The National Union of Metalworkers Union (Numsa) – which was expelled from the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) two years ago – will hold its 10th national congress on Monday.

The union’s withdrawal of support for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at its special congress in 2013 irked Cosatu.

The trade union federation then took an unprecedented decision to expel Numsa and its 400 000 members. Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who is closely aligned to Numsa, was also fired for bringing union federation into disrepute.

Numsa then withheld millions of rand in membership subscriptions from Cosatu. However, efforts by the expelled union to be reinstated into Cosatu failed.

Vavi and Numsa’s leaders then spearheaded the formation of a new trade union federation and a workers’ political party, which they named the United Front.

The task of ensuring that the two organisations took off to rival other political parties and Cosatu has not been an easy one. Both projects, for now, appear stuck in community level activism.

The new federation, said Vavi at its website launch last week, would not be aligned to any political party. The federation would be launched officially in March next year.

Numsa leader Irvin Jim told reporters in Cape Town over the weekend that interests of the working class have been sidelined under President Jacob Zuma’s administration.

“The South African working class, especially the black working class, is crying out for revolutionary change, but sees that currently no party is capable of bringing this about,” said the Numsa General Secretary.

“The ANC, DA [Democratic Alliance] and most of the other parties are basically the same, because of their continued insistence of operating within the confines of white monopoly capitalism.”

The union believes that nothing can reverse the problems facing the tripartite alliance of the ANC, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party (SACP), and only a united leftist worker force would bring about change.

“The congress would call for the full implementation of the Freedom Charter’s call for the national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, to be restored to the people, for the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry to be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole and for all other industry and trade to be controlled to assist the well-being of the people,” the union said.

“The congress will be an historic opportunity for Numsa members to launch a counter-offensive, to fight for a living minimum wage, oppose any limitation on the right of workers to strike, take forward the campaign for a new workers’ federation and proclaim the birth of the new revolutionary workers’ party.”

The congress takes place at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town. It ends on Thursday.