Between civil Society and the state: the political trajectories of South Africa's independent trade union movement from 1970-1993.
Date
1994
Authors
Lieres, Bettina von
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Abstract
This thesis examines the political trajectories of the Independent union movement from 1970-1993. It
argues that the political strategies adopted by tbe unions' leadership reflected significant difterences
with regard to the political contest over the democratic form of South African society. The political
ideology of the unions' leadership was made up of two contrasting 'logics' of political struggle. The
one, which we characterise as "simple polarisation", viewed the objective of the unions' struggles
primarily in terms of a competition for political dominance which involved a simple dichotomy
between the apartheid state and a unified opposition movement. In this view the opposition was
conceived of as a homogenous, collective subject, unified in its common assault on the state.
Underlying this logic of opposition was a denial of specific and different identities and interests and
democracy was seen to be directly associated with the destiny of one distinct social actor. The logic
of "simple polarisation" was dominant within the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) throughout the 1980's. It was nourished primarily by COSATU's close relationship with
the charterist section of the wider opposition movement
There existed within the unions a second political tradition which emphasised a logic of
"institutionalised pluralism". This current viewed the organisation of opposition primarily in
institutional terms. It emphasised the building of union independence outside the aegis of the wider
opposltlon movement. Underlying this tradition was a pluralist conception of democracy, Associated
with the early Federation of South African Trade Unions legacy of institutional independence, this
logic reared its head within COSATU towards the late 1980's when the federation entered a series of
corporatist arrangements with employers and the state. Although there seems to be evidence that
there existed (at least some) support within the ranks of FOSATU of a form of workers' control
more easily reconellable with an anti-pluralist than pluralist conception of democracy, the nature of
FOSATU was such, that. when sufficiently pressed on the issue of which logic of democracy - "simple polarisation" or "institutionalised pluralism"
- it endorsed, the latter would have been
selected over the former.
Description
Thesis submitted to the faculty of arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of arts.
Keywords
Cosatu -- South Africa., Federation of South African Trade Unions., Labor unions -- South Africa., South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1961-1978., South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1978-1994.