Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 12 January 2026 #Back2SchoolCampaign #Right2LearnCampaign
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #COSATU launching #Back2School and #Right2Learn Campaigns across all provinces #Cosatu40 #Cosatu congratulates the ANC o its 114 years anniversary! #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
Our side of the story
12 January 2026
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
Organize at every workplace and demand respect for labour rights Now!
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU Western Cape welcomes Labour Court victory for Principal Wesley Neumann, demands WCED halt further wasteful appeals
- South Africa
- COSATU President Zingiswa Losi: Joe Slovo Commemoration – Message of Support
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- "International Day of Movement of the World Trade Union in Solidarity with Venezuela"
- Iran: ITUC condemns brutal repression of workers and trade unionists amid escalating crisis
- Protests against new minimum wage regulation in Indonesia
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU Western Cape welcomes Labour Court victory for Principal Wesley Neumann, demands WCED halt further wasteful appeals
Malvern De Bruyn, COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, 06 January 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Western Cape unreservedly welcomes the landmark judgment of the Labour Court reinstating Mr. Wesley Neumann as the Principal of Heathfield High School.
This ruling is a monumental victory for worker justice, fairness, and the rule of law, bringing to a close a painful and protracted five-year legal battle that began during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Court’s decision to set aside Mr. Neumann’s dismissal and replace it with a final written warning is a clear vindication of our long-held position that his persecution was unfounded. From the outset, COSATU has maintained that Mr. Neumann’s actions in 2020 were driven by a profound commitment to the health and safety of his pupils, staff, and school community, not misconduct.
This case stands as a damning indictment of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) and its political leadership. It represents a classic case of the abuse of power and state resources to pursue a personal and political vendetta against a dedicated professional. The WCED’s relentless pursuit of this losing battle has come at an enormous and indefensible cost to the public purse.
We are calling on the WCED to fully comply with the Labour Court order without delay, facilitating Mr. Neumann’s seamless and retrospective reinstatement to his rightful position.
Furthermore, we are calling on the WCED and the MEC for Education, David Maynier, to publicly declare that they will not appeal this judgment. To do so would be an act of sheer arrogance and a further waste of millions of Rands in public money, money that should be funding teachers, textbooks, and school infrastructure, not endless legal fees.
COSATU demands a full public accounting of the legal costs incurred by the WCED in this matter, as well as the costs associated with appointing replacement principals over the last five years. This fruitless and wasteful expenditure must be explained to the taxpayers of the Western Cape.
We commend Mr. Neumann and his family for their extraordinary resilience and dignity throughout this grueling ordeal. We also salute the Heathfield High School community, trade union members, and allied social justice organisations whose unwavering solidarity was crucial in this fight.
This judgment sends a powerful message that the rights of workers, including the fundamental protection against unfair dismissal, are non-negotiable. COSATU will continue to vigilantly oppose the victimisation of public servants and will not stand by while governance is undermined by political hostility and the reckless squandering of state resources.
Issued by COSATU Western Cape
COSATU President Zingiswa Losi: Joe Slovo Commemoration – Message of Support
Zingiswa Losi, COSATU President, 6 January 2026
31 Years Since His Passing | 32 Years of Democracy
We gather today, 6 January 2026, to honour 31 years since the passing of Comrade Joe Slovo — a revolutionary communist, a cadre of the working class, and a leader who never separated ideas or principles from action.
We do so 32 years into our democracy, not to romanticise the past, but to confront the present — and to shape the future.
Joe Slovo reminded us that liberation is a process, not an event. He warned us plainly that:
“Political democracy, if it is not accompanied by economic democracy, will always be shallow and incomplete.”
Comrades, those words speak directly to our reality today. Thirty-two years into democracy, capital still dominates the economy, ownership remains racially and class skewed, and the working class continues to be shacked by unemployment, poverty, inequality, and insecurity. Millions remain excluded from decent work. Young people are denied a future. Women continue to carry the double burden of exploitation and care.
This is not accidental. It is the outcome of structural capitalism, reinforced by neoliberal policy choices that weaken the state, privatise public goods, commodify basic services and place profit above the public.
Joe Slovo warned us against this path. He told us:
“If the state retreats from its responsibilities, the vacuum will be filled by private power — and private power is accountable only to profit.”
That is exactly what we see today.
Comrades, nowhere is this crisis more visible than in local government. Municipalities — meant to be the engine of development — have become symbols of failure. Corruption, cadre erosion, outsourcing, and administrative collapse have left communities without water, electricity, sanitation, or dignity.
As we approach local government elections, we must be honest with ourselves and with the people. Electoral support cannot be demanded — it must be earned through delivery, accountability, and principled leadership.
This brings us to the state of the Alliance. The Alliance was forged in struggle — not as an electoral pact, but as a strategic centre of working-class power. Yet today, it is weakened by drift, hesitation, and the marginalisation of working-class voices in decision-making.
