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Date
: 20/05/04
Source: Cosatu
Title: J Nkosi: Speech on the occasion of the launch of the
Labour-Community Radio Project, in Johannesburg
The Labour-Community Radio Project is a very welcome step forward
for the trade union movement in South Africa. I would like to
congratulate and thank all those who have worked so hard to bring
it about.
The business community have hours of time each week on TV and radio
and page after page in the newspapers and magazines to publicise
their views, while the workers‚ movement always has to
struggle to get its news and opinions across.
We have some great union magazines and newsletters. They play an
important role in keeping our own members informed. But they rarely
reach those who are not members of a union, the unemployed and
those working in low-paid casual jobs. Yet these are often the
people most in need of the protection the unions can give. In
addition there are still some older workers who struggle to read
papers and magazines.
So the broadcasts put out by this project, on 40 community radio
stations, will reach a whole new audience, many of them in remote
rural areas, miles away from their nearest union office or local
meeting. They will be broadcast in the main language spoken in the
area covered by the radio station.
The shows will bring listeners the latest news of what is happening
in the workplaces and union meetings. They will inform people of
their rights under the labour laws, about unfair dismissals and
discrimination by employers, about how they can obtain grants, what
to do about HIV/Aids and hundreds of other issues.
They will educate our communities on the big issues of the day, so
that they know about new laws and government initiatives and how
these can be used to improve their lives.
They will all be phone-in programmes, so listeners will not just
have to listen passively but can get on the air to tell us in the
unions what we ought do be doing for them. They can let us know
where we may be going wrong. It will be a perfect opportunity to
bring out into the open some of the problems workers and the
unemployed face day after day.
We are all shocked when we hear about some of the abuse of workers
on the farms, yet for the farming communities these are part of
everyday life. This radio project can be the way to get these
scandals into the public arena and, we hope, tackled and resolved
by the government departments, together with the trade
unions.
As well as the more serious items, I hope that the programmes will
air some of the best of workers‚ culture, starting with the
magnificent concert, Solidarity Forever, recorded by some of our
finest musicians at last year COSATU National Congress.
One of the best things about these programmes is that they will be
hosted not by professional broadcasters but by union members, who
speak the same language as their listeners and understand their
problems. These presenters will acquire valuable skills, which will
be put to good use in helping our communities.
Let us hope that the SABC, which is supposed to be our public
broadcaster - but which too often prefers importing cheap American
programmes than dealing with the problems of ordinary South
Africans ˆ will learn from this project and start to carry the
same kind of labour programmes on all of their stations.
I also appeal to any community radio stations who are not yet
participating on the LCRP to come on board and put these programmes
on their schedules.
We are sure you will get a good audience.
Comrades and friends
I wish the project every success. There is no doubt that this is an
initiative worthy of the support of every trade union and it will
have a huge impact on thousands of our people.
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