COSATU Speaks!

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) held a Central Executive Committee meeting from 19th to 21st November 2007 and released a detailed statement yesterday. The statement is categorical on many topics. Of particular interest are the concise statement on Industrial Strategy; the public announcement of a Conference of the Left (to be held on 25-26 September 2008); remarks about the Alliance Pact and particular comparisons between the current positions taken by the ANC, SACP and COSATU; and COSATU’s determination to influence the selection of candidates and the content of manifestos in the cycle of national and provincial elections beginning in 2009.

These are some of the highlights, but there is much, much more. The full statement is linked below.

A schedule of 2008 dates is given, which you can put in your 2008 diary or year planner right away.

Annexure 1, which is included as part of the statement document, gives solid support to the SACP’s Umsebenzi Online, Revolution on Trial 6, 21 November 2007 on the Financial Sector Charter, and condemns the impertinent remarks of the Treasury, which is once more seeking to usurp the power that rightly belongs to the people, and to use it treacherously, in the service of monopoly finance capital.

Annexure 2 is a separate document, also linked below. It lists points from the discussion documents of the ANC, prepared for the 52nd National Conference, and compares them with COSATU’s past resolutions on the same matters. The section of the main report that deals with the Alliance Pact proposes “a document which will compare and contrast the ANC, SACP and COSATU positions”. Annexure 2 is clearly not yet that document, because it contains nothing from the SACP. No doubt it is intended as an assistance to delegates to the ANC Conference; the three-way comparison will presumably come later.

Both of the above items are also archived on the YCLSA Discusssion Forum site, here. Join this discussion list easily and quickly by clicking here, entering your e-mail address, and clicking “Subscribe”. Then join in the dialogue! The forum is for everyone, hosted by, but not confined to, the YCL.

Finally, just to continue the theme of cities, and to see the vicious side of the history of cities, and to see the very precise and specific connection between capitalism, genocide, slavery, colonialism, racism and mythical urbanism, go to the third linked item below. But be warned: It is a very disgusting story.

The image above was made by the English (Puritan) settlers in North America to record the genocide of the Pequot people. Mike Ely calls it the first example of “the American way of war”. Ronald Reagan borrowed the phrase “Shining City on a Hill” from these Puritan genocidaires during his rise to power. Reagan knew exactly what he was saying. He carried out his plain threat, not once, but many times.

The struggle against these dreadful things is one single struggle. It continues up to today. It will not be over until Imperialism is fully defeated.

But yesterday, 22 November 2007, large numbers of US citizens once again celebrated “Thanksgiving” in the memory of the first white settlers of the North-East American coast. The article puts that history into proper perspective, and helps us to remember that the colonialism that created the US Imperialist monster of today had its origins in the early capitalist revolutions of the Netherlands and England. These revolutions were made against feudalism, in the name of liberty! It was the very same bourgeois revolutions that propelled the first settlers towards the shores of South Africa. The struggle continues.

Click on these links:

COSATU CEC statement, 22 November 2007 (4179 words)

Comparison of ANC resolutions with COSATU position (Annexure 2, 1991 words)

Bloody Myth of Thanksgiving, Mike Ely, Counterpunch (3176 words)

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