The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) will not be a political party, general secretary Irvin Jim said on Saturday.

"Numsa is and will remain a trade union, inspired by Marxism Leninism. It will not convert itself into a political party," he told delegates at its United Front assembly in Kempton Park, on the East Rand.

He said Numsa saw itself playing a lead role in the formation of the United Front, which was formed last year to resist, fight, and defeat the system of private greed.

"We have, therefore, invited all of you gathered in this important assembly to help shape this important journey we must undertake together."

He said the working class were not the political property of either the ANC or the SA Communist Party (SACP).

"Their [working class] presence in the ANC and SACP is premised on the sole fact that these organisations are able to protect and advance the class interests of the working class."

He said both organisations no longer champion the interests of the working class or socialism.

He said the dream for a new post-1994 South Africa in which all people live with equality was dead.

"Our call for a united front of the working class and a movement for socialism is precisely a defence of the national democratic programme, the Freedom Charter, which remains the only programme that is capable of laying the basis for socialist transformation of South African society," said Jim.