The alliance
Let us divorce before it's too late. I am against the policy, which says that Cosatu, and SACP must be in the alliance with the ANC. The reason being that the ANC is the leading force in government, which means that policies and laws are implemented by the ANC. Cosatu and the SACP are leading the working class, so they must watch very carefully that those policies are not suppressing the working class. Therefore if we are still in alliance with the ANC we cannot see any wrongdoing by the government. It is true that we must encourage the working class to join the ANC, we must divorce before it is too late. This is a wake up call to Cosatu and SACP.
Thomas E. Maluleke, Kempton Park Local
Dear Editor
I am concerned about the war in Iraq by saying this. As we know that, the Americans went to destroy the fellow Iraqis and their country. Concerning this, we all know how painful it is when there is a funeral at home. We also know that the first people to feel pains at that time were women. But now I'm surprised when the American Military women attack the innocent Iraqi women. Question, why America go to war? Answer, they want oil.
I say down with the feeling of the very hungry against others by surrounding or blocking of a place by hostile forces especially in order to prevent the entry of goods. Down with the UN starvation blockade!!
Yuza Godfrey Maluleke First Tech Company, Benrose, Wits Central
(letter shortened)
Merseta in Mpumalanga
First I want to thank Merseta and Numsa for establishing their offices in Mpumalanga region with Limpompo Province . In my view, Numsa has actually lost some membership and ground, dignity has been dented in most of our communities. That is because of mass dismissals and retrenchments that are taking place every day in companies and in the industry. There are levels of skills that are required now, but a large percentage of the South African population has not got adequate skills or formal learning.That is what Merseta is here for. All education and training, formal and informal will lead to a qualification because learners recognise that those kinds of skills and knowledge can be transferable. This can help to realise our market value and give us access to a wider variety of jobs. We believe that will accommodate all areas as well as Limpompo as they have to provide an adequate service. We believe that the skills development adviser, Peter Makaba and Erick (Mabhontjies) Linda will go hand in hand to improve the standard of Numsa members in companies and in the industry. If Merseta is not for making money or profit we would like to see such kind of promotion in economic and employment growth, social and economic development redress of inequalities in education and training facilitator and advice employment equity in sectors. Let me congratulate Ernest Makwe on his election as skills development facilitator in our regional congress last year and again on his election as vice chairperson in the Merseta regional committee. We believe that the regional structure of Merseta will visit our local to preach the mission of Merseta and to start at Nelspruit local as it is the superior local in Mpumalanga region! I wish all the Numsa members and Merseta structures a year of success and I declare that 2003 is a year for training.
Golden Magagula, Numsa Nelspruit local and Merseta regional committee member
Taking over the means of production: thinking, acting like leaders
"Ixesha liphelile, ixesha labaqashi siyawuthatha umnotho wethu". Remember the '80s? These songs were popular in the country those days. One wonders what happened to this school of thought. What happened to the workers who were militant in that they could act if someone could have instructed them to take over the means of production. This has been the workers' revolutionary struggle for years: take over the means of production. Militant as they were in those days, workers were not armed with the right brain techniques to do what they preached. The issues we are all faced with as workers are: globalisation, restructuring, continuous improvement, outsourcing, restructuring and so on. We all know these things directly affect our jobs in that at the end we remain unemployed. As the leaders then we need to think and act ahead. A lot more is expected from us than just slogans of "job creations, job security" etc. Companies are very good nowadays in accepting union challenges on the above issues and will wait to no avail for unions to forward constructive workable proposals. The focus in dealing with workers' issues should not therefore be narrow-mindedly handled. We therefore need to take education of workers in a very serious light. The education we give out should not be a process composed of more than knowing lot of facts. It is of greater importance to allow us and workers to understand that which we know. Workers now believe that unions do a lot of talking and very little, if any, education is given. The outsourcing process at Iscor plants animated me to write this article in order to inspire creative discussions on how to assist workers at Iscor and other affected companies to take over the means of production. Iscor in particular, has an agreement with the trade union in respect of outsourcing guidelines and principles. One of the fundamental issues is where it was agreed that should a particular department within Iscor decide to outsource, employees affected will be economically empowered. Now the problematic area is with workers in that:
they have no knowledge of taking over the running of the jobs they have been doing for years; they fear they will fail to perform once given the chance they have never been exposed to other workers who took over businesses after being outsourced. Workers have this fear most of us had of asking – how?
Bernard Baruch wrote: "I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the only one who asked – why?" We therefore seriously need to take our workers on a journey of arming them with the rifles to take control once they are outsourced. We must have people/organisations to help them when they need to form their own companies and manage them successfully. We need to avoid theoretical concessions. We must be practical in most of the things we advocate. If we must write, Marx wrote, then enter into agreements to satisfy the practical aims of the movement, but do not allow any bargaining over principles, do not make theoretical concessions. The law of mechanics states that actions and reactions are always equal. If we do not act soon and empower our members, the circumstances enforced by employers will make us masticate our principles. Let us learn and build up from the experiences of others. We have information at our disposal which will make us proud and stop people from disparaging us. The process of writing the working class is to be coupled with the mass education of what is known to us: take over control of the means of production. Let us put all our efforts to put our theories into practice. Hoping that the readers of this paper will be inspired and write as well on the topic, maybe we will get to where we have been longing to go for so many decades. Remember that it does not need a certain intellectual to draft something for us when we have the means at our disposal. Amandla will be awethu and hopefully we will use it constructively and productively for the benefit of the working class.
Sikhumbuzo Kubeka Newcastle local organiser
Source
Numsa News