"Tina silwela amalungelo wethu" ("We are fighting for our rights" in Zulu) sang more than 10,000 marchers, overwhelmingly African--many of them women, and many of them young--as they toyi-toyied through this capital city. Sections of the disciplined assembly chanted "Ons is gatvol," which loosely translated from Afrikaans means "We are fed up!"

The mood was militant and upbeat as metalworkers, miners, teachers, government employees, food industry workers and others, often with biting humor, expressed determination to find ways to confront growing joblessness. COSATU officials estimate that about half a million jobs have been eliminated since 1994. Official unemployment is now put at about 40 percent.

Leaders of COSATU, whose member unions organize 1.8 million workers, estimated that close to 4 million people joined the protest strike. Large and medium-sized businesses were the most affected. Manufacturing was hardest hit, as 60 percent of workers struck. About half the mines were shut down. Many government offices had only skeleton staffs, and the public schools were empty.

Johannesburg--where COSATU said 150,000 marched, while police put the number at 50,000--was a sea of union T-shirts and banners. Tens of thousands marched in Cape Town. Thousands more took to the streets of East London, Port Elizabeth, Umtata, Nelspruit, Middelburg, Rustenburg, Phalaborwa, Carletonville, Pietersburg, Kimberley, Mafeking, and other towns.  
 
Capitalist economic crisis
South Africa's economy is the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a result of the brutal superexploitation of millions of black workers under the former apartheid system, whose rulers stole Africans' land and cattle and deprived them of all citizenship and basic democratic rights. In addition, South African finance capital siphoned wealth from workers' labor and natural resources in the region, where it has large investments.

The racist state of the white minority was brought to its knees by the struggles of millions of workers, peasants, and revolutionary-minded democrats, led by the African National Congress, in an accelerated way following the 1976 youth rebellion in Soweto. Workers struggles mushroomed in the early 1980s, leading to the formation of COSATU in formal alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party. The class battles that mortally wounded apartheid in the early 1990s opened broad democratic space for discussion and action that capitalists have not been able to close down.

Today South Africa faces the effects of world capitalism's economic crisis. The huge mining houses confront low prices for minerals such as gold. Competition with capitalists abroad has accelerated since the 1994 democratic elections, as other governments have dropped their antiapartheid economic sanctions.

The unequal relations of trade imposed by major imperialist powers--Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo, among others--mean many bosses are not interested in investing in production, and this "emerging market" shudders whenever there is turmoil on world stock and bond exchanges. Since the beginning of this year alone the currency, the rand, has lost 15 percent of its value against the dollar.

Apartheid's warped legacy persists in the countryside, where the great majority of peasants live in extreme poverty and are unable to draw wealth from the land, more than 80 percent of which remains in white hands. As a result, the income of many workers must feed 10 people each.  
 
COSATU demands
This is the context for the main demands put forward by COSATU officials as part of the jobs campaign that culminated in the May 10 strike. The demands are: amend legislation to make layoffs a subject of negotiation between unions and bosses, and to protect workers when companies are liquidated; all privatizations of state-run entities and government layoffs to be subject to negotiation; and slow the pace of import tariff reductions to protect local industries.

COSATU officials elaborated on these demands during the May 10 marches. While many Pretoria protesters expressed support for these demands in interviews, they also went beyond them, indicating that working people are trying to find ways to put their stamp on the direction of politics here.

"I am here to raise the plight of some of our brothers and sisters who are being retrenched [laid off]," said Wilhemina Matabane from Mabopane, who works at the Noordelike Beton Produkte construction company in Pretoria and is a member of the Construction and Allied Workers Union.

"At the plant we are fighting to keep our jobs, and for equal pay for equal work. There are 19 men and one woman there, and workers have elected me as shop steward," she said.

Thembile Khumalo from Klerksdorp, a member of the Communications Workers Union at the telephone utility Telkom, said the march would "raise our voice against retrenchments. The government has promised transformation and job creation since 1994. Our experience has been joblessness, and this I believe is caused by the Labor Relations Act, which makes retrenchments an item for consultation and not negotiations."

Telkom, 70 percent owned by the government and 30 percent by companies based in the United States and Malaysia, has laid off close to 10,000 workers in the past year as part of its "downsizing" plan, he said.

