Taking COSATU Today Forward, 3 October 2025 #HappyBirthdayWFTU #Cosatu@40 #Cosatu40thAnniversary

[Norman Mampane]

 

COSATU TODAY #HappyBirthdayWFTU #Cosatu40Anniversary celebration events are taking place in provinces…. #Cosatu@40 #Cosatu40thAnniversary #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness

Taking COSATU Today Forward

‘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

3 October 2025

“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”

Organize at every workplace and demand respect for labour rights Now!

Defend Jobs Now!

Join COSATU NOW!

 

Contents                      

• Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!

• COSATU to host lectures in the lead up to 40^th anniversary

• South Africa
• COSATU General Secretary Welcome Remarks at the Africa Global Union Forum
• International-Workers’ Solidarity!
• COSATU marks working-class internationalism and solidarity in the age of imperialism, tariffs and class struggle on WFTU’s 80^th anniversary
• SACP strongly condemns anti-immigrant vigilantism, calls for working-class solidarity

Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics  

COSATU to host lectures in the lead up to 40^th anniversary

Zanele Sabela, COSATU National Spokesperson, 25 September 2025

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is set the host a series of lectures in the lead up to its 40^th anniversary celebration at Dobsonville Stadium on 6 December.

 

The culmination of four years of unity talks, COSATU came into being on 1 December 1985, and brought together 33 competing unions and federations opposed to apartheid and whose common goal was to bring about a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.

 

The Federation has been at the forefront of advancing, defending and protecting the interests and rights of workers since, and has led in the formation of the country’s progressive labour laws including workers’ rights to form trade unions, collective bargaining and to strike, minimum conditions of service, National Minimum Wage, etc.

 

From its vehement resistance of apartheid to the ushering in of the democratic dispensation and improving the economic and social wellbeing of the working class 31 years post democracy, COSATU has stood the test of time.

 

In the lead up to its 40^th anniversary in December, the Federation will host a variety of activities starting with a series of lectures by its National Office Bearers.

 

The lectures will tackle diverse subjects from COSATU’s pivotal role in gender struggles to the strike that broke the back of industry-wide exploitative labour practices as far back as 1959.  

 

Province: Free State
Date: 3 October     

Topic: COSATU and the International Struggle         

Main Speaker: Gerald Twala, COSATU Deputy General Secretary 

Province: Mpumalanga
Date: 16 October
Venue: Ikhethelo Secondary School, Bethal     

Topic: Gert Sibande Potato Boycott      

Main Speaker: Duncan Luvuno, COSATU 2nd Deputy President

Province: Northern Cape
Date: 30 October   

Topic: COSATU and the Liberation Movement

Main Speaker: Solly Phetoe, COSATU General Secretary

Province: North-West
Date: 19 November

Topic: Strengthening Industrial Unions to build a militant COSATU        

Main Speaker: Duncan Luvuno, COSATU 2nd Deputy President

Province: Eastern Cape
Date: 20 November

Topic: COSATU and the Reconfiguration of the Alliance      

Main Speaker: Mike Shingange, COSATU 1st Deputy President

Province: Gauteng
Date: 21 November

Topic: COSATU and the Mass Democratic Movement 

Main Speaker: Zingiswa Losi, COSATU President 

 

Issued by COSATU

South Africa

COSATU General Secretary Welcome Remarks at the Africa Global Union Forum
Solly Phetoe, COSATU General Secretary, 2 October 2025

Comrades, Sisters and Brothers,

On behalf of the Central Executive Committee and the 1.7 million members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, I welcome you to South Africa, the land of struggle and sacrifice, the land of Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and so many other giants of our people’s movement.

It is a honour for COSATU to welcome you to this Africa Global Union Forum together with UNI and our sister global union federations. We extend our revolutionary greetings to every delegate who has travelled from across our continent and the world. You are most welcome.

This gathering is not an ordinary meeting. It is part of the long chain of worker struggles stretching from the shop floor to the streets, from the mines and the farms to the corridors of global institutions. It is a continuation of our common struggle for dignity, for rights, and for a world free from exploitation.

Comrades, we meet at a time of crisis for working people everywhere.

