These are the days of a reactionary labour movement

Has organised labour been so focused on influencing talks in the corridors of political power that it has failed to devise a new strategy to address the challenges workers are facing?

At a time when workers throughout the country could use innovative and forward-looking leadership as they grapple with economic downturn, they find themselves alone. As it stands, nobody in the current labour movement can claim to be purely pursuing interests of workers. All have been tainted by the allure of power, politics and self-interest.

Their most vulnerable members are left hopping along on clay feet, while the best their representatives can do is simply react to economic issues.

Read: Cosatu’s failure to govern 

May – a month that within the labour movement is considered sacred – has come and gone. Globally, the first of May is a big day for the workers of the world. It is often accompanied by their organisations’ unveiling strategies and even projects to advance the union’s agenda. Besides the noise around President Cyril Ramaphosa’s surprise visit to Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee, much to the delight of the ailing federation, and Saftu’s oppositional stance against the national minimum wage (and the conflicting position of labour on that subject), nothing much happened in terms of further advancing workers’ interests.

Read: Minimum wage: a burden or lifeline for the economy?

I therefore find myself asking whether the labour movement is in trouble, or is it experiencing an existential crisis? This is evident not just at a political level but also in how it has, in the last 15 years, failed to counter the effects of the economic crisis, globalisation and the country’s long-standing difficulties.

It has also left me wondering if the labour movement has been reduced to reactionary representatives of the working class? Has labour been too caught up in dismissing ruling-class-led policies, has it blinded itself by being preoccupied with the cult of the individual leader, has its proximity to power been its undoing – to the degree that it is failing to fulfil its mandate?

It has failed to ensure that the after effects of the economic downturn do not eviscerate workers gains and their jobs.

Instead, the trend of the last few years – where most leaders of the labour movement seem to have grouped around individuals within the alliance partnership who advance nothing but division between them, or are pursuing a path towards self enrichment – continues. These are labour movement leaders who helped to vote into power corrupt men and women who wrecked the economy. They gave their backing to a party that advanced and elevated individuals who had no right to be given the power to govern.

In doing so, they inadvertently gave free reign to men and women who sold the country for nothing. And perhaps even worse, or ironically, led to worsening unemployment as workers are now finding themselves without jobs due retrenchments as the poor performance of the economy worsens.

These are the same union leaders who, 20 years ago, would not have left the worker’s future to be decided by anyone who wasn’t interested in improving labour’s share of the success story that is globalisation. Worse, they have let themselves be hoodwinked into thinking that, in siding with factions within their alliance partners, those individuals are going to champion and support the necessary fight for pro-union and pro-worker policies.

Read: Organised labour needs to regain credibility 

It is evident at the political level that being in alliance with the ANC has not led to the great gains Cosatu was hoping to achieve. In reality, the unintended consequence has been a haemorrhaging of unions’ brain power and knowledge. This has left a void that has not been filled. At best, attempts to fill the void have resulted in mediocre outcomes.

When broken up and considered at an individual level, Cosatu is the one in trouble. As a federation, it has strayed so far from its reason for existence that its critics have now reduced it to a ‘reactionary federation’. After all, its leaders have long stopped identifying with the real struggle of its members.

An increasing number of observers are beginning to suspect that the South African labour movement will meet the same fate as its European counterparts; a fate of steady decline in membership, and thus waning power.

The balance of power has shifted drastically in the last decade. Trade unions and the labour movement are slowly being pushed to the side while the two partners – government and business – work on their interests. This reduces the former to always being reactionary to economic matters that affect them far worse than factional political skirmishes. This time labour is responsible for its weakening status and influence and its lack of innovative ways in dealing with challenges.

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