Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 19 June 2024
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #COSATU ordinary CEC is in session at Braamfontein |
Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
Our side of the story
Wednesday, 19 June 2024
‘Building a strong and united COSATU in mobilizing for the ANC electoral victory”
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
Organize or Starve!
COSATU ordinary Central Executive Committee is in session
Contents
o Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- Department of Employment and Labour embarks on a three day community outreach campaign in Maluti- A-Phofung Municipality
o South Africa
- COSATU Limpopo dismayed by the absence of leaders of the Alliance in the Limpopo Executive Council
- SACP welcomes the President’s re-election, marking the ANC’s democratic return as the leader of our government
o International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Unions in Argentina condemn reform bill with major impact on workers
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
Department of Employment and Labour embarks on a three day community outreach campaign in Maluti- A-Phofung Municipality
19 June 2024
Department of Employment and Labour today kick starts a three-day Community Outreach campaign.
Led by the Public Employment Services branch the campaign is hosted with the aim of capacitating work seekers and the youth in Maluti-A-Phofung Municipality with vital information with regards to job-hunting.
During the three-day campaign, aspirant work seekers will be capacitated by the department's skilled Career Counsellors with information that will enhance their career insights and boost their employability through a range of job-hunting skills programs. Also on offer is the registration service on the Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) database for possible future employment.
Additional services to be provided include processing of Unemployment Insurance Fund applications, claims assessment, resolving UIF enquiries, processing of Occupational Injuries and Diseases claims and inquiries, and Inspection and Enforcement Services.
Members of the public that wish to be assisted with the above-mentioned services are encouraged to bring along the following documents:
- Unemployed youth should bring along a detailed CV to be registered on the ESSA Database
- ID Documents/Valid Passport
The details of the campaign are as follows:
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DATE: |
VENUE: |
TIME: |
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19 June 2024 |
Monotsha Tribal Office , Phuthaditjhaba |
09h00 -15h00 |
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20 June 2024
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Environmental Centre Hall , Phuthaditjhaba |
09h00 -15h00 |
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21 June 2024 |
Bluegumbosch Sports Ground, Phuthaditjhaba
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09h00 -15h00 |
For media inquiries, please contact:
Ms Cebisa Siyobi
Provincial Communication Officer: Free State
072 427 6034
-END-
Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour
South Africa
COSATU Limpopo dismayed by the absence of leaders of the Alliance in the Limpopo Executive Council
Hangwani Mashao, COSATU Limpopo Provincial Secretary, 19 June 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Limpopo wishes to publicly express concern and condemn the fundamental blight in the outlook of the Provincial Executive, in relation to the absence of the components of the Alliance, in a fundamental departure from the principles our ally, the ANC, of broadly reflecting the components of the Alliance in its own decisions and activities and those of the state.
This development is a regression to the dark days when the Federation and other components of the Alliance would be expected to help deliver victory and thereafter be cast aside.
This is a sad history we believed was long buried, one of sloppy and last-minute consultations and disregard for the input of the Alliance structures.
Having registered our concern we congratulate the individual members appointed into the Provincial Executive Council and wish them well in the new responsibilities they have been thrust into and wish they will assist the Premier of Limpopo to address the many challenges that confront workers, both in the public and private sectors and the entire working class.
Further to that, we call upon our ally the ANC, to heed the call we have been making, though our communication channels, for proper and thoroughgoing engagements through the structures of the alliance.
Issued by: COSATU Limpopo
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SACP welcomes the President’s re-election, marking the ANC’s democratic return as the leader of our government
Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, SACP Central Committee Member
National Spokesperson & Political Bureau Secretary for Policy and Research, 15 June 2024
The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the democratic return of the African National Congress (ANC) as the leader of our government, with President Cyril Ramaphosa re-elected on Friday night, 14 June 2024, and Thoko Didiza elected as the Speaker of the National Assembly. The balance of political forces under which this happened, measured by the distribution of seats and conduct of a number of political parties prior to the first sitting of and in the National Assembly following the May 2024 elections, was characterised by precarity.
While following the elections the ANC remains the largest political party by electoral support, for the first time since our April 1994 democratic breakthrough it fell short of the required minimum of 50 per cent plus one to form an outright-majority government.
There were engagements within the Alliance and each Alliance partner expressed itself publicly on the preferred options regarding what the way forward had to be under the circumstances towards the first sitting of the National Assembly on Friday.
The SACP expressed its strong opposition to a coalition with the DA and the MKP, reaffirming its strategic consistency against neo-liberalism, state capture and attempts at counter-revolutionary destabilisation. We put forward our option for an ANC-led minority government with the features of a tight government of national unity, while the ANC preferred a wider government of national unity with the features of the below 50 per cent plus one minority situation.
However, each of the two options hinged on a majority-constituting support from other parties, inclusive of the ANC’s seats, to elect the President. The possible lineup of political parties that could have participated in supporting an ANC-led minority government with the features of a government of national unity included those who made untenable demands, without guarantees. They were more hell-bent on seeking to destroy the ANC than anything else. There is nothing progressive about this and by extension a rejection of a more leftward shift and orientation in the government.
The balance between the support that the ANC eventually received on the one hand and was denied on the other, and other factors that require detailed examination and exposition, contributed to the outcomes that prevailed.
