South African trade unions and globalisation

In this paper, we assess the South African labour movement's engagement with globalisation in the 1990s and its implications for labour politics in the following decade. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with key informants, we show that, although the labour movement had become committed to a ‘high road’, post-Keynesian restructuring vision by 1993, its representatives failed to pursue that vision consistently in the economic policy negotiations that preceded the historic 1994 democratic election. In fact, labour delegates actually agreed to several policy changes that were more in line with a ‘low road’, neo-liberal approach, with dramatic implications for workers in some sectors. The inability of labour's engagement with globalisation to benefit the working class has led to a long search for a new basis for union strategy

Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Globalization · Labour economics · Negotiation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Restructuring · Trade union · Labor Movements and Unions · Law

• Globalisation and Labour

  Ronaldo Munck•Globalisation and Labour•2002

  Incluir item

• Union Revitalization Strategies in Comparative Perspective

  Open Access•Carola M Frege, John Kelly•European Journal of Industrial…•2003

  Incluir item

• Manufacturing Militance

  Gay W Seidman•Manufacturing Militance•1994

  Incluir item

• Class, Social Movements and the Transformation of the South-African Left in the Crisis of 'National Liberation

  Franco Barchiesi•Historical Materialism•2004

  Incluir item

• Labour and Hegemony in South Africa’s First Decade of Majority Rule

  Carolyn Bassett•Studies in Political Economy•2005

  Incluir item

• The Zuma Affair, Labour and the Future of Democracy in South Africa

  Carolyn Bassett, Marlea Clarke•Third World Quarterly•2008

  Incluir item

• The Prospects of Labour and the Transformation of Advanced Capitalism

  G Therborn•New left review•1984

  Incluir item

• Labor Versus Globalization

  George Ross•The Annals of the American…•2000

  Incluir item

• The Alliance under Stress

  Eddie Webster•Democratization•2001

  Incluir item

• From pluralism to corporatism

  Adam Habib•Politikon•1997

  Incluir item

• Striking Back

  Peter Alexander•African Affairs•1992

  Incluir item

• Union-Party Alliances in the Era of Market Regulation

  Sakhela Buhlungu•Journal of Southern African Studies•2005

  Incluir item

• Challenging Transition Theory

  Open Access•Glenn Adler, Eddie Webster•Latin American Politics and Society•1995

  Incluir item

• Down but Not Out

  Open Access•Sebastián Etchemendy, Ruth Berins Collier•Politics & Society•2007

  Incluir item

• Labour organisation in Western cape agriculture

  Joachim Ewert, Johann Hamman•The Journal of Peasant Studies•1996

  Incluir item

• Ten Years of Labour Market Reform in South Africa

  Marlea Clarke•Canadian Journal of African…•2004

  Incluir item