DOCSLIB.ORG

The State of the Youth 25 Years Into Democracy and Unpacking the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The State of the Youth 25 Years Into Democracy and Unpacking the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) labourSouth African bulletin December 2019/January 2020 Protest as political voice: Historical perspectives on youth politics The Fourth Industrial Revolution and climate change: A roadmap to joblessness The Uber platform and the app economy: Implication for labour, fair tax and social justice Ensuring decent work in the digital age: A sharing and distributed economy The state of the with a shared and distributed ownership youth 25 years into democracy Bringing you critical labour analysis since 1974 Editorial FROM THE EDITOR This dual issue of the South African Labour Bulletin focuses on two themes: The State of the Youth 25 Years into Democracy and Unpacking the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). he issue begins by the most vulnerable labour seek to launch an analysis of our examining the state force as 58.2% are unemployed. present future. We have seen the Tof the youth, as well While we have seen aggrieved youth in Sudan, Chile, Hong Kong, as what it reveals about our communities taking to the streets France, Iraq, Beirut, and Bolivia young democracy and how it for better service delivery and to name a few, also take to the is experienced by the working job creation; it is surprising streets for the common cause of class youth. This issue, combined that the youth voter turnout social justice. with the 4IR issue, is about during elections is noticeably Despite the grim picture of the our present future! It is the low. That is why this issue first South African economy and its unrevealing project of creating repositions the understanding dire implications for the status of a nation that is underpinned of youth political participation. economic and social justice, by a zeal for social justice but Firstly, by dispelling the post government has thrown a spanner is this social justice, promised voting national chorus that the in the works with its push for the through a democratic process of South African youth is politically Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) voting, enough? Does it centre apathetic. This view draws from as a means of advancing the SA the dreams and aspirations of its a particular statistical concern economy and subsequently young people? Does it cater for (see Sibiya and Ncopo; Mthunzi; alleviating social ills. In this issue the working class that struggled Heffernan in this issue) from the we unpack what the 4IR is and for the birth of democracy? The decreasing voter turnout. The aim to understand the optimism answers perhaps lie in South youth has been active in political about technology in production, Africa’s recent economic trends mobilisation that involves service artificial intelligence, and the revealed by the 2019 medium delivery, as will be shown in this internet of things when we do not term budget speech. The South issue: the Alex Shutdown, the even appear to have surpassed African economy in 2019 is said to emergence of the Soweto Action our current social and economic be growing by 0.5%; missing the Committee, youth mobilisation conditions. Is this talk about the 1.5% forecasted by the national in the education sector with the 4IR a chimera to hide the fact budget speech in February 2019. Fees Must Fall Movement #FMF, that the private sector is also The unemployment rate in the 3rd the environmental movement involved in the large scale quarter peaked at a record high including the September 2019 unemployment we see today? This of 29.1%, the highest in over 16 worldwide strike (see Morgan) is why centring the struggles of years. This roughly translates to and mobilisation against gender the working class is important, 6.7 million unemployed people. based violence (see Mntambo because to understand the future This high unemployment rate and Nkwanyana; Tsotetsi). This one has to understand the current is even affecting those who are is perhaps the nature of working conditions of the working class! supposed to be enjoying this class politics today, it speaks to democracy, those aged 15–24, a number of ‘general’ or ‘broad’ uMbuso weNkosi who according to Stats SA are issues that cannot be ignored if we Managing Editor December 2019/January 2020 1 The South African Labour Bulletin’s mission is to: On politics and economics • provide information and stimulate critical analysis and debate on issues and challenges that confront Youth, politics and the myth of political apathy workers, their organisations and their Anthony Tolika Sibiya and Hlumelo Ncopo .................................................................4 communities; and • communicate this in an accessible Intsha, ezombusazwe, nenkolelo yokuthi osemusha akanandaba nezepolitiki and engaging manner. U-Anthony Tolika Sibiya noHlumelo Ncopo .................................................................7 In so doing the SALB hopes to advance progressive politics, promote social Nothing less than a youth-led revolution will change the deteriorating justice and the interests of the lives of the youth in SA working class. Zama Mthunzi ................................................................................................................10 Copyright © Umanyano Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this The need for integrated food and health policies to tackle ‘hidden hunger’ publication may be reproduced