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MARKETS AGAINST SOCIETY 269

The impact of the two Great Transformations national poverty line (UNDP, 2003: 41, Table
in the South is illustrated schematically in 2.20). Income distribution remains highly
Figure 18.2. unequal and has deteriorated in recent years.
Restructuring flowing from economic lib- This is reflected in the high Gini-coefficient,
eralization has resulted in a growing differen- which rose from 0.596 in 1995 to 0.635 in
tiation within the worlds of work, producing 2001 (UNDP, 2003: 44, Figure 2.11). The
three major zones of work. First, there are the Human Development Index (HDI) for South
core formal sector workplaces, with workers Africa moved from 0.72 in 1995 to 0.67 in
in more or less stable employment relations 2003 (UNDP, 2003: 45, Figure 2.13). Indeed
with wages, benefits and access to demo- the life expectancy index declined to 51.8
cratic worker and trade union rights. Second, years in 2002 (UNDP, 2003: 44).
there is the zone of casualized and external-
ized work where non-core workers are com-
pelled into less stable employment relations,
sometimes with temporary or part-time con- PART TWO: AN ALTERNATIVE
tracts with the core enterprise, at other times DIRECTION – SOCIAL MOVEMENT
in more precarious contracts with intermedi- UNIONISM
aries, such as labor brokers, informal facto-
ries or subcontractors. Then there is the third Discourse is power and the transformation in
zone, or periphery, where people are ‘unem- union discourse we have identified reflects
ployed’ and ‘make a living’ in informal the power of the forces of neo-liberalism
sector activities, ranging from lucrative crim- over organized labor, epitomized in the way
inal activities and those that permit a degree unions have become imprisoned within lib-
of petty accumulation through to subsistence eral economic values. Discourse is a moment
activities (Webster and von Holdt, 2005) of communication and persuasion regarding
The resulting social crisis experienced in lines of action and belief. The discursive
poor households and poor communities is moment is a ‘form of power, it is a mode of
exacerbated by the underfunding of public formation of ideas and beliefs’ (Harvey,
services, as well as the privatization of essen- 1996: 83). The general failure of unions to
tial services – both of which are economic present an alternative discourse on restruc-
and social policies fostered by the Second turing is an indication of the success of the
Great Transformation. Instead of extending neo-liberal political project in this regard.
social rights to all citizens, restructuring in Deeply held beliefs and values of organized
South Africa is transferring the responsibility labor are mocked as reflecting those of a
of social protection to the household and to bygone era. They are barriers to progress.
the poor, threatening the very sustainability of They undermine the economy.
communities and the reproduction of society. In absorbing these beliefs and values and
This emerged in the United Nations in becoming market agents, business unionism
Human Development Report 2003. About signaled a profound political transformation
48.5% of the South African population (21.9 that undermines class consciousness. This
million people) currently falls below the orientation has reinforced the notion of

Figure 18.2 The global south: the case of South Africa
Form of state Work restructuring Social development
The First Great Settler colonial/ Colonial despotism – Colonialism excluded
Transformation apartheid state low wages, migrant labor the majority
The Second Great Democratic post-colonial Growing differentiation Crisis of social reproduction –
Transformation state and informalization of work legacy of colonial
underdevelopment