Page 398 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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COOPERATION IN KWAZULU NATAL 369

of leaderships and tight forms of popular We are now witnessing, though, a transfor-
accountability. mation of the trade union movement in South
Trade unionism and its regional features Africa from a social movement into an
have been extensively researched in broad ambiguous new entity, in a province marked
overviews describing its growth and assess- by violence, dissent and intolerance. We are
ing its successes and failures. Their modern witnessing, too, a new language of participa-
narratives usually start from the province of tion and cooperation. As ordinary citizens we
Natal: the Durban strikes of 1973, the growth need to ask about the prospects of the tide
of industrial trade unions, their democratic turning into a cooperative relationship; about
forms, their struggles for recognition and the prospects of success for a new manage-
their confident surge into a political challenge rial initiative that speaks of innovation and
against Apartheid (Basckin, 1991; Friedman, change. What can we say about the priorities
1987; Lambert and Webster, 1988; Maree, of the Reconstruction and Development
1986; Murray, 1987; Sitas, 1990.) Programme (hitherto-RDP), which demands
By the 1990s, not only were trade unions the self-motivation of ordinary people to
present in 80% of all the firms with ‘drive’ it? How can this cruel laboratory of
more than a thousand employees (Labour social relations yield a new society? Our
Monitoring Group, 1988) but, also, as two studies have the unfortunate task of answer-
large-scale social surveys (Ginsburg et al., ing these difficult questions.
1995; Orkin and Pityana 1992) demon-
strated, there was depth and substance in the
democratic beliefs of these worker leaders.
This, in KwaZulu Natal, did not vary despite THE DEFINITION OF POST-APARTHEID
the high proportion of shop steward leaders PRIORITIES AND THE BLACK LABOUR
with migrant worker roots and with home- ‘DEFICIT’
steads in the countryside. Whereas a clear
picture of shop stewards, their beliefs and Corporate capital, organized labour, the
priorities has emerged, less has been written Government of National Unity (GNU) and
on the self-motivation and cultural energy of the Reconstruction and Development Pro-
another kind of leadership: a cultural core gramme (RDP) all seem to agree: a democratic
which was particularly strong in KwaZulu future demands a productive and prosperous
Natal until 1992 (Meer, 1987). economy. The secret for achieving this, we
Indeed much of the cultural energy in creat- are told, lies in the motivation, productivity,
ing a labour movement subsisted on forms of work ethic and discipline of our predomi-
rhetoric, performance and communication, nantly black work force. This belief is also
deeply embedded in Zulu traditions and sym- nurtured by scholars and policy-makers
bolism (Bonnin, 1987; Sitas, 1986, 1987, whose different approaches converge on the
1988). It has been estimated that approxi- need for a productive and disciplined
mately 1500 members of the Congress of labour force and within that new-sought
South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in discipline, the central role human capacities
Natal were active between 1985 and 1992 in will have to play: ‘the ability to survive
such energetic work. Furthermore, the cultural and succeed in the new world … depends
formations and networks that pre-existed trade not on the amorphous notion of “competi-
unionism, what sociology terms ‘informal tiveness”’, notes Michael Porter (1990: 6),
organizations’, betrayed not only a silent and ‘but on the productivity with which a
subterranean resistance against managerial nation’s resources (labor and capital) are
authority (Sitas, 1985) but also a deep-seated employed’.
culture of mistrust (Hemson, 1979) and social The consensus that such an effort by pre-
distance from managerial prerogatives. dominantly black people, which calls for the