in any Brittany Kesselman ........................................................................................................13 form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, Climate crisis perspective: Moving beyond the National Democratic Revolution? without permission in writing from Ashley Nyiko Mabasa .....................................................................................................16 Umanyano Publications. Putting the demos back in democracy Published by Umanyano Publications Courtney Morgan ............................................................................................................19 89/00595/23 ISSN03775429 Technological revolutions and the demands of the South African proletariat Physical Address: Mondli Hlatshwayo ........................................................................................................22 16–20 New South Street Renaissance Centre The danger of techno-optimism: What the hype around the Fourth Floor 5, Ditsela, Ghandi Square Industrial Revolution gets wrong about jobs and prosperity Marshalltown, Johannesburg Hannah J. Dawson .........................................................................................................25 2001 The Fourth Industrial Revolution a ‘fait accompli’ as a euphemism for restructuring? Postal Address: PO Box 3851, Johannesburg, 2000 Can labour still influence the agenda? A perspective. South Africa Hameda Deedat ..............................................................................................................27 Email: [email protected] The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the continued plight of the working class Web: southafricanlabourbulletin.org.za Bhabhali Ka Maphikela Nhlapo ..................................................................................30 Managing Editor: uMbuso weNkosi Design: Blue Apple Publishing Printing: Novus Holdings In the past Editorial Board: Chris Bonner, Molly Dhlamini, Protest as political voice: Historical perspectives on youth politics Jane Barrett, Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen, Anne Heffernan .............................................................................................................33 Neo Bodibe, Janet Munakamwe, Khwezi Mabasa, Musa Malabela and 2019 Interns: Nomusa Nkwanyana, Sithembiso Mdlalose and Isaac Dumi In the community Honorary Board Members: Interview with Lerato Portia Mogapi (Soweto Action Committee (SAC) secretary) Edward Webster, Adam Habib and Skhumbuzo Tshabalala ................................................................................................36 Karl von Holdt The views expressed by contributors Interview with Ntlakanipho Mndiyata (Wisdom) of Abahlali Basemjondolo are not necessarily those of the uMbuso weNkosi .............................................................................................................39 editorial board of Umanyano Publications. Alex Shutdown Nomusa Nkwanyana ......................................................................................................41 SA Labour Bulletin would like to thank the following organisations for their Lamentations on the curation of the urban space support: Strengthening Civil Society Mpho A. Ndaba ...............................................................................................................44 Fund (Department of Labour), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). #AmINext: Gender activism that brought the country to a standstill Cover image: Lindokuhle Parmisser Nokukhanya N Mntambo and Nomusa Nkwanyana ................................................47 The Fourth Industrial Revolution and climate change: A roadmap to joblessness Courtney Morgan ...........................................................................................................50 2 SA Labour Bulletin In the union The Confédération des Travailleurs des Secteurs Publiques et Privé CTSP Youth Union Members .........................................................................................53 Transnational worker solidarity: Building an African-European network in Lear Corporation Elijah Chiwota, Carmen Ludwig and Kenneth Mogane ...........................................57 Learning factories in the digitalisation of work Anna Conrad and Manfred
Load more

Recommended publications
  • BORN out of SORROW Essays on Pietermaritzburg and the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands Under Apartheid, 1948−1994 Volume One Compiled An
    BORN OUT OF SORROW Essays on Pietermaritzburg and the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands under Apartheid, 1948−1994 Volume One Compiled and edited by Christopher Merrett Occasional Publications of the Natal Society Foundation PIETERMARITZBURG 2021 Born out of Sorrow: Essays on Pietermaritzburg and the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands under Apartheid, 1948–1994. Volume One © Christopher Merrett Published in 2021 in Pietermaritzburg by the Trustees of the Natal Society Foundation under its imprint ‘Occasional Publications of the Natal Society Foundation’. