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Cape Town - Wednesday next week will be the climax of probably the most fractious and bitter political campaign since 1994, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap.
Wednesday next week will be the climax of probably the most fractious and bitter political campaign since 1994, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap.
Whatever the outcome, it will have repercussions throughout society, not least within the trade union movement and, in particular, among the various sections of what was once a united Cosatu.
He says the name of Nelson Mandela is being bandied about by many of the scores of parties, all trying desperately to appropriate something of the icon’s prestige. And along with race and ethnicity, Heaven and Hell have also come into play with President Jacob Zuma vowing that those who desert the ANC are destined for an everlasting bonfire.
This, says Bell, apparently applies to the majority of National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) members and the various fragments from Cosatu unions who have joined them. The same may also apply to the majority of the Food and Allied Workers’ Union delegates who, in six provincial congresses, voted recently to leave the ANC-led alliance.
But he adds that many may avoid being cursed in this way since they may still vote for the ANC or may abstain, feeling there is no viable alternative to the governing party. However, the arguments have again highlight the problem of political affiliation.
For more than 20 years, many trade unionists and commentators have argued that affiliation to a political party in power amounts to reneging on the concept of principled unity that has always been the credo of the trade union movement; that this has led to disarray.
A classic example of this disarray in formerly militant unions in the anti-apartheid tradition, Bell says, is in the developments immediately before and after the sacking of eight journalists at the SABC. The Media Workers’ Association (MWASA), financially weak, was frozen out by management. The CWU, in turn, “cozied up” to a management that had been accused of maladministration and the abuse of power by the Public Protector.
Two unions with their roots in the apartheid era, Solidarity and the Broadcasting Electronic Media and Allied Workers’ Union (Bemawu) have now become the standard bearers for freedom of expression at the SABC.
This, along with the results on Wednesday, says Bell, will lead to ongoing recriminations, especially among the alliance partners.
