COSATU Today, 12 October 2012

[Norman Mampane]

COSATU Today

 

                                  Our side of the story

   Friday 12 October  2012

‘Strengthen COSATU for total emancipation’

 

 

 

Contents

Workers’ Parliament

Ø  Municipal Workers in Limpopo to meet employer body SALGA over strike

Ø  3000 Municipal Workers to down tools in North West over corruption.

Ø  Textile workers in Newcastle demanding a living wage

Ø  Enabling COSATU Members access ‘Cosatu Today face-book Page’

 

South Africa

Ø  Statement on Cabinet meeting of 10 October 2012

Ø  Roll-out of Gauteng e-tolling to be announced soon

Ø Presentation by Prof. Somadoda Fikeni delivered at the 11th National Congress at Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand

Ø  Red Reader Corner; The Ice melts into water; Arctic Ice Melt, Psychopathic Capitalism and the Corporate Media

 

International

Ø  Murder of unionists condemned as labour unrest spreads in South Africa’s mines

Ø  Another victory for SME!

Ø  Long struggle brings lasting compensation to families of shipbreaking workers in Alang

Ø  ITUC tells IFI meetings to abandon austerity focus, focus on job-centred recovery

Ø  The Emperor has no clothes

Ø  WFTU pledges solidarity with workers at NOVOTEL

Ø  Stop handling Israel goods Campaign is underway! Join protest in Cape Town

 

Announcements

Ø   “The conditions of the working class and the poor. What lessons can be drawn by the working class from the Marikana events”?-DITSELA Public Siyakhuluma Seminar

Ø Invitation to a Seminar on sexualities and relationship Education at WITS

Ø  YCLSA National Chairperson Yershen Pillay to address Ruth First Lectures 

Ø  Red October March & Anti-Corruption Rally  

Ø  "Towards the clinician-led management team: a strategy for fixing hospitals?"-Public Debate

Ø  Living Wage Campaign; Bargaining for a Living Wage

Ø  African Solidarity Festival coming in November 2012

Ø  Economy: Transformation of the Mining Sector and greater ownership avoiding another Marikana Public Debate at WITS

 

Workers’ Parliament!

   Municipal Workers in Limpopo to meet employer body SALGA over strike

Simon Mathe, SAMWU’s Limpopo Provincial Secretary,12 October 2012

The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) in Limpopo will be meeting with employer body South African local Government Association (SALGA) on the 16th of October, following the handing over of a memorandum of demands, by the Union.

The meeting will attempt to resolve all matters of concern to the Union, in the Limpopo Province; relating to SALGA’s refusal to implement the wage curve judgement we won in court.

The meeting is also viewed as an attempt by the Employer to avert further action by SAMWU to get its concerns addressed.

SAMWU welcomes the initiative by SALGA and hopes that the meeting will arrive at a reasonable conclusion, for the purpose of creating stability within the Local Government sector.

It is high time SALGA comes to its senses and contributes to peace, accountability and stability within the sector. SAMWU wants to warn SALGA in advance, if their delegates come to the meeting with an intention to further frustrate processes then the meeting should be cancelled.

As SAMWU we are ready to deal with issues affecting the sector, including SALGA’s arrogance in implementing the wage curve judgement as instructed by the labour court.

Our demands on wage curve

Wage curve agreement: The Wage Curve agreement we secured three years ago; is an attempt to pave the way for a proper wage structure to exist in the Municipal sector, where jobs and associated salaries are properly graded.

This will ensure that many workers who for years have been underpaid will now receive the correct payment. The effect of the agreement is that payment will be backdated to September 2009.

Corruption: The Union is also demanding that Government begin dealing decisively with corruption in the sector.

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3000 Municipal Workers to down tools in North West over corruption.

 

Jacob Modeming, SAMWU’s North West Provincial Secretary, 12 October 2012

 

More than three thousand Municipal Workers in the North West Province, Bojanala Region will be taking to the streets from today, 12^th of  October 2012.

These members will be marching to present a memorandum of demands to the MEC of Cooperative Governance and traditional Affairs China Dodovu and to the District Mayor of Bojanala Region, Lowie Diremeleo.

 

Municipal Workers are concerned by the unacceptable levels of favouritism, nepotism, Political interferences in administrative matters and rampant corruption taking place on a daily basis in Municipalities in the North West Province.

 

These Provincial and Regional protest actions will also be followed by national action, where all South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) members throughout the country will be bringing services in this country to a complete halt.

 

The Union is calling for the Political Heads and Municipal Managers of the following municipalities to swallow their pride and resign with immediate effect, for dismally failing Communities, municipal workers and ordinary tax payers in the Province.

 

Detailed evidence of corruption in the Province

 

Rustenburg Local Municipality

 

The Mayor and his Municipal Manager should resign and the Rustenburg Municipality must be put under administration because of the following reasons

1.    The Mayor continued to ignore and condoned corruption, when the former Council Speaker Mathews Wolmaranstad (who is currently serving a jail sentence) drew a monthly salary from the Institution. Also, Enoch Matsaba who was a co accused in the murder case of the late Councillor Moss Phakoe,  was paid monthly salaries for more than eight months while in jail.

2.     Fruitless and Wasteful expenditure, the Mayor commissioned a company called Price Water House Coopers to conduct an investigation into employment practices in the Institution.

3.     More than half a million was paid by the Municipality to this company to do this work. Work was done by this company but up till this stage, the result of work done by this company has never been made public, or even to the Council and all other stakeholders.

4.    The report is gathering dust wherever it is! The question that needs to be asked is, at whose expense and who has benefited from this process?     

 

Municipal Manager

 

Abuse of administrative powers on the side of the Municipal Manager has resulted in unfair, illegal and the un-procedural appointment of one “blue eyed boy”.

 

A man called Nketu Matima has been appointed as manager in the Council Speaker’s Office, up till 2017. Nobody knows why and how this man was appointed, he is receiving 900, 000 per annum in the form of a salary.

 

Also, the Illegal, un-procedural appointment of a manager in the office of the Municipal Manager, this man is paid R850, 000 per annum.

 

Private Companies in the Municipality

 

A private company known as Khetwayo and Motltlegi JV all the way from Easter Cape is contracted to the Municipality to do the following duties/function – repairing water pipes, unlocking sewage lines.

 

This is work done on a daily basis by municipal employees.

 

It is not clear as to why this company is drawing salaries every month for the work that it is not doing. In August this year R847, 000 was paid to this company for doing nothing!

 

Moretele Local Municipality

 

We will continue to call for the Mayor, the Council Speaker and the Whip to resign in this Institution.

 

We acknowledge and appreciate the little progress that was made, when the following people were suspended;

1.    The Manager in the Mayor’s office – Benny Matlala

2.    Lea Sekhaolela – The MMC for special Projects in the Office of the Mayor

 

These people were suspended after SAMWU raised serious concerns of corruption in this Institution.

 

A small Municipality in a deep rural area which does not generate income had the audacity to employ a Deputy Chief Financial Officer. This is an insult to the community of Moretele

 

It is still embarrassing and totally unacceptable that this Institution through its Mayor Johannes Lehari that payments are still being made to a Legal Firm called Mosire Tsiane.

 

More than R400, 000 in payments were made in the last two weeks.

 

This is a company that is used to syphon money out of the Municipality.

 

It is for this reasons that the Union is continuing to call for the Political Head Of this Municipality to resign.

 

Moses Kotane Local Municipality

 

We congratulate law enforcement agencies for acting swiftly in arresting two people in Limpopo and another two in the Gauteng Province for working and colluding with a worker in the Finance Department in stealing R6 Million from the coffers of this municipality.

 

This is a Municipality were workers are not provided with safety clothing, the workers are working in Sewage Department without safety gloves and protective clothing, All this while the Mayor gallivants around in a new Audi Q7.

 

It is sad to realise that even this new Audi Q7 that the Mayor is going around with, was involved in an accident and within a few days, she got herself a new luxurious Blue Efficiency Audi Q7 and a Mercedes Bens sedan C200 CDI, without any Council Resolution.

 

The Mayor and his Council has spent R800, 000 during an IMBIZO held in one of the poor and impoverished villages called Mabieskraal this year in August. The sad part is that the R800, 000 was never authorised.

 

Almost all the villages that are supposed to be serviced by this Municipality are now running for months without clean drinking water.

 

There are absolutely no services that are provided by this Municipality yet the Mayor lives a Hollywood like lifestyle.   

      

Madibeng Local Municipality

 

The intervention made by the National Minister of Cooperate Governance and Traditional Affairs Mr Baloyi in sending a committee to investigate corruption in this municipality, was welcomed by the Union.

 

We are worried that the work of this committee is taking much longer than expected. Three weeks was initially set aside for this committee to complete its work, it is worrying that we now well into the third month.

