POLITICS

The NUMSA manifesto - Irvin Jim

Union demands nationalisation of all commanding heights of our economy

Numsa Central Committee Meeting 15 - 19 August 2011

August 2011 Central Committee Statement

A. The Central Committee Meeting

The 15 to the 18th August Numsa Central Committee was a scheduled Numsa Constitutional meeting. Its purpose of course was to deal with the organisational, political and international work of the Union. We are happy to report that full justice was done to all these aspects of our work.

The Central Committee noted the fact that despite the adverse conditions in the sectors in which the Union organises, and the terrible international economic situation, Numsa continues to grow its numbers, and internally, the organisation is very healthy!

B. Background to the Central Committee Meeting: the global crisis of capitalism

We at Numsa understand capitalism to be a system in permanent crisis. This permanent crisis is a direct consequence of the struggle for supremacy and domination between capital and labour. In our current world capitalist system capital is dominant, and labour is dominated, exploited and oppressed, by capital.

In our everyday lives, all of us, we experience this state of permanent crisis which is the essence of capitalism as the suffocating, oppressive and dominating control of all aspects of our lives by those who own the means of production, those who have wealth, and those who live by exploiting the labour of others for profits.

For us the working class, we live in a world of permanent crisis: our jobs are never secure, we are never paid enough to sustain our lives, let alone to free ourselves from the need to work for the capitalists: our lives as workers are a permanent worry and stress over our jobs, our health, our families livelihoods, and so on. Funny, capitalism ensures that we even must stress over how we will be buried when it can no longer exploit us.

The global capitalist system is one in which a tiny minority that controls and owns the banks and multinational companies either directly or through various combinations of forms of capital (pension funds, provident funds, shares and so on) simultaneously control the lives of billions of the world's peoples generally and the entire global working class in particular.

Today, this global capitalist system is in even deeper, widespread and systemic and structural crisis. Itself dominated by finance capital, the global capitalist system is reeling from one major systemic and structural crisis into another, and unleashing a global wave of mass unemployment, poverty and destruction of production on a scale never seen before.

The most indebted leading capitalist country on Earth - the United States of America - almost defaulted on its debt obligations by August this year. Europe is in deep debt and many of its countries are actually financially bankrupt. Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy, France and yes, even England and Germany are having huge debt and financing problems.

Rather than acknowledging that the fundamental cause and source of the world's problems is the global capitalist system, both the US and Europe are busy designing new ways of making the world's working class and the poor to pay for the sustaining and restoration of the failed global capitalist system.

New austerity measures - massive national budget cuts on education, health, water, electricity, street cleaning, police services, pensions and so on are being implemented in order to deal with the so called "budget deficits" and "balance of payment" crises in all the major capitalist powers of the world.

This application of the same measures within the same failed capitalist system is a reflection of a more dangerous and deeper crisis of the world capitalist system today: all the leading world capitalist powers and their intellectual think tanks are intellectually and morally bankrupt, they have run out of ideas of how to reform their rotten global system of capitalism. They can only rely on the very same failed repackaged neoliberal prescriptions.

We at Numsa are convinced that the heating up of the Earth, the depletion of the ozone layer, the pollution of our rivers, lakes, oceans and soils, the destruction of our biosphere cannot be stopped for as long as the world is controlled and powered by the system of capitalism - a system of private greed and profits dominating, exploiting and oppressing the entire world.

C. The global political consequences of the crisis of the world capitalist system

The Central Committee dealt at length with the Secretariat Report on the Political, Socio-Economic and International Overview presented by the General Secretary of Numsa. We noted, among others, matters covered hereunder.

Following the 2008 - 2010 global crush of the world capitalist financial markets, and the inevitable destruction of job on a world scale, the massive increases in world prices of food and energy, it was expected that countries of the South among whom the social consequences of the collapse of the world capitalist system would have the most devastating impacts would be those with the most unstable and dictatorial regimes.

Thus we at Numsa are not surprised at the mass revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Palestine, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and recently in Malawi.

The combination of government suppression of mass democratic rights and collapsed economies rendered these countries vulnerable to popular revolutions.

We reject the notion advanced by Western and United States governments and their capitalist political economic analysts who have advanced the absolutely false view that in these countries what we are seeing is a revolt against Islam. This is a cheap opportunistic view aimed at promoting the Western capitalist Judeo-Christian supremacist view of their version of "Western Democracy" as being the universal norm for democracy.

