Numsa to stick with plan to form a workers party
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim says the working class is about to be squeezed in the ruling party’s internal battle, which is between ‘two centres of capital’
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) will press ahead with the formation of a workers party. The union has no confidence that the ANC’s promises of radical economic transformation will lead to anything more than additional austerity measures. Despite recent rhetoric from the ANC on accelerating economic transformation, the working class was about to be squeezed by an internal battle in the ruling party that was essentially between "two centres of capital", Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said on Monday. Addressing Numsa’s annual national bargaining council in Ekurhuleni, Jim said the union expected tougher wage talks in 2017, and should now begin agitating for policy changes amid consistent failures by the state to protect or grow SA’s industrial capacity. The union was expecting rising interest rates, austerity measures and increasing belligerence from the business sector. Jim said Numsa had had no confidence that promises of "radical economic transformation" would be...
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