When the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) held its first congress this April, it marked a new era for the country’s labor movement.

SAFTU consists of twenty-four affiliated trade unions, which represent around seven hundred thousand members, making it the second largest labor group in South Africa, behind the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Over half of SAFTU’s members come from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). A further sixteen unions who expressed interest in the new federation attended the congress as non-voting delegates.

SAFTU’s founders established it as a socialist-leaning federation that will wage class struggle against South Africa’s capitalist class and increasingly kleptocratic government, ruled by the African National Congress (ANC). At the congress, SAFTU affiliates adopted a draft constitution and elected the first leadership structure, which consists of a president and two deputies, a general secretary and deputy, and a treasurer.