Strike but one battle in ongoing war

Truth is the first casualty of war. This old adage certainly rings true for South Africa at present as the country finds itself in the grip of a war of perceptions, speculation, claims and contradictions, as well as a vicious contest for power and spoils. A confusing and increasingly complex situation has evolved which for now is focused on two events – the public-sector strike and the forthcoming national general council (NGC) of the African National Congress (ANC).

As the public-sector strike has moved beyond bread-and-butter issues into the realm of power politics, these two focal events are directly connected, yet each also still maintains its own dynamics ... making the current socio-political situation in South Africa a very complex one.

Simplistically put, what started out as a public-sector strike based on genuine grievances around pay, benefits and working conditions, was soon incorporated by the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) component of the strike into a political contest raging within the broad ANC-led ruling alliance. That contest started long before the strike and will continue long after it.

But even within the context of the immediate demands of the striking public-sector unions, the effects and consequences will be felt long after a settlement in terms of the overall cost for South Africa. The hardest hit will be the poor and the unemployed, as government will be forced to cut down on spending in various areas of delivery in order to accommodate the increased public-sector salary bill.

Giving to those with decent jobs and income by taking from the poor and unemployed somehow seems to contradict Cosatu’s often-stated concern for the latter.

Apart from the massive daily cost of the strike and the increased salary bill for the state, the cost effect will also be felt in terms of job creation, service delivery, education in the longer term, this year’s matric results, health, the fight against HIV/Aids, South Africa’s credit rating and the length of time it will take strikers to recoup the wages they lost over several weeks of striking. The latter will just about wipe out any gains they may have made from the strike. (Also see analysis article on of the cost of the strike)

What then was the point? The point is that the strike could have been settled quite early on, but it reached a stage where it was no longer about the money, but became part of the politics of power.

Attesting to the fact that the strike started off on the basis of genuine grievances and demands is the fact that a much broader coalition of public-sector unions participated in the strike than ever before. Apart from the Cosatu-affiliated unions, among others a number of conservative, some mostly white, unions participated under the umbrella auspices of the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC).

But simmering tensions arose below the surface among the striking groups of unions when Cosatu elevated the strike to the political level and their unified front started cracking. At a point when the ILC unions and even the members and a few leaders of Cosatu and its affiliated unions were willing to accept government’s final offer, it was the politically orientated leadership of Cosatu and its affiliated unions that stalled, seeking to prolong the strike.

The ILC representing 11 unions and some 460,000 members was no junior partner compared to the 500,000 strong Cosatu unions. But even so, it was cowed into inaction by the Cosatu unions when the ILC and its members  -- most of them not used to a labour relations culture of strikes and violence -- realised they would become the target for intimidation were they to unilaterally accept the government’s offer and pull out of the strike. In fact, the intimidation started even before the ILC decided its position, with some of its members even receiving death threats should they return to work.

In a strike that, for most observers, may seem to have produced only losers on all sides, there has been far more at stake at the political level.

No wonder Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi’s counterpart in the ILC, Chris Klopper, remarked in an interview published over the weekend: “It now is only about politics, pure politics.”

In the interview, published in Rapport, Klopper also pointed out how the ILC’s position during the strike negotiations was frequently being compromised by the separate discussions between Cosatu and the ANC and having to interpret the dynamics of the tensions between the two.

The government’s strike nightmare had arisen largely as a result of the ANC’s unholy alliance with labour and its inability to govern effectively as its own political instability worsens. The instability in the ANC and in its alliance with Cosatu and the SA Communist Party (SACP) is the result of factional power struggles.

These revolve around the ANC’s right wing (also referred to as the ANC “nationalists”) – a loose grouping of factions, groups and individuals that are not necessarily united other than in their shared opposition to the alliance’s left wing (Cosatu and the SACP), and their quest to gain control of South Africa’s economic assets; Cosatu which wants to make labour the dominant force in a purified Alliance that is the “strategic centre of power” or alternatively may opt to go it alone; and a small and weak SACP that needs to continue its parasitical existence within an Alliance and ANC purged of its right wing in order to implement its socialist agenda.

The latter explains the SACP’s silence during the strike and the frequent criticism levelled by Cosatu labour leaders against it during the last few weeks. In the midst of this President Jacob Zuma’s position has also become vulnerable as he has been unable to deliver on the expectations of these various factions and groups that had all been demanding payback for supporting him in becoming president.

It is to this arena of political struggle that Cosatu took the public-sector strike, seeking to weaken the ANC, isolate Zuma, and give notice to the ANC not to take for granted its support in next year’s local government elections. This serves as a prelude to the ANC’s all-important national general council (NGC) that takes place this month and where Cosatu will most likely make its next move to shift the centre of power away from the ANC to an alliance dominated by Cosatu.