What type of organisation is cosatu

In July this faction within Cosatu op-posed the acceptance of the Freedom Charter as a guideline for the liberation struggle. Cosatu is concerned about the economic and social welfare of all its members, but because of the organisation's close ties with the UDF, its political activities have increased. Numerous stay-aways and strikes to protest against the state of emergency, elections and national days of commemoration among others, were launched by Cosatu in cooperation with the UDF.

Cosatu also supports the sanctions and disinvestment campaign against South Africa. Two important campaigns were initiated by Cosatu. In it launched the"Living Wage" campaign. National cooperation under the motto "An injury to one is an injury to all". Because of its political involvement, Cosatu was subjected to strong action from the state - office-bearers were detained by the police, meetings were prohibited and documents confiscated.

In reaction to this, it launched the "Hands Off Cosatu" campaign. New state of emergency regulations introduced on 24 February curtailed Cosatu's political activities. These restrictions were lifted on 2 February The implication of this is that Sactu will disappear from the scene.

To correct this perception Fosatu sent prominent unionist Moses Mayekiso to join the stayaway committee. The response to the stayaway call was massive, and about , workers heeded the call in the Transvaal. Sactu convinced the UDF-aligned unions to resume unity talks, and within Fosatu some were arguing that these unions should be accommodated, and Fosatu proposed the reopening of talks. On 8 th and 9 th June, , a final summit was held at Ipeleng in Soweto, where a wide range of unions brought their national executive committees to deliberate on the way forward.

Unions aligned to the UDF, Black Consciousness, and representing various positions on the nature of the federation, were represented by delegates. In the end, the Azactu and Cusa unions rejected the federation, with the important exception of NUM, which signed up.

UDF aligned unions, although suspicious of the feasibility committee, were persuaded by the ANC and Sactu to join, which they did. The feasibility committee was expanded to include UDF unions, and it set about preparing for the launch of the new federation.

On 30 th November , more than delegates from 33 unions descended on the sports hall of the University of Natal, in Durban, to inaugurate the new trade union federation. After his earlier success as convener at Ipeleng, Ramaphosa presided over the launch. The congress began to draw up a constitution, making amendments to a draft that had been circulated earlier, the most significant being the creation of the post of assistant general secretary.

Among employers, reaction was more mixed, the larger corporations seemingly unfazed by the development, while smaller companies sometimes pressured unions to switch to the Inkatha-organised United Workers' Union of South Africa Uwusa , and withheld recognition if unions continued being affiliates of Cosatu.

Anti-apartheid organisations welcomed the launch of the federation: the UDF expressed enthusiastic support in a pamphlet; Sactu declared that it saw no reason for antagonism between it and the new federation; and the ANC appealed to the Black Consciousness federation, Azactu and Cusa, to work together with Cosatu, and hailed the launch of the federation in its annual January 8 statement.

Because of these talks, the federation was attacked by the government and Inkatha, who both reiterated the charge that Cosatu was a front for the ANC. This accusation came despite the fact that people from a broad range of organisations had been meeting with the ANC in Lusaka and Harare since , including prominent black and white businessmen and white politicians. By the end of March, the figure rose to ,, a huge increase on the , total for These killings often resulted in strike action.

Strikes took place in many sectors, including manufacturing and service sector. The federation sought to steer a middle path between populism and workerism. Cosatu resolved to be politically active and to form alliances with political organisations, yet maintain its independence. May 1 marked the th anniversary of International Labour Day, commonly referred to as May Day.

While unions had tabled the date as one of the key demands throughout the early s, employers had rarely conceded May Day as a paid holiday.

The newly formed Cosatu now demanded that May Day be recognised as a public holiday, and called for a stayaway. On May Day , more than 1,5-million workers observed the call, joined by many thousands that included school pupils, students, taxi drivers, hawkers, shopkeepers, domestic workers, self employed and unemployed people. While the call was less successful in some regions, in the PWV area, the heartland of industry, the response was massive. Rallies were held in all the major cities, even though many of these were banned in advance by the state.

Following this, many other companies bowed to the inevitable. About 60, people, many not workers, attended the launch, bussed in by the IFP from all over the country. Cosatu officials and offices came under attack by IFP and government forces. Offices were invaded in Madadeni and Newcastle; the house of Cosatu official Mathews Olifant was petrol-bombed; while other officials were abducted or arrested, and workers were attacked. The state, for its part, declared a second state of emergency, and mounted a vicious campaign of detentions and crackdowns.