The truth is that in fact there are mass rebellions in the United States itself which saw the removal from office of the conservative Republicans and the installation of a Black president - as desperate working class and poor Americans mistakenly looked to Democrats and Obama to rescue them from the suffocating domination and oppression of the money mongers.

In Western Europe, we have seen extremely violent mass protests in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Ireland, and Turkey, among others. Today we are on the brink on a more dangerous and deeper world recession because Europe is in a deep debt crisis.

Of course Western European political classes are quick to argue that their working classes and the inevitable under classes are not violently protesting against the brutalities of the capitalist system, but rather, we are told, the violence, looting and destruction of property and human lives in Western Europe and the United States is by "criminal elements"!

This is the highest possible form of denial any political system can exhibit: how can thousands of hundreds of people across the entire country of Britain suddenly wake up one day, without any provocation, and decide to loot, burn and destroy property? Whom is Cameron Prime Minister of Britain fooling? Only himself.

The looting, burning and destruction of property and life we have seen in Britain - the very berry of the capitalist beast in Western Europe, is a rebellion and violent revolt against a system that marginalises, excludes, oppresses, and dominates the majority of its people for the benefit of a few. The mass of the people in Western Europe have begun to speak out, against their domination by their capitalist classes.

We know that in Latin America there are popular rebellion which have seen Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico and several other Latin American countries grow their socialist and other Left formation.

We are aware that there are mass rumblings in Asia and Australia too, against the brutalities and effects of the capitalist system.

This is the world we live in today; a world in which the decadent capitalist system is struggling to prevent popular rebellions and revolts against itself, everywhere.

D. Political, and socio-economic overview of South Africa

In a discussion of the Secretariat Report on the Political, Socio-Economic and International Overview Document presented by the General Secretary of Numsa, the CC noted and took decisions on the South African situation as presented below.

It is impossible to understand the positions Numsa as an organisation takes, and to appreciate the outcomes and decisions o our Central Committee unless one understands the conditions of the majority of the working class in South Africa today who are largely Black and Africa.

D.1. The socio-economic situation and the conditions of the working class in South Africa today

In 1969, the ANC at Morogoro said the following, about the liberation struggle in South Africa:

"In our country - more than in any other part of the oppressed world - it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is therefore a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the root of racial supremacy and does not represent even the shadow of liberation."

D.1.1 Unemployment

In South Africa today:

a. On average, 400 000 young people do not proceed with their studies after writing matriculation exams every year

b. 72% of the unemployed are young people; 95% of them do not have tertiary education because of the limited capacity of the tertiary sector to absorb them and no money to proceed with further studies, among other problems.

c. 68% of the unemployed have been unemployed for more than a year

d. 60% of the unemployed have either never worked in their lives or have not worked in the past 5 years

e. 60% of the unemployed have less than secondary education

f. Unemployment among Africans was estimated to be 38% in 1995 and it stood at 45% in 2005, now the unemployment rate among Africans is almost 50%. Among whites the unemployment rate is estimated to be around 6%.

g. Among Africans of working age, only 36% are absorbed into employment whilst on the other hand, 65% of Whites of working age are absorbed into employment

h. For young people, being African reduces the chance of being employed by 90%, in comparison to being white

i. Despite similar qualifications, whites are on average 30% more likely to be employed than Africans

D.1.2 Mass poverty

During the Morogoro Conference of the ANC in 1969, the ANC further said the following on the indissoluble link between national and economic emancipation in South Africa:

"Our drive towards national emancipation is therefore in a very real way bound up with economic emancipation. We have suffered more than just national humiliation. Our people are deprived of their due in the country's wealth; their skills have been suppressed and poverty and starvation has been their life experience. The correction of these centuries-old economic injustices lies at the very core of our national aspirations. We do not understand the complexities which will face a people's government during the transformation period nor the enormity of the problems of meeting economic needs of the mass of the oppressed people. But one thing is certain - in our land this cannot be effectively tackled unless the basic wealth and the basic resources are at the disposal of the people as a whole and are not manipulated by sections or individuals be they White or Black."

