Advancing Transformative Justice? a Case Study of a Trade Union, Social Movement and NGO Network in South Africa
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Advancing transformative justice? A case study of a trade union, social movement and NGO network in South Africa Matthew Hamilton Evans PhD University of York Politics October 2013 Abstract Transitional justice mechanisms have largely focused upon individual violations of a narrow set of civil and political rights and the provision of legal and quasi-legal remedies, typically truth commissions, amnesties and prosecutions. In contrast, this thesis highlights the significance of structural violence in producing and reproducing violations of socio-economic rights. The thesis argues that there is a need to utilise a different toolkit, and a different understanding of human rights, to that typically employed in transitional justice in order to remedy structural violations of human rights such as these. A critique of the scope of existing models of transitional justice is put forward and the thesis sets out a definition of transformative justice as expanding upon and providing an alternative to the transitional justice mechanisms typically employed in post-conflict and post-authoritarian contexts. Focusing on a case study of a network of social movements, nongovernmental organisations and trade unions working on land and housing rights in South Africa, the thesis asks whether networks of this kind can advance transformative justice. In answering this question the thesis draws upon the idea of political responsibility as a means of analysing and assessing network action. The existing literature on political responsibilities and transnational advocacy networks is interrogated and adapted to the largely domestic case study network. Based on empirical research on the case study network and an analysis of its political responsibilities the thesis finds that networks of this kind can contribute to transformative justice. They do this by providing space in which affected communities articulate their concerns over socio-economic rights issues. Providing a means by which existing structures and practices may be contested contributes to processes of transformative justice. However, based on the case study it is not certain that network action of this kind will necessarily lead to transformative outcomes. 2 Contents Title page ..................................................................................................................... 1 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 2 Contents ...................................................................................................................... 3 List of tables and figures ........................................................................................... 9 Preface ....................................................................................................................... 10 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 11 Declaration ................................................................................................................ 12 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 13 Part 1: Project overview ............................................................................................ 13 I: Background and Context ..................................................................................... 13 II: Focus .................................................................................................................. 15 III: Research question ............................................................................................. 18 IV: Research objectives .......................................................................................... 18 V: Research design ................................................................................................. 19 (a) Research tools and methods ........................................................................ 20 (b) Use of sociograms ....................................................................................... 21 VI: Contribution ..................................................................................................... 23 Part 2: Justification of case study .............................................................................. 24 I: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 24 II: Why South Africa? ............................................................................................ 24 (a) Transformative justice ................................................................................. 24 (b) Positioning of NGOs, trade unions and social movements ......................... 26 III: Why landlessness? ............................................................................................ 27 (a) Land and landlessness in South Africa ........................................................ 29 (b) Criticism of South Africa’s current approach ............................................. 31 3 IV: Key elements explaining case study choice ..................................................... 32 Part 3: Thesis Outline ................................................................................................ 32 Chapter 1: Social movements and trade unions.................................................... 36 I: Introduction and Background ............................................................................. 36 (a) Varieties of social movement ...................................................................... 37 (b) Movements and organisations ..................................................................... 38 II: Links between social movements and trade unions .......................................... 40 (a) Importance of social movement and trade union action to human rights praxis through time................................................................................................. 41 III: Social movements and trade unions during and after apartheid ...................... 44 IV: Landlessness, social movements and trade unions .......................................... 47 V: Contentious politics; contentious scholarship ................................................... 52 VI: Themes and gaps in the literature .................................................................... 53 Chapter 2: Networks................................................................................................ 56 I: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 56 II: Background........................................................................................................ 57 (a) Historical emergence of networks and transnational collective action ....... 57 (b) Networks, coalitions and movements.......................................................... 59 III: Action taken by networks................................................................................. 65 (a) Key conceptual frameworks ........................................................................ 67 IV: Strengthening of networks ............................................................................... 68 (a) Focus of networks ....................................................................................... 70 (b) Aims of networks ........................................................................................ 72 (c) Structure and composition of networks ....................................................... 73 (d) Capacity and resources of networks ............................................................ 75 V: Tensions within networks.................................................................................. 76 (a) Hierarchy ..................................................................................................... 77 4 (b) Legitimacy ................................................................................................... 78 (c) Politics and ideology ................................................................................... 80 VI: Themes and gaps in the literature..................................................................... 81 (a) Areas of focus in this research..................................................................... 84 (b) Analytical framework .................................................................................. 86 Chapter 3: Structural violence, socio-economic rights and transformative justice ......................................................................................................................... 88 I: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 88 II: Structural violence and shortcomings of transitional justice ............................. 89 (a) Structural violence ....................................................................................... 90 (b) Critique of transitional justice ..................................................................... 91 (c) Defining transformative justice ................................................................... 95 III: Applying concepts to the case study .............................................................. 102 IV: Relevant actors and relationships for a transformative approach .................