The Hindu : Unions confront a liberalising world

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 21, 2004

National

National

Unions confront a liberalising world

By Aniket Alam

MUMBAI, JAN. 20. When the India organising committee of the World Social Forum wanted to invite Nelson Mandela to inaugurate the meet in Mumbai, it was, surprisingly rejected by the Africans due to vehement opposition from the southern African contingent.

Interacting with delegates at the WSF, it seems that an increasing number of people in South Africa see this anti-apartheid hero as the front-man of the IMF and the World Bank who has pushed privatisation and liberalisation of the economy using his stature to mute social protests.

A visibly upset former African National Congress activist, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Hindu that economic disparities, especially among blacks, have widened since the ANC came to power in 1994. "A small black elite is aspiring to join the white capitalists," she says, giving the example of Cyril Ramaphosa, a former miners' leader who is now a multi-millionaire. Similarly, leading members of the South African Communist Party like Jeff Radebe, Alec Erwin and Geraldine Molekete, as Ministers of Public Enterprise, of Trade and Industry and of Public Services, respectively, are part and parcel of the Government's privatisation policy, she says.

In 1996, President Mandela formally announced a policy of privatisation which led to transport, telecom and other "non-core" industries passing into private hands. Also, the ANC Government has been supportive of South African businesses buying out industries in other African countries, which has caused much tension among trade unionists there.

Resentment toward this has increasingly found expression through the new social movements of the urban poor, landless farm workers, women and youth which have emerged post-1994 and have no links with the ANC. The unions, represented by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), were muted in their protest due to their historical association with the ANC, but found their agendas and mass base slipping away. These critics accuse the Government of doing precious little to reduce the 40 per cent unemployment and say that in the past 10 years only three per cent of the land has been redistributed to landless blacks. They put the blame squarely on the ANC's growing proximity to business interests, which are still primarily white.

It is only in the face of growing unrest among their core support base of black workers that the ANC Government has recently announced a 100 billion Rand plan to create jobs, build houses and develop health and education infrastructure in the face of new election this year, the activists say.

This package is a victory for the trade unions and their constant struggles against privatisation, assert members of the COSATU like Lulamile Sotaka and Nomthandazo Sikiti of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union and Silumko Nondwangu, of the Metalworkers' Union. But others like Trevor Ngwane of the Anti Privatisation Front and Denis Brutus, anti-apartheid fighter, doubt whether the ANC will ever come out of the "clutches" of the big corporates and IMF-World Bank.

Similar rumblings are visible from some Brazilian delegates like Maria Elisa Meyer de Azevedo, Ticiana Alvares and Julia de Giovanni, who say that President Lula, of the Workers' Party, is making too many compromises with the big banks and corporates. They say that he has pushed in pension reforms which even the military governments could not do for over 30 years.

They, like their South African counterparts, agree that their Governments are working under tremendous pressure from the U.S. and IMF-World Bank. Despite all their left wing protestations, these Governments have to compromise with domestic business interests to survive, these activists concede. The only way to counter this "shift to the right" is to keep up the pressure of popular movements, say these activists. But increasingly in countries such as South Africa and Brazil, this role is being taken away from the traditional trade unions by new social movements. So, are trade unions becoming obsolete even in countries which have ostensible left wing, labour friendly governments?

"It is difficult to remain committed to the demands of workers earning 500 Rand a month, when these trade union leaders are now earning 30,000 Rand a month as Members of Parliament and Ministers," says a former anti-apartheid activist from South Africa who does not wish to be named.

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