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COSATU, the ‘2010 Class Project’ and 6 the Contest for ‘The Soul’ of the ANC

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COSATU, the ‘2010 Class Project’ and 6 the Contest for ‘The Soul’ of the ANC COSATU, the ‘2010 Class Project’ and 6 the contest for ‘the soul’ of the ANC Ari Sitas Since the proclaimed defeat of the ‘1996 Class Project’ in 2009 in the politics of the Tripartite Alliance of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and COSATU, what has become obvious is a new and even stronger class project, the ‘2010 Class Project’ . This, of course, is a short-hand expression for a political power-bloc which is networked around the Polokwane victors, a network which is trying to turn political advantage into economic gain. According to senior COSATU office-bearers, the new power-bloc would rather see COSATU and the SACP ‘put in their place’ , see the removal of any left-leaning leaders by 2012 and assert a non- class bias in the politics of the ANC which, in the name of the people, will entrench its economic power. ‘You see … this bloc has no political history and has no mass base, they are gaining support by demonising communists and trade unionists’ , asserted an office bearer of one of the largest trade unions in COSATU, ‘and they are assisted by a section of the mass media’ (Interview: Z Nkosi). ‘These people were not in the accumulation queue during Thabo’s [Mbeki] reign’ (Interview: M Mphafudi). Such sentiments are echoed in the words of COSATU’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, that this is a small group that fights for ‘positions for personal accumulation and their agenda of crass materialism’ . Vavi also asserted that ‘they’ wanted to wrest control of the Alliance by spewing allegations of a communist takeover of the ANC, and anti-COSATU and anti-communist rhetoric. ‘They thrive on rumour-mongering with all manner of claims that communists are gunning for certain positions (at the ANC conference) in 2012. This tendency will stop at nothing, including the use of the race card and tribalism. ’1 132 The most vocal part of this ‘faction’ was to be found in the leadership of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), until the disciplinary hearings against the top echelon of the youth wing were instituted by the ANC, in the latter part of 2011. It will take pages to capture the barrage of statements, positions and attacks that have emanated from the ANCYL. It had not been shy in using every issue and every possible medium to create a critical climate around the directions the ANC should be taking in the post-Mbeki era. The ANCYL was strident on the imperative for nationalisation of the mining industry, going back to the letter and meaning of the Freedom Charter, but – at the same time – rubbishing both democracy and socialism. The tensions between the left-wing in the Alliance and the above-mentioned ‘power-bloc’ as represented by the ANCYL reached a crescendo after the Youth League’s president, Julius Malema, was booed at the December 2009 SACP Congress. Malema, the ANCYL’s face and voice, upped the temperature by readily accepting an ‘invitation to war’ . Whereas some of the fire and brimstone has decelerated, tensions over the leadership and direction of the ANC seem to be manifesting themselves within the organisation, within the state apparatuses, between and within provincial leaderships. COSATU’s critical voice has also been gaining its own momentum, but there are signs of divisions within the federation on issues of leadership and direction of the ruling party (see Chapter 12 of this volume). This chapter presents a discussion that provides the social, political and organisational context necessary for understanding the results of the 2008 COSATU Workers’ Survey discussed in this volume. However, the chapter does not discuss the survey results per se, but seeks to understand how the federation is being reconfigured and to fathom whether or not such reconfiguration will make COSATU sustain its contestation over the ‘soul’ of the ANC. Whereas previous surveys showed that the Alliance was well- supported by COSATU members, does the current polarisation within the ANC signify polarisations in workers’ dispositions and priorities? In the same breath, what could the precise role of the working class and of the trade union movement be and can the leadership of the trade union movement count on its mass base? The dilemmas of polarisation were not lost to COSATU’s 2009 Congress. The leadership asserted its commitment to continue with a transformation agenda, with building a socialist movement and as a leadership ‘anchored in the 133.
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