Irvin Jim

Irvin Jim was born in1968 in the Eastern Cape in Motherwell. He became a university student, active in the anti-apartheid movement but poverty forced him to abandon his education to work in a Port Elizabeth tyre factory. He worked there to earn money and he joined the National Union of metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). In 1991, on his second day at work, his fellow Firestone Tyres colleagues nominated him as their union representative. And he turned down the nomination that day but within 3 months he had the role of shop Steward and for 2 years he was working full-time for the union. He was  a true Marxist who believed that the history of all existing societies is the history of all class struggles. Jim's militancy and passion for worker's rights were shaped by his difficult childhood on farms in the Eastern Cape. And this was due to their history in the farms where they used to stay. His father did not receive financial compensation, but he was paid with bags of mealie meals and milk. They eventually left the farms to live in Port Elizabeth, where they finally lived in a proper house.  Jim married Lucia Guo, and they had 3 children.

In 1994, Jim was appointed as the regional chair for the Eastern Cape, then in 2000, he became its regional secretary. He was at that time the youngest member of the NUMSA central committee and remained in the regional leadership until his election to his position as General Secretary. Jim also held a position in the South African Communist party and the African National Congress. He is now the Secretary of the Socialist Revolutionary worker’s party. In 2008, Jim was elected as the General Secretary of NUMSA. He is regarded as the biggest critic of the ruling ANC party which he accuses of failing to implement the 1955 Freedom Charter and sees it as the reason for Xenophobic violence in South Africa. Jim was the spokesperson for NUMSA when it was expelled from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in November 2014. In 2015 he toured the United States speaking to The Service Employees International Union in New York and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. In his speech, he stated that NUMSA is a Marxist-Leninist union whose goal is to create a Socialist Republic of South Africa. He also accused the leaders of the ANC of betraying the South African revolution. Jim ousted Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU’s General Secretary in a campaign against political corruption in South Africa.

Jim is currently serving his third term as General Secretary, having been re-elected to serve the militant metalworkers in December 2016 elective congress, following his first election in October 2008 and re-election in June 2012. Now, he is one of South Africa’s most Senior and prominent trade unionists.