"There are lots of reasons why I am participating in the march today," said Peter Sedibane, a diamond miner for 22 years at the De Beers Cullinan mine, where he is a member of the National Union of Mineworkers. "In the mines jobs are being lost and there is increased contract [temporary] labor. There is a lot of work but bosses don't want to hire more people. I take home R1,500 [US$215] a month. There is no upward mobility and the bosses do not recognize the experience I have. We have been marching several times and I am not sure if our demands are being addressed."  
 
Immigrant workers
Outside the trade and industry department, where a memorandum outlining union demands was presented to a government representative, a COSATU official led marchers in a chant against products imported from China. Many workers support the view advanced by union officials that imports are part of the problem.

"Buy South African products," said Gladys McDoolley, a worker at a Pick 'n Pay grocery store and member of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union. "There are lots of foreigners in our country. They do nothing for us and take our jobs." McDoolley also said she and her co-workers were fighting racist treatment from the store's bosses, most of whom are white.

"We mustn't blame immigrants," said Gertrude Tshimang from Soshanguve, a machine operator at state-run arms manufacturer Denel and a member of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. "They are also people. If you shut them out, and problems come to South Africa, who's going to help us? Where are we going to run to? We must think of each other."

Tshimang proudly noted that "98 percent of us [Denel workers] are here today. We came in large numbers and Denel is shut down. By our being in the streets we are making a victory for ourselves. Marching is the only way the government is going to hear us. We need job creation. And we need action on AIDS, which is killing our people--and we really mean it. The government must hear it. This is our only weapon."

"We blame big business for job losses and retrenchments," said Maurice Makatu, a member of the Transport and General Workers Union and bus company clerk from Mabopane. In response to the chorus of criticism of the strike from the press, the employers, and the government that workers' actions would scare off investment, he said: "No, no, no. That is not the way. Business is scaring away investment. They are taking their businesses outside the country. We are doing our part today. The government and businesses have to see that jobs are created."

Like many other workers, Makatu said, "The ANC government has done a tremendous job. You must remember that our democracy is still a baby. The ANC has come with changes that benefited most workers and the community at large. And people have benefited from COSATU's actions, even unorganized workers." On the question of immigrant workers, he emphasized, "We don't have to blame people from outside the country for joblessness. We blame the bosses here."  
 
Government officials criticize walkout
The strike drew criticism from some ANC government officials. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel opposed the unions' efforts. "Workers can go on a general strike against the government day after day and you're not going to create jobs," he said.

Days before the walkout, the government's chief spokesperson, Joel Netshitenzhe, was quoted in the Sunday Independent calling workers' actions an "unnecessary sideshow" in a bigger battle to transform the economy.

It was Education Minister Kader Asmal, in particular, who provoked strikers' anger. "If COSATU will not exempt teachers from taking part in strikes, then we appeal to teachers" not to participate, he said. "This appeal is made in the context of poor school and learner performance."

The minister also made a big show of his threat that teachers who did not show up for work would be docked a day's pay.

In a clear response to Asmal's threats, members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) shut down the public school system.

A teacher from Ekangala, who asked not to be named, said, "Asmal should come down to the people. We put him there!"

The ANC outside of government, however, endorsed the strike. "We as the ANC want to commend you for having taken to the streets to highlight retrenchments, unemployment, and poverty," the party's secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe, told 40,000 workers at a May Day rally in Johannesburg. "No trade union movement, no revolutionary movement can hope to achieve its objectives in the board room, but only through mass mobilization."

He remarked, "If we postpone our struggle, in 20 years we will find ourselves in the position of ZANU-PF," Zimbabwe's ruling party. The leadership of that party, which led the struggle to overturn white minority rule in that country, has been carrying out pro-capitalist policies that go against the aspirations of working people there for advances in income, living conditions, and rights.

Kevin Wakeford, head of the South African Chamber of Business, which bemoaned the strike, rushed to reassure his class brethren abroad. "Today's strike is certainly not a typical day in the economic life of South Africa, and we trust that international markets will interpret it as such," he said.

COSATU president Willie Madisha warned that the strike did not mark the end of the federation's jobs campaign. He said employers had six days to respond or face more protests.  
 
 
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