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without reference to the publishers, the Trustees of the Natal Society Foundation, Pietermaritzburg. Natal Society Foundation website: http://www.natalia.org.za/ ISBN 978-0-6398040-1-9 Proofreader: Catherine Munro Cartographer: Marise Bauer Indexer: Christopher Merrett Design and layout: Jo Marwick Body text: Times New Roman 11pt Front and footnotes: Times New Roman 9pt Front cover: M Design Printed by CPW Printers, Pietermaritzburg CONTENTS List of illustrations List of maps and figures Abbreviations Preface Part One Chapter 1 From segregation to apartheid: Pietermaritzburg’s urban geography from 1948 1 Chapter 2 A small civil war: political conflict in the Pietermaritzburg region in the 1980s and early 1990s 39 Chapter 3 Emergency of the State: detention without trial in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands, 1986–1990 77 Chapter 4 Struggle in the workplace: trade unions and liberation in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands: part one From the 1890s to the 1980s 113 Chapter 5 Struggle in the workplace: trade unions and liberation in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands: part two Sarmcol and beyond 147 Chapter 6 Theatre of repression: political trials in Pietermaritzburg in the 1970s and 1980s 177 Part Two Chapter 7 Inkosi Mhlabunzima Joseph Maphumulo by Jill E.
    [Show full text]
  • Paulo Freire and Popular Struggle in South Africa
    PAULO FREIRE AND POPULAR STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA Dossier no 34 Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research November 2020 IMAGES IN COVER COLLAGE Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre brochure, a project of the Black Community Programmes that offers medical, maternity, and child care services. Cover of Black Review, a publication for political analysis initiated by Steve Biko in 1972. University of South Africa Archives PAULO FREIRE AND POPULAR STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA Dossier no 34 | Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research November 2020 Dossier no 34 Paulo Freire was a radical educator from Brazil whose work was tied to struggles for human freedom and dignity. He constantly experimented with and thought about how to connect learning and teaching among the poor and oppressed with the radical transformation of society. For Freire, this meant struggling for a world where everyone counts equally and is treated with dig- nity – a world in which economic and political power are radically democratised. This dossier, which draws on interviews with participants in a range of struggles in South Africa, shows that Freire’s ideas have been an important influence in the Black Consciousness Movement, the trade union movement, and some of the organisations associ- ated with the United Democratic Front (UDF). His ideas remain influential today, from trade unions to grassroots struggles. Paulo Freire, 1970 Mural of Paulo Freire at the Getty Images entrance to the Florestan Fernandes National School of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) in Guararema, Brazil, 2018. Richard Pithouse 3 Dossier no 34 From Brazil to Africa Freire was born in Recife, a city in north eastern Brazil, in 1921.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Five
    **Draft copy** please do not cite without permission of author. Ian Macqueen D.Phil candidate Department of History University of Sussex [email protected] 5 May 2010 Black Consciousness in Dialogue: Rick Turner, Stephen Biko and the Durban Moment, 1970-19741 This paper looks to suggest that the Durban Moment concretised the hiatus in the gradualism and moderate political reform envisioned by South African liberalism, which had initially been sparked by the breakaway of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) from the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) in 1968. The Durban Moment confronted the need for radical change and in so doing entailed questioning the previously secure paradigm of paternalist custodianship of African grievances. The moment opened up the terrain of political thinking in South Africa and forced recourse to the demand for radical political change. It was this problem of change that formed the central theme in the contestations, debate and dialogue that were central aspects of the moment. Although the emergence of Black Consciousness in South Africa played a central causative role in challenging the white liberal world view, it was a moment that was mediated in part through interpersonal dialogue and friendship, in a few but significant instances, and through a refining of a political strategy, in the form of class theory.2 Historicising the collaboration that persisted after the formation of SASO is therefore a central concern of the paper. One of Biko’s contentions with the artificial interracial meetings organised by liberals was the way in which they acted as a panacea for both white and black, soothing the guilty conscience of the white liberal and encouraging the black person that they were in fact worthwhile and equal, but producing no tangible fruit.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Turner and Radical Reform
    Moral decay and social reconstruction: Richard Turner and radical reform http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.THEOOCT93 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Moral decay and social reconstruction: Richard Turner and radical reform Author/Creator Eddie Webster Publisher University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg Date 1993-10-00 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa, South Africa Source Article in Theoria Vol.80 Oct 1993 pages 1 to 13 Relation Article in Theoria Vol.80 Oct 1993 pages 1 to 13 Rights Digital Innovation South Africa Description This Richard Turner Memorial Lecture was delivered at the University of Natal, Durban on 25 March 1993.
