13 LOOKING BACK

Until now, the only other book which has been written about SACTU is Edward Feit's Workers Without Weapons: The South African Congress of Trade Unions and the Organization of African Workers (Archon Books, 1975). Feit has consistently and intentionally distorted the historical material in order to defend his basic argument that SACTU was a 'failure'. The present effort is in no way a response to Feit as the latter's contribution is so deliberately malicious as to fail to deserve serious rebuttal. It should be pointed out, however, that Feit made no effort to establish direct contact with SACTU members in exile to corroborate his essential position, but rather relied on information provided by organizations (e.g. the ICI7TU) and individuals (in TUCSA) openly hostile to SACTU during the years 1955-64. Beyond this, his research, even by bourgeois academic standards, is simply shoddy: dates are incorrect in many places, documentation is often lacking, and clearly disreputable sources such as Bruno Mtolo (see Chapter 6) who turned State's evidence against the liberation movement are used extensively for information. Motivated by outright hostility to the South African working class, Feit's analysis is scarcely more than a mixture of cold war anti-communism and a call for exploited African workers to cease all involvement in the political struggle to seize state power.

The assessment of SACTU during its first decade hinges on a clear perception of the struggle itself. To discuss the organization within the framework of bourgeois criteria of trade unionism or social change generally is to fail to grasp the historical significance of not only SACTU but more importantly, the class consciousness and aspirations of the African proletariat. The struggle was first and foremost, and at all times, for total liberation from the institutions of Apartheid and class rule. Quantitative gains in the form of higher wages, lower taxes, greater workmen's compensation and other benefits were not ignored in the process; in fact, they constituted the basis for rank-and-file support and a realization that SACTU alone among trade union coordinating bodies mobilized workers according to their real, objective conditions of exploitation. Although SACTU campaigns around these demands generally exposed the ruling class, such demands alone could always be channelled into reformist solutions. The classic example was that of African wage increases being accompanied by even larger increases for the privileged White workers. This was in fact the entire basis of TUCSA's 'concern' for African workers, that is, as a means of protecting its White workers. In sum, reformist demands never threatened the fundamental status quo of racial oppression and class domination, but merely served to reinforce a divided working class along racial lines. SACTU's strength was in its refusal to accommodate to these pressures of reformism advanced by a reactionary and selfserving registered trade union movement. Planting the roots of non-racial trade unionism in the soil of apartheid South Africa was one of SACTUs lasting achievements, a success that cannot be measured by membership figures, financial statements or number of paid organizers.

Of even greater importance to the oppressed Black population as a whole was SACTU's unequivocal commitment from the outset to the revolutionary struggle for political emancipation. Continuing in the tradition established by the progressive trade unions of previous generations, particularly the African Mine Workers Union and the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions, SACTU never refrained from defining the workers' struggle in both economic and political terms. Working closely with the radical nationalist organizations that made up the Congress Alliance, SACTU concerned itself with workers as citizens deprived of basic rights as well as producers of wealth. As we have seen, in certain regions SACTU comrades provided the crucial and most militant leadership in Congress campaigns. It is this dedication to the political struggle above all else that awakened the wrath of the coordinating bodies of registered unions, the capitalists as a class and the state. To Feit, this was the basis of SACTU's Failure'; to the Black workers of South Africa, this was the strength of SACTU.

Commemorative histories need not exaggerate strengths without mentioning the weaknesses, as only through an examination of the latter can advances be made in the present and future. On the trade union front, the lack of financial resources, resulting from the employers' hostility to SACTU at the workplace and the inability to collect regularly the subscriptions of workers, made full-time organizers difficult to sustain. Regional variations and unevenness also characterized SACTU work throughout the years, making the goal of establishing national, industrial unions only partially realized. All of these problems were made more difficult by a coordinated hostility of TUCSA (and its anti-SACTU creation, FOFATUSA), the employers and Industrial Councils, City Councils and the Apartheid regime. With each SACTU success, the victimization of individuals and repression of the organization intensified. Yet it would be incorrect to lay the blame for all of the difficulties encountered by SACTU on state repression alone; to do so would only serve to encourage greater pessimism today as the state machinery for repression is certainly more sophisticated now than in the 1950s and early 1960s.

And it is to the present workers' struggle that this book is dedicated and directed. The lessons of past struggles must be utilized in the struggles of today and tomorrow. Heavy repression in 1964, as documented, forced SACTU and other Congress Alliance groupings to adjust their work to the conditions of underground activity and operation in exile. The regime has conceived new strategies on both the trade union and political fronts to attempt to solve the old problems: that of dividing people and breaking down working-class consciousness and political resistance.

While correct strategy and tactics must flow from the objective conditions that exist in any given era, the past decisions cannot be ignored except at the expense of repeating mistakes. Of particular importance in this regard is the complementary nature of the struggle that shaped the Congress movement in the 1950s. While the national and class struggles could then, as now, be distinguished as qualitatively different aspects of the same liberation process, the strength of the Congress Alliance was always in the equality of SACTU as a class based organization and the other four organizations mobilized around national oppression. The interdependence of the struggle against both class exploitation and national oppression has always meant that neither can be subordinated to the other. As we turn our attention to the post-1964 period, it is essential to remember that the process of liberation consists not only of eliminating the oppressive structures of Apartheid but also that of emancipating the South African working class from capitalist exploitation.

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