Speech by Gerald Twala, Deputy General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. September 7th, 2024
Presentation on the Country Report to the 13th BRICS Trade Unions Forum held in the Russian Federation on the 8th – 9th September 2024
Introduction
We take this opportunity to extend our sincere appreciations to the workers and people of the Russian Federation for hosting the 13th BRICS Trade Union Forum in this beautiful city of Sochi. The BRICS Trade Unions Forum has become our very important international trade union forum in the context of the prevailing global balance of power as workers from developing countries, Africa and the global south. It has become a critical space to challenge the dominant global system and place issues affecting working people at the center of the development agenda.
The BRICS Trade Unions Forum was born of the historic cooperation between the trade unions of our countries, particularly emerging from our common and shared struggles against apartheid and colonialism. The progressive trade unions shared the perspective of seeking progressive platforms to deepen our cooperation, challenge imperialist domination and promote alternative and inclusive development models for all regions of the world.
This was also in realization of the fact that, in its current form, the international trade union movement is insufficiently capable of driving and leading a decisive challenge to global underdevelopment, unequal power relations and exclusion. These discussions led to the hosting of the first session held in the city of eThekwini (then known as Durban) in 2010, at the time hosted by COSATU and, now inclusive of all trade union federations in South Africa.
Exactly a year ago, we gathered in the city of eThekwini, once again in 2023 and adopted the historic 12th BRICS Trade Union Forum declaration, in which we committed to jointly implementing our agreed commitments as spelt out in the declaration, based on the 7 Points which are the cardinal pillars of our Joint Programme.
We n
ote that this year’s 13th BRICS Trade Union Forum is held in a momentous period in global and domestic context. The following are notable;
- Firstly, this is the first BRICS trade Union Forum (BTUF) to be held since the admission of the new members on the 1st January 2024. Towards this end, we welcome Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the BRICS family and specifically, in the BRICS Trade Union Forum. We are looking forward to their contribution to this very eventful family for new growth, inclusive development and peace for all regions of the world
- Secondly, we are excited to welcome fellow Africans, Egypt and Ethiopia, with whom we shall be constituting the BTUF - Africa Trade Unions Dialogue Forum (the Africa version of the Global BRICS Trade unions Forum. This places our continent at the center of new and critical developments of the new geopolitical economy towards the industrialization of Africa, our most pressing priority
- Thirdly, there is growing acceptance that the BRICS Trade Union Forum (BTUF) is here to stay and shall be an important part of the future of trade unionism and global movement for equitable development, justice and dignity for workers globally
In this context, we also express our full interest in the recently concluded FOCAC (Forum of China-Africa Cooperation, which was held in Beijing and the growing centrality of Africa as a pole of economic development for job creation, manufacturing hub and center of innovation.
The history of the South African working class is the history of the African reality – shaped by colonial dispossession and systemic exclusion of the black majority, workers in particular
According to Outreach International (4th July 2024), “Using the poverty line of $1.90 per day, Africa’s extreme poverty rate was recently estimated to be about 35.5%. This rate is 6.8 times higher than the average for the rest of the world”. This is further confirmed by Statista, earlier report that said, “In 2024 around 429 million people in Africa were living in extreme poverty”.
This is the African story, a story of historic dispossession that continues to shape patterns of economic and social exclusion for the overwhelming majority of the people, working class in particular. This picture gets worse as you disaggregate the data to reflect women, youth and people with disabilities.
This is no accident, it’s the harsh reality of the persisting demographics of economic exclusion designed by the colonial and apartheid system, which are also a result of insufficient decisiveness to transform it and ensure the inclusion of the vast majority of our people.
This harsh reality is deeply reflected by the current situation within South Africa itself. South Africa has the highest income inequality between the rich and the poor. Income distribution is skewed towards the richest 20 percent of the population. According to the most recent data, South Africa has the highest income inequality in the world, with a GINI coefficient of around 0.67.
