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Date : 15/09/2003
Source: Cosatu eighth national congress
Title: Vavi: Overview of the secretariat report

1 Introduction

I am pleased to present this report on my behalf, on behalf of the Deputy General Secretary, the NOBs and the rest of the CEC.

2. These reports are on Book 1 which has the Secretariat report, Book 3 with the Organisational Review report, and Book 6 which contains the "consolidating working class power for quality jobs toward 2015 programme. They are the product of diligent work by a broader team, under the leadership of staff from COSATU head office, the CEC commissions and COSATU regions. We are also grateful to inputs from affiliate NOBs during the CEC and EXCO.

3. We are presenting these documents to you, the delegates to this supreme structure of our revolutionary and giant federation - COSATU.

4. They are a summary and a product of three years of diligent work and many hours of excellent contributions and sacrifices by every COSATU members, leader and staff. My gratitude goes to all of them.

5. We here present only a brief overview. In the subsequent sessions we will give more detail on each section of the reports.

6. We dedicate this report to the memory of the heroes and heroines of 1973 whose gallant and militant strike action ensured that COSATU is revived and who without their sacrifices we would have not been here. We dedicate this report to the memory of Mbuyiselo Ngwenda that industrious leader of the working people who left us on the 10 March 2003. We wish all of them could be here, but take solace from knowing that they wish us well.

7. We are tabling this report seven months before we celebrate the 10 years of the democratic breakthrough - the 27 April 2003 and about the same time of time is left before we go back to the polls only for the third time in our lives.

8. The resolutions of the Seventh National Congress directed us to deal with key challenges: O Resulting from an attempt to roll back gains of member decades registered by workers. We faced a growing threat to privatise basic services. O The alliance had not been meeting we characterised as dysfunctional and only working as a crisis manager. The alliance met though on the eve of that congress to manage the fallout resulting from tensions arising from the proposed amendments O The 7th NC instructed the CEC to appoint an Organisational Review Commission to do a proper analysis of both our strengths and weaknesses and then make proposals on how we should solidify strengths and address our weaknesses. Where we need to change our constitution in response to the changes, the commission was to propose changes to Central Committee that would be ratified in this 8th National Congress. Tomorrow the 16 September we shall present a report of the commission.

9. The CEC out of the directives of the National Congress developed a three-year programme to implement these resolutions.

10. From today through the Treasurer's report and until the last day of this congress we shall account to you delegates to this 8th National Congress about the actions we took to take these directives forward.

11. Before we even do that tomorrow we wish to highlight the key issues covered in the report.

2 Political report 1. The political report records the following developments.

2. We seek consolidation of political power to the democratic forces led by ANC. The opposition parties are much weaker than they were in 2000.

3. We are in no doubt that overall, workers benefited from the transformation our country. The report shows a sometimes-complex combination of major advances and major setbacks. Today you celebrate a major victory and tomorrow you decry a major set back. This experience requires proper analysis.

4. The power of capital has increased with the faster rate of globalisation of the economy.

5. Our economy remains firmly in the hands of white capital dominated by the mining and finance complex. Black economic empowerment - even if we define it narrowly - has not changed this reality of domination.

6. We have seen continued marginalisation of the alliance from government decision making.

7. This period has seen greatest strains in the alliance. Never did relations deteriorate to the extent that they deed in 2001 and 2002. Public mudslinging, use of labels including use of personal interests and questioning of bona fides of opponents became the order of the day.

8. Consequently the alliance has not functioned in the manner that is consistent with the expectation of COSATU's national congresses.

9. We have seen the growth of single-issue civil society formations with a few them strongly opposing the alliance and the ANC in particular.

10. Allegations of corruption including consistent rumours being peddled against leaders and public representatives have filled our news agencies for months and months, creating an environment of doubt, scepticism and illegitimacy in the minds of ordinary workers and our people as a whole.

11. The international balance of forces remains unfavourable. We are beginning to pay dearly from the fact that there is a unipolar world dominated by the USA, which has become to be more aggressive in pursuance of the USA capital's agenda under the leadership of George W. Bush.

12. Domestically, we have still to take full advantage of high levels of social mobilisation; we still have to use effectively the alliance to tilt the balance of forces. Nevertheless, there is virtually no domestic political opposition, with capital gradually accepting the need for change, and a largely progressive government under the ANC leadership. That leaves scope for more progressive change.

13. The battle of ideas has continued within each component of the alliance, between alliance partners and in the society broadly. Attempts have been made to reinterpret the theory and what the NDR sought to achieve.

14. The relationship between COSATU and the ANC has improved since after the ANC's 51st National Conference. We are currently working very well mobilising our members for a decisive elections victory in 2003.

15. Our relations with the SACP can never be better. We continue to stand side by side with them in countless battles and campaigns.

16. We work well with many social movements and have jointly ran countless campaigns in pursuance of common objectives. The new social movements who are hostile to the government are however very reluctant to work with us as they believe that we are a salesman of government problematic policies.

17. We shall use this congress to prepare better for elections in 2004. We are determined to ensure that the ANC wins KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape outright and with clear majorities. Genuine Freedom and democracy must be extended to these two provinces of our country.

3 Organisational key issues

1. We have been challenged by the inability of few big COSATU affiliated unions to pay their affiliation fees or to pay consistently every month without taking into advantage the three months grace provided by the constitution.

2. The impact of these financial difficulties has been severe.

3. Despite this challenge, we are presenting work that reflects extensive organisational work. This we did through increased cooperation with our trade union friends at the international levels as well better coordination with other players including government.

