The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is the largest federation of trade unions in South Africa. It was officially established on December 1, 1985, after more than four years of negotiations between various labor organizations. COSATU's main goal is to improve the circumstances of working people by encouraging them to join unions and supporting peaceful democracy while rejecting discrimination.
COSATU has an official partnership with the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), forming a coalition that governs the country.
Origins and Early Years
The union movement in twentieth-century South Africa operated in a context in which capitalist relations were built upon relations of colonial domination. The social formation of South Africa has always been deeply linked into the larger world political economy.
In this early period, the deep racial divisions in the working class shaped the unions, as did ethnic antipathies within the races. If white unions dated back to the 1860s, unions amongst workers of color largely emerged in the second half of the 1910s. Part of the impetus came from the turbulent conditions of the time, with rising inflation and class conflict sparking the huge strike wave that peaked in the Rand Revolt.
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From the 1890s, white workers began to establish union federations, starting with Trades and Labor Councils, partly due to the efforts of men like Andrews and Bain. The Transvaal Federation of Trade Unions was formed in 1911 on the Witwatersrand, and was succeeded by the South African Industrial Federation (SAIF) in 1914. The SAIF claimed 47,000 members in 45 affiliated unions (both craft and industrial) countrywide by 1919, and was headed by Archibald Crawford.
Like SAMWU, which established branches in the northern colonies, the ICU established sections in Southwest Africa (now Namibia), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). However, corruption, infighting, weak structures, the lack of a clear strategy, members’ frustration, and repression saw the ICU fragment rapidly after 1927.
The new approach partially delinked South Africa from the world economy, and, while gold exports remained the main source of foreign exchange, local capitalists increasingly controlled mining. An Industrial Conciliation Act (1924) provided the country’s first comprehensive industrial relations legislation, granting Colored, Indian, and white workers access to a cumbersome and bureaucratic bargaining machinery that, combined with the massive defeat of 1922, sapped the mainstream unions of their previous militancy.
The ICU, which claimed 100,000 members in 1927, was therefore largely excluded from the new industrial relations system, although it was able to make some use of the Wage Act (1925), which allowed applications for statutory wage determinations. This was the context in which the white unions were rebuilt.
Following the break with the ICU, the CPSA established its own Federation of Non-European Trade Unions (FNETU) in 1928, which formed the first real industrial unions amongst Africans. A Joint Committee of African Unions was formed by the Trotskyist Max Gordon and incorporated into a Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU) in 1941, with 100,000 members including the African Mineworkers’ Union headed by CPSA leader J. B. Marks.
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In 1948, the National Party, which combined segregation, import-substitution policies, and Afrikaner nationalist goals, was elected with the goal of racial apartheid. Following the premises that African workers were not sophisticated enough to form unions, and that African unions were, in any case, particularly susceptible to radical influences, the apartheid government set up a separate industrial relations framework for African workers.
The Native Labor (Settlement of Disputes) Act of 1953 made strikes by African workers illegal, and set up a complicated dispute resolution machinery that had no place for African unions. The unions were divided over how to respond.
The third current, the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), continued the inter-racial union traditions of the 1930s and 1940s. Comprising the remnants of CNETU and the leftwing of the SATLC, it was formed in 1955 and started with 31 affiliates and 32,000 members in total. SACTU was a quintessential example of political unionism, and closely aligned with the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).
After the Sharpeville and Langa massacres, the state tightened up influx controls and residential segregation, transforming rural African “homelands” into supposedly self-governing states. Many key SACTU activists were involved in the sabotage campaign, including Motsoaledi, who was detained in 1963 and sentenced to life imprisonment at the 1963-4 Rivonia Trial.
There was a marked decline in the organization and resistance of African workers. The number of African unions dropped from 53 in 1961 to 15 in 1967, with merely 23,000 African workers on strike between 1965 and 1971.
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Formation of COSATU
In the early 1980s, unions that were against apartheid began to discuss joining together. Between 1981 and 1985, South African labor leaders held union talks that resulted in the formation of COSATU. Despite the fact that there was much mistrust and conflict due to differences of interest, politics, organizational methods, and personality, talks began in earnest during August 1981, when more than 100 representatives from 29 unions met in Cape Town.
On 30 November 1985, 33 unions met at the University of Natal for talks on forming a federation of trade unions. COSATU was officially established on 1 December 1985. At that time 33 trade unions belonged to the organization, representing about 500,000 members.
Delegates discussed two main issues: the draft constitution, which proposed a tight federation, and the five unifying principles of nonracialism, one-union-one-industry, worker control, representation on the basis of paid-up membership, and national cooperation. The most hotly debated principle was nonracialism.
During the final feasibility meeting, delegates discussed a name for the new federation, eventually deciding on the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
Key Campaigns and Activities
After its establishment in 1985, COSATU undertook a number of major campaigns.
