MayDay 2007, Part 4: Africa

While globalizing capital seeks to impose conditions of precarity on labor in late capitalist societies, working people in Africa have never known anything else. In the competitive neoliberal “race to the bottom” for labor, social and environmental standards, the relations of production and of power that prevail throughout most of Africa are the goal, that capital seeks to duplicate everywhere. It has long been a trite liberal cliche that “Africa is the world’s future”; at long last we are discovering the truth therein, not one of social and economic advancement for African workers, but the implementation of neocolonial standards of exploitation and oppression that are widespread in Africa should become the global norm.

However appealing the norms of hyperexploitation common in much of Africa may seem to the global capitalist elite in their bourses and office suites, their penthouses and villas, such conditions can never be imposed on humanity without resistance. The price of such superprofits is a state of ongoing economic unrest and social conflict that even the most brutally authoritarian regimes cannot suppress. So it is on MayDay, 2007, that much of Africa is the site of open and pitched conflicts between global capital and their comprador regimes on one hand, and working class African society on the other. I take a look at some of those conflicts, and list the few MayDay events that I managed to find on the web, in the extended text.

South Africa

Nowhere in African has the historic role of the working class been more decisive, nowhere have African workers wielded more real political power, than in South Africa.

Due to its unique colonial history, and its abundant and diverse resources, the South African economy developed on industrial lines with a breadth and depth rare in colonized nations. In the struggle of South Africans against colonialism and apartheid, wave after wave of unionization and labor militance swept the country. While in each case prior to the emergence of the COSATU labor confederation in the 1980s the ruling regime succeeded in breaking the back of these worki ng class movements, each wave had enduring impact in building class consciousness and political and social traditions among African workers. As a result, it is hard to imagine the final victory over apartheid of the ANC without the decisive role and participation of COSATU, with the union federation becoming an integral element of the ANC.

With the accession to power of the ANC , a fundamental and decisive change in relations was initiated. While COSATU and the working class remain members of the ANC alliance, the cooptive pressures and enticements of the global neoliberal system on the ANC government are driving increasing rifts between the ANC’s managerial elites and COSATU’s working class base. In response, as MayDay 2007 approaches, COSATU is taking a more militant and aggressive posture in the power conflicts within South Africa’s “tripartite alliance” government:

If it were up to Cosatu, cabinet ministers and businessmen would be wiped out at the ANC’s national conference in December.

The labour federation on Thursday admitted that it was crossing the line in imposing its preferred leaders on its allies.

Apart from considering ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma and other so-called worker-friendly leaders to take over from President Thabo Mbeki, Cosatu also wants to impose at least four of its members into the national executive committee (NEC) of the ruling party.

At the same time, COSATU leadership is more wary than ever of becoming overly compromised in its role as an independent labor union by participation in government:

However, [Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi] cautioned that “we must guard jealously the independence of Cosatu. If more Cosatu leaders sit in the ANC, how do we ensure the independence of the trade union movement”?

COSATU has also set out explicit demands with regard to the next leadership of the ANC in order to protect South African workers from increasing neoliberal pressures:

If Cosatu was an employer of the next ANC president, the candidate’s CV would include:

Commitment to the working class struggle. “We need to ensure our candidate will not be bought by those with more wealth than any worker movement can envision,” said Cosatu; Proven commitment to the alliance. “Workers have had enough of shouting tired, empty alliance slogans and hollow commitment to the alliance, while the record proves otherwise,” Cosatu said in its paper; and, A proven record of working-class leadership.

In support of its economic demands and political program, COSATU will be holding its national May Day rally in Secunda, as well as regional rallies elsewhere around the country.

Nigeria

In the wake of Nigeria’s blatantly fraudulent April election, described by international observers as “among the worst the world has ever seen,” MayDay 2007 is shaping up as a showdown between the ruling clique and a labor-backed opposition. The West African nation’s two main labor federations, often at odds, have joined in calling for a unified May Day rally for the first time ever in response to the election fraud. In a statement from the National Executive Committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress:

The 2007 May Day will be marked jointly by the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Abuja. The theme of the May Day shall be “Towards a New Agenda for Political and Socio-Economic Transformation”. The NEC directed all NLC State Councils to hold joint May Day rallies with the TUC and her affiliates in all state capitals. …

The NEC invited all Nigerians to join workers either in Abuja or any state capital to mark the May Day.