    [Show full text]
  • Poverty Knowledge in South Africa: a Social History of Human Science, 1855–2005 Grace Davie Index More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19875-2 - Poverty Knowledge in South Africa: A Social History of Human Science, 1855–2005 Grace Davie Index More information Index Abdurahman, Abdullah 108 See also human scientists, kholwa, race and Actor-Network Theory 62, 80, 122, 137, 201 racism, African social workers See also Latour, Bruno, Science and African veterans 111, 124, 132, 137 Technology Studies (STS) African social workers 47, 57, 73, 146, African Survey, 1938 130–132 150–151 Africans’ Claims in South Africa, 1943 121 See also Jan Hofmeyr School of Social Work African independence movements 151, 199, Afrikaans language 39, 92–93 201, 230, 284 Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut 211 African National Congress (ANC) Afrikaner motherhood 42 and 1993 election campaign 250, 254, Afrikaner nationalism 66, 78, 91–96 293 See also Volkskongress and National Development Plan 287–297 agricultural demonstrators 13, 156, 228 and nationalization debate 234–244 alcohol 75, 150, 169, 172, 201, 261 and “second phase” of democracy 287, 290 Alexandra Bus Boycott, 1943–44 118–123, and social welfare policy 1, 16, 272–278, 141 287–297 Alexandra Bus Boycott, 1957 169–170, 172 Africans’ Claims in South Africa, 1943 121 All-Africa Convention, 1946 159 alliance with COSATU and SACP 196, 238, Atlantic Charter, 1941 104, 121, 125, 290 273, 288, 290, 293 attitude research 97–99, 152–153, 177–182, “Constitutional Guidelines” 235, 238 212, 217, 226–236, 240, 256, 262, 280 Department of Economic Policy (DEP) 238, apartheid 242, 245, 249 and Afrikaner nationalism 66, 78,
    [Show full text]
  • The Apartheid Smear Israel Is Not an Apartheid State the Allegation Damages the Peace Process
    The ApArTheid SmeAr Israel is not an apartheid state The allegation damages the peace process Professor Alan Johnson BRITAIN ISRAEL COMMUNICATIONS & RESEARCH CENTRE 2 The Apartheid Smear As a movement we recognise the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism just as we recognise the legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish nationalism. We insist on the right of the state of Israel to exist within secure borders, but with equal vigour support the Palestinian right to national self-determination. We are gratified to see that new possibilities of resolving the issue through negotiation have arisen since the election of a new government in Israel. We would wish to encourage that process, and if we have the opportunity, to assist.1 Nelson mandela, 1993 The whole world must see that Israel must exist and has the right to exist, and is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world … Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.2 martin Luther King Jr, 1967 The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony.3 Judge richard J. Goldstone (former Justice of the South African Constitutional Court, who led the United Nations 2008-9 fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict), 2011 If Israel were an apartheid state, I, for example, would not be allowed to work for a Jewish newspaper or live in a Jewish neighbourhood or own a home. The real apartheid is in Lebanon, where there is a law that bans Palestinians from working in over 50 professions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Randlords, Art and South Africa
    OLD MASTERS AND ASPIRATIONS: THE RANDLORDS, ART AND SOUTH AFRICA MICHAEL STEVENSON Thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Art History, University of Cape Town, September 1997 University of Cape Town r·~ i.·;:~:t·;:·.:~; s.; Yt.:, :·.; ::,f:~:i·~; L cr In ;)c .. I.. C-·1-o•''::i'" !.:.· !<·.·:~ wY •. .!-.:. w..... •ll.;-!. ,1 t~:-;:;--:-:;_:,--::;-r-:_,_-:--:-.\:.>{<:'-:-'>,:7.-:~~.., ·---:;: ~-._.' •• j":".. • ,·, ::-- -::~ ....--:' ··_ • .:..""·.-:--_--::::;~-:-.'~.:_:JJ The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................. ~ ..................•.•..•....................•......• i CONVENTIONS •...•.•.........•.•••••••••.•..•....................•.....••....••••••••••.•.••..............••••••.••••••••••................••..•••••• vii INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: SIR JULIUS AND LADY WERNHER ••.•...•.••••.....••.•..••••.•••••.•.•••.•.••.•..•.•.•.•.••• 37 CHAPTER TWO: ALFRED AND SIR OTTO BElT .................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Lunn Helen 2010.Pdf (1.741Mb)
