Planning for a new South Africa
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/135328 , vital:37258
- Description: COSATU has adopted the Freedom Charter. But if we look carefully at the Freedom Charter, nowhere does it say how everyone will share in the country’s wealth. This Is because a Chartrr is a statement of beliefs and a guide to policy. It is not a detailed programme.
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- Date Issued: 1991
Political Economy - South Africa in crisis
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: July 1987
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/117195 , vital:34487
- Description: THE Central Executive Committee of COSATU took a decision in 1986 that active discussion and study of the South African economy was a priority. This decision was prompted by the very serious problems of unemployment, retrenchment, inflation and poverty that we now face. It was also prompted by an understanding that organised workers must be able to propose and fight for solutions to these problems. In addition sanctions are now becoming a reality. The need to thoroughly understand the economy is even more urgent. One of the biggest problems for any person trying to understand the South African economy is the question: Through whose eyes do we study it? We can look at the economy through the eyes of the capitalists or we can look at it through the eyes of workers. Depending on which set of eyes we use, we’ll see a very different picture. The newspapers, radio, TV and education system all look at the economy through the eyes of the capitalist. They talk of economic laws* which are efficient and benefit everyone. And when the economy goes into a recession* or into a crisis* they argue that the economic laws are being interfered with. They want people to think that the economy is something controlled by laws that workers cannot change. In this booklet on the South African economy we will look at the economy through the eyes of workers. We will see how politics and economics have combined to the benefit of the capitalists. In doing this we will undertake a study of the political economy * of South Africa. The aim of this booklet is to provide a starting point for a study of the South African political economy. We will be looking back into our history to understand the very close link between politics and economics. The purpose of such a political economy study is to allow us to better understand just how serious the present crisis is. Being clearer on this will also allow us to begin discussing the real and effective solutions to the crisis. This is important because many of the solutions being proposed at present will benefit capitalism but will lead to small changes for the mass of the people.
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- Date Issued: July 1987
Presidential address - Second National Congress
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: July 1987
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/135354 , vital:37259
- Description: Comrade delegates International and local guests Friends and compatriots I wish to welcome you to COSATU's Second National Congress This Congress is taking place at a time when the conflict between the forces trying to maintain the system and the forces of social progress is hotter then ever; when masses of our people are in a state of near permanent upsurge and when nearly everyone is now realising that the apparent iron fortress of the ruling class is breaking down. As we are meeting today, we are doing so united by the deep-seated feeling that victory is certain. Because of that, we must be clear that our Congress is an important milestone in our march towards our total freedom. With unity and clarity of purpose, we must deliberate on all the issues that are put before this Congress and take such decisions as are necessary to take the struggles of the working class in particular, and of the mass democratic movement in general, forward.
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- Date Issued: July 1987
Press alert on the COSATU recruitment drive campaign
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: Mar 1998
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/112684 , vital:33638
- Description: Members of the Press are invited to a high profile public launch of the COSATU Autumn Offensive Recruitment campaign that will be held on Monday 23 March 1998 at CNR Old Verneeniging and Jacobs Street, Alrode in Alberton - Gauteng at 12noon. In attendance will be members of the COSATU Executive Committee led by President John Gomomo, the ANC and SACP leadership. An invitation has been extended to comrades Thabo Mbeki and Charles Nqakula to speak at the launch.
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- Date Issued: Mar 1998
Recruiters Guidelines
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109753 , vital:33186
- Description: The purpose of this booklet is to touch in number of areas, which are important at this point for the recruitment campaign of the federation. It is not meant even by implication to provide details of how to handle the campaign what it does is to highlight issues and areas that we must think in the preparation for this campaign. More importantly is the fact that COSATU remains the biggest federation in South Africa and fastest growing international. Beside a loss of membership from + 2 million to + 1.8 million members. The decrease in membership is mostly because of retrenchments. The well known fact is that only about 40% of the workforce that is unionized. The aim of the recruitment drive is to access this 60% that is not unionized. The mistake must not be committed to think that the 40%, which is unionized, belong to COSATU. There are two other federations plus number of non-affiliated unions. Our commitment to One Country One Federation does not stop us to recruit from other unions as long as we remain under different bodies. This October campaign coincides with Red October campaign of the SACP and Health and Safety month of the federation this must be seen as strength than lack of co-ordination. One area that is link to recruitment is the servicing of membership. It is useless to recruit and fail to service membership because every campaign that we will take around recruitment we may find ourselves had to fight with disgruntled members and obviously it will be difficult to attract new members. This must say to us that members come first.
