COLD WAR ECHOES AND TRADE UNION REFORM
Both the Cold War and the bitter battles between communists and social democrats in
Germany of the Thirties found an echo at the 11th Cosatu national congress in
Midrand last week; an echo that is now being assessed by labour organisations and
activists around the world. It came in speeches and in often angry comments from
delegates in debates about international affiliation.
Although the Cosatu secretariat report stated that the debate was “probably one of the
most important discussions that we have had in many years”, the issue was largely
ignored by the media. But it was — and is — certainly being taken seriously, not
only by labour, but also by governments and international institutions.
As a result, the discussions and the decision eventually taken by Cosatu may have
wide-ranging implications, especially for the trade union movement in South Africa.
There is even the probably remote prospect of Cosatu, the country’s major union
federation, being expelled by the world’s largest labour organisation, the International
Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The issue of expulsion was raised from the congress floor last week in a bellicose
statement from the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu)
that, along with three other Cosatu unions, has unilaterally affiliated to the World
Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). According to Nehawu, ITUC had threatened
to expel unions affiliating to the WFTU and this, again according to Nehawu, was
sufficient grounds for leaving ITUC.
This intervention from the floor was part of a drive spearheaded by Nehawu and
police and prisons union, Popcru, backed by metalworkers’ union, Numsa and pulp
and paper union, Ceppwawu to tie Cosatu solely to the WFTU. It failed. Instead,
amid professions of the need for international unity, a compromise was agreed:
Cosatu would maintain affiliation to ITUC while also joining the WFTU.
The drive to change international affiliation is solely on the basis of ideology, the
WFTU proclaiming itself to be a revolutionary, anti-imperialist and socialist
organisation. However, as the Cosatu secretariat report acknowledged, its claimed 80
million members in 35 countries cannot be verified, whereas ITUC has a verifiable
175 million members in 153 countries.
Although it was not raised publicly, a number of delegates and unions at the Cosatu
congress are concerned about some of the known WFTU affiliates, such as the
government-sponsored labour federation of North Korea. Given this concern it was
obvious that a compromise would be sought.
But the compromise came in the face of the announcement that the National Union of
Mineworkers (NUM) had also decided to join the WFTU. Based on membership
figures listed on the Cosatu website, 858 016 of the federation’s claimed membership
of 2 million have now tied themselves to the WFTU.
The NUM decision was taken at that union’s congress in May, although it was not
broadcast locally. It came after an address to the NUM congress by Swadesh Dev
Roye, of the WFTU-affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions that is politically
attached to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The public notification of the NUM affiliation came from WFTU general secretary
George Mavrikos when he addressed the Cosatu congress. Mavrikos, who is also a
communist party member in the Greek parliament spoke from the podium the day
after his ITUC counterpart, Sharan Burrow.
Burrow’s speech was generally conciliatory, but subtly critical of the WFTU. She
noted that there were “fundamental differences” between the two international bodies
although “my door remains open [to the WFTU]”.
Burrow insisted that the differences were not “communism or socialism”, but the
approach to defending “workers who want the right to elect a democratic government
and form free trade unions”. This was a barely veiled reference to the fact that progovernment
trade union federations in countries such as Syria and Egypt are WFTU
affiliates.
Mavrikos was more scathing and there were disturbing echoes of the divisive tragedy
of 1930s Germany when communists attacked social democrats as “social fascists”.
He castigated “the class of the capitalists with its agents in social-democracy and in
the trade unions” who had “disarmed” the workers.
As this column pointed out in February, these ideological divisions are hangovers of
the Cold War and a far cry from labour’s shared call for workers of all countries to
unite. During that earlier era, the argument was generally portrayed as Capitalism
versus Communism.
It was a case, the Cosatu secretariat report noted, of being in “a Cold War bunker”.
That bunker is now in the process of being reconstructed, with the remnants of the
formerly pro-Soviet WFTU gaining apparent strength in the face of the ongoing
global economic crisis.
In the Cold War years, the WFTU was aligned with the Soviet bloc, while the ICFTU,
predecessor of ITUC, with what was broadly known as the “West”. The
organisational model for WFTU unions was what existed in the Soviet Union where
unions were mere adjuncts of the party and state.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the WFTU all but collapsed amid free market
triumphalism. As the Cosatu secretariat notes: “Is it any wonder that the WFTU
imploded when the rule of the Party did?”
But many social democratic and labour parties or other political parties supported by
ITUC-affiliated trade unions — including the ANC — later adopted liberal economic
policies that are now widely discredited. And so an either/or situation has emerged
within several Cosatu unions: either support the “pro capitalist” ITUC or the “pro
communist” WFTU.
The Cosatu secretariat maintains that both international bodies are in need of reform.
And an indication of what form that reform should take has been presented quite
dramatically in recent weeks, especially at Marikana. There, many workers turned
their backs on established unions, came together as a collective and elected
spokesmen answerable to the collective.
It was messy, but gave a hint of the egalitarian and democratic manner in which trade
unions first came into being. This, rather than Cold War examples, may be where
positive lessons could, perhaps, be learned.
Terry Bell
writing, editing, broadcasting
specialising in:
political/economic analysis and labour
P.O Box 373, Muizenberg 7950
South Africa
Tel: +27 +(0)21 788 9699 • Fax: +27 +(0)21 788 9711
Skype: belnews
Blog: terrybellwrites.wordpress.com