    ‘Hippies, radicals and the Sounds of Silence’ Cultural Dialectics at two South African Universities 1966-1976 Helen Lunn Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the School of Music University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Howard Campus Supervisors: Professor C. Ballantine, Professor C.Burns and Professor J. Hyslop September 2010 DECLARATION Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy , in the Graduate Programme in Department of Music , University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I declare that this dissertation is my own unaided work. All citations, references and borrowed ideas have been duly acknowledged. I confirm that an external editor was used and that my Supervisor was informed of the identity and details of my editor. It is being submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosoph in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. None of the present work has been submitted previously for any degree or examination in any other University. Helen Lunn _____________________________ Student name 20 September 2010 ______________________________________ Date E. Muller & S.Ellis ______________________________________ Editor Acknowledgement I wish to acknowledge and thank the NRF for the financial support which made this research possible. Abstract This study explores the impact of the counter culture on students at two Anglophone universities in the 1960s and 70s. It focuses on the social and historical differences that predisposed English speaking youth to metropolitan based cultures. It explores this in the context of a lack of identity with the dominant culture of apartheid.
    [Show full text]
  • Performative Citizenship in the Black Consciousness Movement
    Morgan, M. , & Baert, P. (2018). Acting Out Ideas: Performative Citizenship in the Black Consciousness Movement. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 6(3), 455–498. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290- 017-0030-1 Peer reviewed version Link to published version (if available): 10.1057/s41290-017-0030-1 Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document This is the author accepted manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) is available online via SPRINGER at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fs41290-017-0030-1. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. University of Bristol - Explore Bristol Research General rights This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ Acting Out Ideas: Performative Citizenship in the Black Consciousness Movement Marcus Morgan1 University of Cambridge, UK. Patrick Baert University of Cambridge, UK. ABSTRACT: This paper introduces the concept of ‘performative citizenship’ to account for the manner in which the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), and in particular its charismatic leader Steve Biko, transformed a collection of relatively abstract philosophical ideas into concrete political practice. We outline how the BCM challenged the psychological internalisation of white supremacy and asserted citizenship claims through a variety of performative techniques, many of which explicitly and implicitly reiterated earlier rights-based claims both in South Africa and abroad. We show how this took place within a remarkably restrictive context, which on the one hand constrained performances, but on the other augmented their dramatic efficacy.
