solidarity and possible united action.
In the short period since its launch, the
WCS has organised numerous solidarity
actions, such as during the Covid crisis, in
support of the striking Clover workers and
a Basic Income Grant, as well as against the
government’s austerity programme, high
unemployment, the deepening climate
crisis and xenophobia. As a result, many
movements continue to hope the WCS will
chart a way forward to rebuild grassroots
organisations and to produce the politics
and programme that will mount an
effective challenge to the status quo.
For this to be achieved, the problems
facing the WCS need to be confronted
more systematically than has been the
case until now. A recent assessment of the
National Shutdown, which involved scores
of activists from across the country, went
some way in engaging democratically on
these issues. Clearly, the WCS Steering
Committee, created at the launch in 2018
with the responsibility to plan a second
assembly, does not have the capacity
effectively to undertake this work.
The decision to convene extended
steering committee meetings, with more
representation from the regions, has
achieved greater participation in the WCS.
But it has not yet translated into more
effective organisation. The WCS remains
over-reliant on Saftu and despite the
enormous efforts by the federation’s small
staff, the work required to build the WCS
and to mobilise its campaigns, as well as to
organise a second assembly, has generally
fallen short of expectations.
These organisational challenges
are particularly evident in the crisis of
funding. Again, there is acknowledgement
of the dependence on donor-funding to
support the activities of many movements,
including the WCS. It has stripped away
the culture of the liberation struggle of
building and mobilising based on the
resources, including finances, of the
members of organisations and their
supporters. The decision by the WCS
to proceed with the national shutdown
despite limited donor-funding was thus
an important step towards rebuilding
our movements by relying on our own
resources.Analysis of the shutdown
Crucially, most WCS activists agreed that
the national shutdown registered, at best,
uneven success. In reality, it had a minimal
impact on broader society and could hardly
claim to have shut down any significant
part of the economy.
Several important explanations were
posited for this. In a context of economic
distress many people simply could not
afford to lose a day’s wages and therefore
opted to go to work. Organisational
weaknesses also caused mobilisation for
marches to be ineffectual, with important
exceptions.Where the shutdown was successful,
it was primarily due to relatively strong
local organisation. This was certainly the
case in a few rural towns of the Western
Cape, such as Bonnievale and Langeberg,
where Csaawu has a strong presence and
was able, at short notice, to mobilise its
members and broader communities. These
examples also highlight a willingness
among workers to resist the onslaught
by employers. There are already signs of
public sector workers being increasingly
determined to push ahead with their
demand for a decent wage increase.
In some areas, the national shutdown
was characterised by the involvement of
both Saftu and Cosatu affiliates. This is
probably the first time this has happened
since the founding of Saftu, and it brings
hope that the divisions that exist betweenthese federations could be overcome.
However, the rapprochement between
them has largely occurred at leadership
levels, with limited expressions of unity at
the grassroots. Sustaining efforts at unity
will depend on rank-and-file members
of both federations uniting on common
programmes of action.
Furthermore, the important but
belated attention given to trade union
convergence had the unintended effect of
again rendering community movements
as secondary participants in the shutdown.
It is absolutely crucial for the WCS to
continue forging unity between workplaces
and communities. One example of this was
the organising of shop stewards’ councils
to prepare for the shutdown, in which
community organisations participated.Important criticisms
An important criticism of the WCS’s
campaign of August 24th is that a
significant proportion of society is tired
of the routine mobilisation of shutdowns,
marches and petitions, without any
meaningful gains being achieved. Protests
are the lifeblood of radical movements:
they engender unity of purpose, mobilise
constituencies beyond the core activists
and can energise and strengthen
organisations. These crucial facets of
protests have been in decline for some
years.
Most significantly, the WCS has
struggled to develop a clear political focus.
The demands of the national shutdown
were all important but represented a
laundry list of the ills of the system. There
is no shortage of grievances facing the
poor. The WCS needs urgently to formulate
a clear set of 3 to 5 demands that can
constitute the framework for a national
programme of action and behind which
maximum unity of various sectors can be
achieved.
This effort must be accompanied
by building grassroots organisations,
including, where necessary, new
movements in communities and
workplaces. Achieving these objectives
must be led by rank-and-file members
of organisations. This must be part of a
democratic process to build the political
foundations for a national movement of
the poor majority, especially women. Such
a movement can simultaneously struggle
for improvements in people’s daily lives
and mount a political challenge to the
decrepit ideas of the political and economic
elites in the 2024 national elections.Noor Nieftagodien is the Head of the
History Workshop at Wits University.The Working Class Summit remains over-reliant on Saftu and despite the enormous efforts by
the federation’s small staff, the work required to build the WCS and to mobilise its campaigns, as
well as to organise a second assembly, has generally fallen short of expectations.Perspectives for the left