Glenda Daniels
A major shift is happening in South African politics as white workers flock to sign up for union membership.
Are class alliances superseding race a Trotskyist dream come true? Is expedience at work as jobs are lost in thousands? Has political consciousness been raised? Or are white apolitical unions mushrooming because they can’t toyi-toyi? There is a bit of truth in all of this.
White intellectuals were at the forefront of progressive trade unionism in South Africa in the 1950s and thousands of white workers flocked to join. In the 1970s a second wave of trade unionism in South Africa was led by white students and academics, primarily at universities.
In the 1980s trade unions became a site of working-class political activism with the formation of the African National Congress-aligned Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in 1984, but by and large its membership was black.
Today the terrain is rapidly changing. While Cosatu is still the largest federation, housing 19 unions with a membership of about two million, other unions and federations are mushrooming.
White workers are now joining established federations such as Cosatu, the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) and the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), which was formed in 1997.
Fedusa claims to be the rainbow federation because, with about 550 000 members, it is almost half black and half white. While it has the largest number of white workers, general secretary Chez Milani says: “We’re not about representing white interests, half of our membership is black. We’re about worker issues and delivery.”
Milani point outs that Fedusa has “strong integration from top to bottom. We have the rainbow nation. And our president is a black woman. During the Transnet protest we saw how well both races worked together.”
Fedusa is positioned “in the middle politically, with a centrist approach”, and differences with Cosatu are ideological.
“We must be politically independent and non-aligned, not in bed with a party. Cosatu is socialist and we are social democratic.”
Milani concedes there is an element of expediency when whites join Fedusa. They are losing their jobs, so they want a union to fight their battles.
“They have seen that through collective bargaining there is collective benefit. But it’s more than expediency. Political education has risen among whites. They have a raised consciousness about the Labour Relations Act and are beginning to understand that they have worker rights.”
But can they toyi-toyi?
“Yes, of course they can toyi-toyi. Transformation is happening in unions, but we don’t focus on race and cultural differences but on the common work issues,” Milani says.
Fedusa won’t invite the newly formed, predominantly white Mine Workers’ Union (MWU), which has nearly 100 000 blue- and white-collar members, to merge with itself because there are radical differences over affirmative action.
“They don’t believe in affirmative action but we do. They are right wing and are playing on swartgevaar,” Milani says.
The MWU denies that it is racist.
“We are open to all races, but for historical reasons we have mainly Afrikaans members. Whites have joined because of job insecurity, they are not protected by the labour legislation anymore. They are feeling alienated,” says general secretary Flip Buys.
“No, there is no toyi-toying culture in our union, but more a sense of rights and democracy. About affirmative action we say inequalities must be rectified but this mustn’t lead to new inequalities,” he says.
Even though many whites feel more culturally comfortable in almost exclusively white unions such as the MWU, the predominantly black non-aligned federation Nactu is now having white workers knock on its door.
The general secretary of Nactu, Cunningham Ngcukana, says white workers from the police, Scaw Metals and Sasol recently joined Nactu.
“They are joining us because we are politically unaffiliated, our sympathies are only for the working class. They are looking for effective trade union representation. This is good for the country, for racial harmony and reconciliation.”
Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of Cosatu, welcomes the move too. “I think the development is part of the normalising of society, towards non-racialism. Members of the working class are beginning to realise they belong together. Their futures are interwined, they are dependent on each other.
“Whereas in the past white members were not happy to carry a placard or to toyi-toyi outside an employer’s office, we are now seeing this happening. In fact, more whites are becoming shop stewards in Cosatu.”
Black workers are very receptive and encouraging, he says. There is no derision about whites not being able to sing resistance songs or do the toyi-toyi properly. On the contrary, “there is appreciation” for the effort, Vavi says.
The time then is ripe for Cosatu’s white-collar-worker campaign, which will be launched next week, he says.