The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) expresses its solidarity with the rank and file workers of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), as their national campaign of rolling mass action against the electricity crisis culminates in a national strike and stayaway throughout the country on Wednesday, 6th August.
The decision by Eskom to reduce electricity supply to the mining and other industries, as well as their threat to oppose any new major construction initiatives, could likewise result in loss of jobs; it is probably already doing so. But as a result of incompetence by the state and Eskom, neo-liberal cost cutting and privatisation and a failure to properly invest in the nineties, these power cuts are probably unavoidable. Without them we would probably still have chronic and unpredictable load shedding hitting industry and consumers, rich and poor alike. Electricity cannot be wished into existence. The shortage is real and can't be bypassed. What we need is for the working class to take a lead in demanding alternate energy sources be explored and implemented as soon as possible, with a priority on supplying energy to poor communities and to industry to maintain - and increase - the number of jobs.
We therefore support Cosatu, as an organisation of the working class, in its endeavor to find a solution to the current crisis of power-cuts and power shortages, which affects not only all South Africans - as stated by Cosatu - but all people currently residing in South Africa, regardless of their nationality.
We are adamant that government’s programme for providing electricity to poor households, which is insufficient at best, must not be compromised by the electricity crisis and recent price increases and that the costs of the power-cuts not be borne by the poor and working poor.
How does Vavi think the "separate processes in Nedlac on some of these issues" are going to deal with the food, fuel and interest-rate crises? What kind of workers' leader is this who calls for direct action on one issue but just sits and talks to the enemy about other intimately related issues? This confusion on the facts undermines the working class.
Such regulation will only come about, however, as a result of mass direct action by the popular classes; and if the popular classes force the state to introduce such regulation, perhaps we could to some extent dictate its terms and make it serve the interests of the masses. This would be a campaign for Cosatu which we would fully support. It should be noted that this approach is in stark contrast to the position favoured by leading "third world" governments in the WTO talks, which now appear to have collapsed. Governments of so-called developing nations are attacking first world farm subsidies (which are indeed problematic as they tend to favour giant agribusiness) and, regrettably, pushing for more of a free market, the one thing that won't help workers and the poor. Perhaps all these complications - notably the need to attack the market directly, and even more the need to speak out against government policy - have something to do with Cosatu's failure to produce a proper analysis and programme of action.
All these issues tie in to the longer-term problems of the energy crisis and the environmental crisis. The immediate cause of the current disastrous food inflation is the rocketing price of oil - both because of transport and processing costs, and because of the trend towards biofuels. So-called experts differ on whether the oil problem is due to speculation, rent-seeking by Opec, or the approach of peak oil. But even if oil prices settle down for a while, it's clear that a huge crisis looms, and probably sooner rather than later.
Cosatu is right to call for renewable energy, but we are concerned with the risks of taking biofuels as the solution, and must warn against this.
We call on Cosatu to continue with its mass action until the government concedes to invest properly in alternate and sustainable energy sources, with a emphasis on electrification of poor communities and a proviso that the cost of electricity to those communities not be increased.
We call on Cosatu to support the service delivery campaigns of the popular social movements as a means to ensuring sustainable energy for all, and likewise urge the popular social movements, and the population at large, to actively support the Cosatu workers' struggle against the electricity crisis.