10 August 2005
Comrade President Pasco Dyani, Comrades, leaders and members of CEPPWAWU, Delegates and guests:
I would like to thank you most sincerely for inviting us to address this important Congress of CEPPWAWU. I am especially pleased to have this opportunity to address the Congress because of the critical role the sectors in which you organise play and will play in helping us to achieve the goal of a better life for all.
I bring you the warm revolutionary greetings and best wishes of the leadership and membership of the African National Congress on the occasion of the 2nd Congress of CEPPWAWU.
CEPPWAWU finds itself today at an important moment in its history. Though a relatively young union, CEPPWAWU emerged from a proud tradition of worker organisation, and boasts an impressive lineage.
It faces the task of building its structures and recruiting and servicing new members, yet at the same time honouring, celebrating and emulating the workers struggles that have long been a feature of this sector, and that have long defined the labour movement in this country.
This Congress will need to define the role, responsibility and tasks of the union as it strives to deepen workers rights, improve the conditions of its members, and contribute to the national effort to push back the frontiers of poverty and build a better life for all.
This Congress will need to respond to the question of what should the union do to most effectively promote the interests of its members, not only in the workplace, but within the communities in which the live and within the society of which they are an integral part.
It will need to answer, in practical terms, the fundamental question of the place and role of the progressive union movement in the transformation of South Africa. What is the role of the progressive union movement - what is the role of CEPPWAWU - in working to eradicate the apartheid legacy of poverty, underdevelopment and inequality.
It will need to define its place in the broader democratic movement - not merely in terms of the historical role played by the progressive trade union movement in the national democratic struggle, but in terms of the challenges and tasks of the present in advancing the vision and goals of the national democratic revolution.
In doing so, this Congress will no doubt need to pay attention to some of the developments that have shaped, and continue to shape, the society we live in and the world we inhabit.
It will need to acknowledge and understand the economic, political and social relations that define the terrain of struggle, both nationally and globally.
It will need to look beyond the workplace, beyond the borders of our country even, to properly appreciate the challenges CEPPWAWU faces in representing the interests of its members, and in building a better life for our people.
As we gather here today for this important Congress, significant interaction is taking place among the countries of the world to re-define the composition and operation of the multilateral institutions that are intended to manage global affairs.
Most immediately, talks are continuing about the reform of the United Nations Security Council. Africa has joined countries from several other regions in arguing for changes that will make the Security Council more representative in its composition and more democratic in its operation. This is taking place alongside efforts to reform other global institutions to better reflect the needs and interests of the poor and marginalised of the world.
We should not be surprised if there is resistance to these efforts from those political, economic and social forces that have long benefited from the unequal power relations that characterise global affairs.
Just as the transformation effort in South Africa has been fervently resisted by the beneficiaries of racial, gender and class privilege, so too is the struggle for a more equitable world order being opposed by those who believe they have the most to lose from this change.
Yet we dare not give up. The lives of the billions of the world's dispossessed, impoverished and exploited depend on our collective ability to redress the legacy of inequitable human development.
We have to address this same challenge within our own country. We have made progress over the last 11 years in this regard. Anybody who denies this is not telling the truth. And yet, despite the progress we have made, much still remains to be done. This is because of the extent and the depth of the disaster we inherited when we achieved our liberation.
Yesterday, I flew by helicopter from Tshwane to Groblersdal to attend the main Women's Day rally. From the air you can see quite clearly the continuing division of the country in terms of the old apartheid patterns. You can see quite clearly which parts of the country are relatively rich and developed, and which ones remain poor and underdeveloped. This emphasises that we still have a lot to do merely to eradicate the apartheid legacy. I am sure that if I asked the delegates what our main tasks are at this stage of our revolution, everybody would agree that one of these is the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment. The main slogan we presented to the nation in our 2004 Election Manifesto was - "A People's Contract to Create Jobs and Fight Poverty". This is reflected on your own banner, which says that the Union must "fight joblessness and poverty".
Indeed we have a responsibility to honour the commitment we made to the people to fight joblessness and poverty.
In this regard, our country needs to achieve significantly higher rates of economic growth if it is to succeed to meet the needs of the people. It needs significantly to improve overall levels of investment - from both the public and private sectors - among other things to draw far greater numbers of the unemployed into the formal economy, to improve the economic opportunities of the poor and the marginalised, and to ensure the state is better resourced further to provide affordable basic services and infrastructure.
The tasks that need to be undertaken to achieve these objectives have been extensively discussed within the democratic movement, within government and within society more broadly. They are articulated in the resolutions of the ANC's 51st National Conference, held in December 2002 in Stellenbosch, and were widely discussed at the recent ANC National General Council.
They formed part of the deliberations of the Alliance Summit held in Ekurhuleni earlier in the year, and are contained in the Alliance Programme of Action for 2005.
