To pose questions about the conditions of labour under South African democracy is to question the success of the ANC's national project itself. As the liberation party embraced a liberalised economic system, it turned away from the more radical restructuring and...
worker
The State of Labour: 20 Years Later
To pose questions about the conditions of labour under South African democracy is to question the success of the ANC's national project itself. As the liberation party embraced a liberalised economic system, it turned away from the more radical restructuring and...
20 years of democracy: not yet Uhuru
As we mark 20 years since the end of apartheid and the advent of democracy, there is a deep rupturing of the post-apartheid social consensus in the face of intensifying class struggle. The signals for its end are the Marikana massacre, the great mineworkers' strike...
A new Cosatu a new future?
The probable expulsion of Numsa from Cosatu marks the beginning of a profound re-organisation and possible renewal of the workers' movement. The most likely outcome will be the emergence of a new federation organised around Numsa, along with the eight other unions...
From Durban to Marikana: A new trajectory of the worker’s movement
In January 1973 dockworkers in Durban embarked on a wave of wildcat strikes against low wages, in total some 61000 workers took part in these strikes. The Durban moment not only smashed the industrial relations framework that had been established after black trade...
Numsa and the crisis in the Cosatu: What now?
by Benjamin Fogel During the 1980s the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) was the figurehead of the so-called 'workerist' tendency within the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and has always been on the left in Cosatu. Although Numsa...
Responses
Sakhela Buhlungu: It has taken more than 20 years for the dominant current of South Africa's labour movement to begin to emerge from stasis resulting from its embeddedness within the ruling political block led by the African National Congress. The massacre of...
Is Bureaucracy killing COSATU?
Bureaucracy is defined as management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures. The abuse of power by officials is a very old phenomenon in the labour movement worldwide. Bureaucratisation is seen in this article...
Commemorating Marikana: The Spirit of Mambush Lives on
Luke Sinwell and Siphiwe Mbatha On 16 August 2013, exactly one year after the Marikana Massacre, 20,000 workers peacefully commemorated that fateful day. Church leaders, political parties, progressives and the workers themselves addressed the crowd – including...
