* NEHAWU ** NEHAWU**Media Statement**, 20 June 2011* ** ** *NEHAWU**NEC Workshop Statement* **
NEHAWU, a revolutionary and transformative trade union convened an extended three day national executive committee workshop between the 17-19^th of June 2011 in Johannesburg. The aim was to discuss the key socio-economic issues especially focusing on health, education and preparations for the COSATU central committee as instructed by the national executive committee of April 2011.
The national executive committee workshop initiative forms part of the union’s ongoing education and discussion programme intended to set off an intensified engagement amongst members by deepening their understanding of the current political and socio-economic challenges facing the workers and the working class in general.
This crucial event received presentations from an august panel from the academic, political and civic society sectors. They all offered valuable critique, analysis and foresight on a range of issues that were identified by the organisation as the most crucial that the union needs to tackle in its quest to transform its organising scope and also to improve the lives of the working class. The discussions were designed to aid the union to regain its mantle as a leading force in the tertiary education, health care and public service transformation landscapes.
The union was not just merely engaging in this discussion for its own sake but the goal was to make sure that the theoretical discussions act as a guide and also inform our programme of action. The union has therefore concluded that the key and overriding task of the moment is one of building and consolidating working class power, beginning with our own organisational machinery.
Following extensive deliberations the special NEHAWU NEC workshop has come to the following conclusions:
*Politically*, there is a worrying and visible regression in the
unity and cohesion of the Alliance and also the emergence of a
*rightwing, populist demagogic tendency* within our movement
that is hell bent on using all backward and reactionary methods
to break the Alliance and derail our non sexist and non racial
project. This tendency is motivated by nothing more than
gluttony and unprincipled personal ambitions and their corrosive
posture has threatened not only to isolate the working class but
also to reverse the gains brought by the Polokwane watershed.
After analysing the situation the union concluded that its
immediate tactical role is to work with progressives to dislodge
this tendency before anarchy is unleashed on the working class
and the nation.
The union also called on the movement and government leadership
to remember the mandate given to them in Polokwane and work hard
to ensure that they *expedite service delivery* to the poor
communities. The failure to do so will create a fertile
environment for populist rightwing demagogues to capitalise by
using genuine service delivery issues of the poor to whip the
masses into a hysterical frenzy.
That although this current government is an outcome of our own
struggles and therefore our central task is to defend and
support it there is still a difficult task of implementing the
ANC manifesto at the technical and managerial levels of the
state apparatus because there are still remnants of the 1996
Class Project. There is a need for strategic leadership and
cohesion in the state and we need a leadership that will be bold
enough to ensure that a democratic state pursue a *developmental
agenda*.
The NEC workshop resolved to demand that all government
departments prioritise the five identified ANC priorities in
their programmes, i.e. decent work, education, health, crime,
rural development and land reform. Also as a principled
socialist organisation we support the *Nationalisation *of all
strategic sectors of our economy and any programme that
champions the distribution of resources as a basis to change the
structural base of our economy and society, and therefore to
impact on the balance of class forces and social relations *in
favour of the working class*.
NEHAWU NEC workshop has acknowledged the ideological ascent
of Neoliberalism and that despite its failure as evidenced by
the 2008 world economic crisis its hegemony remains intact and
unchallenged. This workshop took place at a time of the Great
Recession caused by the capitalist engineered financial crisis
that destroyed the livelihoods of millions of poor people around
the world including South Africa. The union is therefore
convinced and adamant that the time has come for our government
to boldly consider a *revolutionary alternative economic system*
that takes into consideration peoples social needs.
Our organisation believes that there are some *alternative
economic models* that can be studied by our government including
the Brazil model under its former president Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva. We feel strongly that an economic model that feeds the
elite minority and sidelines the poor majority is unsustainable
The union has resolved that as a disciplined force of the left
we are going to work with all progressive formations to campaign
and agitate for the total *overhaul of the capitalist
system*because its faulty systemic orientation means that it
will continue to reproduce these cyclical episodes of boom and
bust that do not benefit the working class.
There is a need for radical steps in dealing with the
transformation of health to reverse the current crisis
situation. The glaring challenges like the appalling hygienic
conditions in many of our hospitals, the on-going shortages in
medicine and the necessary medical equipments, as well as the
unfilled vacancies are demoralising to the health workers. The
ill-conceived and poorly implemented policy of privatisation and
outsourcing of the support functions in the health sector
coupled with the culture of appointing unsuitably qualified
managers has left our hospitals in a state of disarray. The
union resolved to intensely focus its attention to the
*transformation of healthcare* by supporting the government’s
endeavour to introduce the National Health Insurance {NHI}
scheme but remain fiercely opposed to the use of
Public-Private-Partnerships.
The union is calling for the *immediate improvement* of all
sites of service delivery in the health sector *in preparation
for* the implementation of *the NHI*.
The perilous state of our post school education and training is
unacceptable and has resulted in the levels of frustration for
poor students reaching alarming levels. NEHAWU remains resolute
in fighting all forms of maladministration and corruption and
also supports the efforts of the minister to transform higher
education. The union though demands a shift from the skills
development strategy that is informed by the narrow traits of
human capital theory that sees human beings as nothing more than
instruments of production. We want an education strategy that is
informed by the slogan *“people’s education for people’s power”*.
We have noted and are aware that the transformation project of
post school education and training will meet resistance because
it tempers with the powerful vested interests of the skills
tenderpreneurs as evidenced by an anti transformation liberal
offensive that is trying to defend and maintain the status quo
in the SETAS and Universities in particular. But we remain
resolute to mobilize the working class to *fight for a total
transformation of the higher education sector*.
The union wants the *number of Setas to be reduced* and that all
board members of the Setas serve without receiving any
compensation or privileges since what they are doing is civic duty.
Our organisation has committed itself to work with all
progressive activists, intellectuals and academics to work on
*an alternative intellectual project*.
The revolutions that have taken place in North Africa are a welcome
development that needs to be supported by the progressive forces in
order to assist the working class in those countries to ensure that the
capitalists do not hijack the revolution and sell it to imperialist.
The union has committed itself to work with unions and civic society in those countries in order to ensure that there is socialist orientation and a leftward shift in the political balance of forces in North Africa and the Middle East and will also continue to have on-going discussions in our union to shape our perspective and also grasp the essence of this emerging political context.
*Issued by NEHAWU Communications Department**For further information, please contact Fikile Majola {NEHAWU General Secretary} @082 455 1751 or Sizwe Pamla (NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer) at 011 833 2902 -082 558 5962 or email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>*
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