Many unionists were arrested or harassed, including Jay Naidoo , whose house was raided by plain-clothes security police on the first night of the emergency, 12 June In the first six weeks of the emergency, unionists were detained, the majority of them from Cosatu. But workers also retaliated. Hundreds went on strike to protest against the detentions. When five NUM regional leaders were arrested in Kimberly, workers at four mines went on strike, one of many such incidents.

Most of the delegates wanted to call for a stayaway, despite fears of dismissals and insufficient mobilising capacity. The UDF and other organisations had been unprepared for the call and failed to support the strike.

On 16 September a fire broke out inside a mine at Kinross, and about miners lost their lives. Gencor, the mine owner, tried to play down the true nature of the disaster, releasing news of the incident late and under-reporting fatalities.

They also prevented access to the media and union officials. Wages and safety had always been the biggest concerns of mine workers, and the disaster caused deep anger.

NUM called for a work stoppage on 1 October, and , miners heeded the call. A large number of industrial workers supported the call — as many as ,, according to Cosatu estimates.

More than 2,5-million people responded to the call. The day after the strike, in the early hours of 7 May, Cosatu House was rocked by two bomb blasts. The bombs were placed near support columns in the basement, and the damage was so extensive that the building was declared unsafe. This proved to be easy in some instances, but a logistical and diplomatic nightmare in other cases.

The food sector Fawu had been fairly successful in mergers by early , as were domestic workers and transport workers TGWU. Construction workers came together in Cawu, chemical workers in CWIU, and Nehawu brought together hospital and education workers. Micwu, not a Cosatu affiliate, also joined up. Numsa began with , paid-up members, choosing as its general secretary Moses Mayekiso , who would complete 33 months in detention before taking up the position.

Cosatu held its second national congress from 14 to 18 July The most significant issue on the agenda was the proposal by the NUM that Cosatu, as the mineworkers had done, adopt the Freedom Charter. Despite a contrary motion by Numsa, which demanded that only large, mass-based socialist-oriented organisations be accepted as allies, the NUM resolution was adopted, although the federation was deeply divided by the move, many having a more critical relation to the Charter and Charterist political forces.

The largest strike in South African history saw about 3,5-million mineworkers stop production in August Miners were tired of low pay, degrading tasks, the oppressive apartheid structure in the workplace as well as outside it. Representing the lowest-paid mineworkers in the world, NUM was determined to avoid earlier mistakes — such as split offers which gave different increases to different grades of workers — and push for an industry-wide agreement.

Negotiations began in May and hit a deadlock soon after, and two conciliation boards failed to produce results. On the night of 9 August, 75, workers failed to turn up for work on the night shift, and the next day a further , observed the strike call. Anglo American mines were affected more than any other.

After reaching a peak of , by the second day, the number remained stable at , for the next two weeks. Battles broke out around control of hostels and supplies of food, and workers were attacked in numerous ways: electricity to hostels was cut off, police were called in and opened fire with live and rubber ammunition, workers were teargassed and forced underground, and many were arrested.

The Reserve Bank withheld donations made to NUM from international supporters, and other banks prevented workers from withdrawing money from their accounts. The strike was particularly successful at coal mines in the Witbank area, but miners throughout the industry held out for the duration.

By late August, miners were being threatened with dismissal. The chamber made a final offer on 26 August, on the 18 th day of the strike, but NUM refused to accept. The next day Anglo dismissed 10, workers, and many were bussed back to the homelands. In total 50, workers were sacked.

Fearful of a defeat similar to the disastrous mineworkers strike of , NUM announced on 29 August that it accepted the offer made on 26 August. But Cosatu was beset by other problems: violence in Natal was intensifying and forced the federation to turn its attention to the province instead of continuing with other work.

Meanwhile, amendments were being proposed to the Labour Relations Act LRA that sought to curtail strike activity and reverse gains made regarding job security. Employers in particular were putting pressure on government to curtail union powers, and Cosatu was forced to spend the next few years opposing these attacks on it effectiveness.

CWIU, Ppwawu and Numsa in particular led attempts to oppose the amendments, but the unionists realised they were fighting a losing battle. The state, employers and even the coloured Labour Party were determined to push through the amendments. Nevertheless, Cosatu lodged a formal complaint with the International Labour Organisation. Although Cosatu was not banned, it was prohibited from engaging in political activity.