"Mazibuko K. Jara (by way of Scott Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)" a écrit :
18 May 2000
MEDIA ALERT
BLADE NZIMANDE’S ADDRESS TO THE SATAWU CONGRESS
BUILD AN EFFICIENT PUBLIC SECTOR TRANSPORT SYSTEM!Today, the SACP General Secretary, Blade Nzimande, addressed the merger
congress of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU)
and the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU). Below is a summary of
Blade Nzimande’s speech. The full text of the speech is available on the
SACP website www.sacp.org.zaTowards a transport sectoral summit
NEED FOR A FUNDAMENTAL REVIEW OF OUR ECONOMIC POLICIES
For the SACP perhaps the most important message and challenge is the need
for a fresh look at our economic policies in the light of the deepening
unemployment crisis, failure to increase domestic investment, as well as the
very low levels of foreign direct investment.The country lacks an integrated and coherent industrial development
strategy. The explanation to this is that in seeking to implement the RDP,
we only focused on one aspect of the RDP, the development of a
macro-economic strategy, outside of and without an industrial development
strategy. The core foundation of the RDP was that of linking reconstruction
and development. This is in contrast to the argument that growth is needed
before development is possible, an approach, which would leave intact the
severe regional, racial, and gender and structural imbalances that
characterise the present economy.The link between reconstruction and development was to be a comprehensive
industrial strategy premised largely on growing the economy through a
domestic infrastructural programme aimed at meeting the basic needs of the
majority of our people. Because of this, GEAR was bound to be a deficient
macro-economic strategy as it was not responding to a domestic and state
driven industrial strategy.
Instead the emphasis of GEAR seemed to focus our hope and creating a
macro-economic climate for attracting foreign direct investment, without the
development of a coherent domestic industrial strategy, which would act as
the foundation for attracting FDI and public-private partnerships. This is
where, as the SACP, we believe we should be directing our efforts at: The
need to urgently development such a coherent industrial strategy, to which a
macro-economic policy must aim to reinforce.The Job Summit resolutions had taken us closer to the issue of the
development of an industrial strategy and the identification of obstacles to
job creation in order to stem job losses and revitalise our economy.
Unfortunately it has too long to convene these summits. Therefore we should
use the next three months to convene these summits, with a clear objective
of development of a coherent industrial strategy with a view to
infrastructural growth and development of our country.Such a focus on infrastructural investment and growth will require, amongst
other things, greater industrial policy clarity, alignment of fiscal and
monetary policies towards this objective, and much greater strategic
co-ordination of public capital resources state departments and key
parastatals.The issue of the restructuring of state assets should also be located within
the framework of a co-ordinated industrial strategy premised on harnessing
domestic capital towards infrastructural development. Our concern as the
SACP has been that the restructuring of state assets is also taking place
outside of this broader framework. As a result there is a very unhealthy
state of affairs in many of the key parastatals.The need to urgently work towards the convening of a transport sectoral
summit. Such a summit in your sector must be premised on the achievement of
three interrelated tasks. Firstly, it must be the development of an
affordable and accessible public transport system. Secondly, such a summit
must focus on the strengthening of the rail sector both domestically and in
the region, as part of infrastructural investment and creating conditions
for growth and jobs. Thirdly, the imbalance between the road and rail
transport must be corrected. Spoornet is experiencing major problems not
least because it subsidises its competitor, private road haulers, who are
also carrying unacceptably high tonnage which damages our roads that have to
be repaid through levies on liquid fuels, also paid by Spoornet.Related to the above and a matter that requires urgent attention is the
organisation of taxi drivers. Comrade President, the continued problems in
the taxi industry is subjecting working class communities to perpetual
dangers and violence in our townships and roads. The current situation in
Khayelitsha is just but one example of this, drivers shooting at other
drivers, and communities being attacked by sections of the workers
themselves. The solid organisation of taxi drivers is a key intervention
that could take us a long way in resolving this crisis facing black working
class communities, as a basis for broader working class solidarity and
jointly tackling the need for an efficient public transport system. No other
union is better able to lead this organisational crusade other than the new
and stronger SATAWU.Part of the struggle to strengthen the working class and turn the economy
around, we need new and creative ways of challenging the neo-liberal
ideology. One of the very concrete proposals the SACP is making is that it
is time that we establish a think-tank for the working class in this
country. All major think-tanks are of a reactionary and anti-working class
nature e.g. The Race Relations and the Helen Suzman Foundations. We need to
strengthen our policy capacity for policies favouring the working class. The
SACP will be approaching the unions with very concrete proposals in this
regard. Related to this task of an ideological challenge to neo-liberalism
we need to really focus our attention on ensuring that the public
broadcaster gives much more coverage to working class issues and struggles
than it presently does. We must ensure that the current restructuring of the
public broadcaster does indeed address this deficiency.
CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information & Publicity
Tel: 27 11 339-3621/2
Fax: 27 11 339-4244
Cell: 083 651 0271
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
begin:vcard n:Moumbaris;Alexandre tel;fax:00 33 1 43 81 21 66 tel;home:00 33 1 43 01 01 30 tel;work:00 33 1 43 01 01 30 x-mozilla-html:FALSE org:Editions Democrite;Redaction version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] adr;quoted-printable:;;52, bld Roger Salengro=0D=0A;LIVRY GARGAN;;93190;FRANCE note;quoted-printable:Nous publions "Les dossiers du BIP" un mensuel en fran=E7ais de traductions d'articles de diverses langues "russe, grec, espagnol, anglais, bulgare, allemand....), susceptible d'interesser des lecteurs communistes.=0D=0ALe pirx est de 260 FF par an tarif unique France et l'Etranger.=0D=0ASi vous le souhaitez nus pouvons vous offrir un abonnement gratuit de trois mois =E0 l'essai. =0D=0A=0D=0A************************************************************************=0D=0A=0D=0AWe publish a monthly revue in French "Les Dossiers du BIP". The contents are translated articles from various languages "Russian, Greek, Spanish, English, Bulgarian, German...) likely to interst communist readers.=0D=0AThe subscription is 260 FF a year for France and abroad.=0D=0Aif you wish we can offer you a free trhee month trial subscription. =0D=0A*************************************************************************=0D=0A=0D=0AAlexander MOUMBARIS=0D=0AEditor=0D=0A fn:Editions Democrite end:vcard