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- Date Issued: 2001
Recruiters Guidelines
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/137210 , vital:37498
- Description: The purpose of this booklet is to touch in number of areas, which are important at this point for the recruitment campaign of the federation. It is not meant even by implication to provide details of how to handle the campaign what it does is to highlight issues and areas that we must think in the preparation for this campaign. More importantly is the fact that COSATU remains the biggest federation in South Africa and fastest growing international. Beside a loss of membership from + 2 million to + 1.8 million members. The decrease in membership is mostly because of retrenchments. The well known fact is that only about 40% of the workforce that is unionized. The aim of the recruitment drive is to access this 60% that is not unionized. The mistake must not be committed to think that the 40%, which is unionized, belong to COSATU. There are two other federations plus number of non-affiliated unions. Our commitment to One Country One Federation does not stop us to recruit from other unions as long as we remain under different bodies. This October campaign coincides with Red October campaign of the SACP and Health and Safety month of the federation this must be seen as strength than lack of co-ordination. One area that is link to recruitment is the servicing of membership. It is useless to recruit and fail to service membership because every campaign that we will take around recruitment we may find ourselves had to fight with disgruntled members and obviously it will be difficult to attract new members. This must say to us that members come first.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
ROB report to the COSATU Western Cape Regional Congress
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: Mar 1991
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/135365 , vital:37261
- Description: In this report we have focused more on policy issues than on an assessment of problems in the region, as we need to use our Regional Congresses in preparation for the issues which will be debated at National Congress. The government and the bosses are also trying to stop us making further gains. How do we respond? STATE OF THE NATION In the past year, a number of gains have been made by COSATU, some demands have been won, but many new areas of struggle have opened up. In the past year, a number of gains have been made by COSATU, some demands have been won, but many new areas of struggle have opened up. In October 1990, the SCN accord was signed, which gave us back the old Unfair Labour Practice definition, and also set the scene for introducing new legislation for farm, domestic and public sector workers. Since then, a number of unions have been meeting with sub-committees of the National Manpower Commission as well as the Commision for Administration (CFA) to argue for basic rights and legislation for these workers. COSATU now has a national Public Sector Forum under the COSATU Organising Department, and we are gearing up for this struggle as well as the struggle for an entirely and progressive Labour Relations Act.
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- Date Issued: Mar 1991
Sexual Harassment Code of Conduct
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: May 1995
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/137179 , vital:37494
- Description: COSATU and affiliates have committed themselves to preventing and addressing sexual harassment in the unions. The COSATU Sexual Harassment Code of Conduct is the outcome of a long process of debate within the federation. In 1989 the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) raised the issue of sexual harassment when they submitted a resolution on harassment to the COSATU National Congress. The resolution was referred to affiliates for further discussion. In 1991 the COSATU National Congress discussed the TGWU resolution on sexual harassment again. No agreement was reached over the resolution. In 1994 the COSATU National Congress adopted a resolution to draw up a code of conduct on sexual harassment. In May 1995 the Executive Committee adopted the code of conduct on sexual harassment.
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- Date Issued: May 1995
Site Tax Campaign Manual
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/137159 , vital:37493
- Description: Since 1989 most workers in South Africa have had their wages taxed under the Site Tax system. SITE stands for Standard Income Tax on Employees. Under the Site Tax system, the employer is responsible for making sure that workers pay the correct, amount of tax. This is different from the old Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system where the Receiver of Revenue had to make sure that the amount of tax paid was correct. Now the employer works out how much tax has to be paid from the personal information, such as number of children, given to them by each worker. But COSATU has seen that many workers have been taxed too much by their employers. This is mostly because no-one has explained to workers how the Site Tax system works and what tax reductions they are entitled to.
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- Date Issued: 1994
Southern Africa perspective - In South Africa: The Bloody Campaign Against Organized Labor
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/169033 , vital:41677
- Description: A year after African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, South Africa’s Black trade unions, particularly the million-member Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), remain at the heart of the movement for political democracy and economic and social change. Union activists have been instrumental in revitalizing mass opposition to apartheid — launching ANC branches, organizing local consumer and utility boycotts, and leading strikes over wages, job security and workplace racism that cost the white-run economy over four million work days during 1990. But labor’s role in the struggle for political and economic democracy has increasingly made the unions the target of state-sponsored political violence. Black labor’s resistance to oppression goes back to the 1920s, when the militant Industrial and Commercial Workers Union built a national membership of over 100,000. But it was not until 1981, after a wave of illegal strikes forced the apartheid regime to lift the ban on Black unions, that labor began to emerge as a major anti-apartheid force. With Mandela’s African National Congress and other organizations still outlawed, Black workers increasingly saw their unions as a vehicle for their political aspirations.
