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                                             COOPERATION IN KWAZULU NATAL                    381


                    ‘diasporization’ would  mean spreading  this  On the shop floors, the talk is still of soli-
                    energy across a broader terrain and its invo-  darity/‘umadlandawonye’ and unfulfilled
                    lution into discordant cultural formations.  promises, of hatred, of the scars of violence
                      A managerial cultural revolution that  but also of the need for peace and growth.
                    views black workers as a human resource is a  If our craft brings us back to the concerns
                    tremendous advance from the colonial man-  of finite, vulnerable human beings, industrial
                    agerialism of the ‘old’ regime. But, resources  and labour studies has to lend its voice to
                    are there to yield their effort, their gold, their  their ‘recoiling and refracting’ agencies. The
                    bile, and such an instrumental view is self-  plight of the self-employed woman selling
                    defeating. There is no solution unless partic-  plastic containers near the Durban station is
                    ipation goes alongside with the recognition  as worthy a topic of concern as the griev-
                    of the centrality of cultural formations, their  ances of an operator of the latest numerically-
                    autonomy and their negotiated participation  controlled lathe. Despite the dilemmas of
                    in defining the priorities of production.  work and productivity, and of human capacity
                      But shifting the discourse of responsibility  remains our chief concern – after all, we do
                    for national priorities onto ordinary people’s  want to live in a real democratic country, we
                    shoulders is problematic: their capacity to  do need prosperity – we cannot take the dom-
                    correct themselves without transforming the  inant goals of power-elites as ‘given’.
                    structures of inequality is very unlikely. The  Scholars of Industrial and Labour Studies
                    glossing of all that with pseudo-cultural lan-  will have to be at war within their souls: a
                    guage, ‘ubuntu’, African humanism and its  war between a realization that at the heart of
                    capacity to make profits for a couple of  participation, cooperation and innovation,
                    bosses is self-serving nonsense.        and the meeting of basic needs, there is a
                      On the one hand, managements are trying  demand for supportive involvement and a
                    to push beyond the institutional cooperation  commitment to a radical inquisition of the
                    embodied in collective bargaining to turn  real gains ordinary people make. Our worth
                    what was a social movement with its disso-  will not be counted by the applause of the
                    nance and alterity into a confluence of inter-  powerful but by the discomfort the honesty
                    ests. Managements have been far-reaching in  of our craft sustains.  The people of KZN
                    their innovations. They have taken the most  deserve no less.
                    exciting of the ideas developed in the creative
                    wings of the trade union movement and
                    turned them around to serve the priorities of
                    productivity. Worker theatre has turned into  REFERENCES
                    industrial theatre; workshops and political
                    role-plays have turned into problem-solving  Abu-Lughod, Janet, L. (1989) Before European
                    practices; worker self-expression has turned  Hegemony: The World System 1250–1350.
                    into self-empowerment and training. On the  NY: Oxford University Press.
                    other hand, the trade unions have lost the  Basckin, Jeremy (1991) Striking Back: A History
                    ability to provide platforms for the expres-  of COSATU. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
                    sion of alternatives: the Baba Khumalos have  Berger, Peter L. (1987) The Capitalist Revolution:
                                                              Fifty Propositions about Prosperity, Equality
                    been silenced and the mobilizers of yesterday
                                                              and Liberty. Aldershot: Wildwood House.
                    are too unskilled for the new formal cooper-
                                                            Bonnin, Debby (1987) ‘Class Consciousness
                    ation. In the words of one of the trade union
                                                              and Conflict in the Natal Midlands: The Case
                    movement’s finest, Alfred Qabula (1995: 9):
                                                              Study of BTR Sarmcol Workers’. MA Thesis,
                    ‘And when the dust of our struggle settled,  Durban: University of Natal.
                    there was nobody there … we were the lad-  Bourdieu, Pierre (1989)  Distinction: A Social
                    ders for people to climb new heights with  Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London:
                    spiked shoes’.                            Routledge.
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