You might recall that some of the people involved in the Chatsworth struggle are veterans of 1970s union struggles who were sacked and never worked again....
For me VW spelt the final demise of what was once the most militant
> and "progressive" union in the country. And how we characterise the Cosatu
> federation given its ongoing role as policeman of the labour movement on
> behalf of capital remains an open question. Far too many people here seem to
> be living in the past and refuse to recognise that the unions have become
> little more than empty shells and Cosatu something even worse.
Yes - this is certainly a fact (of course not just in South Africa). Certainly it is time to get beyond the old formula of 'betrayal by union leaders' - I'm not sure where to in the South African context, that would require a more detailed analysis of COSATU's trajectory that I'm up to right now.
Most senior
> bureaucrats spend their time in permanent bipartite bargaining structures
> and seldom get to meet their members - unless of course there's a fire to
> put out. Unfortunately without some sort of real political alternative
> developing there's probably little that can be done to turn the old unions
> into fora for workplace struggle. Unless of course we see the resurgence of
> syndicalist outfits which replicate some of what we saw in the 70s and 80s
> (SAAWU etc). I think it would however be a mistake to look for old forms
> repeating themselves.
Agreed - no point looking back to the lost days of 'workerism'. Although there is much to be gained in making horizontal links between unionists, and there are still fights to be fought within the union structures, I think it is vital at this point to see the South African working class outside the unions and outside the workplace.
I find Harry Cleaver's autonomist inspired discussion of 'money as command' quite useful, in that it allows one to see money and its flows not as a 'quality of life' issues (the rich fat cats vs. the starving workers) but primarily as a control issue. I've said this often on e-debate, but the fact that workers are being thrown out of workplaces, and the common misery imposed by cut-offs and evictions makes the townships a natural place for money-as-command, and thus the struggle against that, to raise its head. Events are constantly re-emphasising the way that working class experience in South Africa is not just poverty, but the constant expropriation of the working class. E.g. in Manenberg, Cape Town, when a hurricane destroyed some council flats which *were already paid for by rent* they were re-built and then sold as private homes.
Truly a case of 'delivery from below, resistance from above' to borrow Franco Barchiesi's phrase. I'm reminded of Cleaver's 'The uses of an earthquake': http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/9061/mexico/earthquakemex.html
From this point of view, the continued crime hysteria in South Africa is not just about protecting well-off suburbs, but it is also about fighting any chance of the SA w-c to self-appropriate the means of its own subsistence. I've certainly noticed a thread running through this discourse which focusses on the 'parastic' informal society of the townships and the poors, contrasted with the 'productive' society of taxpayers and ratepayers. Frequent 'policing' actions which criminalise poverty - e.g. through criminalising having a shopping trolley to carry around scrap in - flow smoothly from this discourse.
So - much needs to be (and I think can be) done in terms of 'community struggle' (not just in the townships) to stop this expropriation of the poor by the state. This might form a basis for a resurgence of workplace struggle, rather than the other way round.
I don't know if this has any relevance to other countries...
>
> Ironical that this kind of stuff is so seldom discussed in SA.
Not much is discussed often in SA, in my experience. :) And many 'left' discussions are firmly tied to the unions as 'the place to be' (e.g. the Trade Union Library discussions in Cape Town and apparently the Workers Library discussions in Jo'burg). Little space exists for a discussion both outside the union structures and the various left 'Parties'.
Not quite sure how to go about changing that, though...
Peter -- Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844 OpenPGP: 1024D/0517502B : DE5B 6EAA 28AC 57F7 58EF 9295 6A26 6A92 0517 502B -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 230 bytes Desc: not available URL: <../attachments/20010117/ef3936d3/attachment.sig>