In the world’s most economically unequal country, 220,000 South African metal workers of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) have taken a swing at one of the most powerful auto companies on Earth — GM.
The sheet metal workers’ strike that started over two weeks ago has shut down and seriously curtailed production for GM, Ford, BMW and many other corporations throughout South Africa. This strike comes on the heels of last year’s four-week NUMSA strike of 30,000 and a recent five-month long strike in the platinum mining sector.
These mainly black and African NUMSA workers have been on strike since July 1 demanding an end to wage exploitation and to labor brokering. Labor brokering is a practice that attacks the power of organized labor by contracting with workers individually rather than through the union. In the face of an inflation rate of 6.6 percent (only 2.1 percent in the U.S.), these workers have demanded a 12-15 percent wage increase and a one-year contract. The company has countered with a 10 percent increase and a less than desirable three-year contract.
The workers rejected the company’s most recent offer because it does not meet their demands. NUMSA is now working to broaden and intensify the strike by bringing in several of the public sector unions in solidarity.
Twenty years after the official ending of apartheid and the election of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela, the socioeconomic status of black workers in South Africa has changed very little. According to the Times Colonist, only 27 percent of black South African children have access to piped water, a problem that is non-existent in white areas. And the unemployment of South Africa’s black youth is the third highest in the world. Many of the current conditions in South Africa are worse today than under apartheid.
President Jacob Zuma, who despite his fight against apartheid in the past, was booed at Nelson Mandela’s December memorial service. Due to multiple charges of corruption and various scandals, he has taken much of the blame for the recent waves of labor strikes. However, the misery faced by the working class of South Africa is not caused by corrupt individuals, but by the corrupt system of capitalism.
Once a site of significant U.S. and British investment, now, as competition over Africa has heated up in recent years, South Africa is beginning to cozy up to imperialist China. China is making investments in South Africa’s energy and infrastructure and has already started training South Africans in the renewable energy sector (out-law.com). Zuma has assured Chinese investors that the recent strike is not a cause for alarm.
With the death of Nelson Mandela still fresh in the minds of most South Africans and the world, let us not forget that “great men” do not make revolutions. Mandela’s collaboration with U.S. and British capitalists and appeals to nationalism disarmed workers in the fight for a truly equal world. The recent strikes in South Africa, however, show that the most oppressed people are the natural leaders in the fight against capitalist exploitation. These black and African workers also hold the key as the potential leaders of a communist revolution.