Congress adopted these resolutions to guide the Union over the next four years

Political

Congress reaffirmed the Union ‘s standing resolutions.

It wants the alliance partners to consult before there is any policy change. Any differences within the alliance must be debated openly.

Numsa must swell the ranks of the ANC and build a strong SACP .

The standing resolution on the Conference of the Left must be implemented as well as more political education for workers on the importance of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) and socialism.

Numsa will support the ANC in the 2005/6 local government elections.

In the run up to these elections, Cosatu must ensure that the masses are directly involved in drawing up the election manifesto. The ANC must prioritise the reconstruction of the townships. It must run campaigns for free basic services for the very poor, check on the performance of outsourced and privatised utilities (eg water supply) and assist weak municipalities.

Numsa should push Cosatu to take up a campaign on education and land.

The education campaign would demand quality education and equality of resources across all government schools. At tertiary level, the first degree or diploma must be free.

Land redistribution must be fast-tracked.

The Union to develop a strategy to unite and recruit workers of all colours into Numsa.

Socio-economic

Numsa reaffirms its opposition to GEAR and calls for Cosatu to develop an alternative to GEAR that will:

“¢ support the Buy South Africa campaign to stimulate local demand for locally produced goods and better jobs

“¢ protect local firms from cheap imports

“¢ invest in capital intensive industries to boost the level of local demand

“¢ regulate the price of locally produced raw materials and commodities

“¢ promote redistributive economic growth not jobless growth

“¢ create sustainable jobs and drastically reduces poverty

“¢ force government to invest more in social and physical infrastructure like transport infrastructure, electricity and telecommunications.

The Union welcomes government efforts to increase spending on social infrastructure, social grants and wants to see this upward trend growing significantly in areas such as housing, education, health and welfare.

Numsa also wants government to set developmental targets that will stimulate economic growth and eradicate poverty.

Government must implement the Growth and Development Summit (GDS) resolutions. Numsa will develop a GDS implementation plan around all areas that affect it.

The Union continues to be opposed to any form of privatisation at national, provincial and local level.

In line with the concept of “Batho Pele”, Numsa should deploy tested cadres with specialised training into public institutions to enhance transformation.

Organisational

Congress commits the Union to consistently drive to renew the organisation and continue with its renewal projects already on the go.

It is committed to stamp out white collar crime and corruption and promote good governance of the organisation.

In doing so it needs to improve on membership subscriptions income by involving shopstewards more and monitoring subscription collections better.

It must improve training and education of its shop stewards and staff in line with the Cosatu 2015 plan.

Unity of metalworkers is a priority and Numsa should initiate talks with other metal unions and unorganised metalworkers.

Cosatu’s 2015 plan, the SACP’s mid-term vision and Cosatu’s 2002 local summit declaration will further guide Numsa’s organisational work.

Once again Numsa will ask its Numsa News readers what they want from its publications and continue to develop and accredit writers.