In the aftermath of the 2011 historic strike by public sector unions one of the critically important questions that poses itself again and again is the role of trade unions in politics. This question is clearly captured in BOFEPUSU's theme for Workers Day in 2013;'protecting workers rights and unleashing a progressive labour agenda in national politics'. It is further reflected in the December 2012 BLLAHWU (a member of BOFEPUSU) Ramotswa conference theme; 'infusing socialism into working-class agenda'. BOFEPUSU is a federation of public sector unions currently in the process of defining their role in politics and inevitably locked in a bitter conflict with the BDP regime. Public sector and blue collar workers' unions such as manual workers are the most militant. Gone are the days when the ruling class successfully fooled unions into 'leaving politics to the politicians' while pledging to support any government of the day.
The significance of the historic public sector strike cannot be measured solely by whether their demands were met or not. Its impact goes beyond the demand for a 16 percent wage hike which was rejected with bluster and arrogance by the Khama regime. In the famous words of Frederick Engels, strikes are 'the military school of the workingmen in which they prepare themselves for the great struggles which cannot be avoided... and as schools of war, the unions are unexcelled'. Perhaps the single most important outcome of the public sector strike is that it taught workers, not through theories delivered by some revolutionary politicians, but through their own battles with the arrogant but shortsighted Khama regime that salvation can only come about if unions took a clear principled stand on politics.
