Thami Hukwe :
*PRESS STATEMENT*
*For Immediate Release*
*15 September 2026*
*Issued by: The Socialist Party Of Azania - SOPA*
*SOPA STATEMENT ON THE COSATU CONGRESS: WORKERS NEED STRUGGLE, NOT STAGE-MANAGED UNITY*
*The Socialist Party Of Azania - SOPA* sends revolutionary greetings to all workers and delegates attending the *COSATU Congress*.
COSATU was built in the fires of worker struggle. It was the home of the working class against apartheid and against exploitation. Today we ask: Where is that COSATU?
*SOPA’s Assessment:*
1. *Crisis of Leadership*: COSATU has been reduced to an applause machine for government. While 7 women are being murdered in Ekurhuleni, while retrenchments sweep through factories, while municipalities collapse - COSATU leaders are busy with factional battles and positions in the state.
2. *Betrayal of Workers*: The alliance with the ANC has delivered nothing but poverty, unemployment and precarious work. Workers are told to "wait" while the rich get richer. COSATU must break from the alliance and return to independent working-class politics.
3. *Silence on Femicide and GBVF*: Where is COSATU on the 7 women killed in Ekurhuleni? Where are the mass actions, the pickets, the shutdowns? The working class cannot be free if working-class women are not safe.
4. *Need for a New Workers Movement*: SOPA believes the working class must build fighting unions that are democratic, militant, and independent. Unions that organise the unemployed, the casuals, and the community. Unions that fight for a living wage, housing, and public services.
*SOPA Demands from COSATU:*
1. *Break with the ANC Alliance* and build a workers party based on socialist principles.
2. *National Day of Action* against GBVF and the killings in Ekurhuleni.
3. *Fight retrenchments* and demand job creation through public works and nationalisation of key industries.
4. *Internal democracy* - no more top-down deployment and tenderpreneurs in union leadership.
COSATU must decide: Will it be a union federation for workers, or an NGO for politicians?
The working class is watching. The time for statements is over. The time for struggle is now.
*AMANDLA!
2026-09-16 08:39:14