The Living-Wage Campaign
One of COSATU's first activities was to launch the living-wage campaign. Beginning in 1986, the campaign's aim was to unite workers around a common set of demands and to coordinate their struggle to ensure success. Indeed, South African workers did achieve gains in terms of organization, wages, conditions, and benefits, with some of their demands for paid public holidays, education, and training becoming law.
COSATU formally launched the campaign in 1987. The campaign had several key demands, including a living wage for all workers, a 40-hour workweek, job security, six months maternity leave, and the right to decent education and training.
A long strike wave accompanied the living-wage campaign. A December 1986 wage strike continued into 1987. Then railroad and postal workers went on strike. Later in the year, mineworkers embarked on a massive national wage strike, called off after three weeks when employers began dismissing tens of thousands of workers. In subsequent years, the living-wage campaign continued, as COSATU unions extended their demands.
South African labor leaders believe that the campaign remains relevant as they attempt to eliminate the wage gap between management and workers, men and women, and between skilled and unskilled workers.
The Campaign Against the Labor Relations Act
A second major COSATU campaign was its movement against the government's Labor Relations Act (LRA). The significant growth in numbers and strength of South Africa's labor unions in the early 1980s threatened apartheid's cheap labor system and the political control of the apartheid regime. In response to labor activities such as COSATU's living wage campaign, in September 1987 P. W. Botha's government amended the LRA.
COSATU reacted with a campaign to protest the changes. The anti-LRA campaign included lunchtime worker demonstrations, and because of restrictions on the right to protest, members spread their message on trains and buses. COSATU also lodged a formal complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO), thus making the issue an international one.
This led to a three-day national strike involving nearly three million workers. Employers retaliated by dismissing thousands of workers.
In October 1990 the government signed a labor accord that reversed the 1988 amendments and set the stage for negotiations on basic rights for farm and domestic workers, an LRA for public sector workers, and a commitment from the government to consult labor and business on key issues concerning them.
Key Players in COSATU's History
- Elijah Barayi (1930-1994): Served as the first president of COSATU. He had been involved in labor and social struggles since the 1950s as a member of the African National Congress.
- Fholisani Sydney Mufamadi (1959-): Was the first assistant general secretary of COSATU. He was active in the labor movement of the early 1980s in South Africa and was influential in organizing COSATU in 1985.
- Jayaseelan Naidoo (1954-): Began working as a union organizer for the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU) in the late 1970s. He played a key role in the 1985 establishment of COSATU and was elected its first secretary general, serving in that capacity until 1993.
COSATU Today
COSATU provided much of the personnel that mobilized voters for the African National Congress (ANC) from the country‘s first “all-race” elections in 1994 up to now. COSATU, the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the ANC form the coalition that governs the country.
Conventional wisdom holds that the leadership of COSATU is increasingly distant from the laboring and unemployed masses, just as is President Jacob Zuma and the top ANC political leadership.
COSATU is internally divided because of personal rivalries, but also over principle. The most salient division of the latter is between those in the federation that want closer ties to the ANC and SACP political leadership, and those who want to maintain greater distance. In general, those who favor distance want a more radical and aggressive labor movement.
Zwelinzima Vavi, a former General Secretary of COSATU who lost an internal power struggle and was fired in 2014, has announced that he will lead a “workers summit” in March, to be followed by the organization of a new federation in May that will rival COSATU. Vavi is saying that the new labor federation will not be affiliated with any political party.
The emergence of two, rival labor federations at best will contribute to the general opening up of South African political life, so long dominated by the ANC and the politics of racial identity.
The relationship between ANC and Cosatu
COSATU and HIV/AIDS
South Africa has one of the largest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world, with a 2005 estimate of 5.5-million people living with HIV - 12.4% of the population. In 2020, around 20.6-million people in eastern and southern Africa were living with HIV. The trade union movement has taken a role in combating this pandemic. COSATU is a key partner in the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a registered charity and political force working to educate and promote understanding about HIV/AIDS, and to prevent new infections, as well as push for greater access to antiretrovirals.
In 1998, COSATU passed a resolution to campaign for treatment. "It was clear to the labour movement at that time that its lowest paid members were dying because they couldn’t afford medicines", says Theodora Steel, Campaigns Coordinator at COSATU.
| Campaign | Description | Key Demands |
|---|---|---|
| Living Wage Campaign | Aimed to unite workers around common demands and coordinate their struggle. | Living wage for all workers, 40-hour workweek, job security, six months maternity leave, right to decent education and training. |
| Campaign Against the Labor Relations Act (LRA) | Movement against the government's Labor Relations Act (LRA). | Protest against changes restricting the right to strike and undermining gains made by unions. |
