MOJALEFA MUSI | Cosatu has entered a minefield as it backs two parties

At its reconvened congress on October 12-14, union federation Cosatu passed a “super” resolution to support both the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the local government elections. The federation has committed its enormous organisational infrastructure and mobilisation machinery to give equal support to both alliance partners.

With Cosatu in choppy waters in recent years and its future uncertain, the federation has been rethinking its role in South Africa under an ANC majority government. In its September commission report, Cosatu committed to building the tripartite alliance. Because of the principle of trade union independence, it also sees itself as the leader of civil society.

In the federation’s view it is the centre around which South Africa’s civil society and the mass democratic movement, made up of hundreds of organisations since the 1980s, will eventually gather.

The super resolution is vague about Cosatu’s relationship with the ANC, which takes a dim view of the SACP’s decision to contest the local government elections on its own. The federation’s 15th national congress declaration speaks of a “socialist axis”, signalling Cosatu’s closeness to the SACP, which puts far less weight on its future relationship with the ANC.

This reflects the grievances against the ANC, including its choice of partners in the government of national unity, its approach to the budget and the austerity measures that have come with it in recent years.

Academic writing often points to the differences, and sometimes the contradictions, between political society and civil society. Political society is made up of the parties in the parliamentary system that are directly responsible for running the state. Civil society is made up of the organised groups that sit between the household and the state. The two are in constant tension.

Cosatu places itself in civil society, the space from which it hopes to shape the direction of South African society. In other words, of the three alliance partners it is now the only one that would, at least on paper, stand apart from the trappings of the state. Backing two alliance partners that are now contesting elections separately while holding on to its role as leader of civil society is a minefield.

The resolutions and declaration of the recent congress did not get into the nuts and bolts of how the alliance should work to avoid the problems of recent years, and holding independent organisations to a common programme is a Herculean task. The hope among its leadership is that Cosatu will not overstretch and isolate itself but instead find ways to influence the policies of both the ANC and the SACP.

Backing two alliance partners that are now contesting elections separately while holding on to its role as leader of civil society is a minefield.

The shift in Cosatu’s electoral strategy comes alongside another significant change: the gender profile of its leadership. Women now make up 67% of the national office-bearers committee. This means women will carry the lion’s share of Cosatu’s internal and external work going forward, including policy and research, worker education, organising and affiliate support, and international relations. Does the feminisation of Cosatu’s leadership explain the shift in electoral policy?

The government policies Cosatu most often criticises affect women’s reproductive labour, much of it unpaid, in ways the federation has failed to articulate. Yet women are rising within Cosatu and the wider union movement at a time when society has turned increasingly misogynistic, a sign of regression and paralysis on many levels.

The task facing the new female majority Cosatu leadership is to find new approaches to union organising and worker education, including leadership succession planning, as a key part of revitalising South Africa’s union movement.

• Musi is an independent labour analyst and organisational facilitator.