• The global economy is unstable and unjust. The wealth of billionaires grows, while workers are told to sacrifice.
• The cost of living crisis is strangling households. Families cannot afford food, electricity, transport, or housing.
• Unemployment has become permanent for millions, especially young people and women.
• Austerity measures imposed by governments and financial institutions continue to cut wages, privatise services, and weaken the very social protections workers fought to win.

This is not the result of nature. It is the result of neoliberal policies that put profit above people, markets above society, and private wealth above the public good.

And for Africa, the burden is even heavier. Our continent is rich in minerals, land, and people – yet we remain trapped in poverty and inequality. Debt, illicit financial flows, and unfair global trade rules are robbing us blind. Corporations extract billions, while our schools crumble and our hospitals collapse. This, comrades, is economic injustice.

The Struggles Before Us

First, organising and collective bargaining.
Trade union density is falling. Informality and precarious jobs are rising. Employers are doing everything to divide and weaken unions. Yet the ENGAGE programme shows us that we can rebuild worker power. We must organise the unorganised, fight to defend collective bargaining, and protect the right to strike as the heartbeat of worker democracy.

Second, the socio-economic crisis.
Workers’ wages are stagnant while corporate profits soar. Poverty wages are nothing less than violence against working people. We demand living wages, job creation, and pro-worker economic policies that put employment at the centre of development.

Third, climate change and just transition.
Africa contributes the least to global warming, yet we suffer the most from floods, droughts, and heatwaves. Workers lose their jobs as mines close without alternatives. Farmers lose their harvests. We cannot allow the so-called green transition to become another opportunity for profit while workers pay the price. We demand a just transition – one that protects existing jobs, creates new green industries, and ensures that workers and communities are not abandoned.

Fourth, peace, security, and democracy.
Conflicts from Sudan to the DRC, from Mozambique to the Sahel, are devastating workers’ lives. Wars displace families, destroy livelihoods, and silence democracy. We say: there can be no social justice without peace, and no peace without social justice. Trade unions must be in the front line of the fight for democracy, for peace, and against authoritarianism.

Fifth, global governance and the ILO.
The attacks on the right to strike and the weakening of multilateralism are direct threats to workers everywhere. COSATU stands shoulder to shoulder with ITUC, with the GUFs, and with all progressive forces in defending international labour standards and protecting the ILO from capture by business and right-wing governments.

Sixth, social protection and financing.
Social protection is a right, not a luxury. Yet millions of African workers have no pension, no unemployment insurance, no healthcare. To change this, we must demand progressive taxation, clamp down on illicit financial flows, cancel illegitimate debt, and ensure that Africa’s resources are used for its people – not hidden away in offshore tax havens.

The Role of GUFs and African Unity

This Forum is about strengthening our unity as African workers, and deepening our ties with the global union federations.

Comrades, the challenges we face, climate change, digitalisation, informality, attacks on multilateralism, are global. They cannot be solved by one union or one country. We need coordinated campaigns, united actions, and international solidarity.

Our sub-regional trade union bodies, our GUFs, and our continental federation ITUC-Africa must work together as one family of labour. Not in competition, but in common struggle. We must speak with one voice for workers in Africa and across the world.

A Call to Action

Comrades, let us use the next two days to sharpen our strategies, to unite our voices, and to adopt clear campaigns that workers can take into their workplaces, communities, and countries.

• Let us fight together against austerity and neoliberalism.
• Let us defend the right to strike and collective bargaining everywhere.
• Let us advance climate justice and a truly just transition.
• Let us deepen our solidarity across borders and across sectors.

This forum must not end with speeches only. It must end with commitments, campaigns, and action.

Conclusion

Comrades, history has given us a heavy responsibility, to defend workers in one of the most difficult periods in living memory. But history also teaches us this: when workers unite, when workers organise, when workers fight, we cannot be defeated.

Let us honour the sacrifices of those who came before us, the mineworkers of Marikana, the textile workers of Lesotho, the dockworkers of Durban, the comrades who gave their lives for liberation, by building a future of dignity, peace, and justice for all workers.

COSATU welcomes you once again to South Africa. May our discussions be frank, militant, and solution-driven. And may we emerge from this Forum stronger, more united, and more determined than ever.

Amandla!

Viva Workers’ Solidarity, Viva!