 

We can only hope that honest work is being done.

 

A man called Solinda Mnisi a Regional Executive Committee member of the ANC in Bojanala Region has been deployed as the Strategic Director in the office of the Executive Mayor of Madibeng, a position that does not exist in the Organizational Structure.

 

The Municipality has also employed a new Chief Financial Officer, a certain Mrs Nkuna who was allegedly dismissed for corrupt related activities in one municipality in Limpopo.

 

The question is how on earth was this person employed with such a terrible background and allowed to deal with finances in this institution?

 

SAMWU in the North West Province will not rest until all corrupt elements are arrested and thrown into jail.

 

We will also not rest until we see proper and efficient services rendered to all communities.

 

We will not rest until workers in general and SAMWU members in particular, throughout the North Province, are provided with proper protective clothing and working tools.

 

For more information please feel free to contact  

 

Issued by SAMWU

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Textile workers in Newcastle demanding a living wage

Andre Kriel, SACTWU  General Secretary, 12 October 2012

 

Approximately 3 800 clothing workers in Newcastle are on strike for a living wage.

 

The legal strike by these SACTWU members started on Monday 8 October 2012.

The strike affects 35 companies and workers earn between R250-R400 per week, far below the legally prescribed minimum of an already low wage of R534 per week. Workers are on strike demanding a R45 per week increase.

 

The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) is determined to continue our fight for a living wage for clothing workers.

 

Issued By SACTWU

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Enabling COSATU Members access ‘Cosatu Today face-book Page’

Introduction to COSATU Official Face Book Page

Ø  Congress of South Africa Trade Unions-Cosatu Today

Official face-book page of Congress of South Africa Trade Unions-Cosatu Today, to update members on all activities of the Federation and Affiliates

How to access Cosatu Today Face-book Page

Ø  Go Google and type face book

Ø  Log in on to your face book page and search Congress of South Africa Trade Unions-Cosatu Today; after you have logged-in

Ø  Access the page and make your contributions read by all citizens/members in the country or elsewhere

Ø  Follow COSATU Today Tweets [from @COSATU TODAY _cosatu or cosatu2015], in relation to the work of the Federation

Ø  Examples of Profile information; COSATU Today is Africa's largest Federation Official Face book page, the home of the toiling classes across the world, with more than 2 million membership.

‘The labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign for better working conditions and treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour relations’.

‘Trade Unions are collective organizations within societies, organized for the purpose of representing the interests of workers and the working class’. 

Ø  Following the Federation is the same as shaping the Federation with your inputs on Facebook!

Social Media generation is here and is unavoidable

‘Facebook is, well, in your face’

 

‘Let's face it. Facebook's here to stay’

South Africa

   Statement on Cabinet meeting of 10 October 2012

Government Communication and Information System, 11 October 2012

Cabinet held its ordinary meeting in Pretoria on 10 October 2012 (yesterday), and, in keeping with established practices, we hereby conduct this briefing to give an account on issues noted and decisions taken, as follows:

1. CURRENT AFFAIRS

1.1. Economy

Cabinet noted with concern the uncomfortable international macro-economic outlook, of which South Africa is not left unaffected, due to global factors but also domestic ones, as a result of which rating agencies altered our standing from stable to negative.

Cabinet remains committed to taking the necessary measures to lift the growth potential and competitiveness of the South African economy, to address the domestic contributory factors and to ensure that the impact of the downgrade is contained and does not encroach on already constrained resources for key service delivery programmes.

It should be noted that as a country, we take seriously the role of agencies and that, as always, we view them as necessary partners to do assessments of who we and reflect on the areas we should pay attention to as an International actor on matters of economy. 

1.2. Labour

Cabinet noted with concerns the lawlessness, violence and intimidation that continue to pollute the otherwise democratic right for workers to strike. It is a fact that as a Democracy, the right to strike is a defined right in South Africa that obligates the strikers to observe that they cannot encroach into other peoples’ rights as they enjoy theirs. No one should be intimidated to take or not to take an industrial action in a Democracy. No-one should resort to any form of violence against people or property as a form of striking or protests.

Our struggle for freedom and democracy ensured that our laws provide space for protected peaceful strikes, which obviates the need for illegal strikes accompanied by violence and intimidation.

Cabinet therefore reiterates its call for workers to utilise existing channels with unions to address grievance and wage negotiations in a manner that is in touch with our laws and collective bargaining practices.

It is, among others, these illegal strike actions and the accompanying violence that is not helping the country’s image internationally and is contributing to the already exerting challenges facing our economy and society.

1.3. Presidential Infrastructure Development Summit

Cabinet noted that there is a Presidential Infrastructure Summit planned for the 19^th October 2012 that will boost the visibility of government's infrastructure plan, driven by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission.  

1.4. Education

Cabinet noted that President Zuma handed over new schools to villages in Libode and Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape as part of the replacement programme for mud schools.

Cabinet wishes the Class of 2012 well with the 2012 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations which will be written from 22 October until 28 November 2012.

1.5. Health

Government has put in place early interventions to address health barriers to learning in order to enhance children’s development and educational gains. Preventable and treatable barriers such as problems with vision, hearing and oral health can compromise children’s ability to achieve to their full potential.

On this programme, President Jacob Zuma is launching the Integrated School Health Package today 11 October at Chokwe School in Cullinan.

The Integrated School Health Programme is a joint initiative between the Departments of Basic Education, Health and Social Development that delivers a comprehensive package of both onsite health education and services to primary and secondary schools.

1.6. Salute to a national hero

The last week saw a great loss to South Africa’s intellectual community with the death of Zwelakhe Sisulu, the son of Walter and Albertina Sisulu, and a contributor to the freedom struggle in his own right.

Cabinet expresses its condolences to the family and friends of this giant of South Africa’s history.

Mr Sisulu will be remembered with pride for the role played at the New Nation newspaper, the SABC and other institutions, as well as the inspiration he gave to many youth and families.

1.7. SAA Board

Cabinet has noted with concern the developments that have unfolded with the resignation of the CEO and some of the executive management of the national carrier South African Airways (SAA).

This comes at a point when the Minister of Public Enterprises is finalizing the development of the sustainable long term vision for the national carrier.

2. CABINET DECISIONS

2.1 Accession to the United Nation International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

Cabinet approved that South Africa accede to United Nations International Covenant on Economic and Cultural Rights. The recommendation will be tabled in Parliament for ratification in line with Section 231 (2) of the South African Constitution. The Covenant is a key international treaty which seeks to encourage State Parties to address challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty, which are critical to the strategic goals of governments.

2.2 Outcome of the investigation into the proposal for Government to acquire an equity stake in Sunspace (Pty) Ltd

Cabinet received and accepted the outcomes of the investigation on government acquiring a majority equity stake in Sunspace.Cabinet approved that negotiations be entered into with South African National Space Agency (SANSA) – an entity owned by State - to explore the absorption of the core capability of Sunspace into SANSA. This will ensure the strengthening of satellite and manufacturing capability within SANSA.

2.3 Accession to Annexures IV and VI of the International convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) 73/78

Cabinet approved the accession to Annexures IV and VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from ships.

Annexure IV regulates the discharging of sewage into sea, ships’ equipment and systems for the control of sewage discharge. It further regulates the provision of facilities at ports and terminals for the reception of sewage and requirements for survey and certification.

Annexure VI deals with the prevention of air pollution from ships. It sets limits on Sulphur oxide and Nitrogen oxide emissions from ships exhausts and prohibits deliberate emissions of ozone depleting substances.The accession will be tabled in Parliament for ratification.

2.4 2012/13 Budget Adjustments and 2013 MTEF Policy Statement

The extended Cabinet approved the 2012/13 budget adjustments, the fiscal framework and the Division of Revenue for the 2013 MTEF to be published in the 2012 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement. Cabinet further noted with concern the impact of the global economic downturn and recent disruptions in the domestic economy due to industrial action and their combined impact on the performance of the South African economy. A fuller media briefing by National Treasury will be held after the presentation in Parliament.

3. BILLS

3.1 Dangerous Weapons Bill, 2012

Cabinet approved the submission of the Draft Dangerous Weapons Bill to Parliament. The Bill is to repeal the previous Dangerous Weapons Acts which were in operation in areas of the erstwhile South Africa, Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei. The Bill will enhance organizational efficiency and facilitate the transformation of the legal system in line with the constitutional imperatives.

3.2 Mental Health Amendment Bill 2012

Cabinet approved the submission of the Mental Health Amendment Bill to Parliament.The Bill allows the Director-General to delegate to officials in the department powers dealing with transfers of State patients from detention centres to designated health establishment and between designated health establishments. The amendments will improve service delivery in the area of involuntary health care users.

