A South African labour leader has warned his BRICS colleagues against behaving like the “unappointed spokespersons of their governments.”
Trevor Shaku, national spokesperson of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, said during a recent conference organised labour’s participation was reduced to a ten-minute input by a representative handpicked by the Department of Employment and Labour, without consultation with South Africa’s broader labour constituency.
“This did not shock us, however. The shocking development is the attitude of the representatives of the trade union federations, who cloaked themselves in bourgeois nationalism and turned themselves into unappointed spokespersons of their governments. They did not focus on forging alliances between our federations for a common struggle against exploitation, privatisation, and fiscal onslaught. Instead, it was a classic example of ‘customarily jumping at the opportunity to join government delegations to trade deal talks’, echoing narrow bourgeois nationalism, guided by the logic of competition and trade,” Shaku said.
“This attitude is caused by the degeneration in the labour movement, which itself is caused by trade unions being drawn closer to the government through alliances. To avoid these dangers, trade union federations in the BRICS bloc will have to come together on a common programme of struggle against exploitation, privatisation, and fiscal austerity.”
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