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Class, Contradictions and Intersections: the Emergence of Organic Workerism in South African Public Sector Unions?

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Class, Contradictions and Intersections: the Emergence of Organic Workerism in South African Public Sector Unions? Class, Contradictions and Intersections: The Emergence of Organic Workerism in South African Public Sector Unions? Christine Bischoff A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology) in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria Prepared under the supervision of Professor Andries Bezuidenhout July 2020 DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own work and has not previously, in its entirety or in part, been submitted at any university for a degree. The copyright of this output rests with the author. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Christine Bischoff July 2020 i ETHICS STATEMENT The author, whose name appears on the title page of this thesis, has obtained, for the research described in this work, the applicable research ethics approval. The author declares that she has observed the ethical standards required in terms of the University of Pretoria’s Code of Ethics for researchers and the policy guidelines for responsible research. ii DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the thesis Class, Contradictions and Intersections: The Emergence of Organic Workerism in South African Public Sector Unions? has been through the required language edit by a professional editor. For the purpose of electronic submission, this version was released; the final version was made available for the printing process. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Jacqueline Kraamwinkel 7 August 2020 iii SYNOPSIS OF THE RESEARCH The national project of the African National Congress (ANC), the National Democratic Revolution (NDR), guides the post-apartheid state’s work to develop a new African middle class through policies such as Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). A substantial portion of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) public sector trade union members have been the beneficiaries of this project. COSATU is considered as a working-class organisation with a commitment to socialist politics, whereas the ANC is seen as a party that has emerged out of multi-class interests, dominated by the politics of nationalism. The underlying assumption is that much of the conflict between COSATU and the ANC is connected only to class politics. In the post-apartheid era, the ANC’s nationalism has been re- conceptualised and a shift to Africanism as the ANC’s hegemonic non-racialism nationalism has occurred. This has acquired momentum both inside and outside the ranks of the ANC and its allies, including COSATU. As a result, questions about COSATU’s political traditions and its membership composition have emerged. To address this, this study’s contribution is that there are signs of a new worker identity, organic workerism, emerging among the membership of the Democratic Nursing Association of South Africa (DENOSA) and, to a lesser extent, among the membership of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU); both being public sector affiliates of COSATU in the province of Gauteng. The ANC’s ideology was hegemonic through the NDR in COSATU, but as it endeavoured to manage too many contradictions, it has now run its course in post-apartheid South Africa. What is striking about organic workerism is that it is challenging the hegemonic ANC’s NDR within COSATU. The identification of organic workerism emerged through an interrogation of a selection of COSATU’s public sector trade union members’ class location, guided by the notion of contradictory class location, their racial identities and subjectivities, and intersections with their gendered identities and subjectivities. This study concludes that COSATU and its public sector trade unions are far more complex and contested in terms of their political traditions and in terms of their membership in post-apartheid South Africa. Key terms: National Democratic Revolution, Africanism, nationalism, socialism, middle class, organic workerism, public sector, trade unions, contradictory class location, intersections, post- apartheid South Africa. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to my supervisor, Professor Andries Bezuidenhout, for your guidance and support throughout the process. To my husband and children – thank you for your patience, encouragement and love. Thank you to the Staff Bursary Fund, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the financial support received. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.......................................................................................................................................... i ETHICS STATEMENT ............................................................................................................................. ii DECLARATION........................................................................................................................................ iii SYNOPSIS OF THE RESEARCH ........................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... xi FIGURES IN THE THESIS .................................................................................................................... xii LIST OF ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1: Introducing the research and thesis ....................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Key contributions made.............................................................................................................. 8 1.3 Research questions .................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Rationale .................................................................................................................................... 12 1.5 Outline of remaining chapters ................................................................................................. 17 Chapter 2: Class and class location, race, gender and intersections .................................................... 21 2.1 Sociological theories of class theories, the neo-Weberian and neo-Marxist traditions of the middle class and the African middle class(es) before and after 1994 ............................................... 21 2.1.1 The sociological theories of class ....................................................................................... 22 2.1.2 The neo-Weberian tradition of the middle class ................................................................. 23 2.1.3 The neo-Marxist tradition of middle class .......................................................................... 23 2.1.4 African middle class(es) in South Africa before 1994, class analysis and the historic tradition of the neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian approaches .............................................................. 24 2.1.5 The African middle class(es) in post-apartheid South Africa ............................................. 27 2.2 Skills, professions and Wright’s theory of classes, the middle class and contradictory class location and the application of the contradictory class location to the middle class in South Africa and elsewhere ........................................................................................................................................ 29 2.2.1 Occupation, skill, the professions and proletarianisation .................................................... 29 2.2.2 Wright’s analysis of classes ................................................................................................... 32 2.2.3 Wright’s analysis of the middle class .................................................................................... 32 2.2.4 Wright’s theory of contradictory class locations ................................................................... 33 vi 2.2.5 The critiques of Wright’s theory of contradictory class locations ...................................... 37 2.2.6 The application of Wright’s (1978, 1985) theory of contradictory class locations by others to teachers and nurses and to other middle strata .............................................................................. 40 2.3 Identity, race, class and intersectionality ................................................................................ 44 2.3.1 Identity ............................................................................................................................... 45 2.3.2 Intersectionality ......................................................................................................................... 48 2.4 Conceptual framework ............................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 3: Trade unions, nationalism and national liberation ............................................................ 59 3.1 The historical relations between trade unions and national liberation in Africa ................ 59 3.2 The history of nationalism and trade unions in South Africa and nationalism and trade
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