Lucas Ledwaba
There is little doubt Irvin Jim will fill a significant gap in Parliament post elections. The gap toothed one, who led a breakaway from labour movement Cosatu plays in a space left vacant by the once powerful federation’s decline.
Cosatu has since the end of the Nelson Mandela honeymoon era found itself immersed more in the politics of the tripartite alliance than at dealing with issues affecting its core membership, labour.
Jim and his comrades at Numsa found themselves trapped in this dilemma where they had to choose between serving the factional interests of politicians and become a pawn in a game of a ruling party at war with itself.
The formation of the Socialist Workers Party, led of course by Jim is probably one of the most significant developments in the country’s political discourse. And even if the ANC and Cosatu could claim not to have felt its sting, truth is this is likely to remain one of the most significant breakaways from the ANC, even greater than that of the PAC of Azania in 1959.
Jim is a product of labour politics and workers’s struggle. If you are looking for someone with a strong base and content, then he’s the man. If you are looking for a politician that understands the issues of class struggle and challenges faced by workers on the factory floor, then Jim is the man.
He understands also the failures of the ANC tripartite alliance and its descent into a pro capitalist, anti-poor and anti-worker movement driven by the desire for profit and gathering of material wealth. But will he find it easy to sell socialism to a country so used to the trappings of capitalism? Numsa the union has the numbers. But will its membership find it easy to shed the sentimental attachment to the ANC to which they have been attached for so long?
