Joint SACP - COSATU Statement
The leadership of the SACP and COSATU met on 26 April 2010, in a bilateral meeting to discuss issues of common interest and how best to deepen working power and hegemony in the current phase of our revolution. The basis for the meeting was the November 2009 bilateral and the numerous amount of work that has been done within the alliance on many important issues.
The meeting held frank political discussion and agreed on a number of important issues. Amongst others was our analysis that over the past years there has not be an effort to radically transform the colonial features of our economy. Attempts to simply deraciliase and to co-opt women and youth into this growth pattern have not been helpful. In this regard the leadership of the SACP and COSATU has agreed to pay attention to the debate within the alliance on the need for an alternative growth path whose central agenda is creating decent work and making a decisive break from the colonial character of our economy. Amongst this is the need to create a green economy and green jobs, all of which cannot simply be pursued within the capitalist framework.
Both the SACP and COSATU will continue to support the initiatives of IPAP 2 in this regard and hope to continuously contribute toward its enrichment in our drive to bolster productive capacity of the economy.
We commit to undertake joint work in order to deepen working class consciousness and workplace struggles right at the point of production. Capital has adopted various aggressive measures at the workplace to undermine the many important victories of the working class scored through various progressive legislations. Matters ranging from the issue of labour brokers, employment equity and skills development are a case in point wherein capital has dragged its feet and must now be taken to task.
As we met on the eve of the celebrations of Freedom Day, the leadership remained seized with finding the reality that South Africa has now become the most unequal society and that more than 50% of the South African population live in poverty. Despite our efforts to deliver houses we have not made a dent in the housing crisis. Our education system has not managed to capture the youth and assist us to build a new South African activist. The dropout rate of children within the schooling system remains relatively high and unacceptable.