4. APPOINTMENTS

4.1 Cabinet approved the appointment of Mr Frans Kgathatso Tlhakudi as the Deputy Director-General: Manufacturing (Defense, Mining and Forestry) in the Department of Public Enterprises.

4.2 Cabinet approved the appointment of eight (8) new non-executive Directors and the Chairperson of the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator (SADPMR) Board.

Ms Nombulelo Hlolinhlanhla Mkhumane – Chairperson
Mr Sakhile Glen Ngcobo
Ms Nthabiseng Sharon Xaba
Mr Peter Bailey
Ms Daphney Mashile-Nkosi
Ms Bajabulile Luthuli
Mrs Dolly Doreen Mokgatle
Ms Motlatso Kobe (with Mr M Mabuza as her alternate member)

Cabinet approved the re-appointment of the following members for a three-year term with effect from 1 October 2012.

Mr Stephen Ditshebo Phiri
Mr Llewelyn Delport
Mr Leon Peter Grobler
Mr Raymond Paola (with Mr A Bezuidenhout as his alternate member)
Ms Ntombifuthi Phydellis Zikalala

Enquiries: 
Phumla Williams (Acting Cabinet Spokesperson)
Contact: 083 501 0139

Issued by: Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) 
11 Oct 2012

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           Roll-out of Gauteng e-tolling to be announced soon

Government Communication and Information System, 11 October 2012

Pretoria - An announcement on the roll-out of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) will be made very soon, says acting Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Richard Baloyi.

Addressing reporters during a post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday, Baloyi said following the stakeholder engagement processes, which are currently taking place, an announcement will be made.

The Constitutional Court opened the way for the GFIP system to be implemented when it set aside a Pretoria High Court ruling made in April that prevented the system from going ahead, pending a judicial review in November. 

This means SANRAL and the Department of Transport are legally entitled to begin rolling out the system. 

The final rounds of talks between government and stakeholders on the GFIP are expected to be concluded soon.

The inter-ministerial task team has already consulted labour federation Cosatu and the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, and will end with a meeting with the Road Freight Association. - SAnews.gov.za

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Presentation by Prof. Somadoda Fikeni delivered at the 11th National Congress at Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand

Professor Somadoda Fikeni’s Presentation at COSATU Congress, 12 October 2012

 

Programme director

The leadership of the COSATU Union Federation,

The ANC-led Alliance Leadership present here,

The distinguished audience and all invited guests,

 

I am humbled by the honour of being invited to make a presentation on the occasion of the 11^thNational Congress of COSATU.

 

Let me first congratulate the elected COSATU leadership and wish them well on the task of leading this great labour union federation as it navigates the challenging path ahead of fulfilling its historic mission.

 

Labour movement has always been a preparatory incubation school for ANC leadership and being the most organized muscle of the alliance.

 

That you defied many predictions of a bitter leadership contest is quite commendable.

 

The genius of ANC and its alliance partners’ ability to manage and sometimes overcoming serious contradictions has become the hallmark of our long liberation struggle history. Scholars and knowledge workers of all shades are yet to fully comprehend this exceedingly fascinating phenomenon.  

 

At this juncture, however, COSATU, the ANC (with all its Leagues) and the SACP face their most challenging task and a defining moment of making real the promises of democracy and the National Democratic Revolution in the face of the most daunting adversities, both internal and external, current and historical, structural and agency.

 

As a knowledge worker I have come to appreciate how complex South African transition is, as it defies most of simplistic and often sweeping characterization that we often read about. 

 

 In this brief presentation, I will highlight the context of the current historical conjecture and the defining features of SA transition.

 

I will then make reference to key features of the Brazilian recent experience of a developmental state, what the COSATU president referred to as the “Lula Moment” born out of a clear vision and decisive state intervention.

 

 Factors that inhibit or enable SA from making a great leap forward as a developmental state will be highlighted in this context.  

 

I will simply highlight most of the issues without delving into nuanced details given the time limitation.  

 

Some of the issues will be raised as questions than answers with the hope that they trigger some reflection as no one person can be naïve to think that he can have all the answers to these complex issues. 

 

 Africa is shaped like a question mark and the base dot is where South Africa is.

 

Today we live in a world where global capital is experiencing acute crisis that has seen decline and stagnation of old western economies, the rise of new economies from the South plus Russia and Africa holds the key in terms of its reservoir of resources and demographic dividends, the Middle East hub of oil production is experiencing serious political instability.

 

How then can Africa and South Africa, the economic powerhouse of Africa,  take advantage of this geopolitical reconfiguration. Are we in a position to? 

 

It is increasingly become obvious to most of us that South African democratic transition is one of the most complex and yet we lack tools and theories to properly dissect it. Absence of a robust public discourse  and severe limitations of the “Would-be” public intellectuals has contributed to this state of affairs.

 

It is for this reason that, among others, Leslie Dikeni & Mervin Gumede have written about the Poverty of Ideas and Eddy Maloka also wrote an article on The Crisis of Black Intellectuals. 

 

The irony is that intellectual enterprise on South Africa flourished during the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid liberation only to stagnate and fade during our democratic transition.

The sound-bites and guest columns that we provide for the media are not to be confused with deep, robust and sustained public intellection or discourse.

 

 Generally, the superficial manner in which we continue to characterize our democratic transition immediately reveals the aforementioned limitations.

For an example, by 1970/80s there was a general consensus on South Africa as a colonialism of a special kind in which both the colonizer and the colonized cohabitate the same geographical space with no distant metropole that the settler community would claim as home.

 

What then are the implications of this in a post-apartheid state? In other words, what is The Post-Colony of a Special Kind? 

 

What are the implications hegemonic power structures in the political, social and economic spheres? Who then set the national agenda? Where is the locus of power?

Does political power and authority immediately translate into socio-economic power?  

 

What are the implications of the compromised political settlement of the early 1990s and what are the manifestations of its structural arrangement?

Has the liberation movement led by the ANC clearly separated the tactical choices which are temporary in nature from the strategic options which are long-term? For an example, has the sunset clause outlived its shelf life?

 

Professor Ali Mazrui has characterized South Africa’s political settlement after an impasse where the liberation movement was to strong to lose but yet weak not to impose its will as the case of a jewel and a crown in which Whites generally remained with the Jewel (economic wealth) whereas Blacks received the crown (political authority).  

Is this a fair characterization? Lifting the superficial vale of South African exceptionalism and do comparative analysis of why revolutions succeed or fail around the world.

 

Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children…” Amilcar Cabral: Tell no lies: extracts from party directive 1965

 

ANC-led government has done so much in terms of leading a process of setting up democratic institutions (democratic architecture) as well as numerous programmes of service delivery (electrification, roads & transport infrastructure, water provision, school feeding schemes, housing, social security grants, access to health etc). 

 

Taking the recent ANC policy conference, SACP conference and the current

 

COSATU discussion documents as well as many other independent studies there is a consensus that whereas SA seem to have made great strides in establishing institutions of democracy there has only been a very modest progress on social and economic justice.

 

The colonial and apartheid geography still defines our landscape with the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality being the dominant feature that afflicts the historically disadvantaged. 

 

I challenge the notion that we face triple challenges when the cancer of corruption is so widespread, I am yet to understand why we cannot elevate corruption to join the club of terrible three (poverty, unemployment and inequality).

 

BEE model of acquisition of shares are not yielding any empowerment dividends South Africa has earned a dubious distinction of being one of the most unequal societies in the world. How do we explain the paradox and irony of a democratic transition led by a movement that has always embraced egalitarian values degenerating into such inequality?

 

How do we account for the rise of crass materialism even among the ranks of revolutionary cadres? Do revolutionaries transform institutions they occupy or do they get transformed and assimilated into those institutions?

 

Would such inequality not translate into social distance between the elite (business/political) and the masses? In this context what are the features of the sins of incumbency?  

 

As Joel Netshitenzhe exclaims in his article: Why good people go bad?  In his book, “The Wretched of the Earth”, Franz Fanon describes the sins of incumbency when he speaks of The Pitfalls of National Consciousness.”

 

In specific terms how do we describe the sins of incumbency in our South African context.

 

The shrinking role of post-1994 State, increase of consumptive sector and shrinking productive sector: privatization and unbundling of state assets and over-tenderization of state thus leading to diminished state capacity. Tenderpreneur parasitic relationship with the state and decentralization of corruption.  

 

The Limpopo book saga and the open toilet saga as some examples. Inverted relationship between the primary objective of service provision and secondary allocation of tenders has fundamentally distorted state effectiveness in service provision.  BEE model of acquisition of shares not yielding any empowerment dividends.