On behalf of the South African trade union movement, we take this opportunity to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the founding principles of BRICS and the BTUF itself. These principles are the spirit of shared vision for inclusive and equitable development, openness and mutual respect in building a lasting partnership among nations and people. These founding values we all strive towards are based on the ideals of; peace, justice and the rights of all nations and people to democratically determine their own destiny as a basis for a shared future for humanity.
The South African economy, like the bulk of the global economies, particularly, those of the global south, is undergoing challenges resulting in the persisting crises of poverty, inequalities and unemployment. This is a result of both the historical account of apartheid legacy and the insufficient transformation towards inclusive growth and industrialization. The challenges of insufficient power supply, persisting racial and gender inequalities, as well as underdevelopment issues, compound the difficulties facing the majority of the working class in South Africa.
The struggle against apartheid and colonialism in South Africa was waged simultaneously with the struggle for decent work, rights of workers to collective bargaining and comprehensive social wage for better incomes for all workers. These struggles we shall always defend jealously and link them to our continuous struggle against neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism. Our daily struggles are about ending massive concentration of poverty for the majority on the one end, and the massive concentration of wealth for a few, on the other end.
This reality applies to South Africa as it does to the current global economy, because capitalism inherently produce and reproduce inequalities of uneven development. Unless we act to regulate the market and unequal access to opportunities and needs, we remain in a time bomb of a global war against hunger and poverty by the working class and the poor.
Dear comrades and friends, due to the experiences from our historical of apartheid and colonialism, as South African trade union movement, we wish to make an appeal that the BRICS bloc should be utilized to concretely challenge imperialist domination and promote alternative a new world order. Similarly, the protection of the rights of workers in all our BRICS member countries should be highly prioritized by this BRICS Trade Union Forum.
The African continent can no longer be used to extract mineral resources to enrich the economies of other continents. The BRICS bloc should be utilized push back against poverty, inequality and unemployment in the African and to develop the continent for the benefit of its people We also condemn the increasing wars of conquest of energy by the big monopolies, which are also linked to the ongoing war against the people of Palestine by Israel and its western allies. Africa is a victim of the energy wars of conquest and these subjugate the continent and keep it underdeveloped, hence our being an important part of the international solidarity movement with the people of Palestine.
The tasks of the 13th BRICS Trade Unions Forum – Towards a Progressive Global trade Union Platform
This 13th BRICS Trade Unions Forums represents the most critical platform for the reconfiguration of the international trade union movement into a force for global social justice, equitable development and decent work for all. Towards this end, we propose the following as the main outcomes of this important gathering;
1) Creation of a BTUF Standing Secretariat, to coordinate the work of the forum and the implementation of the 7 Points Action Plan as adopted in the City of Ethekwini in 2023 and further outcomes from the 13th BTUF Declaration that will come out of this gathering
2) Creation of Regional Cooperation Forums, as we have already indicated, we are keen for the BRICS-Africa Trade Union Cooperation Forum, for closer cooperation between trade unions in each region.
3) The Official launch of the Joint Research and Policy Forum of BRICS Trade union Partners, as previously proposed by the Forum in its previous gatherings. This would be an important platform to start working on concrete research paper on the economic possibilities, trade balances, the rights of workers and how do we link them to the United Nations Developmental Goals and the ILO Conventions.
4) Consideration of a possible BRICS Labour Solidarity & Technical Development Fund to support the work of BTUF and promote joint exchanges and training on specialized skills, particularly, IT and innovation sciences and cooperation on climate change, gender and youth programmes, new economic sectors and empowering models of regional integration and trade blocs.
5) We note with concern the challenges faced in enhancing financial cooperation among BRICS countries, particularly in developing a BRICS digital currency. Collectively, as South African representatives to this Forum, we call for renewed efforts to overcome these obstacles, recognising the importance of stable financial flows in supporting economic development and workers’ welfare across BRICS nations.