Viva the African Working Class,Viva

International-Solidarity   

COSATU marks working-class internationalism and solidarity in the age of imperialism, tariffs and class struggle on WFTU’s 80^th anniversary

Bongani Masuku, COSATU International Secretary, 3 October 2025

 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) marks its 40^th anniversary in December this year. Born at the height of the struggle against apartheid, its birth marked the turning point and affirmed the working class as the core force of the revolution.

 

Today, 3 October, we celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). The WFTU and its affiliates from all over the world, played a pivotal role in our struggle against apartheid and offered solidarity, including financial, material and human resources to our struggle. It went on to offer refuge to our exiles from the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), COSATU’s predecessor, as well as to underground operatives from the liberation movement.

 

The birth of the WFTU in 1945 immediately following the Second World War, took place in a rejuvenated atmosphere on the heels of the historic defeat of fascism, and the inspiring role of the Soviet Union. Workers from all over the world gathered at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris to establish the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU).

 

COSATU joins the millions of workers all over the world in celebrating 80 years of working-class internationalism, solidarity and class struggle. The WFTU was born at a time of wars of imperialism, colonial subjugation and intense liberation struggles, particularly in our region and continent.

 

As we celebrate COSATU’s 40^th anniversary, we have no doubt that workers in South Africa and the world over regard this monumental day as their own, precisely because our democratic breakthrough was in no small measure a product of the domestic struggles and international solidarity that broke the back of apartheid and ushered in a new and democratic dispensation.

 

COSATU 40^th anniversary, the historic milestone of working-class power for decent work, social justice, democracy and socialism

 

The COSATU Central Committee (CC) in September was a historic assembly of workers at a time of domestic and global turbulence. The CC made a thorough assessment of the domestic and international balance of power, the forces involved and the trajectory of the class struggle in the current situation.

 

It was joined by our international allies and different components of the international trade union movement, who expressed full solidarity with COSATU and the struggles we are waging for better wages, NHI, BELA and equal access to education, land expropriation without compensation and gender equality. They further expressed full solidarity with our country and the people of South Africa and Africa in general, against the tariffs imposed by the US.

 

The Central Committee of COSATU called for the intensification of the class struggle to defend workers from the neoliberal onslaught, poverty, inequalities and landlessness. These are gross injustices that have been a lived reality of the working class and the poor.

 

This is why our call for decent work is simultaneously a call for decent lives for all. Workers’ rights are indivisible and call for unity, solidarity and struggle by all forces committed to justice.

 

It is for this reason that COSATU will be holding its 40^th anniversary celebration in Dobsonville, Soweto on 6 December, to reflect on the strides made by workers under the leadership of COSATU and to prepare for the battles of the next 40 years on the long journey to real working-class freedom.

 

We are proud of the gains and advances we have made since 1985 and will always defend them. But we know too well that our freedom is not achieved until we defeat capitalism itself. That’s why the CC was resolute on going back to basics regarding our mass groundwork in workplaces, communities, factories, and the international site of struggle itself.

 

The 40^th anniversary is at the same time a global anniversary of workers, who throughout the world stood with us in our struggle against apartheid. To that extent, we stand firm with the workers and the people of the world involved in struggles wherever they are.

 

The 40^th anniversary is a fitting tribute to the outstanding internationalism demonstrated by COSATU throughout its existence. From Palestine to Swaziland, from Zimbabwe to East Timor, Sudan to Myanmar and Western Sahara, our flag has been hoisted high in solidarity with workers and oppressed people. This is their celebration too.

 

The state of our region, Southern Africa requires our most urgent attention to reverse the years of apartheid, colonial and post-colonial subjugation and underdevelopment. This explains why it’s difficult to have peace and progress, precisely because of the conditions of extreme inequalities, poverty and unemployment.

That is why we call on SADC to be more resolute in dealing with the three pillars of regional development and towards peace and justice for all, which are;

1. Building democracy and effective governance institutions
2. Advancing regional economic integration and industrialisation
3. Creating employment and inclusive growth for the people of the region

Having fully assessed the international balance of power, the CC identified the following key trends: 

• The heightened wars of imperialism for the conquest of ever new territories, lands, mineral resources and the further subjugation of the developing world.
• The entrenchment of the global division of labour in which Africa and major parts of the global south remain mere providers of raw material, and the developed world producers of finished goods or valued added products.
• The unprecedented ecological crises with the destruction of the environment by capitalism. 
• The heightening of the global energy crises, which are about the consolidation of ownership, control and use of global energy to meet the needs of the most industrially developed countries.
• The fragmentation of the international trade union movement and its inability to coherently respond decisively to change the balance of class forces in favour of the working class.

