Black Unions and Political Change in South Africa

Abstract

One of the most significant changes that has taken place in South Africa since the publication of Johnson’s book, has been the development of an extensive network of independent black trade unions that has articulated in an increasingly militant way the frustrations and deprivations of the black African working class.¹ The growth of these unions has created a significant problem for the government and has undoubtedly contributed to the escalating crisis in the Republic. Yet there are important disagreements over the nature and extent of the challenge posed by black unions. Some writers have claimed that this ‘new wave’ of black unionisation has presented the state with its most serious and profound threat for many years. For example, Adam has argued that it ‘would seem to be on the labour front … that the South African state faces its most serious challenge and where ultimately the politicization of ethnicity shows its most severe effects’.² Friedman, while generally more cautious in assessing the long-term political implications of black unionisation, nevertheless claims that the black trade unions are organisations through which ‘hundreds and thousands of working people have gained a sense of their own power which is already changing the factories and may well help to change the country too’.³ Others, however, have suggested that the combined effects of internal division and structural weakness, together with the debilitating consequences of continued political repression, must inevitably serve to limit the political effectiveness of black unions for the foreseeable future.