Joe Slovo cautioned us against abandoning principle for convenience. He insisted that:
“Unity without a clear programme and class content is fragile — and easily captured by opportunism.”
Comrades, the Alliance must not exist only during elections. It must exist in struggle, in communities, in workplaces, and in policy battles. Where the Alliance retreats, reactionary forces advance. Where ideology weakens, populism and corruption thrive.
And let us be clear; the unity of the working class does not fall from the sky. It must be organised, educated, and led.
Joe Slovo was uncompromising on this point. He said: “Socialism will not come by default. It will only come through conscious organisation and struggle.” That is our task today.
Leadership as we meet only six days into the New Year, the world has already been plunged into geopolitical turmoil of the kind that if allowed to continue can threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions across the world, but in particular in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
We have been shocked by the brazen military attack on the peaceful people of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its President, Nicolás Maduro. We cannot return to the days of the Wild West where might is right and the sovereign choices of the world are trampled upon.
We welcome the principled call of the South African government for the United Nations to be seized with such matters and for all geopolitical and other disputes to be resolved in the appropriate multi-lateral institutions and in a manner that promotes peace not war, that respects and affirms the sovereign and democratic choices of all nations.
Such moments call for cool heads guided by the principles of working class and international solidarity.
Comrades, the working class needs a strong Communist Party — rooted in Marxism-Leninism, responsive to material conditions, and fearless in confronting both capital and internal decay.
We need unions that organise the unorganised, politicise economic struggles, and defend worker unity across sectors. We need mass organisations that link daily struggles to a socialist horizon.
So, what is to be done in honour of Joe Slovo?
We must remember Joe Slovo was a leader of the SACP and the ANC. He was the living embodiment of the unity of the Alliance.
First — rebuild the Alliance as a strategic centre of power, where working-class interests lead, not follow. This is a our fundamental task as the leadership collective of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, COSATU and SANCO. We have allowed our narrow differences, our own goals, our egos and feelings to guide us for far too long.
This leadership of the Alliance must now meet as a matter of the highest urgency before January is over, and we scurry off to deal with our many pressing demands. We must convene the Alliance Political Council as agreed by all Alliance Partners. We must resolve on the reconfiguration of the Alliance, including the modalities of our election campaigns for the pending local elections, and fundamentally to ensure the Alliance is united. We dare not fail on such a fundamental task.
Second — re-centre the state as a developmental instrument, capable of planning, owning, and delivering in the public interest.
Third — advance a radical economic programme: industrialisation, public ownership in strategic sectors, job creation, and expanded public services.
Fourth — restore ethical, capable local government, with consequences for corruption and incompetence.
Fifth — invest decisively in political education, cadre development, and revolutionary discipline.
Comrades, Joe Slovo taught us that communists must be honest with the people, firm in principle, and bold in action. He rejected cynicism. He rejected surrender. He believed that the working class, once organised and conscious, is an unstoppable force.
To honour Joe Slovo is not to quote him only — it is to continue his struggle.
To organise where despair is growing.
To educate where confusion reigns.
To lead where the working class demands direction.
Forward to working-class unity! Forward to socialism! Forward in the revolutionary spirit of Joe Slovo!
Amandla!
International-Solidarity
"International Day of Movement of the World Trade Union in Solidarity with Venezuela"
January 12, 2026
Following the deployment of US forces in the Caribbean with the seed of the war on drug trafficking, and after carrying out the first field strike on a domestic port area, the United States has unruly stepped up its aggression by carrying out a large-scale strike against Krakas, and the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores.
The United States is intensifying its aggression against the sovereign Venezuelan people, while threatening the entire region, by reviving the Monroe Principle, which is targeted in other regions such as Greenland.
This illegal abduction of a sovereign President constitutes an unprecedented aggressive act that violates all the fundamental principles of international law and practices, opening a new war front in the volatile global landscape. This intervention confirms the chaotic phase imperial aggression has entered, with unforeseen consequences.
The World Trade Union unambiguously condemns the imperial interference in Venezuela aimed at controlling the country's mineral and energy resources, amid the contradictions and struggles between imperial frames for dominance.
The Secretariat of the World Union of Labor Unions, following the solidarity initiatives developed by the class trade union movement since the first moment, decided to launch a day of global movement in solidarity with the people of Venezuela on January 22, 2026. The Union invites its members to actively participate in the Day of Movement, and to organize combat initiatives in front of the American embassies under the slogans:
US imperialism raise your hands off Venezuela
#Free President Maduro and Celia Flores.
Let us extend, in tact and to the end, national solidarity, indebted to this unacceptable and unprecedented intervention against the people of Venezuela.
And send a clear message:
Class and contesting unions support the non-negotiable right of the people of Latin America and the rest of the world to report their present and future freely and democratically.