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- Date Issued: 1991
Statement on employment Equity Bill and the Apartheid Wage gap
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: Aug 1998
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109791 , vital:33189
- Description: The Portfolio Committee on Labour considered amendments to the Employment Equity Bill which were tabled in parliament by the Department of Labour today. Amongst these were amendments in response to COSATU's proposals for closing the apartheid wage gap. COSATU has serious reservations, however, about the tabled amendments on this issue, and believes that the amendments proposed today by the ANC should be supported as they address these defects. Finalisation of the clauses relating to the wage gap has been postponed to next week, when the Bill will be voted on by the Committee. COSATU has consistently maintained the view, both in our submissions to the committee last month, and at NEDLAC, that the Employment Equity Bill must address the issue of the apartheid wage gap, if it is to have meaning for the millions of ordinary workers, who are the worst victims of apartheid discrimination, and who will not be able to reach the upper echelons of the workforce, despite the affirmative action provisions of the legislation. We have supported the philosophy of the legislation that employment equity must benefit everybody, and not just an elite few. We have taken the view that the legislation must address the critical legacy of massive income inequalities, which was a deliberate policy under apartheid, in order to make this philosophical approach a reality, and that in this respect the Draft Bill was seriously defective. We proposed a series of concrete amendments to remedy this defect, within the broad philosophical approach and architecture of the Bill. We also proposed an integrated strategy to address these differentials, which combines measures in the Employment Equity legislation with other legislation and processes. A number of organisations have supported us in this view. Further a concept document tabled by the Department of Labour in the parliamentary committee broadly endorsed this approach.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Aug 1998
Stop privatisation - Join the campaign
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: June 1991
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/135389 , vital:37263
- Description: Privatisation is when government hands over the management or assets of government services to private interests. Privatised services don't provide well for the poor, who can't pay, because private interests must make profits. Government says it will ensure the poor get good services through contracts and regulations - but it doesn't have capacity to enforce them. Privatisation makes it harder to maintain cross subsidies. Cross subsidies mean rich communities or industry pay more, so that poor households can pay less. Getting rid of cross-subsidies tends to make the prices for services for the poor go up. Privatised companies don't take the broader economic needs of the country into account, for instance by buying goods locally as a way to create jobs, and providing affordable services in remote regions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: June 1991
The National minimum wage reader
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 1990
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/173584 , vital:42386
- Description: Low wages are a cause of poverty. They are unjust and they lead to economic inefficiency. Low pay is not the result of "market forces" or of individual productivity. It is the result of the vulnerability of certain sectors of the workforce and the cost structure of low-wage industries. A National Minimum Wage is a practical solution that has been adopted in many countries. It is one of the demands of the Freedom Charter. The National Minimum Wage can be developed by COSATU as a powerful campaign tool in the fight for a living wage . The National Campaigns Conference, held in May 1990, asked the Living Wage Working Croup "to establish what National Minimum Wage should be suggested to develop a program of action to achieve a National Minimum Wage". The conference agreed that the level of the National Minimum Wage will be decided at the second National Campaigns Conference in August 1990. This reader pulls together all the documents and resolutions that have guided the Living Wage Working Group in its work on the National Minimum Wage.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1990
The new labour relations act - A summary of important features
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/174426 , vital:42476
- Description: This summary is intended primarily for unionists who want to get an overview of key substantive features of the new Labour Relations Act (LRA) that will most probably take effect in April or May next year.
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- Date Issued: 1995
The weekly newsletter for COSATU - Affiliates and Regions
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109802 , vital:33191
- Description: The largest nursing organisation in the country, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA), has taken a historic decision to join COSATU at its recent congress held last week in Pretoria. The 200 delegates at the congress voted in favour of the move. The congress was held between under theme: ’’Nursing facing challenges. Development and HIV/Aids." COSATU campaigns secretary, Mcedisi Nontseie, said the union’s affiliation is a step forward in the consolidation of public sector unions within the federation. "This also consolidates white collar workers within the federation and further demystifies the long held reactionary notion that COSATU only represents workers in the lower ranks,” said Nontseie. South African Football Players Organisation (SAPPU) and Performing Arts Workers Equity (PAWE) joined the federation last year. DONOSA’s affiliation is set to boost the federation’s membership from its present of 1.8 million.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001