Social Movement Unionism since the Fall of Apartheid: the Case of NUMSA on the East Rand

Abstract

The role that COSATU now plays in the post-apartheid political dispensation is changing. The systemic political and legislative reforms ushered in by the ANC in the 1990s were designed not to usher in a socialist society, but a deracialised and stable capitalism. The essential conditions of labour subordination therefore remain, only now overlain at a national level with a social democratic political structure with a black complexion. This structure has taken the form of a corporatist political arrangement centred on the Tripartite Alliance and NEDLAC. Tripartism has yielded the unions certain historical gains, including the passage of relatively progressive labour relations legislation. As a result of this legislation, trade unions have now achieved what Gramsci (1919) called 'industrial legality', whereby the restrictions on managerial arbitrariness mark a historical advance for trade unions. In many respects, therefore, the institutionalisation of unions that occurred in the 1990s is a significant gain for the black workers of South Africa who were denied any role in the old political order. The question that is tackled in this chapter is whether these gains have come at the price of neutering much of the dynamism that made the federation such an explosive force for change in the 1980s. Specifically, can COSATU and its affiliates continue to be regarded as a model of social movement unionism (SMU), which comprises the following elements: mass mobilisation of members; internal democracy; broad social objectives; alliances with progressive social movements; functional independence from political parties; and recognition of diverse membership? Or, have the processes of bureaucratisation and routinisation evident in most Western unions after their initial explosive growth period now become dominant?