The Workers and Socialist Party welcomes the ruling of the Johannesburg High Court today overturning the suspension of Zwelinzima Vavi. It is a victory not only for for Vavi, but for Numsa, Cosatu members and the entire working class. The attempt of the pro-ANC leadership around Dlamini and Ntshalintshali to subordinate Cosatu within the Tripartite Alliance has suffered a set-back today. Dlamini and co. have pursued their vendetta against Vavi on behalf of the ANC who sees it as a strategic objective to suffocate the resistance of the organised working class to the ANC’s anti-working class policies. These anti-working class policies will increase as the position of the South African economy continues to deteriorate and the neo-liberal National Development Plan unfolds.
However, WASP warns that the fight is far from over. The Dlamini clique will continue to use bureaucratic measures to silence the democratic voice of Cosatu members. The campaign led by NUMSA calling for Cosatu to convene a special congress must continue with urgency. Dlamini and co. must go! Cosatu belongs to the workers not to the ANC!
WASP’s 2014 election manifesto includes the following demands:
- No trust in the pro-ANC Cosatu leaders.
- Support the call of the nine unions calling for a Cosatu Special National Congress – workers must kick out the pro-ANC Cosatu leadership around Dlamini and co
- If the pro-ANC leaders refuse to call an SNC, the nine unions supporting the call must convene their own conference to play the role that a Cosatu SNC should have played and give a lead to working class struggle
- Campaign for Cosatu’s immediate withdrawal from the Tripartite Alliance – not a cent more of Cosatu members’ money must be given to the ANC to implement anti-working class policies
Since the crisis in Cosatu around Vavi erupted, we have argued, that in the final analysis it represented a struggle between one faction representing the interests of the capitalist class and one faction representing the interests of the working class. It has all along been a battle for the heart and soul of the federation. The elevation of Cosatu leaders, first to the ANC’s NEC and now as candidates on the ANC’s election lists shows how the ANC wants to absorb Cosatu and turn it into an ANC ‘labour desk’ as NUMSA has so correctly pointed out. Today’s set-back will not deter the pro-ANC Cosatu leaders. In the pursuit of their objectives they would rather split Cosatu and use what is left under their control as a treacherous ‘fifth column’ in the ranks of the working class, mirroring the way the National Union of Mineworkers now operates with its rump in the platinum belt and goldfields.