4. We are presenting a report that would for the first time in our history show a decline in our membership. From being the fastest growing federation in the world to a movement that have realised an effective decline of 33 700 members. Had we not affiliated DENOSA, MUSA and SAMA and engaged on a strong recruitment drive, we would have seen a declined of more than 100 000.

5. We have consolidated our overall representation of workers. We are making slow but steady gain in recruiting white workers into the federation. Today gathered in this congress are delegates representing every facet of South Africa's workplaces. From ordinary mineworkers to technicians in the laboratory of the manufacturing company; from domestic workers to a teacher in the rural areas, from sweeper in the factory to a doctor in the private hospital, from a train driver to a hostess, there are countless examples we can make. Every worker in represented here. This is a true parliament and assembly of workers.

6. The organisational challenges we face have forced us to concentrate more in building our engines. Without a strong organisation every one of our dream would be impossible.

7. We are presenting an organisational review report with important proposals that must be taken forward by the National Congress.

8. The "consolidating of the working class power for quality jobs - toward 2015 programme" is presented as the framework that must be developed into a more detailed ambitious programme to take us to 2015 - the 30 anniversary of COSATU.

9. Central to the proposals is to ensure that we do not reinvent the wheel. The September Commission had extremely good proposals that we must infuse to the current conditions.

10. At the centre of all our work must be willingness to vigorously implement every proposal. The central committee proposals on recruitment are about our life and death. We must realise our historic dream of attaining in practise our principle of "one union - one industry, one country - one federation"

4 Socio-economic report 1. The central words in the mind of every worker and indeed every South African must be job losses and worsening unemployment. That goes hand in hand with growing informalisation and casualisation, and falling pay.

2. Side be side with this situation, however, we have seen improved government services and infrastructure for poor communities - although tariffs are sometimes high.

3. The spread of HIV/AIDS and the resulting death of many of our members has been a very serious development. Moreover, speculation by futures traders led to rocketing maize prices price in 2001 and 2002.

4. In the political section we report about the painful reality that the economy remain in the hands of big white-owned companies, which are integrating themselves fast into the global village.

5. The working class itself is facing changes imposed by economic conditions. This imposes new organisational challenges that we should discuss as we discuss the "consolidating working class power for quality jobs - toward 2015".

6. Our engagement strategy sought to consolidate the gains and reverse the setbacks we suffered. The Growth and Development Summit was the highlight and reflects the complex combination of gains and setbacks.

7. We believe that the government is slowly retreating from its inappropriate fiscal and monetary policies. We have seen real increases in government spending in the past three years. Last week the Reserve Bank again reduced interest rates by a percentage. This however is too little too late - the damage of high interest rate and very strong rand will combine to have devastating impact on our economy, its ability to grow and generate employment opportunities for the unemployed.

8. Government has also slowly begun to show a stronger position on restructuring the economy, with more seriousness about sector summits and a stronger position in favour of developing countries at the WTO.

9. The decision of the cabinet to roll out anti-retrovirals in the public sector is another huge victory for workers.

5 International section

1. Our profile and stature has grown leaps and bounds. We have become an international player of major significance. The international section reflects that we have been very active in the ICFTU and a range of international forums.

2. The growth of social movements all over the world and the attempt to knit together their programmes and demands has been one of the important developments.

3. The 2015 programme talks of the challenge to ensure that we eliminate destructive competition between social movements. We need more coordination between these social movements, progressive political parties and progressive government. Only when we achieve this can we begin to realise the full potential and tilt the balance in favour of more progressive solutions to the world's problems.

4. COSATU is also challenged to improve coordination of its whole activities. In this congress we report for the first time on the activities of the federation as a whole.

5. We have engaged intensively with the multilateral institutions. As we gather in this congress two of our representatives are part of the government delegation to the Cancun round of negotiations of the WTO.

6. The ILO has proven to be a key platform to inject good morals and standards to protect workers who have increasingly become more and more vulnerable in the face of globalisation and ever increasing power of global capital.

7. The OAU has ceased to exist and has been replaced by the African Union, which was formed in our country. Its flagship is NEPAD. While we fully support NEPAD's objectives, we are engaging with its contents to make sure that some of its sections are improved in particular its economic section that does not make a decisive break with disastrous IMF/World Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programmes.

6 Conclusions

1. Our theme for this congress is "Consolidating working class power for quality Jobs - toward 2015". This theme sums up the challenge facing this 8th National Congress.

2. But working class power by an organisation that is strong, vibrant and on its toes. This is our starting point and our last point as we move towards the 2015.

3. No amount of sloganeering can take us any further to positioning working class to lead consolidation of our NDR and all spheres of society including the liberation movement itself. We need less and less rhetoric and more and more of practical actions and programmes.

4. In the overall, despite the weaknesses discussed in the report, COSATU remain undoubtedly the strongest organisation in our country and one of the most powerful trade unions in the world. With over 1,7 million members, no other organisation has even half of our members.

5. Internationally, too, no other organisation can boast of our strengths. We have maintained a vibrant movement, a democratic movement with strong traditions of worker control with strong capacity to engage in so many levels but most important with dynamic leadership, with ideological clarity and political coherence.

6. As I have said before our challenge is not to compete with micky mouse organisations. Our challenge is use the best our traditions and cultures and build on our strengths whilst ensuring that we play a role to ensure we build the same strengths in our sister unions in SATUCC, OATUU and ICFTU family.

7. Let the workers' parliament go into a debate. Let the assembly engage with this report and resolutions tabled by affiliates. Forward to the 20th anniversary of COSATU in 2005! Forward to the 30th anniversary of COSATU in 2015! Consolidate the working class power for quality jobs towards 2015!

Congress of South African Trade Unions
September 15, 2003

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