COSATU celebrates Africa Day
By Laura | May 25, 2010
Africa Day: Celebrating the rich heritage and legacy of working class struggles in Africa – COSATU
COSATU greets all workers on the African continent on this Africa Day. On 25th May 1963 the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was founded, which later became the African Union (AU). Since then, 25th May has become known as Africa Day and is associated with the rich legacy of struggle for freedom from colonial rule and for national sovereignty and democratic rule of Africa.
What has not been given full attention is the rich heritage of working class struggles on the continent and workers’ contribution to the emancipation for the mass of working and poor people.
The rich history of struggle by workers led to the defeat of colonialism and is still being waged against imperialism and neoliberalism. It is a struggle against injustices in land ownership and the deepening misery and destitution of workers and the society in general.
We are part of a rich tradition of militant working class struggles against colonialism, military dictatorships, royal despots who appropriate people’s culture for their own narrow selfish interests, and foreign interests who plunder our natural resources, corrupt elites and abuse human and workers rights.
We have engaged in fierce struggles against neoliberal economic policies that deepen extreme inequalities and poverty. An example is the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) imposed by Europe on our countries to further their plunder of our natural resources.
Despite all that progress, however, the working people of our continent still face serious challenges and are forced to work against all odds for mere survival.
Africa is still plagued by endless wars and conflicts, rooted in the economic interests of corrupt elites within and outside the continent, whose common cause is the plunder of our natural resources and our further impoverishment. Workers are still facing underdevelopment and poverty, with extreme abuses taking place with impunity.
Many workers cannot even imagine what decent work means, it is such a distant reality. Hence the urgency to build the capacity of the African trade union movement to defend the rights and dignity of workers and communities and develop and promote policies based on the developmental imperatives for job creation through beneficiation and value-addition on all our products.
We welcome advances recorded in the arena of democracy, increased public participation in policy making, and electoral advances in many countries, which are a product of the hard work and struggles of workers, which should be consolidated and taken forward.
All these indicators indicate the amount of work still required to decisively change the conditions on our continent. We have also noted the growing levels of homophobia, xenophobia, racism and patriarchy in many countries. It is a worrying sign and calls for our mobilisation and struggle to defeat these evils.
We also take this opportunity to reject the US military command, Africom, which is an attempt by imperialism to strengthen its hold on our natural resources, particularly oil in the Gulf of Guinea, while couching its narrow agenda as ‘fighting terrorism’.
The following are some of the most urgent tasks facing the African trade union movement:
- Fighting against neo-liberalism and for economic policies that promote industrialisation, development and redistribution
- Fighting against human and workers rights abuses, to advance democracy and popular participation in policy making
- Fighting against corruption, looting of our natural resources by multinational companies and privatisation of our strategic national assets to foreign interests
- Fighting for the fundamental transformation of global governance and multilateral institutions to realise the goal of a new and just world economic order
- Promoting south-south co-operation and reversing the stranglehold of imperialism on our countries
- Building the progressive trade union movement to consolidate a progressive platform for revolutionary alternatives, drawing in the active participation of the most progressive elements of our society to unite around these ideals
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August 10th, 2011 at 7:12 am
[...] that commemorate this day though the South African Trade Union Congress (COSATU) has released a statement in [...]