Where are we today, in terms of eradicating poverty, despite all the commendable efforts at providing mass housing, mass electrification, mass sanitation and piped water within the constraints of South African racial capitalism?

a. The UNDP Report 2010 that 44% of workers in South Africa live on less than R10 a day (This is almost equivalent to a loaf of brown bread)

b. Each member of the household has to survive on R547.34 a month, which translates into R18 a day

c. The majority of persons that are not employed rely on financial assistance from a person within their household (77.5%), but 44% of these employed people themselves survive on less than R10 a day.

d. 48% of the South African population, almost half of the people in South Africa, live below R322 a month, which is less than R10 a day

e. Almost 25% of South African households have inadequate access to food, this figure was 20% in 2009

f. Because of the scale of poverty, almost 20% of people who head households save money by walking to work. Our inherited Apartheid spatial distribution of population according to racial groups means that the bulk of the underpaid black and African working class live far away from centres of production, thus walking long distances to work. This amounts to the poor and the working class subsidising the bosses!

D.1.3 Inequality

The main aims and objectives of the South African democratic revolution are properly captured in the Freedom Charter, a seminal revolutionary document of the ANC and its allies. A core tenet of the Freedom Charter says:

"The people shall share in the country's wealth!

The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people; The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole; All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people; All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions."

Again, despite all the good BEEE and Charters, social grants and other programmes aimed at eliminating mass poverty and inequality and advancing equal access to social and economic opportunities within the context of South African semi colonial economy and society, today, 17 years after formal democracy was declared in South Africa we have the following picture:

a. Whites earn 8 times what Africans earn.

b. The bottom 50% of the South African population which is largely black and African lives on 8% of national income, and the top 50% lives on 92% of national income.

c. The top 5% earners who are almost all white take 30 times what the bottom 5% earners take.

d. The directors of the top 20 listed companies on Johannesburg Stock Exchange earn 1728 times the average worker, in the US the directors there earn 319 times.

e. Approximately 71% of African female-headed households earn less than R800 a month and 59% of these had no income

f. 58% of African male-headed households earn less than R800 a month and 48% had no income

g. An average African man earns in the region of R2 400 per month, whilst an average white man earns around R19 000 per month

h. Most white women earn in the region of R9 600 per month, whereas most African women earn R1 200 per month

i. 56% of Whites earn no less than R6 000 per month whereas 81% of Africans earn no more than R6 000 per month.

j. Among Africans 55% live in dwellings with less than 3 rooms and 21% live in 1-room dwellings, whereas at least 50% of White households lives in dwellings with more than 4 rooms

k. 70% of matriculation passes is accounted for by 11% of the schools which are historically White, Indian and Coloured

l. The pass rate in black schools is an average of 44% whereas in white schools it is 97%

m. Classroom sizes in white schools are 24 learners, in African schools they are 32, but in Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga the sizes are between 40 and 50 learners.

n. The life expectancy of a white South African now stands at 71 years and that of a black South African stands at 48 years, whites expect to live 23 years more than Africans

o. Only 9% of the African population belong to a medical aid scheme whilst 74% of the white population do.

D.1.4. The dominance of imperialism and white monopoly capital: patterns of ownership and Control

The 1989 Programme of the South African Communist Party "The Path to Power" says the following about the South African struggle for national democracy, white monopoly capitalists and racial oppression in the section on the origins of Colonialism of a Special Type:

"The struggle for national democracy is also an expression of the class contradiction between the black and democratic forces on the one hand, and the monopoly capitalists on the other. The stranglehold of a small number of white monopoly capitalists over the great bulk of our country's wealth and resources is based on colonial dispossession and promotes racial oppression. This concentration of wealth and power perpetuates the super-exploitation of millions of black workers. It perpetuates the separate plight of millions of the landless rural poor. And it blocks the advance of black business and other sectors of the oppressed. This reality, therefore, forms the basis of the antimonopoly content of the national democratic programme."