    [Show full text]
  • Fanonian Practices in South Africa from Steve Biko to Abahlali Basemjondolo
    Fanonian practices in South Africa From Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo Nigel C. Gibson i First published in 2011 in South Africa by University of KwaZulu-Natal Press Private Bag X01 Scottsville, 3209 South Africa Email: [email protected] Website: www.ukznpress.co.za © 2011 Nigel C. Gibson All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN: 978-1-86914-197-4 (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press) Managing editor: Sally Hines Editor: Mary Ralphs Typesetter: Patricia Comrie Proofreader: Lisa Compton Indexer: Abdul Bemath Cover design: publicide Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holder of the photograph of Frantz Fanon reproduced on the cover of this book. First edition: 2011 Printed and bound by Interpak Books, Pietermaritzburg Published in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN: 978-0-230-11784-6 (Palgrave Macmillan) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
    [Show full text]
  • Red, Black and Gold:1 Fosatu, South African 'Workerism
    IN: Edward Webster and Karin Pampillas (eds.), 2017, The Unresolved National Question in South Africa: Left Thinking Under Apartheid. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. CHAPTER 14 RED, BLACK AND GOLD:1 FOSATU, SOUTH AFRICAN ‘WORKERISM’, ‘SYNDICALISM’ AND THE NATION Sian Byrne, Nicole Ulrich and Lucien van der Walt You, moving forest of Africa. When I arrived the children were all crying, These were the workers, industrial workers ... Escape into that forest, The black forest that the employers saw and ran for safety. The workers saw it too ‘It belongs to us,’ they said, ‘Let us take refuge in it to be safe from our hunters.’ Deep into the forest they hid themselves and when they came out they were free from fear ... Lead us FOSATU to where we are eager to go. Even in parliament you shall be our representative. Go and represent us because you are our Moses Through your leadership we shall reach our Canaan ... (Alfred Qabula, ‘Praise Poem to FOSATU’, 1984) INTRODUCTION After months of talks between unions associated with the Trade Union Advisory Coordinating Council (TUACC), the Federation of South African Trade Unions RED, BLACK AND GOLD (FOSATU) was inaugurated on 13 April 1979. FOSATU was the first federation ofp re- dominantly unregistered trade unions with a truly national reach to operate openly in South Africa since the late 1960s.2 FOSATU membership reached 140 000 in 1985 (Baskin, 1991: 49); it was ‘by far the strongest working- class organisation’ opposing apartheid in the early 1980s (Schroeder, 1988: 54). The largest strike wave since the 1940s tookp lace in 1981, and FOSATU played an integral role (Yudelman, 1984: 271).
    [Show full text]
  • The Short History of the Academic Humanities in South Africa
    AHR Roundtable Hopeless Entanglement: The Short History of the Academic Humanities in South Africa KEITH BRECKENRIDGE Downloaded from GLOBALLY, THE HUMANITIES SEEM TO BE experiencing a crisis of confidence, with de- clining student numbers and a loss of faith among scholars in the methods and powers of their research.1 Few countries, however, have duplicated the South African http://ahr.oxfordjournals.org/ strategy of officially announcing a “perceived crisis” in the Government Gazette,and creating a national institute for the humanities and social sciences to address it.2 The statutory establishment in December 2013 of a generously funded but still to be named national institute for humanities and social science research is very curious— not least because there seems to be almost no agreement in the official documents, or the reports that have led up to them, on whether there is a true crisis in the hu- manities. Nor is there agreement on what the humanities—in which the crisis is per- at University of Witwatersrand on October 13, 2015 ceived to lie—actually are as a scholarly field. Or whether the remedies proposed as functions of the new institute—most of which are by nature lobbying and curriculum- coordinating projects aimed at the universities—can address the most intractable problems that confront the disciplines. The regulations establishing the new government institute draw on two reports, each of which describes a very different set of problems. The first was produced by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) in 2011, and
    [Show full text]