Real economic redistribution not labour market flexibility is needed

Statement of the African National Congress Youth League on the recently released Labour Force Survey results for Quarter 1: 2012

The ANC Youth League has noted with grave concern the results of the Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of 2012. According to Stats SA, the publishers of the research, unemployment in South Africa has risen to in excess of 25% in the first quarter of this year, increasing from 23,9% in Quarter 4 of 2011. The ANC January 8 Statement delivered at the Centenary Rally identifies that "principally, Africans, women and youth continue to carry the disproportionate burden of these challenges" refering to unemployment, poverty and inequality.

While the outcomes themselves are alarming, the ANC Youth League is even more concerned about the response of government to the issue of economically downtrodden, unemployed and unemployable youth. We continue to assert that our collective economic prosperity remains anchored in the fulfilment of all Freedom Charter objectives as asserted by our people in 1955, particularly the transfer of the wealth to the ownership of the people as a whole.

In October 2011, the ANC Youth League presented before the seats of political and economic power, the Union Building, JSE Securities Exchange and the Chamber of Mines, demands which sought to reverse the continuing escalation of youth hopelessness and despair arising from poverty, unemployment and inequality. In particular we spoke of the need for:

• Nationalisation of strategic sectors and the commanding heights of the economy to realise the Freedom Charter`s clarion call that the people shall share in the country`s wealth. As per the dictates of the Freedom Charter such strategic sectors must include "the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry". The state must also have greater ownership and control SASOL, Arcelor-Mittal, the Cement Industry, and creation of a reliable State Oil company.
• Local beneficiation and industrialisation of a minimum of 60% of the minerals extracted from beneath South Africa`s soil. The beneficiation should happen in the communities where Mining happens
• Establishment of a State Bank, which will have direct relationship with the Reserve Bank and used to finance rural development and industrialisation, mortgage and vehicle finance and financing of small and medium enterprises and businesses.
• Amendment of section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa to make provision for the expropriation without compensation of property, particularly land, for equitable redistribution in the public interest and for public purpose
• Urgent enactment of a policy framework and programme which will focus on the food economy and empowerment of communities to produce food for themselves and food for their immediate schools, hospitals, prisons and other public and private institutions that consume food.

Even after thousands of young people led by the ANC Youth League tabled these demands before Government and the Private Sector, we are yet to receive a response from those in power. For us, this demonstrates a lack of commitment and clear will to deal decisively with redress and the plight of youth.

We reaffirm these demands, and declare that the issues of unemployment, inequality and poverty cannot be dealt with only by seeking to create a more flexible labour regime. These calls for decisive calls to nationalise for industrialisation are based on the firm view of the ANC Youth League that we continue, as the ANC government, to manage the status quo without seeking to fundamentally alter the structure of the economy.

Monopoly capital continues exerting pressure for greater labour market flexibility. Our government has failed to hold big business in particular and the private sector in general to our collective need to create employment. Instead we seek to incentivise capital greed by proposing the youth wage subsidy as our response to this crisis. The ANC Youth League continues to reject this option of a youth wage subsidy and maintains that such a reformist intervention will create instability in an already precarious employment situation by allowing the establishment of a permanent reserve of youth casualties in a two tier labour market.

The youth wage subsidy is not intended to serve the interests of young people but instead the interest of capital as a tax incentive. This is no different to the approach of opposition parties that advocate for such in order to disadvantage the poorest of the poor of young people from living a better, meaningful and sustainable life as it will undoubtedly lead to an entire generation of young people delivered to mass exploitation through not being paid a living wage. Implementing the youth wage subsidy further has the potential to deepen the crisis whereby older, unskilled people are rejected in favour of youth for the purposes of claiming subsidy underpinned by capitalist greed.

We must, of necessity and of urgency, explore alternatives to the challenges confronting us. These alternatives have as their foundation irreversible and equitable redress and redistribution of the commanding heights of the economy.

Such alternatives should include the recognition of experiential learning where experience is required. National Service must be compulsory for one year following the completion of any undergraduate degree to ensure that young people are provided with the necessary life orientation and practical skills that shall be expected of them as they participate meaningfully in the economy.

Determinedly, the ANC Youth League will seek to lobby and persuade the ANC on these views; we would wish that the outcomes of the National Policy Conference reflect this posture.

To this end, we will seek consensus with organised labour to oppose the implementation of interventions that will reverse the gains of the working class. Our collective future and society we seek to build was articulated in the demands of the Freedom Charter in 1955 and we remind the ANC government of these demands of our people today through the ANCYL's Programme of Action towards Economic Freedom in our Lifetime.

Statement issued by the ANC Youth League, May 13 2012

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