The picture of "Colonialism of a Special Type" is quite stubborn to this day, 17 years into our democracy:

a. In 2008, 62% of all promotions and recruitments to top management positions are drawn from the white population, which is 12% of the South African population

b. Whites make up 75% of all top management positions in the economy, almost 20 years into democracy and they continue to promote each other

c. 70% of South African exports are from petrochemicals (SASOL), Basic Iron and Steel (Arcelor Mittal) and the mines.

d. SASOL is about 30% foreign-owned, and is privately owned, was state-owned and was privatized.

e. Arcelor-Mittal is 65% foreign owned, was state-owned and now is privately owned.

f. Anglo-American has since delisted from Johannesburg Stock Exchange and is now headquartered in London, strategic mines remain privately-owned and foreign-owned.

g. The financial sector accounts for 22% of South Africa's GDP and is dominated by 4 banks two of which have significant foreign ownership:

h. ABSA is 56% foreign-owned whilst Standard Bank is at least 40% foreign owned.

i. The wholesale and retail sector makes up 14% of South African GDP and also has significant foreign-ownership, Massmart is 60% foreign-owned, Shoprite is 35%, Truworths is 50%, Foschini is 40%, JD Group is 40%, and Lewis is 30%.

j. Beyond the above sectors, there is a need to have a comprehensive programme to deal with monopoly capital on a sector-by-sector basis: construction, quarrying, pharmaceuticals, forestry, etc.

k. The land question remains a problem: The department of Rural Development and Land Reform is still chasing the 30% land reform goal of white own agricultural land; only 10% of the 30% land earmarked for land restitution has been transferred to black farmers, the target date for the 30% is 2014.

l. The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights has managed to only settle 33 of the targeted 1695 claims during the 2009/10 financial year.

m. There is no progress on scrapping the willing buyer willing seller capitalist market strategy, despite the Polokwane resolution on the matter.

n. Foreign ownership of land is said to be under review, but the state seems to be dilly-dallying around the issue.

o. Housing, access to basic service, education, health and so on all are racially determined with black Africans condemned to the worst services

These are the socio-economic conditions within which the majority of the South African working class struggles to survive. To understand Numsa's positions, you must first appreciate these socio-economic conditions.

E. Positions and Decisions of the 15 - 19 August Central Committee

D. 1. On the State of the NDR

Our analysis above of the conditions of the working class who are the majority of this country clearly informs that the National Democratic Revolution is not on track.

The NDR needs to be brought back on track so that it tackles head on the challenge of undoing South Africa's Colonialism of A Special Type which continues to reproduce the triple crisis of extreme inequality, mass unemployment and poverty.

Numsa will be advancing this view in the coming August CEC of Cosatu.

D.2. Numsa's characterisation of South Africa as dominated by "White monopoly capital"

All the statistics we have used above clearly indicate that the South African economy is dominated by white capitalist males. We can easily demonstrate that the South African economy is dominated by a few capitalists who are connected to the Energy/Minerals/Complex fuelled and powered by the financial sector.

Further our analysis above demonstrates that the white population in South Africa today still dominates in virtually all the South African aspects of social life: education, healthy, leisure, sport, culture, creative arts and so on.

To argue against our characterisation on any basis, including on the basis that foreign capital participates in our economy is to pretend to be colour blind with respect to the South African economy and society. It is a falsification of our reality of capitalist oppression and domination.

D.3. Corruption and the Liberation Movement

Numsa understands that capitalism is corruption itself. For example, South African racial capitalism bribed white, Indian and coloured workers with wages and living conditions far superior to African workers. To this day, the South African working class continues to be segregated according to race.

Further, in conditions of post colonial capitalism, colonial capitalism makes entry into its capitalist ranks by the aspiring local population very difficult. South African white dominated capitalist system makes entry by black and African aspiring capitalists very difficult, nay, almost impossible.

It is thus not by accident that just about all the post colonial societies experience a phase of corruption centred around the state: the state becomes the most concentrated cite of struggle for the emerging new capitalists. South Africa is fast proving to be no exception to this iron rule. These are among some of the reasons why at Numsa we hate the capitalist system - it is inherently a corrupt system.

Notwithstanding our analysis above, Numsa joins Cosatu in demanding that the Liberation Movement must combat corruption ruthlessly, as it undermines the legitimacy of the democratic dispensation and government.

D.4. On Nationalisation

From the adoption of the Freedom Charter as the National Democratic Revolutionary Programme of the ANC and the entire Liberation Movement, the matter of transferring the wealth of the country to all the people of this country has been at the heart of the struggle for liberation and democracy.

Thus our position on nationalisation is based on our understanding that without all the people of this country equally sharing in the wealth of the country, there will be no true equality, no true human rights for all and no true democracy.

