['Thr working class... is the major force opposed…]

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'Thr working class... is the major force opposed to FOSATU (the Federation of Unions) is the largest and most powerful of the non-racial, independent trade union federations which have mushroomed in South Africa, especially since 1973. It organises a majority of the 160,000 non-racial trade unionists in the country.

They have developed an effective organisation in most of the industrial areas, based on shop floor strength and national, non-racial industrial unions, and have been involved in major struggles with firms like British Leyland, GEC, Smith and Nephew and so on.

As a result they have managed to win more than 70 recognition agreements with individual companies in South Africa.

In the three years that FOSATU has existed there is little doubt that we have achieved a lot in terms of growth and gains made for our members. However, we have no intention of becoming self-satisfied trade unionists incapable of giving political direction to the workers' struggle.

We would only be dreaming of change if we do not strengthen and build our unions into large and effective organisations.

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.

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.

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.

In South Africa we annot talk of a working In spite of their organisational strength, FOSATU unions have often been under attack both from within South Africa and from outside for being insufficiently political. There have been frequent allegations that FOSATU's decision to register under the state's Industrial Conciliation Act, their distance from the liberation movement of the African National Congress, their reluctance to take up broad popular demands in the community and their lowkey rhetoric all pointed to an essentially reformist body.

We should be very wary of this label. Populist and nationalist movements have a long history of denouncing any kind of workers' organisation as class movement as we have defined it above. 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?

South Africa's history has been characterised by great repression and the major political and ideological instrument for this repres sion 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 repression. Alongside this only about 510% of the population has ever had the franchise. Clearly, therefore, there is a very identifiable oppressive force and the major political task of the oppressed peoples 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. reformist and they have been particularly sceptical of trade unions. In South Africa there is a long tradition of such politics.

But the ANC's and the South African Communist Party's rhetoric of violent revolution does not necessarily mean that they are closer to working class politics than FOSATU.

FOSATU has - rightly - been stung by the criticisms into articulating and developing its political orientation. At the 2nd Congress of FOSATU in April 1982, FOSATU's General Secretary, Joe Foster outlined FOSATU's perspective on building an independent working class movement in South Africa.

The following are extracts from this important speech.

Bob Fine 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.

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 often 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 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"

Representation

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 the South African Congress of Trade Unions 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 ten to fifteen vears of the present progresine trade unions.

However, these unions are UIAIIAEIAa 41operating 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 The political energies of the oppressed masses and of international critics were focussed on the apartheid regime and its abhorrent racism. The government and Afrikaanerdom became the focus of attack.

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 also growing as was its importance TOr 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.

Growing gap

Yet as the upsurge of popular political activity emerged again in the 1970s some of its new forms such a 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 nower of workers It is in TT VLANAU. 1 г 10 I11 this context we should look at the likelihood of a working class politics emerging.

The working class have 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 with an economic base in our society.

In the economy capital and labour are the major forces yet politically the struggle is being fought elsewhere.

The existence of this industrial proletariat and the rapid transformation of capital are very powerful reasons why a working class movement could rapıdiy develop 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.

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.

Unclear

Politically, therefore, most unions and their leadership lack confidence as a worker leadership, they see their role as part of a 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 clearly 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 problem of workers. Their task is to remove regimes that are regarded as illegitmate 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. and capital' 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.

From what has been said we believe that FOSATU must set itself the task of giving leadership and direction to the building of a working class movement. Our efforts so far have equipped us to do this. Our organisation is nationally based, located in the major industries and the militancy of our members has generally developed a politically aware and self-critical leadership.

FOSATU as a trade union federation will clearly not constitute the working class movement nor would this place FOSATU in opposition to the wider political struggle or its major liberation movement.

FOSATU's task will be to build the effective organisational base for workers to play a major political role as workers. Our task will be to create an identity, confidence ana politica presence for worker organisation. The conditions are favourable for this task and its necessity is absolute.

We are interested in how the leadership is elected or appointed; who it is answerable to and how this accoun tability is achieved; how experienced leadership is and how it gains this experience and how they develop means of training and educating leadership so that it remains self-critical and politically active.

The challenges facing worker leadership are undoubtedly different to other leadership groups. For worker leadership in a capitalist society one's everyday struggle 1s related to your job and therefore your wage and therefore your very ability to survive.

The most appropriate comparison is with that of the guerrilla fighter who has to develop the strength to resist daily, the knowledge of his terrain that will give him every tactical advantage, and the support of those for whom he is struggling.

Probably most important because both the worker leader and the guerrilla are fighting a powerful enemy, is the development of a sense of when to advance and when to retreat.

These skills are not easily learnt and not easily replaced. So worker leadership cannot be wasted by opportunistic and overly adventuristic actions.

We are also concerned with worker leadership in a wider arena than only that of the union struggle. Giving leadership to the working class requires an organisational base. Without this base then the poverty and the lack of education, information and time that workers are struggling against will be the very factors which will force workers to surrender leadership of the community to other stratas in society.

Communities

One answer that is often proposed is to be more involved in community activities. That FOSATU should be involved in community activities is correct since our members form the major part of those communities. However, as we have argued above we must do so from an nraanicational hase if ue are truly to be an effective worker presence.

Without this base it is more likely that we will destroy a clear worker identity since workers will be entirely swamped by the powerful tradition of popular politics that we examined earlier.

It is also the case that there. has emerged into our political debate an empty and misleading political category called the community. All communities are composed of different interest groups and for a worker organisation to ally itself with every community group or action would be suicide for worker organisation.

Under the surface of unity community politics is partisan and divided. FOSATU cannot possibly ally itself to all the political groups that are contesting this arena. Neither can it ally itself with particular groups. Both paths will destroy the unity of its own worker organisation.

Our whole existence is political and we welcome that. Our concern is with the very essence of politics and that is the relation between the major classes in South Africa being capital and

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Organiser, Thursday 3 June 198. Page= Wor a News