the release of those imprisoned by the in locate the Lists.
years ago in at the most. around worker withstanding the militancy students. communities 200,000 renewed in Johanthe bigthe call for a the SSRC was not turn There the original formed the police. It strikes.
struggle today are the broad circumstances we as the independent political environment and explain pressures under which relatively new union movement exIn understanding the significance of COSATU it is worth recalling that 10 1976 the total paid-up membership in the newly formed in dependent unions was probably 20,000 By 1979 it was probably COSATU alone there are now 600,000 fully paid-up members located in every industrial concentration in South Africa.
But for all the strength that we have at present, for all the experience of our leadership and more broadly the working class, COSATU still is a relatively new organisation, this notfact that COSATU carries with it all the traditions of resistance worker organisations that have come before it.
The tasks that face us are enormous. Millions of workers have to be organised. Many workers disorganised by years of bureaucratic unionism are The organisation is still being more effectively rooted and consolidated at local, regional, and national levels.
So although we believe that we have something to say, we also know that we are learning. We are learning from militant sectors of our people - such as the we are learning from those which alsciplinea grassrools structurcs, alc we are learning from the unity in action with other progressive forces.
The uprising of 1976-77, showed the same features that were to develop on a the enormous struggles of 1984-86. The movement started with mass demonstrations and attempts to crush them by the developed through mass Democratically elected organisation began to appear in the the Soweto Students
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trade unions, and COSATU in par- ticular, operate. I will attempt to COSATU in the present