Politics.za

According to this report the ANC has challenged the SACP to split from the tripartite alliance and fend for itself in the SA political landscape. The ANC is asking why the SACP feels it is marginalised when senior SACP leaders are in high up positions in the cabinet and government. In it’s attack on the SACP authored paper, ‘State Power’, the ANC even question the the political chops of it’s authors:

Besides the possibility of conceitedness, this patently subjective treatment of history does pose another question about the character of the authors of the discussion document… For how long have they been in SACP ranks?

I’m calling it. 20th June 2006 – the end of the tripartite alliance. It may still persist publicly but within the SACP/ANC/COSATU group it might as well be over, there is seemingly so much bad blood and I don’t see it getting better any time soon.

Following on from the SACP, who were making it clear they may be splitting from the tri partite alliance, COSATU have decided to do the same thing. In a discusstion paper released yesterday in preparation for their national conference in September COSATU lists the following options:

1. Walking out of the alliance and calling on the third partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP), to contest political power or launch a working-class party. In this scenario, Cosatu would work with others to challenge the ANC in power.
2. The alliance disintegrating in the absence of a clear direction, with the ANC pushing a business agenda and Cosatu and the SACP splitting “along ideological lines and loyalty to personalities in the ANC”.
3. Continuing the tripartite alliance and Cosatu members being used as election campaigners for the ruling party.
4. Signing an enforceable pact within the alliance partners on how the alliance should operate. As in north European examples, workers would be shown the ANC’s manifesto and if the ruling party did not deliver on election promises, they would support another party.
5. Cosatu members work to influence the ANC from within the alliance and redirect it as a ruling party sympathetic to workers.

Options 1 and 2 are pretty much non-starters unless COSATU doesn’t mind being part of a two seat minority party in government. Option 4 a potential outcome with the ANC doing so to get COSATU to keep quiet, except that almost immediately after signing the ANC will once again ignore COSATU leading basically to option 3 anyway. Option 5 is what probably will be chosen despite the fact it’s been a losing strategy for COSATU since 1994.

In a statement in parliament that will probably only go further to enraging COSATU, President Mbeki has come out harshly at what he calls “lawlessness” and those who want to replace politics and diplomacy with “killing fields”. He came out pretty directly against the SATAWU led security guard strike:

I am talking of those who are throwing people off moving trains and assassinating workers in the private security sector

and called such actions an “undemocratic plague”. That’s some strong words there although he does say the people behind this are a minority. Which in itself could be seen as a insult if he means for people to apply the term minority to the entire strike.

COSATU/SATAWU will no doubt nod and agree with Mbeki on the cracking down on people who are violent (mainly for PR reasons) but they will be extremely miffed that he’s not exactly putting any support behind their strike.

Tony, Tony, Tony… What is this? 1990 in Natal? Third force accusations are so passe’.

Following the ruckus caused by striking security guards in the Cape Town CBD yesterday, the DA led local council has teamed up with the ANC led provincial government to withdraw permission for the planned COSATU led general strike tomorrow. The decision of the provincial government is a bit suprising considering the wide held assumption that the ANC would use every opportunity to make the DA led council look bad with it’s asking for payment from the union for damage. However when it comes to stomping down on COSATU and other unions (something the ANC seems to be doing quite a bit of lately) I guess the ANC can’t let the DA have all the fun.

I expect ther is a good chance COSATU will continue to march, last I heard COSATU is still deciding, but will do so under extremely heavy police presence and with COSATU marshalls everywhere to avoid the public relations snafu that was the march on Tuesday. That being said the chances of more violence are real and if you work in the CBD I hope you have in building parking.

Update: COSATU have called off their march in Cape Town. I suspect there might still be strikers arriving tomorrow who have not heard about this decision so the potential for violence is not zero.

• Okay Zuma going to visit Gadaffi was a bit strange but now it seems the SACP and COSATU visited the day before in order to butter up the Libyan strongman for a donation. The ANC isn’t liking that at all.
• Submissions to the African Peer Review Mechanism indicate the growing dissatisfaction with the electoral party system and political party financing.
• And lastly the Boeremag escapees are still on the run. Have the police searched the local strip joint?

I have nothing against labour unions. I believe they have a fundamental part to play any economy and have a deserved place in even the most capitalistic of systems. Speaking from personal experience the union my father belongs to subsidised my medical costs until I left university and entered the working world. I should also note that as I’ve been alive I can not recall my dad’s union has never called a strike and yet they have never had a pay dispute with employers. Whether that’s the sign of a good union or a bad one I can’t say, all I know is my dad has never had a complaint with them.

That being said if I was a (law abiding, non-murdering) member of SATAWU I would be getting extremely pissed with the union leadership:

• With the average security earning R1500 a month the strike it will take a striker 10 months to earn back the wages he may have lost if SATAWU manages to get the 11% increase. If SATAWU settles for 8.3% like the other unions it will take a year.

• The lawlessness and violence seemingly condoned by SATAWU is not exactly endearing the union to the Labour Dept and making it harder for them to strike in the future, with any further strike action likely to get even less sympathy from government and the public.

• When COSATU is threatening to kick strikers “out of COSATU” you know SATAWU are making enemies when they should be making friends and souring relationships with it’s allies.

Stop the presses!! There has been a massive scientific breakthrough in mathematical logic and it comes from none other than our own COSATU! Quick someone tell The IMU to start engraving that Fields Medal cause I have a hunch I know who is winning this year!

COSATU have figured out how to prove a negative assertion! Not only will this have massive implications for the world of mathematics but the ramifications for law and internet flaming will be major. Already the shockwaves of this landmark discovery are hitting the SA law scene, and have particular relevance to our rape laws. As COSATU now proclaim:

He should prove that he did not rape the victim

That’s right. In the past to prove a rape we needed a pesky thing called ‘evidence’. Therefore to now prove that a rape has not happened we need to prove there is no evidence, in short to prove that something does not exist, something that was logically impossible until COSATU came along!

It is quite clear that every male should report to the police (to female constables, all the males will also be handing themselves over) because with the distinct lack of no evidence that I have not raped every woman I walked past on the street, it is obvious I have raped them all. I hang my head in shame. Thank you COSATU for showing me the true criminal I am.

Well it seems the idea bandied about by Mbeki and Manuel that new labour laws are on the cards is seemingly more and more a done deal.

Trade unions are of course not happy with COSATU Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi saying in typical fashion that COSATU will “resist up to the last man”. You know that scene in Austin Powers where Austin is driving a steamroller towards a guard and the guard just screams but doesn’t get out the way despite the fact the steamroller is twenty meters away? Can you guess who is the guard and who is the steamroller in this scenario?