Down with black economic empowerment!
Re-nationalise Equity Aviation!

Workers International Vanguard League, WIVL, salutes the heroic strikers at Equity Aviation for leading the way to defend the 40 hour week. The strike is already in its 4th month.

49% of the company is still owned by the state, while 51% is owned by a black economic empowerment company, called Equity Aviation. British capitalists, Serco, also has a controlling share in the company. Government claims to have spent billions on black economic empowerment, with billions more about to be spent. For black economic empowerment in mining, government wants to raise a further R100 billion! Has this ‘empowerment’ created a single job? NO.

This has created a small layer of capitalists claiming that they are advancing the interests of workers. The National Framework Agreement has not stopped privatization but has paved the way for this emerging black upper middle class and capitalist class. These junior capitalists raise their money through loans from imperialism and local banks at high interest rates. Even if these companies collapse, the loan still has to be repaid. These ‘empowerment’ capitalists do not lead an independent existence but are controlled behind the scenes by monopoly capital. If these monopoly capitalists would directly try to lower workers conditions, they would face a huge backlash.

But now, the monopoly capitalists use the legitimacy of the empowerment capitalists to ram through huge attacks on the working class. Ex-Cosatu leaders like Jay Naidoo and Cyril Ramaphosa are today empowerment capitalists. Some current Cosatu leaders actively promote this form of empowerment exploitation and several Cosatu unions now have shares in these empowerment companies. They have actively encouraged workers to buy shares in empowerment companies. The workers at Equity Aviation have a 5% share in the company.

This share means nothing and now workers have decided to give them back. The strike is in its 4th month and still Cosatu leaders have failed to organize national and international solidarity. They prefer to campaign for elections. The ACSA [Airports company of SA] bosses, the government, after 3 months made a public statement calling on ACSA workers not to scab on the strikers, but this scabbing has still continued. The capitalist class is already using the strike as an example of what will happen to workers if they go on strike – they threaten to lock workers out for as long as the Equity Aviation strikers. The capitalists make this threat openly because they know the union leaders like those of Satawu and Cosatu are in their pockets. The Freedom Charter promises a 40 hour week. The workers at the airports achieved this through their struggles while being employed by the state. Now the only role of the government has been to force workers to give up on the 40 hour week.

A vote for the ANC, DA, NNP or any of the parliamentary parties will be a vote for the smashing of the struggle for a 40 hour week!Up to and after the elections, the Satawu and Cosatu leaders want to tire out the workers, hoping they will give up on their demands. They have used the shopsteward structure to try and control the workers.What can we do?
At every workplace we need to set up broader workers committees to take control of our unions
We need to continue and expand the R1 per worker per week campaign to assist the strikers
We must demand that the union builds active solidarity locally, nationally and internationally for the strikers. A delegation of strikers should be sent to Britain, France, Germany and the US to build solidarity among baggage handlers and other transport workers.

The leaders of Cosatu and Satawu needs to be kicked out and replaced with worker leaders who are prepared to place workers’ struggle first. Many other workers in and outside of Cosatu have the same problem as the Equity Aviation strikers, so the campaign for working class independence must unite workers across different unions. DOWN WITH WORKERS’ SHARES IN COMPANIES! DOWN WITH BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT! DOWN WITH PRIVATIZATION! RE-NATIONALISE ALL COMPANIES ALREADY PRIVATIZED!

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