Jay Naidoo, General Secretary, COSATU - ADDRESS TO AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL HELD ON 21/2/91 IN MIAMI, FLORIDA

Reprint of Address to AFL-CIO Executive Council by Jay Naidoo, General Secretary of COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions). Naidoo says he desires to establish sounder international solidarity in the common struggle for democracy and justice for all workers, stressing issues that unite workers worldwide and striving to end political divisions that have bedeviled the international workers' movement. Naidoo says the restructuring of the world economy is amassing enormous economic power and wealth in three major poles - North America, Europe and Japan. The repercussions will be felt not only in the developing world but also by workers in developed countries; mass retrenchments, unemployment, cutbacks in social services, and job insecurity are becoming a common characteristic of workers lives worldwide. In South Africa, this problem has been compounded by apartheid, which has controlled of the cost, allocation, and supply of black labor to perpetuate a cheap labor system. Naidoo says mass resistance of our people combined with the campaign to isolate apartheid by our international allies caused a structural crisis which compelled the National Party to make its announcements on February 2, 1990. An upsurge of violence has spread through South Africa. In Mozambique, they created the Renamo, the Koevoet in Namibia, UNITA in Angola; the use of third party vigilantes inside South Africa was cheaper and more convenient, as it could be portrayed across the world as "black on black" violence rather than white security forces shooting black people. Just this past week, senior COSATU leaders active in Alexandra township have been detained, the home of a NUMSA organizer was attacked with a grenade, and a lawyer associated closely with COSATU and the African National Congress (ANC) was killed by a parcel bomb. Furthermore, large-scale violence is being launched against COSATU members in Bantustans like Bophuthatswana. Naidoo says, as a trade union federation, COSATU's primary activity was defense of the economic interests of its members. In 1990, COSATU succeeded in reversing the anti-worker amendments introduced by the government in 1988 to restrict democratic worker rights; an agreement signed between unions, major employer bodies, and the government restored the rights taken away in 1988. Naidoo says COSATU began to focus more clearly on the rights workers demand in a new constitution; a major part of our work was around the "Workers Charter Campaign." The major focus last year and again this year will be around the Living Wage campaign demands around issues of retrenchments, centralized bargaining, the end to sexual and racial discrimination, and demands for a living wage. Removing apartheid from statutes does not remove it from society; over four million people are unemployed, an estimated 10 million people live in inadequate housing, the education and health system is in crisis, and illiteracy is estimated at 70% of the black population. Addressing these problems will require restructuring, and democratizing at an economic level. COSATU's believe it should develop a mixed economy based on a private, public and a co-operative sector. The economy needs to be productive and competitive, to grow and be able to provide jobs, and to meet the needs of people. The democratic state will need to play a key role in addressing the socio economic needs of the majority. The alliance is based on the struggle for a non-racial, democratic South Africa based on one person one vote in a unitary country. The trade union movement and other organizations of civil society such as civics must remain independent of state structures and political parties in order to deepen democracy in a post-apartheid South Africa. COSATU has reiterated, together with the ANC, that the drafting of a constitution can only be done by mandated representatives elected on a common voters roll for an independent, sovereign Constituent Assembly. Naidoo reiterates gratitude for the political and material support from American workers, the AFL-CIO and its affiliates, including the UAW, ACTWU, AFSCME, UMWA and others that have excellent contact with COSATU affiliates. Naidoo mentions repression, detentions of political activists, bannings of organizations, use of death squads to eliminate leadership, a counter-revolutionary strategy to destabilize its opposition, the Mass Democratic Movement and grassroots organizations, the De Klerk government, a state of emergency, President Lane Kirkland, repression, wealth, wage packet, free political activity, and the Harare Declaration.