Rethinking the Labour Movement in the New South Africa: (Making of Modern Africa)

The socio-economic system underpinning apartheid in South Africa was based on the exploitation of black workers in the mines, the factories, the fields and the shops. It is widely recognized that the struggles of the South African black working class contributed decisively to the overthrow of the racist regime. In recognition of the power of organized labour, the democratic government elected in 1994 granted South Africa's unions unprecedented legal and constitutional rights. However, despite these gains, the country's labour movement has been facing a fresh set of challenges, from macroeconomic policy to the factory floor, many of them emanating from labour's political allies in government. The purpose of this book is to examine how the South African labour movement is responding to these challenges. A variety of experts on South African labour, both within the country and outside, deal with crucial issues - how has South Africa's labour movement reacted to the ANC government's neoliberal economic agenda? How do the unions relate to an increasingly diversifying, "flexible" and vulnerable workforce? What are labour's prospects of contributing to a left project in democratic South Africa? And what are the challenges facing the unions in relation to new forms of militancy and social movements?

Table of Contents:
Part 1 The politics of trade unionism in the "New South Africa": neoliberal corporatism - origins and implications for South Africa, Lesley Catchpowle, Christine Cooper; the road to the right - COSATU economic policy in the post-apartheid period, Oupa Lehulere; COSATU and the Tripartite Alliance since 1994, Dale McKinley; union and privatization in South Africa, 1990-2001, Maria van Driel; black empowerment - a tripartite engagement with capitalism, Georgina Murray; ideology and the making of a workers' movement, from Sharpeville to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Andrew Nash. Part 2 Organizing in the shadow of flexibility: social citizenship, the decline of waged labour and changing worker strategies, Franco Barchiesi; dealing with "this thing called gender" - democracy, power and gender relations in trade unions, Liesl Orr; in search of greener pastures - trade unionism in the agricultural sector, Gilton Klerck, Lalitha Naidoo; labour market flexibility in the retail sector - possibilities for resistance, Bridget Kenny. Part 3 Organizing under new rules - the impact of the new labour relations regime: social movement unionism since the fall of apartheid - the case of NUMSA on the East Rand, Tom Bramble; pressing challenges in the South African labour movement - an interview with John Appolis and Dinga Sikwebu.