Let organise for the strike
action for our demands. The leadership of Cosatu who are part of the alliance
with the Sacp and Anc, stopped us, as Samwu when were about to strike before
the Municipal Elections on the 18th May. We Samwu workers started
the strike wave last year, that continues now, where the grassroots are starting
to break from the alliance with the Anc and Sacp.
When the public sector
workers were demanding 12 percent, Vavi and the rest of Cosatu leadership came
to the rescue of the government and big capital by declaring that 7.5 percent
was good enough for the workers.
But this year they the
Cosatu leadership stopped us (Samwu) workers when we were on the brink of
strike action before the 18 May Elections. The Anc accused us Samwu workers of holding them
hostage before the elections. They the Anc leaders promised to address our demands, but after the elections, the
vice president Motlanthe addressed Samwu members, brushing them aside and
accusing them of side-stepping Salga, the local government negotiations agency.
Salga is controlled by the Anc and Motlanthe is a member of Sacp too, so who is
really holding the workers to ransom?
The Sacp, Anc and Cosatu leaders,
in short the
The Samwu leadership is pre
empting our strike action by giving signals to the empoyer (Salga), if they
come with a better offer, they leadership of Samwu will call off the strike
action. The union issued a leaflet where the leaders claim that inflation for
workers is 8%. How can they say that when we as workers are most affected by
electricity having gone up by 31%, fuel has gone up by more than 20% and food
prices always go up almost every week.
It seems the leaders are preparing us for a settlement of 8% or below
what our demands are. Any concession below 18 percent will impoverish the
working class, and be a betrayal of the workers demands. The state and the
capitalists use CPI (official inflation) to cut wages- they know that CPI has
nothing to do with inflation for workers. We must demand that all casuals, contract
workers, that work across the country in the municipal and cleaning sectors must be made permanent immediately.
It is time to break with the SACP and ANC - all heights of the economy must be expropriated,
without compensation, be placed under workers control.
No to 3 year agreements! Wages must go up as prices
go up!
The path to the general strike:
First we must unify our
ranks and kick out the class collaborationist leaders,
we need a revolutionary
leadership based on strike committees, the immediate task is to convene a national
meeting of strike committees which
include delegates from the
entire industrial working class and set a date for the solidarity strike action.
Occupy strategic depots and municipal workplaces and then extend the occupation
to all municipal workplaces.
There must be strike
committees in every industrial areas , mine, shop, farm, every working class
area that sends delegates to regional and national worker summit to centralise
the demands of the working class and to prepare the path to the general strike.
Considering how the police have brutalised other strikers and community
activists, we need self defence committees as part of the strike committees. We
need to include delegates from all workers organizations and grassroots
organizations that are spearheading the struggles for service delivery, to be
part of the strike committees. The leadership of Samwu has called for building
strike committees, building links with communities- let us see how serious they
are about real preparation for a strike. We as workers must take the lead to
make sure these words are put into practice. There must be a broad national
strike committee that decides the direction of the strike- do not leave it in
the hands of the leaders!
Without a program of
socialist, transitional and immediate demands and an independent, international,
revolutionary working class party we will never overthrow the capitalist system
that keep the working class in chains.
Let’s unite like the masses
in
Forward to worker-controlled
strike committees which unite workers, students and community activists
Forward to an independent revolutionary
working class party!
For a committee of
revolutionary Trotskyists and revolutionary workers organisations to refound
the Fourth International
FORWARD TO SOCIALISM!
9.8.2011 amended 13.8.2011
Issued by Workers International Vanguard League ph 0822020617, email workersinternational@gmail.com
, website www.workersinternational.org.za