Further, we at Numsa fully agree with the SACP analysis of South Africa post 1994 as being obstructed to advance to a truly democratic dispensation because of the persistence of Colonialism of A Special Type.

This is the condition in our country in which a tiny minority dominates in the economy and society as illustrated by the statistics above.

Nationalisation for us is thus seen as a means to transfer the wealth of this country to all the people of this country, to socialise ownership, to deracialise our society and to truly build a single united, non racists and democratic society.

Our demand for nationalisation is thus not confined to mining; we demand the nationalisation of all the commanding heights of our economy and society. This is the position we will be canvassing in the Cosatu CEC this month.

D.5. The Question of the matter of a "flexible labour market" and youth subsidy

We have taken the trouble above to illustrate the conditions of the working class in South Africa today. We have demonstrated statistically the terrible manifestations of extreme and racialised inequalities, mass unemployment and poverty in South Africa today.

Numsa will, together with Cosatu, combat any and all attempts by South African capitalists and right wingers in government and in our Liberation Movement who now seek to use the deepening of the crisis of capitalism in our country to exploit the massive unemployment they have unleashed on the working class to drive down wages.

In this regard we reject the proposal for a youth wage subsidy. This will simply amount to bribing he bosses so that they can exploit young workers at the expense of older workers. This device of youth wage subsidy is divisive and thoroughly right wing and reactionary.

Numsa will, with Cosatu, combat any attempts at diluting the rights the working class have won in this country. Those calling for dilution of worker's rights in South Africa today insult the blood of all those of our comrades who shed their lives so that black and African workers may also enjoy their full workers rights.

Nothing short of destroying the domination of South African economy by a small white capitalist class and its black and African sprinklings, and the domination of South African society by a particular segment of its population can deliver the numbers of jobs and quality of life that will defend South Africa's new democracy.

At Numsa this is why we tie our demands in collective bargaining councils to a living wage and decent work.

D.7. On labour brokers

The CC noted the work on the matter on labour brokers before Nedlac. As a member of Cosatu which is in an alliance with the governing ANC, Numsa retains the right to pursue a political solution to this matter, in line with the revolutionary programme of the ANC - the Freedom Charter.

The Freedom Charter says the following on this matter:

"All who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers; The state shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits; Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work; There shall be a forty-hour working week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers; Miners, domestic workers, farm workers and civil servants shall have the same rights as all others who work; Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour shall be abolished."

Thus the Freedom Charter is very clear: all must have the obligation to work and decent work and a living wage shall be guaranteed. Forms of lave work such as "Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour" shall be abolished and not "reformed"!

Numsa continues to demand the abolition of labour brokers as a form of evil contract work and slavery.

D.8. NHI

The Freedom Charter says, simply: "A preventive health scheme shall be run by the state; Free medical care and hospitalisation shall be provided for all, with special care for mothers and young children."

The CC welcomed the government's announcement of the Green Paper on the National Health Insurance (NHI). This is what the Polokwane Resolutions demanded.

Numsa will be studying the Green Paper on the NHI and making its full position known as soon as possible.

Numsa views the matter of destroying the monopoly of health resources in the country by the capitalist private sector and a small segment of our population as anti democracy and unsustainable.

D.9. On imperialism and Wal-Mart

Numsa is alarmed at the rate at which post 1994 South Africa is embracing imperialism.

We have seen the rapid increase in imperialist involvement in our financial, manufacturing, textiles, energy, transport, construction, and now retail sectors without measures put in place to protect South African jobs and our national sovereignty.

Numsa demands the nullification of the Wal-Mart deal.

Numsa is not against participation of foreign capital in our economy as long as this is not at the expense of jobs and our national sovereignty.

D.10. Libya

In keeping with Numsa anti imperialist traditions and policies, Numsa demands the immediate withdrawal of NATO invading forces from Libya.

Numsa further demands that the African Union must put measures in place to advance the demand for the withdrawal of NATO from Libya.

D.11. Swaziland

Numsa reiterates the position announced by both Cosatu and itself, consistent with our solidarity with the people of Swaziland that South Africa should have not given the Swazi government the massive loan without first securing conditions for a transition to democracy in that country.

