Cosatu turns 40: Struggling for ideological integrity in a changing landscape

As Cosatu turns 40, the upcoming congress could either be a moment of revival or a final capitulation to the political elite.

Having celebrated its 40th year of existence last year, it is fair to assume not only that the Congress of the South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has now come of age but also that it has reached a mature stage.

However, just like in nature and in the evolution of capitalism, inherent in the stage of maturation is the dialectic of moribundness. A moribund thing or organism is characterised by a terminal state of degeneration in which there is a fatal struggle between the hitherto vibrant essence which is now increasingly succumbing to the virulent outgrowth of its pseudo self. Indeed, based on the recent developments in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, more so after COSATU’s 14th National Congress in 2022, the inherited practice of organisational and class independence that was historically forged as part of the assimilation of the proletarian ideology of Marxism-Leninism within the federation has now been substituted by ideological subordination and political servitude.

Regrettably, this signifies the fact that for some time the conjunctural atmosphere of the suffocating Neoliberalism has been definitively disruptive of the inter-generational transmission of Marxism-Leninism within COSATU. This has created ideological lacuna and strategic confusion as the fledgeling cadres assuming the leadership responsibility that is heavily loaded with expectations of sustaining its revolutionary ideological traditions that require broader shoulders, whilst providing guidance on the strategic tasks facing this workers’ movement in the pursuit of class struggle.

Unfortunately, ahead of the 15th National Congress that is taking place this month, it is increasingly becoming manifest that the federation is degenerating to the bottom of the historical arch of its existence in which from its founding there was the rise of radical proletarian ideology and militant agency, which was followed by an interlude whilst COSATU still remaining unmistakably identifiable with an unwavering commitment to Marxism-Leninism as an ideological outlook and the long-term struggle for socialism.

Regrettably, those glorious and heady years of the popular assimilation of Marxism-Leninism which forged the political traditions of class-orientation, shop-floor militancy and worker control are fading behind us, as the current top hierarchy of the federation has abandoned class independence. We now have ideologically dodgy leadership occupying the centre and that is also typically dominant in some affiliates - seeking to subordinate this workers’ movement to the same elite political stratum that has turned the African National Congress (ANC) into a party of Neoliberalism.