working class movement.
- There has not been and is not a working class movement in South Africa.
- The dominant political tradition in South Africa is that of the popular struggle against an oppressive, racist minority regime.
- That this tradition is reasserting itself in the present upsurge of political activity.
- However, the nature of economic development in South Africa has brutally and rapidly created a large industrial proletariat.
- That the size and development of this working class is only matched by its mirror image which is the dramatic growth and transformation of industrial capital.
- That before it is too late workers must strive to form their own powerful and effective organisation within the wider popular struggle".