The implementation of these priority tasks was the subject of the recent mid-year National Government Lekgotla, which looked, in particular, at the capacity of government at all levels to implement those tasks which fall within its ambit of responsibility.
Yet, as we improve the capacity of the developmental state to lead the process of economic growth and social development - and as we monitor the implementation of this programme - we need to be paying particular attention to the role, responsibility and tasks of other sectors of society - and, in particular, the tasks of the democratic movement as the leading force for progressive change in the country.
As a starting point, we need to ensure the implementation of the Alliance Programme of Action adopted at the Ekurhuleni Summit. We need to ensure that it is embraced, enriched and implemented by all structures of the Alliance, working together at all levels.
At the core of this Alliance Programme of Action is the challenge of engaging with the masses of the people - through the 'Know Your Neighbourhood' campaign - so that they may become active participants in the process of local transformation and development. The task that falls to the Alliance is to mobilise the people, wherever they are located, to truly act as their own liberators.
The Alliance also needs to engage more directly and coherently in the political and ideological battle of ideas, countering the conservative positions that continue to dominate the public discourse with the progressive thinking that has underpinned and sustained the struggle for democratic change in South Africa.
It is quite clear that we have numerous and substantial tasks to undertake to transform South Africa, help achieve the regeneration of the continent of Africa, and contribute to the birth of a more just world order.
It is also quite clear that we cannot undertake these tasks successfully unless we are united as a democratic movement, as an Alliance, as COSATU, as CEPPWAWU, as the SACP AND SANCO, and as the African National Congress.
There are many who would like to see the democratic transformation of South Africa fail. They would like to see an Alliance that is divided, unsure and incoherent.
We dare not allow that to happen - not merely out of sentiment, or out of habit, but because we understand our collective responsibility as the leading force for change in South Africa to remain united, coherent and determined to build a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
There are many challenges facing the democratic movement. There are many challenges facing the progressive trade union movement.
We have every confidence that this Congress will respond to these challenges in the rich and proud tradition of the workers' struggles from which CEPPWAWU has emerged.
We have every confidence that this Congress will provide the direction and leadership that we seek to meet these challenges.
Earlier I referred to the important place in our economy of the sectors in which CEPPWAWU is involved. They fall within the top 10 (and even top 5) industries within the manufacturing sector. They are the biggest in Africa.
When I delivered this year's State of the Nation Address in February, I said that within 9 months the Government would complete growth strategies and programmes for the chemical and the wood, pulp and paper industries. We see these industries as a leading force in terms of the growth and development of our economy. They fall among our sunset industries.
We are therefore planning for their growth and expansion, for them to create more jobs rather than contract and therefore result in the retrenchment of workers.
As they grow and expand, these industries will therefore:
Obviously, to achieve the growth and development of the CEPPWAWU sectors, we will have to encourage higher rates of investment in these sectors. At the same time we will have to ensure that these sectors are internationally competitive. It is not only clothing and textiles that are faced with competition by lower cost producers.
The Government is also looking at the issue of import parity pricing as it affects the chemical industry. Our development programme for this industry will also have to encourage the beneficiation of greater volumes of the base chemicals our economy produces.
But I also believe that the planned growth of the chemical and wood product industries will present CEPPWAWU with a number of challenges and opportunities to which the Union will have to respond.
We are firmly of the view that CEPPWAWU must play a central role in helping to design and implement the growth and development strategies we said Government must complete within 9 months from last February. The Union must play this role:
With regard to all these tasks, I would like to suggest three organisational tasks for the consideration of the 2nd Congress. Ø I believe that CEPPWAWU and the ANC should set up a joint standing mechanism, which would enable the two organisations to strengthen each other as they respond to the positive challenge to develop both the Union and the sectors organised by the Union. In this regard, we must return to the vision explained by the late President of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli, when he said that the ANC and the progressive trade union movement are the spear and the shield of the national democratic struggle and movement. Among other things, the ANC should work to help strengthen CEPPWAWU as part of its task of helping to consolidate and improve the effectiveness of the progressive trade union movement. Ø CEPPWAWU should also strengthen its links with the Ministry and Department of Trade and Industry. DTI is leading the Government planning focused on the growth and development of the industries we have been discussing. The Union should therefore work in partnership with DTI to help elaborate this growth plan and strategy. Ø CEPPWAWU should also strengthen its links with the Ministry and Department of Labour, to improver its capacity to intervene in the areas of Skills Development, Employment Equity, and Health and Safety.
I am certain that these three partnerships would help the Union to make important advances during the exciting period ahead of us. I would like to assure Congress and the delegates that both the ANC and the Government are more than ready and willing to enter into partnership with CEPPWAWU to achieve the shared objectives we have mentioned.
We have every confidence that CEPPWAWU will emerge from this Congress stronger, more united and better able to take up the challenging tasks that confront it.
We wish you the best in your deliberations and look forward to the results of this important 2nd Congress of CEPPWAWU.
Amandla!