With an industry-wide strike already gripping Nigeria’s key petroleum production sector, the unified May Day 2007 rallies aross the country would seem to mark a major showdown with the ruling regime.

Zimbabwe

While MayDay 2007 sees workers in South Africa and Nigeria potentially heading into new phases of conflict with their ruling establishments, in Zimbabwe the Mugabe regime’s crackdown on the labor-based opposition continues unabated, as does resolute resistance. MayDay 2007 sees mass action being planned:

Workers in Zimbabwe are planning one of the biggest processions ever for May Day in protest against the deepening economic crisis, deteriorating purchasing power and crippling job losses.

he General Council of Zimbabwe’s biggest labour federation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), meets Saturday to iron out the finer details of the protest action set for Workers Day (May 1), according to ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo.

Details about the planned protest action are being kept secret since organisers could be sent to jail for at least five years under current legislation should their identities become known.

Labour sources said the latest action was a grass-roots initiative rather than a formal stay-away action arranged by the labour unions last month.

People are at a dead-end. They cannot go on any more. It is cheaper to stay at home than to go to work every day,” one of the organisers said on Monday. …

Money and food are now being stockpiled in case the ongoing unrest continues. Sources said the countrywide strike would probably become evident in public and on the streets as services and food supplies finally collapse.

“There are fears that eventually the ruling rich and privileged will become the targets of the hungry masses,” said one of the organisers. “There is a strange mood among the people: the silence before the storm. The one thing everyone agrees on is that nobody will back off this time.”

At long last MayDay 2007 could mark the beginning of the final showdown with Mugabe and his ruling claque. And, may I add, not a moment too soon.

Liberia

While the previous examples have emphasized the conflicts between African workers and their national elites, Liberian rubber workers are in a direct and desperate struggle with international capital this May Day.

Struggling under conditions that would have made King Leopold proud, thousands of workers on the Firestone Rubber plantation went out on strike this past Tuesday. Detailed in a recent report by the Save My Future Foundation, conditions on the Firestone plantation including child labor, cnstant exposure to large quantities of toxic chemicals, lack of access to clean water, decent housing, and electricity are pervasive.

On Friday, confrontations between striking workers and police turned violent, while no end to the strike is in immeidate view.

In its report the Save My Future Foundation set out this list of recommended reforms and concessions by Firestone:

1. That Firestone Plantation Company take immediate steps to improve the living and working conditions of the tappers by providing them safety equipments and body wears;
2. That the Company immediately reduce and set limits to the daily workload of a tapper as well a take steps to outlaw the use of child labor on the plantation;
3. That the Company cleans up the solid waste that has accumulated in its plantation over the years as well as the polluted creeks and the Farmington river;
4. That the Company increase the daily wages of its labourers by 100%;
5. That the Company improve the medical facilities, including the hospital, for use by its employees;
6. That the Company publish its yearly production and tax payment records at the end of each fiscal year;
7. That the Company improve the education facilities for tappers’ children and construct a high school to ensure that they enjoy equal opportunities with children of other categories of employees;
8. That the Company identify and use alternative means of transportation for their latex to the storage tanks;
9. That the Company allow other labor organizations to freely operate in the concession to protect labourers rights and interest;
10. That the Company relocate its rubber processing facility in an isolated area following a full scale environmental impact assessment;
11. That the Company immediately close down the credit scheme on the plantation;
12. That the Company immediately improve the living standards of its labourers by constructing new housing units with electricity, save drinking water and latrines as they are enjoyed by other employees of the company; and
13. Regularize retirees’ benefits in such a way that delays faced before receiving their benefits are avoided.

The Foundation encouraged international human rights organizations and consumers worldwide to bring pressure on Firestone and its parent company Bridgestone to make these reforms adopted.Here’s the Bridgestone-Firestone Contact info page. The Agitator encourages all readers of this blog to join me this MayDay in contacting Bridgestone-Firestone to support the Save My Future Foundation’s recommendations for relief of the Liberian rubber workers.