Farm Worker Uprising in the Western Cape A Case Study of Protest, Organising, and Collective Action Jesse Wilderman Research Report Global Labour University, Department of Sociology University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg September 26th, 2014 Supervisor: Professor Edward Webster Student Number: 767846 5 Greenfield Rd, Greenside Johannesburg, South Africa 2193 [email protected] Declaration I declare that this research report is my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in Labour, Policy, and Globalisation at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. This report has not been submitted for any other degree or examination at any other University Signed____________________________ __ day of ________________2014 Jesse Wilderman Table of Contents Chapter 1 The Questions, The Argument, and Why This Research Matters 1 Chapter 2 Farm Workers, Organising Challenges, and the Protests 6 Chapter 3 Why Now? 14 The Micro and Macro Dynamics Chapter 4 How Did the Protest Spread? 41 From Local Protest to Regional Uprising Chapter 5 Has the Protest Turned into Organisation? 59 Mass Participation, Organisation, and New Opportunities Chapter 6 Theoretical Tools to Help Us Engage Our Three Questions 87 Chapter 7 Moving Forward and Further Research 109 Bibliography 116 Note of Appreciation Doing research and writing this report on the farm worker uprising of late 2012 and early 2013 in the Western Cape turned out to be a fascinating and engaging adventure. The wonderful thing about doing this work was the people that I was lucky enough to be able to meet and engage with, along with the guidance and support that I received from those around me. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Eddie Webster, who was always thoughtful, engaged, and constantly pushing me to dig deeper, think harder, and have a plan; his experience and history as a movement and thought leader speak for themselves and I feel honoured to have had the chance to work with him. In addition, I owe a huge amount of gratitude to the people on the ground doing amazing organising work in the Western Cape—struggling every day in their unions, NGOs, and community based organisations for the dignity that the farm workers and the rural poor deserve. This includes members, organisers and leaders from FAWU, COSATU, Women on Farms, TCOE, Citrusdal Farm Worker and Farm Dweller Forum, Surplus People’s Project (special thanks to Ronald!), PASSOP, Scalabrini Centre, AIDC, WIETA, BAWUSA, and many other individuals; I was constantly inspired by your work and thankful for your willingness to share your experiences with me. A special thanks and gratitude goes out to the comrades of CSSAWU and Mawubuye in the Robertson area—Shirley, Denia, Deneco, Karel, Henry, Tumi, Mercia, Henry, and so many other courageous leaders there who gave me a small glimpse of their incredible struggle. And thanks to the observers and researchers who lent me their advice and their insights, particularly the folks at PLAAS and at the Global Labour University. Last but not least, I want to recognise and thank the farm workers who inspired and led this historic struggle; as a trade union organiser myself, I am inspired by the courage and sacrifice of these workers who stood up when no one thought it was possible against a repressive system that has kept them in poverty for hundreds of years; too often it seems that our history features stories about strong men and big leaders, but it is the struggle of these workers that gives me hope. Abstract This research report looks at the historic farm worker strikes and protests that took place during late 2012 and early 2013, involving thousands of farm workers and the rural poor in the Western Cape, with a view to answering: 1) why did the protests take place when they did; 2) how did the protests spread across the Western Cape; and 3) did the mass participation of the protests turn into formal organisation. The research was conducted primarily through in-depth interviews with participants and observers of the protests during field visits to the Western Cape in late 2013 and early 2014. The findings of the report suggest that farm owners, responding to top-down pressures of shifting global production standards and competition, along with increased government regulation and worker protections, continue to move toward a more seasonal, outsourced, and off-farm labour force; the transformation of the workforce is leading to a breakdown or re-negotiation of two of the major impediments to overt, confrontational, and collective action, namely paternalistic social construction and farm worker isolation. These longer-term trends combined with the spark of a small, successful strike and an increasing sense of tactics, strategy, and possibility to ignite a large-scale strike in one of the major farming towns in the area. With the help of television coverage featuring scenes of this protest and a clear demand by protestors themselves for an increase in the minimum wage, local organisations then served as “coordinating” units, alongside a range of more informal networks, to spread the protest and its easily replicable tactics to towns around the region. In part because farm workers do not have meaningful access to the more institutional vehicles for expressing their grievances, the protests took on a more bottom-up, “spontaneous” nature and spread, with the strategy of disruption and its emerging repertoires of contention serving as key sources of power. Because of the unique nature of the protests and the shifting nature of farm worker identities, most of the participating organisations were unsuccessful at translating the mass participation of the protests into greatly expanded levels of formal organisation. This challenge of turning participation into organisation was exacerbated by a major backlash by farm owners after the protest, as well as by some of the organising approaches of these organisations during and after the protests. The report concludes that there may be reasons for hope as the protests seem to have created some expanded confidence and leadership among farm workers, even if they did not primarily challenge power on the farms; the question remains as to whether this historic uprising can lead to further transformation from below. Western Cape Map Includes many of the fruit and wine producing towns and areas where the uprising took place Distance From Cape Town to: Citrusdal (175km), De Doorns (140km), Roberston (160km), Barrydale (250km) Chapter 1 The Questions, The Argument, and Why This Research Matters “We outnumber the farmers eleven to one and they still hoard the economic power and still talk to us with disrespect. We could kill all the farmers in a weekend if we wanted to and this land will be fucked up—it could happen in one day. But until this strike we were never able to get all the farm workers and all of us to come out and fight back” Local Councilman and supporter of the farm worker protests “We have paid for the caskets of your families. We have paid for their funerals. We have carried their caskets in church with you, cried with you and mourned with you . We have bought your children’s school clothes . I have personally loaned my wedding dress to staff, and the only ball gown I own has been worn to many of your children’s matric dances . When you were hungry we have brought you food, when you forgot your lunch I have made you sandwiches. You have been part of our family and part of every celebration we have ever had. If you want to strike today, then don’t bother coming back.” Farm Owner in letter to the Cape Times before planned strike action In late 2012 into early 2013, thousands of farm workers and their allies across more than twenty-five towns around the Western Cape engaged in a historic series of explosive and unexpected work stoppages and protest. While the main issue associated with the uprising was a demand for an increase in the minimum wage, a myriad of grievances have plagued farm workers and the rural poor in these areas for years. Yet there had not in living-memory been a protest that reached this scale and intensity. The perceived power of the farm owners coupled with a lack of large, formal organization among farm workers seemed to have stacked the deck against overt, collective resistance; before this explosion of action, many observers thought the narrative of the Western Cape farms implied that transformation of working and living conditions would not be prompted by action from below. Yet not only was the scale and intensity of this uprising historic, it displayed a form of resistance outside the “paternalistic” discourse that had come to characterize relationships between farm workers and farm owners; as Ewert and Du Toit explain about traditional farm worker resistance, “. they rely on the ‘weapons of the weak’, operating within the framework of the paternalistic moral universe itself, relying on individual appeals, consensual negotiations, and the avoidance of the appearance of open conflict” (2005). This uprising in the Western Cape, however, was defined by open conflict, including burning of 1 vineyards, protest marches, and pitched battles with the police; farm workers and their allies adopted an overt, confrontational, and adversarial approach that, in this instance, was an apparent break from the traditional discourse. This study seeks to better understand what made this moment of uprising possible. More specifically, the study asks the questions 1) why did the protest occur when it did 2) how did the protest spread beyond its launching point to quickly reach such a large scale and 3) has the protest been turned into more formal organisation.