Nevertheless, even within the new situation the ANC-led government must advance the immediate resolution of the crisis-high unemployment, poverty eradication and a radical reduction of income, wealth, spatial, racial and gender inequalities. This top priority requires an expansion of public employment programmes, an advance towards a comprehensive social security system, including a universal basic income grant, investment in public infrastructure development, maintenance and security, and structural transformation of the economy.
The adoption of a high impact industrial policy must be a critical pillar of this government programme as a top priority. For such an industrial policy to succeed, it needs an alignment of and adequate operating environmental support and resourcing from an aligned macroeconomic policy as an imperative.
Dismantling the networks of corruption and clamping down on crime and interpersonal and gender-based violence must form part of the immediate top priorities of the government.
However, none of this is possible without working-class unity, power, education, organisation and deep-going mobilisation given the unfavourable shift that has occurred in the balance and configuration of forces. Intensifying efforts to avoid a counter-revolutionary defeat and achieve a turnaround in this situation is fundamental.
Our immediate task is therefore to strengthen those efforts to secure the widest possible working-class unity, to ensure that no key centre of power – in this case, the parliament as well as the government – exercises that power without the input and impact of a consistently mobilised working class. This unity is crucial to advance working-class demands, deepen the struggle against economic exploitation and political domination by capital, hold both the legislature and the government accountable, and successfully confront neo-liberal and other reformist agendas, as well as rightward shifts and restructuring of the state – including public entities – and the economy.
Public entities, not least state-owned enterprises, must be turned around to thrive and grow as a sector to contribute to national development, transformation and skills training.
Continuing and deepening our efforts to build a popular Left front and a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor is crucial to achieve the immediate aims and secure the future of the working class as a movement in all fronts of the struggle and key centres of power. This will, going forward, play a key role in the changing configuration and shifting balance of forces, including with regard to the question of alliances.
Before the end of June 2024, the SACP will hold Political Bureau and Central Committee plenaries. Among other tasks, this will deepen the process of comprehensive evaluation of the May 2024 elections, including the state of the Alliance and the broader democratic movement. This will culminate, by the end of this year, in the SACP holding a Special National Congress to conduct a mid-term review for the period from July 2022 to July 2027 from the perspective of the entire 30 years of our democratic dispensation. From this perspective, following the May 2024 elections the SACP is already focused on charting the way forward regarding immediate, short-term, medium-term and long-term strategic tasks and tactics that it, as a party of the working class, and the working class itself, must execute to defend, advance and deepen the national democratic revolution and achieve a transition to a socialist society.
Issued by the South African Communist Party,
Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
International-Solidarity
Unions in Argentina condemn reform bill with major impact on workers
19 June, 2024
Unions in Argentina condemn the Senate’s passing of the reform bill, which they say will undermine sovereignty, roll back labour rights and leave future generations without prospects.
After a heated and lengthy debate, the Argentine Senate passed the reform bill known as the Law for the bases and starting points for Argentines' freedom on 12 June. On the day of the vote, thousands of workers rallied in front of the National Congress calling on Senators to vote against the bill, which runs counter to the interests of the Argentine people.
In a brutal response from the government, six opposition MPs ended up in hospital after being pepper-sprayed. Tear gas was also used against the peaceful protesters.
Journalists and protesters were pushed back by rubber bullets, with more than 200 people requiring medical treatment as a result. More than 36 people were arrested, imprisoned and charged with sedition and terrorism, charges that carry heavy prison sentences – another clear sign that protests have been criminalized by the national security minister, Patricia Bullrich.
The bill had already been passed by the Chamber of Deputies and was awaiting approval by the Senate. During the debate, senators made some amendments and the bill will now return to the lower house for those amendments to be approved, before being enacted by the government. If two thirds of the Chamber of Deputies vote to reject the amendments, the original text, which is even more harmful to workers, will become law.
Before the result of the vote was announced, union representatives read out a statement prepared by the demonstration organizers saying that the bill promoted policies that would erode workers’ purchasing power, destroy production capacities, create unemployment and wipe out the progress made in creating fairer labour relations.
The bill passed by the Senate gives the president the power, for a one-year period, to reform or adopt laws without having to go through Congress. For the unions, this is a violation of the country’s Constitution and the republican principle of the separation of powers.
Senators also shortened the list of state-owned companies that the government can privatize and reduced the number of state agencies that it can shut down. However, the government will still be able to sell off a number of state-owned companies.
Senators also approved the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI), which the unions say will flood the country with foreign and multinational capital without any kind of state control, and will allow strategic public and natural resources to be exploited, which will lead to further deindustrialization.
The social security reform was also passed – it has been condemned by unions because it will create more informal work, reduces coverage and increases the retirement age for women.
IndustriALL regional secretary, Marino Vani, says:
“It is disgraceful and an affront to democracy, voters and the people of Argentina. Supporters of democracy worldwide should be truly alarmed that Argentina's President has been granted such extensive powers for a year.
"The bill was passed by only one vote, so the Milei government does not have a large majority. We stand in solidarity with the people of Argentina who are struggling and will continue to support our affiliates in their fight to get these laws repealed.”
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Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street, Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct line: 010 219-1348