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Amandla. Ngawethu? the Trade Union Movement in South Amandla. Ngawethu? Liv Tørres Liv Tørres Amandla. Ngawethu? The transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa was dramatic in more than one sense. At the political level, the Amandla. Ngawethu? transition made headlines all over the world and raised questions and hopes for remaining authoritarian systems around the The Trade Union Movement in world. But also to academia, the transition was traumatic, unexpected and challenged “old-established truths”. Rather South Africa and Political Change than focussing on structural changes, economic growth, or international sanctions, this doctoral thesis focuses on the contribution of civil society, the trade union movement and particularly the Congress of South African Trade Unions COSATU in the struggle towards democracy in South Africa. Doctoral Dissertation Tittel, hvis flere forfattere Tittel, hvis flere F afo Institute for Applied Social Science Fafo-report 328 P.O.Box 2947 Tøyen ISBN 82-7422-242-3 N-0608 Oslo ISSN 0801-6143 http://www.fafo.no/engelsk/ Liv Tùrres Amandla.Ngawethu? The Trade Union Movement in South Africa and Political Change Doctoral Dissertation Fafo-report 328 # Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science 2000 ISBN 82-7422-242-3 Coverpage: Peta Marincowitz Printed in Norway by: Centraltrykkeriet AS Contents PREFACE ............................................................... 7 I INTRODUCTION .................................................. 11 1 A newborn or stillborn democracy? .................................. 15 1.1 The theoretical point of departure for nation-building ....... 15 1.2 From apartheid to democracy? ................................ 21 1.3 The nation-building framework ................................ 24 1.4 The bases of democracy ........................................ 28 1.5 Unions as agents or laboratories for democratic consolidation ................................... 35 1.6 The problems and questions in focus .......................... 40 1.7 Design .......................................................... 53 2 Concepts and Methodology .......................................... 57 2.1 Ethnocentric or universal knowledge .......................... 57 2.2 Culture and structure ........................................... 64 2.3 Political attitudes and actions: diverging perspectives ........ 65 2.4 Accumulated perspectives ...................................... 71 2.5 Building the argument .......................................... 84 2.6 Focus and operationalisation of the study .................... 88 2.7 Methodology and problems of measurement ................. 94 3 The reality and legacy of apartheid ................................. 105 3.1 The politics of apartheid ....................................... 105 3.2 Factors in¯uencing democratisation and democratic consolidation .................................. 116 3.3 Explaining and challenging democratisation .................. 133 II CIVIC VIRTUE AND COMMUNITY ............................ 141 4 A civic culture ........................................................ 143 4.1 The history of the political culture concept. .................. 143 4.2 The civic culture, civic virtue and communitarian citizenship ................................. 149 4.3 Political culture and democracy in South Africa ............. 152 3 5 Civil society ......................................................... 175 5.1 De®ning civil society .......................................... 175 5.2 Civil society in Africa ......................................... 183 5.3 Civil society in South Africa .................................. 187 5.4 The integration of civil society and civil culture ............. 195 III UNIONS AS AGENTS FOR POLITICAL CHANGE ......... 209 6 Unions and politics ................................................. 211 6.1 The essence of unionism and state-union relationships ..... 211 6.2 Unions and political change ................................... 218 6.3 Resources for political power ................................. 220 7 The South African Trade-Union Movement ....................... 233 7.1 The early days of South African trade unionism ............ 233 7.2 The development of new unionism during apartheid ....... 238 7.3 Unionism in 1997 .............................................. 246 Summary ............................................................ 252 8 The political role of the South African labour movement ......... 255 8.1 Labour and politics: testing the theory in a South African context .................................... 255 8.2 The democratic struggle and political resources ............. 277 8.3 Politics and labour issues-hand in hand ..................... 289 8.4 Political power? ................................................ 297 8.5 Conclusion: the ``big dog with big teeth''? ................... 304 IV UNIONS AS LABORATORIES FOR LEARNING ............ 319 9 Individual political learning and socialisation ...................... 321 9.1 Rational actors or socialised comrades? ..................... 322 9.2 The areas and process of political learning .................. 327 9.3 The ideological setting in Gauteng ........................... 335 10 Civility and pre-industrial cleavages ............................... 339 10.1 Culture and cleavages in South Africa ..................... 339 10.2 Testing out the pre-industrial cleavages .................... 342 10.3 In conclusion ................................................ 367 4 11 The Workplace ..................................................... 369 11.1 Work and politics ........................................... 369 11.2 The political organisation of work ......................... 372 11.3 Decision-making and consultation ......................... 383 11.4 Industrial cleavages .......................................... 388 11.5 Segregated labour markets- segregated politics? ........... 390 11.6 In conclusion ................................................ 397 12 In the unions ........................................................ 399 12.1 Unions and politics .......................................... 399 12.2 South African unions as learning grounds ................. 405 12.3 Trade-union consciousness .................................. 412 12.4 Unions as laboratories for democracy? .................... 423 12.5 Structural, participatory or ideological cleavages? ........ 433 V CONCLUDING REMARKS ON LABOUR, DEMOCRACY AND NATION-BUILDING .................... 445 13 A discussion of our ®ndings: the South African case and implications for theory ............... 447 13.1 Democratisation and nation-building ...................... 448 13.2 Civil society and democratisation .......................... 451 13.3 Unions as agents or laboratories of democratic change? . 453 13.4 Democratic culture and citizenship ......................... 456 13.5 Rational choice and culture ................................. 458 13.6 Political cleavages: race and class .......................... 460 13.7 Culture: inconsistencies and lack of constraint? ........... 466 13.8 Democratic consolidation and nation-building ............ 469 13.9 South Africa and Southern Africa ......................... 471 13.10 Relevance for further research .............................. 473 14 Implications for policy-making ..................................... 475 Appendix 1: Background on South Africa ............................ 495 Appendix 2: South African terminology .............................. 504 Appendix 3: Academic terminology ................................... 506 Appendix 4: Informant interviews ..................................... 513 5 Appendix 5: Our worker sample: the 1994 Gauteng Survey ......... 515 Appendix 6: Sampling, analysing and interpreting the survey ....... 531 Appendix 7: Survey questionnaire .................................... 543 Appendix 8: Methodological approach ............................... 567 Appendix 9: Factor matrix ............................................ 571 Appendix 10: Abbreviations and acronyms ............................ 574 Appendix 11: Bibliography ............................................. 577 6 PREFACE Amandla! Ngawethu! Power! Power to the people became the rallying cry for millions of South Africans during the 70s and 80s. There was no doubt about the legitimacy of the demand under the restrictive apartheid state. Until 1979, rights and privileges in the South African labour market were restricted to ``employees, ± other than the natives''. Professor Nic Wiehahn, the architect behind the legal dispensations, which extended the de®nition of employees, and thereby gave blacks access to trade unions and bargaining rights, said about the new labour movement to emerge: ``Don't worry, it is just a big dog with small teeth.'' However, the ``barking'' and ®ghting of the union movement escalated. When I ®rst came to South Africa in 1987, unions were at the leading edge of the struggle for democracy. Pro-democratic political parties were banned and in exile, civics operated under tight restrictions, political activities were also severely restricted and the media had little space (and interest) on commenting on activities and suppression in the black areas. In early 1997, unions organised around 40 per cent of the formal workforce and free democratic elections have taken place extending political rights to blacks for the ®rst time. The major union federation COSATU is in alliance with the majority political party and union leaders are part of the transitional government and a constituent
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