SOUTH AFRICA: Millions strike over job losses
Close to 4 million workers in South Africa joined a national strike against job losses on May 10, according to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Around 400,000 strikers marched countrywide.
The action was the culmination of a campaign that kicked off in January and has involved strikes and mass protests in every province.
COSATU estimates that 37% of South African workers — 4.5 million — are unemployed. Half of all households depend on a single working family member and, on average, one wage earner supports 10 people.
"The response to our call proves once more that the number one problem our country is facing is that of unemployment. The success of today's action comes despite massive propaganda claiming our strike to be irresponsible or mischievous, and despite much intimidation of our members to stay away. We call again on business and government to address all the demands that we have tabled", declared COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
COSATU's demands were that the South African government:
- amend the Labour Relations Act to make negotiations between employers and affected trade unions mandatory before retrenchments;
- change the Insolvency Act to protect workers' entitlements in cases of company liquidation;
- renegotiate the agreement between the government and COSATU to prevent the unilateral "restructuring" (corporatisation and privatisation) of government or state-owned enterprises;
- end the accelerated tariff reduction program to bring South Africa in line with its World Trade Organisation commitments; and
- convene a "thoroughgoing discussion amongst key stakeholders in the economy in order to find long-term solutions to the structural problems that continue to bedevil our economy" and "review all economic policies in the light of the unemployment catastrophe".
COSATU did not specifically call for the ANC to drop its conservative economic program, GEAR (Growth Employment and Redistribution), or oppose privatisation outright.
COSATU reported that the strike was most strongly supported in South Africa's economically decisive Witwatersrand region, around Johannesburg and Pretoria, where almost 90% of the work force went on strike. More than 150,000 strikers marched in Johannesburg and 50,000 in Pretoria.
Around 75% of workers walked out in the Western Cape and 50,000 marched in Cape Town, 70% struck in the Eastern Cape, and in all other provinces at least 50% went on strike.
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande backed the strike. "If the bosses believe that they are going to build the economy of this country over the carcass of the working class, they are living in a fool's paradise", he told marchers in Johannesburg.
However, SACP ministers were less supportive of the action and its goals. Public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, a SACP central committee member, announced on May 8 that the government would enforce its "no work, no pay" rule for striking public servants.
BY NORM DIXON