 

State inefficiency: Duplication of roles and competition than complementarities. Horizontal and vertical inefficiencies and lack of effective monitoring and evaluation. Limitations of national intervention to provinces and provincial interventions to local spheres of government.  Growing wasteful, fruitless expenditure and fraud, currently at R22,7 Billion in the previous year’s expenditure.

 

Structural arrangement: Treasury-driven government programmes than strategy driven allocation resources. Myriad of complex compliance regimes. These make state to be less-responsive and more technocratic even during the times of crisis.

 

A well-meaning social security (social grant), political risk of dependency and entitlement in a welfare state arrangement and sustainability.

 

Uncontrolled immigration and implications for resource allocation and development planning. Implications for labour, security, retail sector, skills development.

 

High policy and agency turnover:  From RDP to Gear to ASGISA, to New Growth Path, ANC Policy proposals for radical shift and the National Plan.

 

Monopoly capital and concentration of power in many sectors (Banking, media, construction, mining, telecommunication[fixed and mobile], private health and medical aid schemes).  Implications for the balance of forces and policy direction.

 

Relationship between business and politics: Interpenetration and political security

 

The current global economic crisis(recession) and  its local manifestations: rising cost of living, commodity prices and steady rise of salaries pegged at inflation rate as well as swelling ranks of unemployment particularly among the black youth as a high risk. 

 

There is growing violent political rhetoric within and between parties and political formations. Violence has become means of expression or making demands and is being accepted as part of our political culture. Implications for country’s stability and consolidation democracy.  

Security strikers and Marikana being prominent examples of this.

 

Declining internal democracy within political formations and high premium on acquiring a position as a form of social mobility thus creating a permanent contestation mode with service delivery taking a secondary role.

 

Minority political players (opposition parties, trade unions, NGOs) have found expression through courts and the media as well as some Chapter 9 institutions.  This trend, if not managed, may erode legitimacy and effectiveness of these institutions.

 

      ANC Broad Church Character and internal contestations. Some contradictions. Do we all understand the implications.

      Lessons to be drawn from Marikana

      Lessons from the book saga & national intervention in provinces through section 100.

      What lessons can we get from the Polokwane moment. The end justifies the means.

Perhaps the identification of a national vision and policies to deal with our triple + one challenges may not be as difficult than getting the right cadres, state capacity and political will to implement it with bold resolve driven by the courage of conviction.

 

South Africa may not address its problems if it adopts an incremental development stance it is in a need for a great Leap Forward akin to the Roosevelt New Deal to deal with the Great Depression, the Marshal Plan that reconstructed Europe from the war years as the fierce urgency of the moment is such that not attended to these challenges may grow into social disorder and political instability.

“The Lula Moment” : Brazilian experience and some lessons on a democratic developmental state great leap forward. President Silva da Lula turned around Brazil in just ten years.

 

The Brazilian Model of a developmental state is most relevant to us given the similarities between between Brazilian demographic features and history and that of SA.

 

That this developmental state operated, unlike Asian Tigers, outside the Cold War context and had democratic credentials which were not necessarily the case in Asia. China has its anomalies in both scale and form.

 

In just ten years Silva da Lula of Worker’s Party had become the most popular Brazilian and Latin American president for taking out 24 million people from poverty through his no hunger programme, infrastructure and industrial policy programme that stimulated growth and manufacturing thus moving Brazil into 8^th largest economy in the world, Brazil within 3 years balanced its budget and paid its public foreign debt and begin to achieve surplus while removing Brazil from the dubious position of being the most unequal country in the world.

 

For SA to move out of this current situation and deal with a leap forward will, among others, have deal with the following five deficits:

      Honesty deficit

       Courage deficit:

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. 
Maya Angelou

      Common sense deficit

      Leadership deficit

      Vision deficit

 Going back to basics, heal and unite the ANC & Alliance and embark on a bold, creative journey to fulfil its historic mission.  It is swim or sink, drink or drown, do or die moment.

 

Thank you.

_____________________________

Red Reader Corner; The Ice melts into water; Arctic Ice Melt, Psychopathic Capitalism and the Corporate Media

 

David Cromwell and David Edwards, SACP, 11 October 2012

 

Last month, climate scientists announced that Arctic sea ice had shrunk to its smallest surface area since satellite observations began in 1979. An ice-free summer in the Arctic, once projected to be more than a century away, now looks possible just a few decades from now. Some scientists say it may happen within the next few years.

 

The loss is hugely significant because Arctic sea ice reflects most solar energy into space, helping to keep the Earth at a moderate temperature. But when the ice melts it reveals dark waters below, which absorb more than 90 per cent of the solar energy that hits them, leading to faster warming both locally and globally.

 

Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, warns that the Arctic may be ice-free in summer as soon as 2015. Such a massive loss would have a warming effect roughly equivalent to all human activity to date. In other words, a summer ice-free Arctic could double the rate of warming of the planet as a whole. No wonder that leading NASA climate scientist James Hansen says bluntly: 'We are in a planetary emergency.'

 

In a comprehensive blog piece on the Scientific American website, Ramez Naam points out that:

 

'The reality of changes to the Arctic has far outstripped most predictions. Only a few years ago, in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the bulk of models showed the Arctic ice cap surviving in summer until well past 2100. Now it's not clear that the ice will survive in summer past 2020. The level of sea ice we saw this September, in 2012, wasn't expected by the mean of IPCC models until 2065. The melting Arctic has outpaced the predictions of almost everyone - everyone except the few who were called alarmists.'

 

As well as global warming from carbon dioxide (CO2), there is the additional risk of warming from methane (CH4) being released into the atmosphere. Huge quantities of methane are locked up in land permafrost. But even vaster quantities exist as methane hydrates frozen below the shallow waters of the Arctic Ocean's continental shelves. Naam warns:

 

'If even 10% of the northern permafrost's buried carbon were released as methane, it would have a heating effect over the next decade equivalent to ten times all human greenhouse emissions to date, and over the next century equivalent to roughly four times all human greenhouse emissions to date.'

 

That's just the methane on land, trapped in the permafrost. If the methane hydrates buried on the Arctic continental shelves were to be released, that would have a warming effect equivalent to hundreds of times the total human carbon emissions to date.

 

Although Namm says 'we are probably not in danger of a methane time bomb going off any time soon', recent observations show that Arctic methane is being released into the atmosphere. And there is scientific controversy over how serious and how rapid this release is.

In summary, Naam points to a triple whammy effect:

1.    Warming from the greenhouse gases we are currently emitting.

2.    Warming from the loss of ice and permafrost in the Arctic, and the exposure of dark water and dark land below.

3.    Warming from the release of more carbon into the atmosphere as the permafrost and the Arctic sea floor methane begin to melt.

The situation is already dire. According to a new report commissioned by twenty governments, more than 100 million people will die by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change. Five million deaths already occur each year from air pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and carbon-intensive economies. This death toll would likely rise to six million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue. More than 90 per cent of those deaths will occur in developing countries.

 

On a sane planet, action would have been taken long before now to limit the risk. But, as Greenpeace International head Kumi Naidoo notes, fossil fuel industries have been working hard to corrupt the political process:

 

'Why our governments don't take action? Because they have been captured by the same interests of the energy industry.'

As we noted in an alert last year, a Greenpeace study titled Who's Holding Us Back? reported:

'The corporations most responsible for contributing to climate change emissions and profiting from those activities are campaigning to increase their access to international negotiations and, at the same time, working to defeat progressive legislation on climate change and energy around the world.'

Greenpeace added:

 

'These polluting corporations often exert their influence behind the scenes, employing a variety of techniques, including using trade associations and think tanks as front groups; confusing the public through climate denial or advertising campaigns; making corporate political donations; as well as making use of the "revolving door" between public servants and carbon-intensive corporations.'

 

Unsurprisingly then, meaningful action on tackling climate change is nowhere on the political agenda.

 

Drilling To Oblivion

 

Around the same time that a record low in Arctic sea ice was being recorded, a new report from the UK's House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee urged a halt to all oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, at least 'until new safeguards are put in place.' Committee chair Joan Walley MP said:

'The shocking speed at which the Arctic sea ice is melting should be a wake-up call to the world that we need to phase out fossil fuels fast. Instead we are witnessing a reckless gold rush in this pristine wilderness as big companies and governments make a grab for the world's last untapped oil and gas reserves.'

 

Caroline Lewis, member of the committee, warned that 'the race to carve up the Arctic is accelerating faster than our regulatory or technical capacity to manage it.'

 

But the record of corporate capitalism shows that powerful industrial forces will do all they can to lobby governments to allow for continued economic exploitation of the planet's resources. According to the US Geological Survey, within the Arctic Circle there are some 90 billion barrels of oil - 13 per cent of the planet's undiscovered oil reserves - and 30 per cent of its undiscovered natural gas. The race for corporate profits is now on, with Shell already committed to a 'multi-year exploration program' in the Arctic.

