NEHAWU STATEMENT On International Worker's Day

01 May 2024

Tuesday April 30, 2024

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] conveys its militant salute to workers across the World on the occasion of International Workers’ Day.

As NEHAWU, we pay homage and honour the great struggle of workers in Chicago in May 1886, who fought and achieved the establishment of the 8-hour working day.

We join our militant, class-orientated international federation of trade unions, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and its sectoral Trade Union International of Public Service and Allied (TUI PS&A) in saluting all workers of the world who continues to wage a relentless struggle against the barbaric and exploitative system of capitalism. Hence, we join this world clarion call: “Against their Profit, We Rise Up for Our Lives”.

Indeed, the WFTU slogan for this year's International Workers’ Day is a clarion call to galvanise workers in order to venture into a real revolution against capitalist exploitation, all in the name of profit maximisation. Workers have endured misery and suffocation as a result of this barbaric and inhuman system of capitalism.

There is no doubt that the world is currently confronted by complex and difficult challenges that affirms the inability of capitalism to respond to the same crisis it perpetually creates. The complete failure of the barbaric global capitalist system has caused unprecedented destruction to the livelihoods of millions of the working class with extreme poverty, inequality, unemployment and misery for the working-class. The system has been unable to respond to workers’ contemporary needs, against the exploitation!

Workers all over the world are therefore encouraged to intensify the working class struggle to end of all forms of exploitation, privatisation and unbearable working conditions.

The class oriented trade union movement, through the ranks of the World Federation of Trade Unions, must continue and intensify the struggles of the working-class. Workers must rise up against the ongoing attack against collective bargaining and trade union rights, and the attack on the historic gains of workers taking place in the name of profits.

In our domestic context, there is a concerning further deepening of the already crisis levels of unemployment, poverty and inequalities in our country. The working-class bears the worst brunt of the crisis of social reproduction. The root of the crisis confronting our country is amongst others the implementation of neoliberal policies centred on austerity measures and the stagnant and monopoly-dominated structure of our economy, which has reproduced the inequalities.

As NEHAWU, we recognise the challenges that confront workers which amongst others include; jobless, retrenchments, and victimisation at the workplace, budget cuts, wage freezes, unemployment, inequality and poverty. As such, this requires more than ever before that as workers, we stand united and wage a serious struggle.

Our message for this year’s International Workers’ Day is along the WFTU line of march in that workers must rise up, unite and intensify the struggles of the working class and poor for the protection of their historic gains, jobs, social security, housing, water, sanitation, basic income grant and the general service delivery struggles.

As an affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), as NEHAWU, we will be joining in numbers all May Day rallies organised by the federation across the country inspired by the call to build a strong united and fighting COSATU committed to intensify its campaigns against austerity measures, against privatisation of the state and its apparatus, for the introduction of a universal basic income grant and for full implementation of the national health insurance awaiting for the President’s signature.

Lastly, on the occasion of the International Workers’ Day, we say categorically that “Against their Profit, We Rise Up for Our Lives! The system of capitalism prioritises profits over people at the expense of the working class and the poor. We call on all South African workers to join these celebrations born-out of their sweat, toil and sacrifices made in their struggle for workers’ rights and dignity as well as for the liberation of all South Africans from the apartheid system.

END

Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat

NEHAWU and COSATU Deployments

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