Cosatu's muscle is weakening

»» Labour action is muted and limited and member numbers shrinking experts.

- Brian Sokutu

RING-FENCED: CONFINED TO WAGE, JOB ISSUES, UNABLE TO MOBILISE BROAD SUPPORT

The 1.6 million-member union federation Co satu yesterday staged a countrywide mass protest against unemployment, retrenchments, the cost of living, poor economic growth and workers’ rights which drew nothing like the crowds it pulled at the peak of the struggle against apartheid.

Experts said yesterday that the 1980s demonstrations had a wider appeal and that now the world had changed signifi cantly from the late 1980s.

When the National Party and apartheid were the common enemy, the protest movement featured an all-encompassing mobilisation supported by political, civic, student formations and organs of civil society.

Political analysts Dale McKinley and Rhodes University labour expert Prof Lucien van der Walt said the determination in the 1980s to end apartheid and the entire political-economic system propelled mass support across all sectors of the community – supported by the United Democratic Front (UDF).

“With the UDF, civic and community support, the mass mobilisation of the 1980s was more widespread than just wages,” said McKinley.

“Now it is not about the legitimacy of government, but about the labour policies and putt ing pressure on business – a few similarities, but a substantially diff erent era.