Millions of Workers across South Africa Participate in National Strike

Participating workers include those who work in industries such as transport, textile, shoe, automobile, education and mining.  As a one-day strike it may put a dent in the economy however being short-lived it is more of a symbolic action than a true powerful hit to the bourgeoisie by the labour force of the country. 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) with approximately two million members is leading this strike and directly submitted a memorandum to the Department of Minerals and Energy demanding that the government invest in power generation and a more energy-efficient campaign.  The recently imposed 27% tariff on electricity charges is of course most detrimental for the poor and the working poor.  Late in 2007 and in early 2008 there were rolling blackouts and according to COSATU this was a sign of poor decision-making years ago when the African National Congress government embarked on its agenda of privatization which included electricity.

Of course workers are protesting the increasing food prices as well, but COSATU fails to identify the true source of these crises in the country.  The picture of the problem here is much larger than the increasing prices.  Food price increases are an example of the current international economic mess; but keep in mind, the international economic system that dominates the world today is capitalism, which is a system that is global in nature and economically engenders an inherent battle between workers who sell their labour and capital which buys the labour as well as a competition for resources.  Privatization is part of the capitalist neo-liberal agenda upon which the African National Congress, the ruling party in South Africa, adopted after the fall of apartheid.  COSATU is using the working class to support its capitalist political ally, Jacob Zuma, who will probably become the next President in this year’s election.  They are favouring one bourgeois agenda over another; quite analogous to the recent support for Barack Obama by the AFL-CIO in the United States.

It is worthy to note that after the fall of apartheid, many of the changes that took place were not to create an economically equal society, rather the newly-formed government aimed to involve more black capitalists through black economic empowerment[1].  Although discrimination permeates society and is by no means a good thing; it is not responsible for the majority of the world selling their labour to a small elite group of bourgeoisie.  Therefore post-apartheid South Africa is a nation with a growing black middle class as well as the attainment of bourgeoisie class status by some non-white Africans.  Nonetheless class differences remain and are in fact the gap between the rich and the poor is steadily increasing, regardless of race.  This is the true deep source of the crisis, not race.  Therefore it is working class emancipation upon which worker organizations must be based.  Racism, homophobia, sexism etcetera are merely problems within the larger capitalist system. 

The Trade Union support and selection of a favorite bourgeois group over another is merely steering capitalist oppression in a different direction but always with the same oppressed group, the working class.  Trade Unions have not ever declared themselves anti-capitalist as their capitalist stance is to negotiate the costs of the labour and simply choosing between bad and worse for the workers.  Trade Unions are not truly representing workers unless there is a clear and acted-upon anti-capitalist agenda with a vision to end wage-labour, the foundation upon which capitalism is based.  Workers without the Trade Unions through class consciousness at different points in time and geographic locations have engaged in militant wildcat strikes, factory occupations and it is these tactics and strategies which define a real anti-capitalist working class movement.