- The American imperialism, raise your hands off Venezuela
- Free President Maduro and Celia Flores"
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Iran: ITUC condemns brutal repression of workers and trade unionists amid escalating crisis
8 January 2026
The ITUC strongly condemns the violent repression of workers, trade unionists and social movements in Iran, as protests and strikes have spread nationwide since late 2025 in response to a deepening economic and social crisis. FARS NEWS AGENCY
Iran’s economic collapse is having a devastating impact on the daily lives of working people, particularly women and children. Millions are being pushed into poverty by the rapid currency depreciation, accelerating inflation, soaring prices for food and essential goods, the sustained erosion of real wages, growing unemployment, and the rapid expansion of insecure and precarious forms of work.
“These conditions constitute a profound violation of workers’ economic and social rights and are driving legitimate and widespread protests. The Iranian authorities must engage in genuine social dialogue, and stop criminalising legitimate protest, and immediately cease the use of arbitrary detention, torture and surveillance.”ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle
Workers in key sectors, including public services, education, healthcare, oil and gas and manufacturing, as well as in the informal economy, are heavily affected and increasingly drawn into protests that are no longer confined to isolated urban centres.
Instead of engaging in social dialogue or respecting international labour standards, the authorities continue to:
Systematically treat labour protests, strikes and collective action as threats to “national security”. This deliberate securitisation of labour relations is being used to criminalise trade union activity, suppress free speech and peaceful assembly, and justify excessive force, mass surveillance, arbitrary detention and judicial harassment.
Effectively ban independent trade unions. Workers are denied the right to freely establish and join organisations of their own choosing, in clear violation of ILO Conventions No. 87 and No. 98. Trade unionists and labour rights defenders continue to face severe reprisals, including lengthy prison sentences, torture and, in the most extreme cases, death sentences - simply for exercising their fundamental rights.
Reports indicate that since late 2025 the expansion of protests has been met with intensified state repression, including the use of lethal force, resulting in deaths and mass detentions.
Luc Triangle continued: “The ITUC condemns these actions unequivocally and calls for an immediate end to violence, full respect for human and trade union rights, and accountability for abuses.
“We are witnessing in Iran the systematic crushing of workers’ rights under the false pretext of national security. Workers exercising their right to claim decent jobs with fair wages continue to be met with repression, imprisonment or even death sentences.
“Working people in Iran have had enough and further repression will not bring a solution. The Iranian authorities must now engage in social dialogue, immediately stop criminalising trade union activity, release all detained trade unionists, and comply with their obligations under international labour and human rights law to build a new social contract in Iran.”
The ITUC stands in full solidarity with workers and trade unionists in Iran and calls on the ILO, UN human rights mechanisms and the international community to intensify scrutiny and exert sustained pressure to ensure respect for fundamental labour rights.
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Protests against new minimum wage regulation in Indonesia
5 January, 2026
Indonesian trade unions organized nationwide protests in the last two weeks of December 2025 against a newly introduced government regulation on wages, criticizing the lack of proper consultation with trade unions and the introduction of what unions describe as an unfair adjustment index.
Further protests took place in the first week of January in Jakarta, Bekasi, Karawang, West Java, Aceh and Riau. The president of the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation (KSPI) and the Labour Party, Said Iqbal, announced that workers would organize another large demonstration at the Presidential Palace and the parliament building on 8 January.
Unions have rejected the regulation, saying it was adopted without proper consultation and warning that the adjustment index, set between 0.5 and 0.9, could suppress minimum wages, particularly at the provincial level.
The protests followed the approval of the regulation by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on 17 December. The President said the changes aim to maintain workers’ purchasing power for a decent living, stabilize the national economy and take into account the 2024 ruling of the Constitutional Court. That ruling stated that the government must revise its minimum wage policy, taking into consideration the need for a decent living, justice and humanity and reinstated the sectoral minimum wage.
In response, KSPI has put forward four demands: at least a 6.5 per cent minimum wage increase; a 6–7 per cent increase to protect workers’ purchasing power; a 6.5–6.8 per cent increase as a realistic compromise; and an adjustment index of 0.7–0.9 instead of 0.5–0.9.
Riden Hatam Aziz, president of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate FSPMI, said:
“Tens of thousands of workers from Jakarta, West Java and Banten have taken the minimum wage issue to the streets. The government must abolish the new regulation, which poses a serious threat to a living wage, as it may result in no wage increase in some regions despite rising living costs. The regulation also contradicts the ruling of the Constitutional Court.”
On 19 December, IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie wrote to the Indonesian President, urging the government to review the regulation. Høie said constitutional requirements, international labour standards and the principles of social dialogue must be respected and warned that the regulation was adopted “without meaningful public participation and without adequate consultation with trade unions, despite their constitutionally and internationally recognized role as social partners in wage determination”.
“The conclusions of the ILO Experts’ Meeting on Wage Policies, including living wages, reaffirm that wage-setting frameworks should be grounded in evidence-based methodologies, aimed at ensuring decent living standards and developed through genuine tripartite consultation,” Høie said.
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Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street, Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct line: 010 219-1348