D.12. Somalia

The CC is in full sympathy with the peoples of Somalia. The CC understands that the ongoing mass starvation in Somalia is a product of a combination of a number of complex interrelated social, economic, political and environmental factors.

Somalia has not been spared by the neoliberal period of world capitalism. This period literally wiped out Somalia's capacity to produce food for itself and to conserve a surplus, for drought times, such as now.

The history of imperialism in Somalia has meant that the people of Somalia have not known social and economic peace and stability for a long time. This has had a devastating impact of Somalia's prospects for social and economic development.

Somalia needs political, economic and social solidarity from all anti imperialist forces in the whole world in general and from Africa in particular.

Numsa will be announcing the union's contribution towards efforts to feed the peoples of Somalia soon.

D.13. Xenophobia

The CC noted the rise of xenophobia and potential and actual threats to the security and lives of especially African workers from other countries in South Africa. The CC condemns in the strongest terms xenophobia and its related violence and abuses of workers from other countries, irrespective of their legal status in South Africa.

The CC mandated the NOBs to find out from the Ministry of Home Affairs what measures they are putting in place to secure and protect the lives especially of the working class from Zimbabwe, in South Africa.

D.14. Leadership dynamics within the broader liberation Movement and the ANC, and in Cosatu, in 2012

Numsa as a disciplined socialist trade union is abiding by the decisions of both the just ended CC of Cosatu and the recent Cosatu advice to all affiliates to desist from discussing this matter in public.

D.15. The Joint Numsa/SACP Political Schools and the establishment of Industrial Units

Numsa is happy to note that despite some initial hiccups, our joint Political School Programme with the SACP is well underway. The NOBs will be approaching the SACP to iron out any challenges facing this extremely important joint project aimed, among other things, at building industrial units of the SACP.

D.16. The NPC Diagnostic Report

The Numsa CC notes government's release of the NPC Diagnostic Report, for public engagement.

Numsa is disappointed that the Diagnostic Report, while noting our unjust history and its heritage of a highly unequal country characterised by mass unemployment and national poverty - all highly racialised with black people in general and Africans in particular placed at the bottom - fails to recognise and use this historic fact to consistently analyse South African economy and society. Thus in some instances such as the rot in our inherited Apartheid health and education sectors, blame is erroneously placed on the working class.

Further, the NPC Report fails to recognise the impact of our continuing post 1994 neo-liberal macro-economic policies at worsening our triple crisis of extreme inequalities, mass unemployment and mass poverty.

Numsa will be seeking to place before the coming Cosatu CEC these and other concerns including the workings and location of the NPC in the planning terrain in South Africa. 

D.17. The government New Growth Path (NGP)

In the August CEC of Cosatu, Numsa shall advance the view currently held by Cosatu that it welcomes the government's announcement of its New Growth Path Framework. Numsa will, however, motivate for the recognition and incorporation of the work Cosatu has done on its version of the Growth Path.

Further, Numsa shall motivate for Cosatu to have formal responses to its criticism of the government's Framework document.

Numsa rejects any attempts at hoisting onto South Africa a "new growth path" which does not simultaneously fundamentally alter South Africa's macro-economic regime from its neoliberal rooting to one premised on a redistributive, transformative and job growing economy.

No growth path that does not radically tackle the triple crisis of extreme inequalities, mass unemployment an national poverty will be meaningful, to the majority of he poor and working class of South Africa.

D.18. Numsa International Policy

The Central Committee noted the good work that has been done to produce a comprehensive Draft Numsa International Policy.

The CC formally adopts the Numsa International Policy, with the proviso that all the members of Numsa in our regions and locals must be educated on the Numsa International Policy and relevant International Structures at Regional and Local Levels created. Further, like any policy of Numsa, the International Policy will be subject to review at 2012 Numsa National Congress.

D.1.8 NIC/ABSA Strategic Partnership

The CC notes the good work and progress made in rebuilding the NIC. The CC further welcomes the opportunities for new employment inside the NIC which the new leadership of the NIC has created.

The NIC has facilitated a strategic partnership with ABSA and Numsa with a view to exploring ways of making financial services affordable to the working class in general and members of Numsa in particular.

The NIC is exploring financing for housing and affordable micro loans and other transactional services. The CC will be requesting the NIC to make information available to all our members.

Statement issued by Irvin Jim, Numsa General Secretary, August 18 2011

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