Around the world with Numsa
Hong Kong: Numsa general secretary, Silumko Nondwangu, attends World Trade Organisation as part of the International Metalworkers FederationMali: Numsa vice president, Ben Khoza, takes part in Africa’s World Social Forum in Bamako, MaliGermany: Bosch full-time shop steward, Louis Makata, attended Bosch Europe workers’ council to give a report on conditions in SA. Italy: Numsa president, Mtutuzeli Tom, attended Italian federation, CGIL’s congressUS: Cedric Gina, Numsa second vice president and Neo Chabane, Numsa national researcher, took part in a global conference on strategic research on global companiesMozambique: Hlokoza Motau, Numsa international officer, and Bangizwe Mathenjwa, full-time shop steward at Bayside Aluminium, attended a collective bargaining workshop that also discussed BHP BillitonZimbabwe: Hlokoza Motau, Numsa international officer, helped run a workshop for 7 Zimbabwe unions to talk about a merger
Cosatu pickets Swaziland consulateDelegates to the Central Executive Committee of Cosatu picketed the Swazi consulate in protest at the attacks on human rights and the lack of trade union freedom in that country. Cosatu’s memorandum demanded that the government:
drop charges and release all political activists,
stop torturing and abusing those in jails,
unban all political parties, the unconditional return of all exiles and cessation of political hostilities;
set up a broad forum to look into the human rights abuses that have been perpetrated on instruction or consent by the Royal Family;
share the country’s wealth amongst the people, distribute it to meet the people’s basic needs instead of only servicing the Royal Family;
involve all political parties in the current constitutional review process.
WTO Hong Kong – behind the scenesHopes were high that the World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong in December would bring real benefits to developing countries with developed countries reducing the subsidies they pay to farmers. But the ride on the bus from the [Hong Kong] airport, immediately put Numsa’s general secretary, Silumko Nondwangu, into wary mode.
“Riding a bus from the airport to the hotel provides a glance of what will happen in this city in the next four days of the negotiations. The high rise building and bridges makes me draw one conclusion – that this round of negotiations is not meant for the least developed and developing countries.
“Hong Kong represents the hub of international capital that has impoverished many parts of the world. It is a small island with a population of not more than 8 million inhabitants, and yet with the most developed infrastructure surpassing economies with billions of inhabitants.”
As the process of negotiations unfolded, the reason for the lack of any meaningful change became apparent to Nondwangu.
“During the day, Ministers present to the plenary what they think this round must achieve. In the evenings in the Green rooms, it is a different ball game. Delegations from the developed world lobby the developing world, offering whatever it takes to divide them from their respective interests.
“On Tuesday December 13, the African Members of Parliament re-assure us and the continent in a press conference that there must be an end to the WTO’s undemocratic, non transparent processes in the Green Room. “They say that African Ministers in the Green Room must not commit the rest of the group members unless and all African Heads of Delegation are consulted and an unqualified mandate given for such commitment.”
Details of the deals struckDisappointed with the eventual outcome of the talks, Cosatu was prompted to say that it is “better to be a cow in Japan being subsidised by $7 per day than being a human being living in Africa.” Although developing countries promised to get rid of their agriculture export subsidies by 2013, “domestic subsidies and market access in agriculture still remain firmly entrenched”, said Cosatu.
But this “minimal commitment” was won at a “terribly high price”, Cosatu said. In exchange, by June 2006, the details of how developing countries are going to reduce their tariffs in manufacturing, fishing, forestry and minerals must be finalised. And, developed countries “secured a commitment to open and fast-track negotiations to open up services to international competition”.
Cosatu said that the only way to resist these attempts was for developing countries to “build big, effective and well coordinated alliances” that would rely on the support of trade unions and NGOs to bolster government who would otherwise “succumb to pressure.
From the first world to the thirdJust a month after the WTO in Hong Kong, Numsa vice president, Ben Khoza, attended the World Social Forum’s [WSF] Africa meeting in Bomako, Mali as part of a Cosatu delegation.
The aim of the WSF is to bring social movements, NGOs and other civil society organisations that are opposed to neo-liberalism together. This one in Mali was to build African solidarity around the issues of alternatives to neo-liberalism, debt and fair trade.
But the meeting was not an easy one for Cosatu representatives. NGO Jubilee 2000 attacked Cosatu for its close relationship with the South African government and for its failure to organise the unemployed. According to Khoza, “Cosatu must play a much more meaningful role in the future in the WSF.”