 Following concrete analysis, the CC resolved the following:

• COSATU's unwavering commitment to anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism and affirming the centrality of our democratic sovereignty
• Building a united, organised and fighting international trade union movement
• Concrete international solidarity work and campaigns, which spells solidarity in action
• Global mega blocs and the urgency of Africa's industrialisation and development
• Developing the capacity of COSATU to advance internationalism and training cadres specialising in international relations  

 

Issued by COSATU

___________________

SACP strongly condemns anti-immigrant vigilantism, calls for working-class solidarity

Mbulelo Mandlana, SACP Head of Media, Communications and Information, 2 October 2025

The South African Communist Party (SACP) strongly condemns the recent actions of anti-immigrant vigilante groups, such as Operation Dudula. These groups have targeted migrants and undocumented South Africans mainly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, denying them access to essential public services and turning them away from government clinics and hospitals. This has often been done by using abusive and violent tactics. These actions, conducted with impunity, are not only inhumane but also unlawful, violating the constitutional and legal rights of all people in South Africa and undermine the principles of justice and equality enshrined in our Constitution.

Section 27(1)(a) of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996, guarantees everyone the right to access healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare. The National Health Act 61 of 2003 further reinforces that no one may be refused emergency medical treatment, regardless of nationality or documentation status. Vigilante groups claiming to distinguish between emergency and non-emergency cases lack the qualifications or authority to make such determinations or to instruct healthcare workers on patient care. Such actions undermine the rule of law and endanger public health by fostering fear, preventing people from seeking treatment, and increasing the risk of untreated communicable diseases in working-class communities.

This campaign of division has now extended beyond healthcare facilities to public schools, where children are being harassed and intimidated, and workplaces, where workers face demands to leave their jobs. These actions deepen the challenges faced by the working class, exacerbating unemployment and restricting access to education and healthcare. They sow division among workers at a time when unity is critical to address systemic inequalities.

The SACP acknowledges the widespread frustration among the working class and poor, who rely on under-resourced and understaffed public health and education systems that fail to meet their needs. This frustration is compounded by rising insecurity, inadequate policing, and poor border management practices, which have led to an increase in undocumented individuals. The failure of the Department of Home Affairs to efficiently process documentation and capture biometrics has fueled insecurity and provided fertile ground for vigilante groups like Operation Dudula and March & March to gain support among communities desperate for solutions.

The SACP 5th Special National Congress adopted a resolution on immigration, recognising the rise of xenophobia and its corrosive impact on working-class solidarity. The resolution commits the SACP to combat xenophobia, challenge misconceptions propagated by reactionary forces, and advocate for policies that address the root causes of migration. As communists, we remain unwavering in our commitment to international worker solidarity and the protection of the human and labour rights of all workers, their families, and communities, irrespective of citizenship or migration status.

We call on the Department of Home Affairs to urgently implement a comprehensive programme to document and capture the biometrics of all undocumented South Africans and non-South Africans, including those whose documentation has expired due to systemic inefficiencies. Populist vigilantism, reminiscent of apartheid-era practices such as public harassment and demands for identity documents, is not a solution. It only deepens division and distracts from the real issues of systemic inequality and poor governance.

The SACP supports the Minister of Health’s clear stance that preventing access to healthcare is unlawful and inhumane. We also stand in solidarity with the positions of progressive organisations like COSAS and education authorities that have condemned disruptions to teaching and learning caused by vigilante actions. The SACP remains committed to upholding the human rights of all, particularly the most vulnerable, in a society where the rule of law prevails for the benefit of everyone.

The justifiable frustrations of the working class must not be manipulated to target vulnerable workers but should instead be directed at policymakers who prioritise the interests of the private sector and the capitalist class. The SACP will mobilise alongside allied working-class organisations of the left and other progressive forces for national mass action, including marches to the Department of Home Affairs, to demand urgent and effective action on documentation and broader systemic failures.

The SACP calls for unity among the working class to confront these challenges collectively, reject vigilantism and xenophobia, and build a society rooted in justice, equality, and solidarity.

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,

FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID

______________________________

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

 

 

 

 

 

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