Hands Off the Trade Unions! - Marxist Workers Party

Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 5 (January 1982).

by Gerald Desai and Jake Wilson

The announcement by the regime that SAAWU and CUSA trade unionists, among others, are to be put on trial is a challenge to the whole working class of South Africa.

Over the last few months there has been a sharp increase in detentions and bannings as the regime lashes-out against the growing opposition to its rule. Acting with growing desperation now that all promises of reform are turning to dust, the bosses are turning their attack on the workers’ movement in an attempt to stamp out the rising demands of the masses.

It is reported that almost 200 people are currently being held in detention by the security police. The actual number is much higher, as the defence committees formed by relatives of detainee’s and activists have shown.

After toying with the idea of industrial reform, the strategists of the ruling class have now concluded that this is inadequate to stem the rising militancy of the working class. Fearful of the resistance that could be provoked by an all-out attack on the trade unions, sweeping away all existing leaders, the regime is trying to intimidate the whole trade union leadership by cracking down on some.

The bosses and the regime are worried also at the prospect of a strong trade union movement, determined to defend its recent gains, at a time when the economy is moving into a downward curve. They want the utmost flexibility in the factories to fend-off the pressure on their profits, which could be wiped-out by hard struggles to defend wages and to stop layoffs and firings of workers.

The regime is making every effort to discover the weaknesses of the trade unions and frustrate their growth. It is trying to crack open the unity which is being built.

But it is the workers’ struggle that has forced openings in the ‘united front’ of the employers. The strikes against the ‘no payout’ Pensions Bill brought about a free-for-all fight between different employers. In the end, all they could agree on was that the regime was to blame.

At other employer meetings, leading bosses have argued that the non-racial trade unions have a legitimate political interest, especially in housing and transport.

And again, in the ultra-cheap labour textile industry, even the close friends of the security police have been forced to offer the non-racial trade union national negotiations outside the framework of the industrial council.

Bosses Weakened

All these developments have signalled flashing danger signs to the regime – the top defence organisation of the bosses. They mark the growing weakness of the bosses in defending their dictatorship in the factories and mines.

And so the question of trade unionism has moved from the hands of Wiehahn into the lap of the security police murderers – the defenders of cheap labour and the bulwark against trade union freedom.

The trade union movement, which has suffered no decisive set-back in the last period, is entering into a serious struggle in the factories, townships, courts and police cells.

Any sign of weakness, any hesitation in defence and reorganisation, will be taken full advantage of, not only by the police and prosecutors, but by every employer facing organised workers.

Since the regime is at this stage testing the strength of the non-racial trade unions, the impending trial of the detained leaders provides enormous opportunities for trade union defence. A spirited defence by the accused, turning the spotlight onto the regime and exposing the bosses’ complicity in trade union repression, would win great sympathy throughout the country and internationally.

Mass meetings, marches, and resolutions demanding the release of the accused are essential to their defence. In this way the unorganised majority of the working class, the youth, and community groups can be drawn into the struggle.

The old slogan ‘Hands off the trade unions’ has to be carried forward on a country-wide basis to rally the detainees committees, community and youth organisations, and all others struggling against the regime, behind the leadership of the working class.

The defence of the detained trade unionists should be taken up at all levels of the workers’ movement. In each province and area it should become a campaigning issue for organising the solidarity committees proposed by the trade union unity meeting in Cape Town last August.

By drawing together the whole trade union movement, great opportunities are raised for a mass drive to organise the unorganised, particularly the migrant workers, around fighting demands.

The task of defence is not to cover the line of retreat. Now more than ever the question of defence has to be linked-up with a concerted effort to build the trade union united front around the issues facing all workers:

A national minimum wage of R100 a week, with automatic increases index-linked to the cost of living (or formulated to ensure the widest possible unity in struggle);
Trade union freedom, and the right to strike against all laws oppressing workers.

Most importantly, the roots of the unions in the factories and docks need to be tended. A trade union movement made up of two layers only – generals and soldiers – is vulnerable to having its head cut-off. Leadership must be strengthened at all levels. Factory committees must become the firm foundation of defence within the trade unions – the training ground for workers to take up the reins of leadership.

The task of developing a layer of underground leadership, secure against attacks from the regime, should not be neglected. The building of an underground network of trade union activists will make it more difficult for the police to identify the leaders of the movement. It will ensure that, even in the event of a general clampdown on the trade unions, the workers in the factories will not be left leaderless.

A combination of underground and open organisation can lay the basis for a mass trade union movement which will force the regime to retreat from bannings, detentions and show trials.

Armed with a national minimum wage demand and a well organised campaign of trade union defence, the target of one million trade union members is within reach.