Aug-Sept 2014 K.indd

4

Editorial note

AUG/SEPT 2014 • www.cosatu.org.za

5% of earners earn 30 times more than the bottom 5%. The share of workers in national income declined from 55% in 2000 to 49% in 2008. There are speci fi c important issues on which we have yet to succeed – the abolition of labour brokering, scrapping e-tolls, and the conservative, neoliberal elements of the National Development Plan. We still suffer from our scandal ous two-tier service provision, under which a still mainly white, rich minority can pay for top-class private services, while the mainly black, poor majority have to struggle with inef fi cient, under resourced facilities. In addition we are still struggling to escape from the quagmire of crime, corruption and maladministration, in both the public and private sectors, and the failure to bring and of those guilty to justice. The 11th National congress was clear that the key to escaping from this economic and social catastrophe lies in Pillar 4 – “Create our own Lula moment: driving the second phase of our transition”. This means that we have to complete the implementation of policies to transform radically our economic structure. The CC must assess what progress we have made in taking forward this Congress decision and that of our Collective Bargaining, Organising and Campaigns Conference in 2013, that “the core of the second radical phase of the transition of our NDR must be a fundamental economic shift, to trans form the structure of our economy, and address the triple crisis of poverty, un employment and inequality’ and to “re af fi rm the Congress decision to embark on a programme of action to drive the radical economic shift in line with the demands of the Freedom Charter”. Some of these policies are already in place in paper – in the ANC Man gaung Conference resolution on the 2nd Phase of our Transition, the gov ernment’s Industrial Policy Action Plan, the National Infrastructure Plan and at least part of the New Growth Path. The problem however is that while some government departments and ministers – such as Trade and Industry and Economic Development - are mov ing ahead, their efforts are constantly

unions: or ganise or starve! 4. Cre ate our own Lula mo ment: driv ing the second phase of our transi tion! The CC will have to discuss how far we have gone to implement this. Socio-economic transformation We have made some progress. Amendments to labour laws have been passed which, if properly enforced, will give workers more protection against exploitative employers and speed up transformation in the workplace. We have convinced government to agree in principle to a national minimum wage and look forward to engaging with them in November on how it will work. We must however honestly admit that overall, two years later, too little has changed. We have not done enough to improve the workers’ lives as man dated by the Congress delegates. Un employment, poverty and inequality re main massive challenges, and are even getting worse. Unemployment is still on the rise; in the second quarter of 2014 it was 35.6% by the more realistic expanded de fi nition which leaves out those who have stopped looking for work. In man ufacturing industry we are still seeing a job-loss bloodbath. Such levels of unemployment in evitably lead to more people living in poverty, not only among those without jobs, but among the thousands of em ployed workers who have to share their meagre earnings with as many as ten dependent unemployed family mem bers. Half of all employed workers earn R3000 a month or less, meaning that the majority of South African workers can`t afford the basic necessities of life. That is why the forthcoming Indaba in November, convened by Deputy Presi dent, Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, on the implementation of the national min imum wage is so important. The crisis of inequality is summed up in the sta tistic that 50% of the population lives on 8% of national income and the top

Zwelinzima Vavi Editor in Chief

T his edition of the Shopsteward magazine hits the streets as we approach an important meeting of COSATU’s second highest democratic structure, the Central Com mittee (CC), which will meet from 10-12 November 2014. Its role, laid down in the Constitution, is to “adopt general and speci fi c policy measures which further the aims and objects of the Fed eration by means of resolution between meetings of National Congresses”. The CC cannot change the policies agreed at the 11th National Congress in 2012, but must assess progress on implementing those policies and agree on measures to ensure that they remain on track. The National Congress sum marised its conclusions thus in the Fi nal Declaration: • We are not prepared to tolerate mas sive levels of unemployment! • We want labour brokers banned now! • We will not accept widespread pov erty! • We cannot live with grotesque levels of inequality which have made us the most unequal society on the planet! • Workers are no longer prepared to tolerate poverty wages: • Workers are demanding that the People Shall Share in the Country`s Wealth, as promised in the Freedom Charter. More speci fi cally, on socio-economic issues, it committed us “to embark on a united and radical programme of action to realise workers legitimate demands, and to engage our communities and the broader democratic movement, to support us in these efforts”. The pro gramme of action was to be based on the following four pillars: 1.Abolish the apartheid wage struc ture: forward to a living wage! 2.A radical socio-economic transfor mation: the people shall share in the country`s wealth! 3.Build strong worker-controlled

Editor’s Note