May Day: Forward To Workers’ Unity

May Day: Forward To Workers’ Unity

May Day is a very special day for the working people, not just of South Africa, but of the whole world. It is the day when the working people need to reflect on their struggles over the years, their shopfloor and collective bargaining efforts, the past struggles against colonialism and apartheid, and the current struggle against neo-colonialism and neo-apartheid imperialist machinations. May Day is the day of the celebration of unity, the celebration of the victories obtained through struggle, the celebration of the martyrs who gave their lives for the working people, for freedom, for justice and for social advancement.

In all countries that were subjected to colonial brutality and exploitation, workers should reflect on their unity, and it is an appropriate time when they should not forget all their difficulties, all the differences which are fostered and sown by the capitalist forces or by the reactionaries who are infiltrated into their ranks, by the dividers of working class unity. With all the differences amongst themselves being forgotten, workers come together in celebration of their revolutionary efforts. It is a great day of unity!

The only weapon that the working people globally and in South Africa have got is their trade union unity in struggle. Once the workers are divided, the employers can create havoc, and the ruling classes can make a mockery of their struggles. They can make strikes and demands for negotiations meaningless if the workers do not speak with a united voice. Therefore, unity is of primary importance, it must come first of all amongst all the working people of South Africa. And this means all the working people, not just those adhering to a particular brand of trade unionism, or any other political schism meant to divide them, must unite as a class unaffected by racism, ethnicity or religious creeds.

The working class movement, the trade union movement, should be a movement with a common political perspective, leading and building a non-racial national democratic society, sustaining the fight against neo-colonial and neo-apartheid exploitation, as well as overcoming the scourges of unemployment, inequality and poverty. The working people were, for example, united in opposition to apartheid, and they were united in their desire for a non-racial South Africa, founded on the basis of the Freedom Charter. Even now, the future of the working people, and of the country, lies in the hands of an organised working class movement, and such a future would be attainable through unity, Unity in Action!

When workers put forward demands, they need to have a result. It is no good putting forward demands, going on strike, and then just failing to win anything. Not all strikes are won, not all strikes are lost; some strikes end in advances and some in retreats. It should be possible, even in a current capitalist society, to settle strikes and go back to work under better conditions with better facilities plus a greater increase in health and safety. Basically, a strike depends on the united strength of the workers. Negotiators and arbitrators can be useful in helping to settle a strike, but there is no substitute for trade union militancy and the united strength of the working people.

The working class must celebrate May Day in whatever way possible, by showing the forces of reaction, the advocates of imperialism, that the working people of South Africa, irrespective of politics, race, religion, colour or creed, irrespective of any differences, that their desires and needs are for the liberation of the workers from exploitation, unemployment, inequality and poverty. Show the bosses and forces of reaction that the South African working people are the champions of the national democratic revolution. They must show the bosses and the forces of imperialism that they are part of the international working class movement, working together united in opposition to exploitation.

Being champions of the national democratic revolution, the working people must fully comprehend the current political and socio-economic developments within South African society. They should exercise vigilance in terms of ensuring that their huge sacrifices and efforts over the years are not hijacked by aspirant comprador bourgeoisie who claim easy victory and leadership of the national democratic revolution. This revolution cannot be led by an ambitious clique of postulant comprador bourgeoisie, whose interests are to be seen as political celebrities and articulate intellectuals whose emptiness is exposed in the misuse and misapplication of revolutionary concepts and maxims.

For instance, it has become common among the ranks of the various political movements to speak of the national democratic revolution as if it was a mobilisation rhetoric for winning elections and to use the clauses of the Freedom Charter to justify certain acts of omission or commission for failing to meet the expectations of the population on particular objectives that should have been achieved. The slogans on people governing, the wealth and land being shared, are being bandied about without any deeper understanding of their essence, as these elements attempt to woe the working people to vote for them.

The national democratic revolution, which is in the South African context, contained in the Freedom Charter, is neither a slogan nor are the clauses of the Charter tokens for political manoeuvring when political movements are failing to meet the promises they made to the voters. The revolution is a commitment, as Mao Tse Tung argued that it “is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind courteous, restrained and magnanimous.”

Similarly, the clauses of the Freedom Charter for which so many sacrificed their lives are not just mere slogans to be quoted when one tries to portray himself as an articulate super-revolutionary. When the various movements, including the working class-led parties and unions, coalesced in Kliptown in 1955 to develop this noble document, it wasn’t an act of demagoguery or to flaunt prowess in the field of revolutionary political leadership. The Charter was a codification of the aspirations of South Africa’s oppressed masses, of a future they were prepared to die for, as it said in its preamble, “And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won”, as well as in its commitment statement, “These freedoms we will fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty”.

One of the greatest challenges facing the country in this period, which is the threat facing the working class in particular, is failing to realise the criticality of united action in addressing the current political and socio-economic difficulties of managing a post-apartheid society. Let the working people create the conditions for themselves to govern; to realise that coalition arrangements (including the so-called government of national unity) are not in the interests of the proletariat; that federal arrangements in terms of provincial political governments are not going to lead to a prosperous national democratic society; that failing local government structures, as currently constituted, instead of becoming consolidated into viable and self-sufficient district entities, are not sustainable; and that Southern African, and indeed African, regional economic integration is a must, rather than an option.

This is the day to reflect and to celebrate, to glory in the power of the unity of the worker people!

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!