Statement

Forty years ago, in 1985, workers from across the country gathered in Durban, now e-Thekwini, to launch the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). After months of unity talks, 33 unions representing 450,000 workers from different traditions of union organisation came together in one of the more brutal years of apartheid repression.

The inaugural congress was convened by none other than the current President of the country, Cde Cyril Ramaphosa and elected Jay Naidoo as general secretary and Elijah Barayi as President. The incoming President called on the apartheid government to end the state of emergency and take the troops out of the township – signalling from the beginning that Cosatu was committed to standing up for workers and the working class beyond shop floor issues.

For its forty years of existence, Cosatu has been faithful to that call. It joined the Tripartite Alliance, on the understanding that the national democratic revolution can only be achieved by the broad unity of the motive forces, with the working class in a leading position.

Today, Cosatu continues to stand up for workers on the shop floor, the working class and the poor. It takes up issues such as pension reform, the high cost of living, a national minimum wage, and the need for a just transition in the face of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“The unity that was demonstrated at the launch 40 years ago is as much needed today”, said Snuki Zikalala, ANC VL President. “In the face of global polarisation and the rise of the right, we look towards the progressive trade union movement to demonstrate that workers’ interests do not lie with false promises but solidarity and united action”, he continued.

Today, amongst the ranks of the Veterans League, we have many of the founding leaders of the trade union movement, including those from the exiled South African Congress of Trade Unions and the South African Allied Workers Union, whose centre in East London mobilised for one of South Africa’s best remembered consumer boycotts against Wilson Rowntree. We salute all these former trade unionists for their contributions to worker unity and the building of a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa.

Ends//