[ONLINE ONLY] Lucien van der Walt, 2009, “Saving Jobs in South Africa in the Crunch: ‘engage’ or revolt? Learning from workers in Korea and France”
January 19, 2013 Leave a comment
This article first appeared at the international anarchist-communist, platformist and especifista news and discussion website anarkismo.net in April 2009, right here. The financial crisis was kicking in hard, neo-liberal restructuring was accelerating, and and the question was being sharply posed: how should the unions, and the working class more generally, respond? The orthodox approach in South Africa, as in many other semi-industrial regions, has been to try and influence the state to adopt neo-Keynesian reforms.
This article – partly inspired by my engagements with the proponents of this social democratic approach – suggests such reforms cannot work in the current phase of capitalism, and that, in addition, corproratist engagement cripples trade unions (this is far worse where the unions are also allied to political parties like the ANC, the PT, the Democrats and the like). It suggest instead a strategy of direct action, self-management and occupations, in the mode of anarcho-syndicalism, rather than social democracy.
Saving Jobs in South Africa in the Crunch: ‘Engage’ or Revolt? Learning from workers in Korea and France
Lucien van der Walt, 20 April 2009, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/12781
One of the great weaknesses of SA unions – or at least their leaders – is the notion that unions should actively aim at restructuring the economy through policy engagement. This idea is often labelled ‘strategic unionism’ or ‘radical reform’, and centres on a politics of cooperating with capital and the state to effectively restructure “South African” industry for global competition. This is summed up in the phrase that “business is too important to leave to management”.
The same idea – the so-called “progressive competitive alternative” – rests on the belief that there is a working-class-friendly “high road” to the global economy (in contrast with the low-wage-high repression “low road” of China et al, the idea here is workers via unions can suggest ways to restructure that will lead to high wages, job security and co-determination). It can be seen in the abortive (union-initiated) Reconstruction and Development Programme of the early 1990s, the unions’ follow-up, “Social Equity and Job Creation”, in the more recent “Sector Job Summits” process, and the recent presidential meetings on the global crisis. It is at the heart of COSATU’s deep commitment to – indeed, entanglement in – NEDLAC and other corporatist structures. Read more of this post