The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU or Cosatu) is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions. History Founding and early history On 30 Nov 1985, 33 unions met at the University of Natal for talks on forming a federation of trade unions. This followed four years of unity talks between competing unions and federations that were opposed to apartheid and were "committed to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa." COSATU was officially established on 1 December 1985. Among the founding unions were the affiliates of the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), the small National Federation of Workers, and some independent unions, notably the National Union of Mineworkers. Elijah Barayi was the organisation's first president and Jay Naidoo the first general secretary. Several resolutions were passed at this first meeting that defined the aim of the federation and how the federation operates, namely: To establish one union for each industry within six months. To focus on the exploitation of women workers. To call for the lifting of the state of emergency, withdrawal of troops from the townships and release of all political prisoners. To continue the call for international pressure, including disinvestment. To demand for the right to strike and picket. To determine a national minimum wage. To extend the struggle for trade union rights in the homelands. On 5–6 May 1987 a strike as part of COSATU's Living Wage Campaign was held coinciding with 1987 General Election. More than 2.5 million workers took part in the stay-away. On 7 May 1987, in the early hours of the morning two bombs exploded near the support columns in the basement of the federation headquarters, COSATU House. The resulting damage caused the building to be declared unsafe. Fight against Apartheid At the second national congress held from 14 to 18 July 1987, the Freedom Charter was adopted by the federation after the resolution was proposed by the National Union of Mineworkers At the third congress held from 12 to 16 July 1989, a resolution was adopted that called on the members of COSATU to join a campaign of "sustained action" against apartheid, in the week leading up to the 1989 General Election of South Africa. On 26 July 1989, COSATU, the United Democratic Front and the