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A rolling mass action against job losses and unemployment that includes a series of protests, marches and rallies as well as occupation of mines was launched in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
The SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) have promised never-seen-before mass action over the coming months under their Cry of the Excluded campaign.
Zwelinzima Vavi, Saftu’s general secretary, said their plan of action was an “extra ordinary measure to make sure they [government and employers] listen”.
He described the coming months of mass actions as the “real makoya” and the “mother of all actions”, saying while there have been protests against unemployment, job losses and better lives for South Africans before, they “have been Sunday school picnics”.
Vavi added: “We’re not playing because we’ve got absolutely nothing to lose anymore.”
He said they were, among others, calling for an end of austerity measures and an “end to the framework underpinned by current monetary and fiscal policies that has simply made the rich more richer and poor even poorer”.
“We’re calling for an alternative to what has been pursued but has dismally failed the poor of this country for 25 years … we’re calling for a totally different direction to the one pursued in the past 25 years,” he said.
The launch statement, read out at a media briefing at the Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg, explained in detail the reasons for the mass action as well as planned events.
“South Africa finds itself at a precipice. The economic malaise currently being experienced places the nation at a point of no return,” Vavi read.
“The levels of poverty, unemployment in particular among our youth and women, inequalities, corruption, crime, etc have reached such proportions that the country can be plunged into another civil war and strife if nothing is done. Almost every state-owned enterprise is facing a debt spiral or financial collapse. Eskom, SAA, Autopax, Prasa are all on their knees with more workers’ jobs and services to the poor on the line.”
Amcu and Saftu said they were making a call “on our people to rise up” and to “resist, and in their resistance, to show there is a another way; a fair, just and righteous path”.
“We call for an intense internal and public debate on what kind of actions we need to get government and employers to meet the demands of the working class and the marginalised majority,” Vavi said.
The campaign’s action plans begin on Wednesday night with a “state of the nation night vigil” at the Union Buildings and a picket at the Parade in Cape Town on Thursday to “present an alternative Sona and demand the in-sourcing of the Extended Public Works Programme workers”.
A “real jobs summit” is planned this month in Cape Town, while a march has been planned to Parliament on the day Finance Minister Tito Mboweni presents his budget.
From what is themed “unfreedom day” rally to occupation of mines planning to retrench workers and marches to many other companies considering job cuts, the activities are so far planned until August 16, the eight anniversary of the Marikana massacre.
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