 

The receding Arctic ice is a 'business opportunity' for those wishing to exploit newly available shipping routes. Cargo that now goes via the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal will, in many cases, have a shorter Arctic route, ensuring 'efficiency savings' for big business.

Companies are also licking their lips at the prospect at getting their hands on vast deposits of minerals as Greenland's ice cap recedes.

 

'For me, I wouldn't mind if the whole ice cap disappears,' said Ole Christiansen, the chief executive of NunamMinerals, Greenland's largest homegrown mining company, with his eyes on a proposed gold mining site up the fjord from Nuuk, Greenland's capital. 'As it melts, we're seeing new places with very attractive geology.'

 

A good example of the psychopathic mind-set at the heart of corporate capitalism. Science writer Peter Gleick responded incredulously on Twitter: '25 foot sea rise?' For that is indeed the catastrophic scale of global sea level rise that would occur with the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

 

The BBC Parks The Problem

 

The BBC's extremely poor and biased coverage of climate change continues to dismay seasoned observers. As Verity Payne and Freya Roberts noted on The Carbon Brief website, the corporation's 'fondness for pitting non-experts against each other over particularly complex areas of climate science reached surreal heights' in a recent BBC2 Newsnight segment on Arctic sea ice loss.

 

The encounter between Conservative MP Peter Lilley and the Green Party's new leader Natalie Bennett eventually degenerated into an argument over the merits of locally-sourced food. Payne and Roberts concluded:

 

'It's hard to understand how, over a year after the BBC Trust reviewed the corporation's science coverage, paying particular attention to topics such as climate change, this is what we end up with.'

 

In fact, the BBC's awful performance is not that much of a mystery. The corporation has always been a reliable supporter of state and corporate power. But particularly since the fallout from reporting the government's 'sexing-up' of discredited claims about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, when heads rolled at the BBC, the broadcaster has been at pains not to offend the government and allied interests. Its abysmal failure to inform the British public of the coalition's effective dismantling of the National Health Service is another key example.

 

According to former BBC correspondent and editor Mark Brayne, who was privy to internal editorial discussions in 2010, the BBC has 'explicitly parked climate change in the category "Done That Already, Nothing New to Say".' Brayne added:

 

'On climate change, that BBC journalistic urgency to be seen to be fair now means, after a period between Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and the disaster of [the 2009 UN Climate Summit in] Copenhagen when global warming was everywhere in the output, that the Corporation has been bending over backwards to reflect the opposite, sceptical view.'

 

Consider the analogy of two men at a bar, says Brayne. One man claims that two plus two equals four, and the other that two plus two equals six. The BBC solution to this disagreement? 'Put them both on the Today Programme, and the answer clearly lies somewhere in the middle.'

 

The Today programme, BBC Radio 4's 'agenda-setting' morning programme, is a serial offender when it comes to irresponsible climate coverage. On July 13 this year, veteran interviewer John Humphrys interviewed Ralph Cicerone, president of the US National Academy of Sciences. Part of the interview went like this:

JH: 

 

'But to say nearly every spot on the globe has warmed significantly over the past 30 years and indeed the entire planet is warming is different from saying it's going to continue to warm to such an extent that we have to spend vast and unimaginable amounts of money to protect ourselves against a catastrophe that many people, some distinguished scientists say, isn't actually proven.'

 

RC: 'Well of course the way you've worded it, it was quite strong; "vast and unimaginable sums of money", I don't think I've heard anybody make such a proposal.'

 

Moments later, Humphrys made the idiotic assertion that:

'You can't absolutely prove that CO2 in the atmosphere is responsible for global warming.'

As climate writers Christian Hunt and Ros Donald put it politely:

 

'If the Today programme brought this level of research and preparation to interviewing politicians, it probably wouldn't be taken particularly seriously.'

 

In fact, the standard of political debate on Today, as with the rest of BBC News, is on a similarly appalling level: routinely tilted towards state-corporate power, and all at public expense.

 

Meanwhile, BBC News happily chunters along issuing a stream of articles and broadcasts about Britain's 'dreadful weather' this year and how it has, for example, 'cost rural Britain £1bn' in lost income. But you would be hard pressed to find any links drawn between this and human-induced climate change.

 

Guarding The Mythology Of 'Feeble Response'

 

Greens like to flock to the Guardian almost as though it were the house paper of the environment movement. One recent Guardian editorial noted that: 'pessimists in the climate change community warn that within the next century global mean temperatures could rise by 6C. A fierce, sustained drought in the US, with 170 all-time US heat records broken in June alone, has already hurt world food stocks.'

 

These are important points. But given the observed rapid changes in the Arctic under global warming, the Guardian's pejorative use of 'pessimists' should probably be replaced with 'realists'. The Guardian continued:

'The global response to these signals of potential calamity has so far been feeble.'

 

This hugely understates the problem. But, even more damning, it diverts attention from root causes. As mentioned earlier, huge vested interests have mounted decades-long campaigns of disinformation, fierce lobbying and intimidation to subvert and bully governments into (a) avoiding what needs to be done in the face of climate chaos; and (b) providing tax breaks, subsidies and other measures to enhance rapacious corporate practices under the guise of boosting economic 'growth' and 'job creation' (newspeak terms for corporate profits).

Senior Guardian editorial staff seem unable to move beyond the same anodyne waffle they have been publishing for thirty years:

 

'Britain's "greenest government ever" has shown what it thinks of scientific evidence, by placing a homeopathic medicine enthusiast in charge of the National Health Service, and a reputed climate sceptic as environment secretary. The outlook is not promising.'

The Guardian has almost nothing to say about the deep-rooted changes required to redress the imbalance of power in society; or about its own role in pushing climate-damaging policies and practices. The Guardian is a corporate newspaper dependent on advertisers for around 70 per cent of its income. Put simply, like other corporate media, it is part of the problem.

 

Media Malpractice - Challenging The Decline In Coverage

 

In the US, climate blogger Joe Romm notes that the decline in corporate media climate coverage has been well documented, both in print and the evening news. Bill Blakemore of ABC News observes that a number of the climate scientists 'are perplexed by — and in some cases furious with — American news directors.' Blakemore elucidates:

 

'"Malpractice!" is typical of the charges this reporter has heard highly respected climate experts level — privately, off the record — at my professional colleagues over the past few years.

 

'Complaints include what seems to the scientists a willful omission of overwhelming evidence the new droughts and floods are worsened by man made global warming, and unquestioning repetition, gullible at best, of transparent anti-science propaganda credibly reported to be funded by fossil fuel interests and anti-regulation allies.'

 

Blakemore adds that he has spoken with climate scientists who 'agree with those, including NASA scientist James Hansen, who charge that fossil fuel CEOs are guilty of a "crime against humanity," given the calamity that unregulated greenhouse emissions are quickly bringing on.' With 100 million deaths from global warming predicted by 2030, the charge is no hyperbole. Indeed this surely represents the greatest crime in all human history. And yet governments and big business, shielded by the corporate media, are getting away with it.

It probably comes as no surprise that the worst US media offenders belong to the Murdoch stable.

 

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) shows that Fox News had been 'misleading' viewers about climate science in 93 per cent of primetime programmes that addressed the subject over a six-month period in 2012. Fox News hosts and guests 'mocked and disparaged statements from scientists and drowned out genuine scientific assertions with cherry-picked data and false claims.'

 

The opinion pages of the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal performed slightly better: only 81 per cent of the examples studied were misleading, according to the UCS analysis. Similar surveys of the UK media are sorely needed. And, more to the point, action taken to challenge this corporate media complicity in history's premier crime.

 

We have to re-examine our assumptions about what might be most effective in changing things for the better. For years, left and green activists have argued that we should work with corporate media to reach a wider public. For a long time the argument may have seemed unassailable. But after decades of accelerating planetary devastation and rapidly declining democracy, the argument has weakened to the point of collapse. By a process of carefully rationed corporate 'inclusion', the honesty, vitality and truth of environmentalism have been corralled, contained, trivialised and stifled.

 

Corporate media 'inclusion' of dissent has deceived the public with the illusion of openness and change, while business-as-usual has taken us very far in the opposite direction. Ironically, meek 'cooperation' has handed influence and control to the very forces seeking to disempower dissent. And in the absence of serious left/green criticism, corporate media performance has actually deteriorated.

 

Why should progressives help this system sell the illusion that the corporate media offers a 'wide spectrum of views' when its biased output overwhelmingly and inevitably promotes Permanent War for resources and war on the planet?

 

The corporate media must be confronted with the reality of what it is, and what it has done. It is vital that this be highlighted to the public it has been deceiving.

