Forward to a general strike in solidarity with the public sector strikers(and why we cannot trust the Cosatu and SACP leaders)We salute the public sector workers, teaching and medical staff for taking the bold step on embarking on an indefinite strike against the Zuma-Nzimande-Thatcher regime; going on strike is never easy. We know that the actions of the ANC-SACP government, by rigidly offering to cut wages (7% is below workers’ inflation), while they sit comfortable on their millionaire salaries, is really to blame. We call for immediate mass meetings around the country with parents, communities, rank and file soldiers and students; the first objective is to force the Cosatu and Fedusa leaders to immediately give the 7-day notice for solidarity strikes in every sector, in effect to call a general strike in support of the public sector strike, and to organise mass marches and protests from the industrial working class in support of the strike; the final settlement will set a precedent for all workers in the private sector; the only ones who are feeding and taking care of the unemployed are the employed workers, of which the public sector workers make up a huge part. The government is deliberately trying to drive a wedge between teachers, nursing staff, and public sector workers in general, on the one hand, and students, the parents (most of whom are from the working class) and the sickly and their families, on the other. Let us see where the ANC/SACP government really stands:
In other words, the main agency assisting the imperialists to starve us and keep us enslaved, is the ANC/SACP government. Cosatu leaders and the SACP are undermining the public sector workers struggle Around the globe, the trade union leaders have made pacts with imperialism for them to continue to plunder the working class, with increased rate of exploitation, with increased unemployment, with increased hunger and suffering; but around the globe the working class has not sat with folded arms in the face of this united onslaught by imperialism and their own worker leaders; in Bolivia the industrial workers are demanding that workers break from supporting the regime of Morales; in Argentina in some areas workers have resorted to street fights against the police; in Brasil there is a renewed wave of strikes (breaking of the ‘social peace’ deal that the union leaders had with imperialism); in Kyrgyzstan the working class overthrew the US puppet Bakiev and burned parliament to the ground; in Thailand workers occupied the centre of the capital for several weeks; there have been 8 general strikes in Greece this year despite the leaders of the workers, including the stalinist party KKE, continuing to defend the imperialist government; of course there have been the heroic strikes of the transport and municipal workers which shattered the plans of the SACP and Cosatu leaders for ‘social peace’; the SACP and Cosatu leaders have done and are doing their best to avert any general strike against the ANC government (any general strike would be a strike against the SACP; they are the key part of the ANC cabinet). With the above in mind, the working class would do well to draw the lesson that despite the huge public sector strike starting, despite what they say, the Cosatu leaders would not call out the industrial workers in solidarity strikes; the Cosatu leaders are doing their best to lower the demands of the workers to avert a strike; they have already reduced workers demands to 8,6% (very low indeed); they are preparing the psychology of the workers to accept an increase of 7% or less. Last year, when president Zuma declared that in 2010 public sector workers should only expect 7%, not a single union leadership raised any objection; in other words they already agreed with this. As the Cosatu leaders did in the municipal strike and last year’s clothing workers strikes, if the workers press ahead with strike action, they will only organise for 1-3 days actions, or a short period, and then hope the workers get tired; they will call stayaways so that workers do not occupy the workplaces, thus opening workers up to demoralisation by being isolated and alone; the stayaways will enable the union leaders to manipulate mandates in the absence of mass meetings of delegates to control the strike; further stayaways will be used to prevent workers from taking over their workplaces and really posing the question as to who does the work and who are the parasites (the capitalists). A public sector strike, in the absence of support by the broader working class, will be greatly weakened. Already the Cosatu leaders act as strike breakers by calling only a 1 day strike, while they know that Fedusa affiliates have called an indefinite strike (2 weeks ago, PSA went on strike while Cosatu leaders called on their members to go to work); the basic principle of working class solidarity is that all workers should strike at the same time; this is the way to have the shortest strike; but Cosatu/SACP leaders are so desperate to please the imperialists that they actively divide the public sector workers. The most important lesson to draw from the public sector workers struggle is that the alliance with the ANC and SACP is an alliance that places the profits of the imperialists above the interests of the working class; with this alliance, workers democratic demands are trampled on; we call on workers to break with the capitalists; this means breaking with the ANC-SACP; the only way to achieve the democratic aspirations of the masses is for the working class to organise independently from the capitalists; indeed, to achieve the most basic democratic demands, the working class needs to take power! Forward to a general strike in support of the public sector workers! Let’s call the soldiers from the barracks to join the strike! Issued by Workers International Vanguard League, 1st Floor, Community House, 41 Salt River rd, Salt River, 7925; ph 0214476777 ph 0822020617 email workersinternational@gmail.com website: www.workersinternational.org.za SA section of the International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction. |