Cosatu times strike with racism meet

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, AUGUST 15. A nation-wide two-day stay away (general strike) under the aegis of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), partner of the ANC-SACP-Cosatu tripartite alliance, is likely to coincide with the opening of the World Conference against Racism in Durban (31 August-7 September, 2001).

Though the stayaway is planned for August 29-30, its effects are bound to impact on the run-up to the Conference and indeed the Conference itself. Regional protest marches are planned for Thursday, including in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town where the marchers will converge on Parliament.

At issue is the long and bitterly debated issue of privatisation, euphemistically known as `restructuring' of state owned assets. Topping the list are Eskom (power), Telkom (telecommunications), Transnet (transport) and Dennel (defence industry). All these are major employers. The Government is committed to privatisation while the Cosatu and the SACP want the privatisation plans to be scrapped or at least radically modified. Cosatu is categorical in its opposition demanding at the very least a moratorium on the process while the SACP is rather more ambivalent. A submission to be made by the ANC-SACP-Cosatu to the NGO Forum preceding the Conference in which the links of racism and colonialism with capitalism and globalisation are explicitly recognised also reflects this ambivalence.

A crucial paragraph of the submission reads thus: ``The current process of capitalist globalisation threatens to further entrench the unequal distribution of resources of the world, both between societies and within societies.'' The very next sentence however also underlines the ambiguities and equivocations in this opposition, reflecting the inner tensions within the tripartite alliance: ``If approached correctly, however, the advent of a global economy and globalised society provides a unique opportunity to address the inequities generated by our shared history''.

Interestingly, two Ministers driving the privatisation process (Public Enterprises and Public Service) belong to the SACP stream in the alliance. The opposition of the SACP to the privatisation programme, while leading members of the party are driving the process, has led to some tensions though not to the breaking point.

A telling point in these dire prophesies, indeed the running theme of much what goes for public discourse in the media, is that any protest by the working class and the unions at a time when the ``eyes of the world will be on South Africa'' will surely send a wrong message to ``international investors''.

Curiously, these same voices are also highly critical of the very hosting of the Conference by South Africa on the ground that the whole exercise will be a ``talk shop'' and ``waste of tax payers' money''.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : A feminist rallies behind men