 

While the power of the internet remains relatively open, there is a brief window to free ourselves from the shackles of the corporate media and to build something honest,radical and publicly accountable. Climate crisis is already upon us, with much worse likely to come. The stakes almost literally could not be higher.

 

This article first appeared on www.medialens.org on the 2nd October 2012

 

International

Murder of unionists condemned as labour unrest spreads in South Africa’s mines

Anita Gardner, IndustriALL Global Union Director of Communications, 11 October 2012

IndustriALL strongly condemns the murders of several shopfloor leaders belonging to the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) in this trying time for industrial relations in South Africa and amidst spreading labour unrest in the mining sector.

 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) reports that at Num’s Western Platinum branch, the secretary and chairperson were killed in separate targeted incidents and whilst a third branch leader escaped, his wife was killed.

 

A relative of a Num shop steward was also shot and killed at the shop steward’s home in what seems to be a case of mistaken identity. At another Num branch, the chairperson was seriously injured after his house was torched and in the West Rand a shop steward was dragged from his room and shot at close range.

 

In a letter to Num, IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina, expressed his shock and horror for what he describes as, “the spate of callous and cowardly murderous attacks on members of the NUM in the aftermath of the Marikana tragedy.”

 

Cosatu also reports that five Num members, two of them shop stewards, were killed in violence associated with a strike at Lonmin`s platinum mine in Marikana between 10-16 August, and of the 34 people shot dead by police on 16 August, 14 were NUM members. On 11 September, a third Num shop steward, Dumisani Mthinti, was found hacked to death near the scene of this shooting.

 

“IndustriALL Global Union sends a message of condolence to the families, friends and fellow-workers of those that lost their lives and calls for the speedy arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators responsible for these chillingly brutal and barbaric acts of murder,” writes Raina. “We reiterate our unconditional solidarity support to the NUM in all its endeavours to resolve this most trying challenge to its admirable historic legacy of unstinting struggle for a better live for mineworkers and their families.”

 

According to current estimates, 80,000 to 100,000 platinum and gold miners are on strike, a consequence of negotiating the Lonmin settlement outside of the bargaining process, which has emboldened other workers, who face similar hardships to seek better wages and conditions and unprotected strikes have spread like wild fire.

 

This is not a result of weakness in trade union representation but rather, of workers emotively and reactively pushing back on exploitation in the mining sector that has resisted transformation.  

Even with global scrutiny, some mining companies have remained business as usual in their approach to industrial relations. Anglo Platinum has been opportunistic, taking advantage of this trying time for labour to cut its workforce at its marginal Rustenburg operations.

 

On 5 October, Anglo Platinum fired 12,000 workers engaged in an unprotected strike at its Rustenburg operations. 

 

Its motives for the pre-emptive suspensions of the Rustenburg operations on 11 September citing the current volatile situation in the area, which was in fact a lock out that encouraged the strike, are also questionable.

 

Now the company laments publicly that the three week strike has meant huge revenue losses, but it does not speak of its savings on operating costs for the period and on workers bonuses that it will not need to pay.

 

In the meantime, the supply constraint has meant that the price of platinum has risen while the rand has been weakened.

 

All of this is good news for platinum producers including Anglo Platinum, increasing the profitability of the sector. 

________________________

Another victory for SME!

 

 

 

Anita Gardner, IndustriALL Global Union Director of Communications, 11 October 2012

 

Court rules that the termination of electricity workers’ employment contracts was invalid and that the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) is their new employer.

 

11 October marks three years since the government tried to break the Mexican Union of Electricity Workers (Sindicato de Electricistas de México, SME) by liquidating Mexico City’s state-owned electricity supply company Luz y Fuerza, transferring its functions to the CFE and making the workforce redundant.

 

On behalf of its members, the SME applied to the courts for protection (amparo directo 1337/2010) against the termination of employment contracts by the government's Administration and Transfer of Goods Service (Servicio de Administración y Enajenación de Bienes, SAE).

 

The first circuit’s second collegiate labour court  granted the application and ruled that the termination of electricity workers’ employment contracts was invalid and that the CFE is their new employer.

 

“We will celebrate at the general meeting,” said Martín Esparza Flores, SME General Secretary, as he left the Ministry of the Interior after a meeting with Obdulio Ávila and SAE officials.

 “We carried on this fight to defend trade union organisation, to defend the terms of our collective agreement, to continue defending the electricity industry and to recover our jobs,” said the electricity workers’ leader.

 

Carlos de Buen, the lawyer representing SME, explained that the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) should now issue a new ruling in line with the court’s judgement, reversing its earlier judgement that the workers’ employment contracts had been terminated.

 

He added that the CFE must reinstate the 16,599 workers who have not been paid off, pay wages in arrears to all workers and pay pension benefits to employees who have reached retirement age during the three years of this dispute.

 

Lawyers and legal officials will explain the judgement to workers at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the union to be held at the Monument of the Revolution on Thursday October 11.

SME said that the outcome was “recompense for defending workers’ rights”.

________________________

  

Long struggle brings lasting compensation to families of shipbreaking workers in Alang

Anita Gardner, IndustriALL Global Union Director of Communications, 11 October 2012

 

A three-year struggle by IndustriALL and its affiliates in India results in families of deceased shipbreaking workers receiving compensation and the further strengthening of the union in the shipbreaking yards in Alang.

 

When the shipbreaking organizing project started in 2003, led by one of IndustriALL’s founding organizations (the International Metalworkers’ Federation), it was of common knowledge among the locals that whenever a shipbreaking worker was killed on the job the body was unceremoniously tossed into the sea.

 

As most of the workers are undocumented migrant workers, no one ever bothered to ask any questions, search for the families or make any demand against the employer. That was before the workers had a union.

 

In the video “Into the Graveyard” produced in 2010 by the IndustriALL affiliate leading the project work, the Mumbai Port Trust & Dock & General Workers Union, Vidyadhar Rane, Secretary General of the shipbreaking workers' union tells the poignant story of six workers killed in an incident in Alang shipbreaking yard in August 2009. Two of the workers were from Uttar Pradesh, the four others were from one family from Piperla Village in Gujarat, 3km away from the yard.

 

The union, the Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers' Association (ASSRGWA), took the case to the highest levels of justice, demanded a special enquiry and for the first time ever in the history of Alang, obtained financial compensation for the 6 workers deaths. It took the union 3 more years of unwavering tenacity and commitment to finally obtain, in September 2012, a monthly pension from the Provident Fund for the widows and family of the workers from Piperla Village.  

 

Last week, on 3 October, a union delegation from Alang and Mumbai in India and IndustriALL Head & Regional Offices and Bondgenoten/FNV Mondiaal from the Netherlands met with the families of shipbreaking workers that died in August 2009 to hand over the precious documents that entitle the families to a pension.

 

The international union delegation came directly from the IndustriALL project evaluation and planning meeting, which took place nearby in Bhavnagar, on 3 and 4 October.

 

The meeting examined the recommendations made by an external evaluator for the FNV Mondiaal and the possibilities to continue supporting the organizing drive in Alang.

 

The shipbreaking workers’ union in Alang now counts around 10,000 members, out of an average of 40,000-50,000 workers, and the union in Mumbai over 3,500 workers. 

 

Every year, the union has grown and gained major achievements for the workers, including;

 

·         recognition of Ship Breaking as a scheduled industry, thus allowing workers to claim minimum wages,

·         access to drinking water in the yards,

·         the introduction of personal protective equipment, and

·         securing compensation, social security benefits  and pension for families whenever possible.

 

One of the major challenges that remain ahead is how to create a tripartite structure to engage in social dialogue to improve overall working conditions in the shipbreaking yards. As in Alang the Shipbreaking Employers each rent their plots, which can occupy between 50 to 2,000 workers and as they draw upon some 182 contractors to provide cheap labour, the union currently needs to fight case by case, plot by plot, and cannot bargain collectively to overall improve the horrendous working conditions on the yard. 

 

As Vidyadvar Rane mentions:

“one of the major achievements is that now the majority of the participants in this meeting are the shipbreaking workers themselves from Alang and Mumbai together, coming to discuss their situation and planning how to strengthen their union and defend their rights.” 

 

For the very first time, the meeting was happy to welcome two young women workers who informed the union about the even more precarious working conditions of around 1,500 to 2,000 women in the yards and requested support from the union to demand equal remuneration, job security and safety equipment.  

 

Sadly, despite all the good news regarding the growth of the union and progress in obtaining benefits, the death of 6 young workers on 6 October 2012 acted as a timely reminder to the authorities of the terrible conditions workers continue to face despite the union’s best efforts.

 

IndustriALL is appalled at this tragic loss and fully supports the complaint made by ASSRGWA with the various concerned authorities, including Port authorities,

 

Factory Inspectors, and the Asst. Labour Commissioner, demanding a Special Enquiry of the incident and will continue to monitor and coordinate closely with its affiliate on all further action required. 

________________________

   ITUC tells IFI meetings to abandon austerity focus, focus on job-centred recovery

 

Zuzanna Muskat-Gorska, International Trade Union Confederation , 11 October 2012

 

 In meetings held with officials gathering in Tokyo for this weekend’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow urged governments and the international financial institutions (IFIs) to end the disastrous austerity policies which have driven the global economy into a new downturn, and instead to support a jobs- and income-led recovery strategy.

Burrow noted that the IMF’s chief economist revealed in a report released on Tuesday that the Fund’s economic projections had underestimated the recessionary impact of austerity policies applied by many governments since 2010, as a result of which ten European countries have entered into a “double-dip” recession in 2012.

Said Burrow: “The IMF report confirms warnings that unions have made to the IFIs and the G20 for the past two years that premature fiscal consolidation would produce a renewed global slowdown. It is high time that governments reverse course and support green investments, funding of quality public services such as health and education and other employment creation initiatives.”

Burrow also encouraged the IFIs to move forward in their commitments to support the establishment of social protection floors and to pay greater attention to the employment impact of their policies. She stated that they should also take steps to establish adequate regulation of the private financial sector so as to avoid recurrence of financial crises and instead ensure that the financial sector supports recovery by providing sufficient credit to real economy investments.

In light of recent decisions by several governments to put in place financial transactions taxes (FTT), Burrow said: “The IMF should offer its technical assistance for the coordinated implementation in as many countries as possible.” The ITUC has supported the FTT as a means to finance job-intensive recovery projects and public services, development goals and climate-finance commitments.

The ITUC and Global Unions produced a statement containing their detailed proposals which they presented to the IFIs at the occasion of their annual meetings.

_________________________

   The Emperor has no clothes

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, 11 October 2012

 

Workers can see that the Emperor of austerity has no clothes.

For the last two years he has strutted the world stage slashing wages and conditions in the name of growth.

Will economists and world leaders open their eyes in Tokyo and see that austerity has failed ?

Without an income-led growth strategy – jobs and social protection, austerity was always designed to fail.

Now it is official with even the IMF admitting that they got it wrong.

This is not a technical glitch in the calculation of the multiplier effect.

 

The truth is that the orthodox economics again underestimated the negative impact of austerity measures and the world economy is once again at risk of recession, with Europe already there.

The economic outlook is bleak with global growth for 2012 looking to be barely over 3 per cent and little better projections at around 3.3 per cent for 2013.

Europe with negative growth this year and stagnant prospects for 2013 shows no prospects of emerging from recession.

 

The tragedy is that the legacy of massive unemployment from the greed of the financial crisis and the impact of austerity measure has human consequences.

For too many impoverishment will result in damage to intervene rational wealth that will last for decades.

Georgia, a woman from Greece says it all: “My salary was cut by 45 per cent. For the first time in my 38 years I can’t pay my bills. My mother’s pension is €320 a month – she can’t live on that and I can’t help her.”

 

Georgia’s is one of the voices we captured in the Frontlines report the ITUC released this week.

For the ITUC, economic analysis can only be seriously understood when the reality of the impact on people’s lives is understood.

During this weeks’ meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Tokyo we have simultaneously called for a halt on the attacks on workers’ rights and laid out the policy work that will drive employment and sustainable growth.

It is also imperative that the G20 fulfil their Los Cabos commitment to review policy directions if there is a serious slowdown in growth.

The test will be whether there is any move in this direction when the G20 finance ministers meet tomorrow.

The world is on the brink of recession, unemployment is increasing, austerity measures have failed and people are increasingly desperate, which is reflected in growing civil unrest but will this be acknowledge or ignored?

 

The chief economist of the IMF indicated that wages, a significant driver of demand, should be raised in surplus economies.

Inequality or the shockingly uneven distribution of wealth is also acknowledged as a barrier to growth and inclusion.

Despite this, the orthodoxy of failed labour market policy still has a strong voice.

 

For too many economists and government policy makers the gap in economic justice is still a theoretical discussion.

For working people this is the reality of difficult lives.

 

The answers remain in income-led growth – jobs, sustainable jobs, decent work and social protection.

___________________

 

WFTU pledges solidarity with workers at NOVOTEL

The Secretariat, World Federation of Trade Unions, 12 October 2012

 

The W.F.T.U, on behalf of its 82.000.000 affiliates all over the world, expresses its full support and solidarity with the workers of hotel NOVOTEL, a member of the multiethnic company ACCOR, in their strike against the 15% reduction of their salaries.

The World Federation of Trade Unions supports the twenty-day militant struggle of trade unionists and workers in Greece against the privatizations.

We demand immediate satisfaction of workers demands.

We unite our voice with the voice of workers in hotel Novotel Athens who fight against exploitation, against capital and against anti-labor policies.

The W.F.T.U asks from the workers to understand that it is needed international coordination and internationalist solidarity among all sectors and among all workers• specially in multinationals like NOVOTEL that have hotels in each country and they earn money from exploitation against workers in hotels.

Long live workers international solidarity.

The Secretariat

WFTU

______________________

    Stop handling Israel goods Campaign is underway! Join protest in Cape Town

 

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions in South Africa , BDS South Africa, 12 October 2012

Dear Friends,

The South African retail outlet, Wellness Warehouse, has actively chosen to trade with Israel's AHAVA Laboratories -  a company operating in Israel's illegal settlements and in contravention of international law.

 

In addition, by trading with AHAVA, Wellness Warehouse violates the international boycott of Israel - in 2005 Palestinians issued a call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel as a non-violent method to have Israel end its apartheid policies*, cease its illegal occupation and abide to international law.

 

The human rights organization, Open Shuhada Street (OSS), has been engaging with Wellness Warehouse for over two years now to end its trading (and complicity) with Israel's AHAVA Laboratories.

 

Join this weekend's BDS protest organized by OSS together with students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and other activists urging Wellness Warehouse to do the right thing and drop AHAVA Laboratories.

 

The protest takes place this Saturday in Cape Town: 

 

DATE: Saturday, 13 October 2012 (11h30)

STORE: Wellness Warehouse

ADDRESS: 50 Kloof Street, Cnr. Kloof & Park Rd, Cape Town

FACEBOOK EVENT: www.facebook.com/bdssouthafrica/posts/418455714874408 

 

AHAVA also falls short of the upcoming Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Government Notice preventing the false labeling of Israeli products manufactured by companies, such as AHAVA Laboratories, in Israel's illegal settlements (which are situated, unlawfully, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories).

 

Products, such as AHAVA are falsely labeled as "Made in Israel" when instead they should be labeled "Made in illegal Israeli settlement in Occupied Palestinian Territories". In fact, AHAVA has been specifically mentioned, by name, in the recent DTI government notice as one of those companies guilty of false Israeli labeling.

 

Due to its complicity in, and profiteering from, the unlawful Israeli Occupation of Palestinian lands, AHAVA has become a key target of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel movement:

 

- In the USA, the campaign against AHAVA has taken on many creative protests led by women such as Nancy Krickorian and the CodePink Stolen Beauty Campaign; (www.stolenbeauty.org/section.php?id=444)

- In July 2009, Oxfam, the international confederation of organisations from more than 90 countries, suspended Sex and the City star, Kristin Davis, from doing publicity work for  Oxfam because of Davis' endorsement contract with AHAVA; (http://mondoweiss.net/2009/08/boycott-campaign-pays-off-as-oxfam-suspends-tv-star-kristin-davis.html)

- In the UK, AHAVA has been forced to shut down its flagship store in Covent Garden, London, due to consistent boycott actions; (www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4125530,00.html)

- Although sometimes claiming other factors, AHAVA has been dropped by the online store Costco, the UK retail retailer John Lewis, the National Cathedral Gift Shop in the USA, and, earlier this year by major Canadian retailer, The Bay; (http://rabble.ca/news/2011/01/bay-drops-ahava-victory-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-movement-canada)

- In February this year, the Japanese agent of AHAVA announced that it has ended all sales of AHAVA products due to legal and ethical concerns; (http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/bds-victory-ahava-products-spiked-japan-because-legal-and-ethical-issues)

- A month after the Japan boycott of AHAVA, the major Norwegian retail chain, VITA, announced that it, too, will stop sales of all Ahava products across the country; (http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/bds-victory-ahava-products-dropped-major-retail-chain-norway)

- In July 2012, Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy Disney (co-founder of the Walt Disney company) disclaimed her share of her family’s R96 million investment in AHAVA; (www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/disney-family-member-renounces-her-investments-in-israel-s-ahava-cosmetics-1.451506)

- Most recently, the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, comprising of over 2 million members, voted on the 08th of July 2012 to specifically boycott Israel's AHAVA Laboratories; (www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000763491&fid=1725)

If you are not in Cape Town you can still play a role. AHAVA is sold in other South African stores such as Truworths, Stuttafords, Foshini and elsewhere. Approach these stores explaining that we wish that neither the store nor its customers are complicit in Israel's violations of international law and insist that AHAVA is immediately removed from their shelves (find a model letter that can be downloaded and printed on our website: http://tinyurl.com/8vgufls). Link up with other community members to stage similar pickets and protests in your area against stores that choose to be complicit with AHAVA and in the illegal Israeli Occupation of Palestine. If you are still not convinced, watch this YouTube interview with Jewish American human rights worker, Anna Baltzer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=okF6COV56no

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA (BDS SOUTH AFRICA)
Office 915 | 9th Floor | Khotso House | 62 Marshall Street | Johannesburg
PO Box 2318 | Houghton | 2041 | Johannesburg
T: +27 (0) 11 492 2414 | F: +27 (0) 86 650 4836
W: www.bdssouthafrica.com | E: admini...@bdssouthafrica.com
www.facebook.com/bdssouthafrica | www.twitter.com/bdssouthafrica

BDS South Africa is a registered Non-Profit Organization. NPO NUMBER: 084 306 NPO
BDS South Africa is a registered Public Benefit Organisation with Section 18A status. PBO NUMBER: 930 037 446 

* In 2009 the Human Sciences Research Council, in an investigation commissioned and funded by the South African government, found that Israel, through its policies and practices, meets the legal criteria for the crime of apartheid.

Announcements

 

 

 

 

In Partnership with

 

                                                               

 

Invites you to the 14^th

^{SIYAKHULUMA SEMINAR}

^{(A joint initiative to stimulate debate on the key challenges facing the labour movement)}

^{“The conditions of the working class & the poor in SA: What lessons can be drawn by the working class from the Marikana events?”}

Moderator:  Makhi Ndabeni (Ditsela)

^{Speakers:    Narius Moloto – General Secretary – National Council of Trade Unions ( NACTU)}

^{Eddie Majadibodo – Head of Production Pillar – National Union of Mine Workers (NUM)}

^{Alwyn van Heerden – Sector Manager for Platinum – Federation of SA Trade Unions (FEDUSA)}                     

                                            

^{Date:               Friday, 19th October 2012}

^{Time:             12h00 – 14h00}

^{Venue:                     DITSELA House}

                        ^{24 Kruis Street (Cnr. Marshall Street)  Johannesburg}                                    

^{Contact Makhi or Thozama at (011) 331 – 0470 or confirm by faxing reply slip attached}

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Invitation to a Seminar on sexualities and relationship education at WITS

 

Kindly be invited to a Seminar to be hosted jointly by Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action, the WITS School of Education and the Centre for the Study of AIDS, University of Pretoria to held as follows;

 

Date: 19 October 2012

 

Venue: WITS University, Graduate School Seminar Room, South West

            Engineering Building, East Campus

 

A case for pleasure in Sexualities and Relationship Education with Dr. Julia Hurst; a visiting senior lecturer in Sociology, Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallan University,  as the main speaker.

 

The Seminar will offer cues for debate around the challenge of positive sexuality education and research in climate with lack of universal agreement and cultural and/or religious resistance.

 

For more information please contact:

 

Hoosain Gabriel Khan

Email: hoosai...@wits.ac.za

Website: www.gala.co.za

Tel: 011 717 4239

Fax: +27 11 717 1783

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YCLSA National Chairperson Yershen Pillay to address Ruth First Lectures 

 

The National Chairperson of the Young Communist of South Africa [uFasimba] Cde Yershen Pillay will address two memorial lectures dedicated to the memory of Ruth First the first National Secretary of the YCLSA in Eastern Cape.

Details of the memorial lectures are as follows: 

 

Lecture 1 East London 

 

DATE: Friday October 12, 2012

TIME: 18H00

VENUE: University of Fort Hare, East London Campus 

 

Lecture 2 Umtata 

 

Date: Saturday October 13, 2012

Time: 14H00

Venue: Walter Sisulu University [Nelson Mandela Drive Campus] 

 

Issued by YCLSA Head Office

 

Members of the media are invited to attend to cover both these events. 

 

For more information contact: 

Mluleki Dlelanga

YCLSA Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary

Cell: 078 642 9004

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Red October March & Anti-Corruption Rally  

Details are scheduled as follows;

·         Date: 21 October 2012 (Sunday)

·         Time: 09h00

·         Assemble: SABC, Auckland Park, Johannesburg

·         March to: Library Gardens, Johannesburg CBD

Further details to follow on Monday:

·         Demand to SABC: (main point of memorandum)

·         Presentation of Memorandum: (time)

·         Rally at Library Gardens: (time)

·         Speakers at Library Gardens: (names and/or organisations)

    
Contacts: 

Phindi Mafokate, Provincial Administrator, Cell: 078 944 1230, E-mail: phin...@sacp.org.za  
Jacob Mamabolo, Provincial Secretary, 082 884 1868 
Molly Dlamini, Provincial Executive Committee Spokesperson, 082 923 4294 

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AJ Orenstein Memorial Lecture 2012

 

"Towards the clinician-led management team: a strategy for fixing hospitals?"

 

AJ Orenstein Memorial Lecture, 12 October 2012

 

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is iconic. It may be the biggest hospital in the world, extraordinarily complex and frequently a source of conflicts. It serves the largest concentration of lower and middle class workers in the mainspring of the South African economy and it is arguably attempting to perform an impossible task.

 

How does one make such a monolith work? It is several decades since Professor Thomas McEwan argued authoritatively that a hospital with more than 600 beds would prove to be unmanageable. The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is five times this size.

 

Professor Von Holdt and a team put together by NALEDI have for many years looked at how to make ‘Bara’ work and he has uncovered extraordinary information. Professor Von Holdt has an in depth understanding of the public health landscape. He has done some ground-breaking research in the area and has used his insights to make significant contributions to the National Planning Commission of South Africa to which he was appointed by the President.

 

Professor Von Holdt will be talking about his and others’ experiences in transforming the functioning of Professor Martin Smith’s Surgical Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital over a period of about 10 years.

 

The project focused on replacing the fragmented and highly centralised silo system of management, dominated by administrators, with the delegation of considerable management powers to an integrated team led by clinicians. This produced systemic changes in the way the division functioned, with positive impact on clinical processes and patient care. The transformation strategy rested on a combination of clinical, managerial and sociological expertise.

 

The Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has talked openly about re-engineering the health system. This lecture is designed to be not only erudite but topical. At a time that the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences is struggling to deal with a rapidly imploding health system, his insights will be very valuable and ought not to be missed! 

 

Biographical information:

 

Professor Karl von Holdt is the Director of the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he has been a senior researcher since 2007. 

Prior to that he was at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)-linked policy Institute, NALEDI (National Labour, Economic and Development Institute), and before that Editor of the South African Labour Bulletin.

 

He has published Transition from below: forging trade unionism and workplace change in South Africa (2003), Beyond the apartheid workplace: studies in transition (2005) co-edited with Eddie Webster, and co-authored with Michael Burawoy Conversations with Bourdieu: the Johannesburg moment (2012).

 

His current research interests include the functioning of state institutions, health system functioning, collective violence and associational life, citizenship and civil society.  He was recently appointed to the first National Planning Commission of South Africa.

 

Professor von Holdt started his working life teaching literacy to trade union members in the hostels and informal settlements of Cape Town in the early 1980s. 

 

He has also served as coordinator of COSATU's September Commission on the Future of Trade Unions (1996-97), and as a Director on the Board of the South African Post Office (1997-2003). 

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African Solidarity Festival coming in November 2012

 

ACTION Support Centre, 12 October 2012

 

Kindly be appraised of the coming African Solidarity Festival to be held on the 03-04^th November 2012 at BOSCO Centre, Walkerville, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Celebrate, Consolidate and Strategise Festival will be hosted by the ACTION Support Centre

 

For more information contact:

 

Kate Gordner on ka...@asc.org.za

Philani Ndebele on phi...@asc.org.za

Or visit www.asc.org.za for more

 

Supported by :Proudly Africa, Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum, ACTION for Conflict Transformation, Somali Solidarity Campaign

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Living Wage Campaign; Bargaining for a Living Wage

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PSI World Congress in Durban, South Africa; 27-30 November 2012

_________________________________________________

 

Norman Mampane (Communications Officer)

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 or Direct 010 219-1342

Mobile: +27 72 416 3790

E-Mail: mam...@cosatu.org.za