Despite the survival and strengthening of the independent unions in the late 1970s they remained small, mainly local, isolated and fragmented: Mawu in the Transvaal, Micwu in the Western Cape and Natal, Uaw/Numarwosa in the Eastern Cape, and WPMawu in the Western Cape. Union membership was small. Mawu, for example, had organised only one tenth of the estimated 500 000 workers in metal/engineering.264 Trade union unity both within the metal sector and across the independent unions in all industries, was limited, and their power to represent and promote their interests across the society more generally was tiny. Internal bureaucratic capacity, particularly in Mawu, was weak. If it was to grow and extend its influence in the next decade its administrative capabilities would have to improve. It was the launch of Fosatu in 1979 which was to signal a way forward for these small, disunited unions. It would also provide an example of the power that solidarity could muster for future unity initiatives.
Each union was attempting to expand its membership and increase its influence and it was a Numarwosa initiative that broke through this isolation. Numarwosa had remained outside any federation since its decision to withdraw from Tucsa in 1976. The idea of forging a new federation arose when its leadership raised the possibility of merging Numarwosa and UAW. It arrived at the view that only through the support of a unified national federation could the independent unions survive and grow in the face of a hostile state. Its expansion to Durban and Pretoria had allowed for growing contact with the emerging unions. In Durban it had made contact with Tuacc through the IMF Southern African Co-ordinating Council and discovered a group with similar goals and the same feeling of isolation. As Alec Erwin, a Tuacc official, explained, “We felt isolated and we believed a national movement would give us greater protection. Some people claimed unions like Numarwosa were bureaucratic because they were well run but we began to see that a union didn’t have to lose its militancy if it was run properly. We believed we could learn from their style of unionism.”265 Tuacc had already raised the possibility within its ranks of forming a larger more broad based federation and its decision in 1977 that both Mawu and CWIU should become national unions fed into this view. Thus when Numarwosa approached Tuacc, CIWW, the
Consultative Committee of Black Trade Unions (representing the UTP unions), and the Western Province Workers Advice Bureau (WPWAB) to consider unity, Tuacc resolved to play a leading role. At a joint meeting it proposed a tight federation based on common policies underpinned by the principle of workers’ participation and political independence. The meeting resolved to establish a Feasibility Committee to continue negotiations on the formation of a new federation.266
Ultimately both the WPWAB and Ccobtu decided not to enter Fosatu. The former expressed a fear of Tuacc dominance and argued that it was too early to form a federation which had not been demanded by workers. It contended that a unity forged by officials could only augment the power of officials.267 Ccobtu on its part had raised a number of objections to unity such as Saul’s firing of Faya in 1976 which some believed was an attempt to suppress black leadership; Mawu’s decision to organise in Springs where UTP unions had established a foothold; and that Ccobtu envisaged a much looser form of co-operation.268 A number of African workers in the Ccobtu group however discovered that they had received no report back on unity moves from leadership, and decided to meet the Feasibility Committee independently. This initiative led to the Glass & Allied Workers Union, the Paper Wood and Allied Workers Union, the Sweet Food & Allied Workers Union and a section of EAWU, entering the federation.269 Meanwhile Sauls had approached WPMawu which was to enter the new federation and provide its first president, Joe Foster.270 Although some Tucsa parallel unions in Ccobtu had shown an interest in the unity initiative, Micwu was not one of them.
As East recalls, “We were still part of Tucsa. We were not in the International Metal Federation, and Naawu [sic]271 was, and we were not organising the same membership so we did not clash. But we just didn’t like their leadership - Fred Sauls and Joe Foster. So we, for the time being, stayed on in Tucsa.”272 East’s explanation was of course only part of the story as more fundamental
differences existed, as previously described, between Micwu and the metal unions in Fosatu.
Parallel to these unity initiatives, the state was formulating new reform policies. The National Party was increasingly concerned that if the large number of small worker organisations emerging countrywide were not granted basic rights, they would move in a revolutionary direction. It had learnt from the 1976 Soweto uprising that repression had mobilised thousands of young people into active opposition to apartheid and many had joined the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe. It thus appointed the Wiehahn Commission to make recommendations on existing labour legislation.273 The core group of unions in the unity initiative, namely Tuacc, CIWW and UAW/Numarwosa, decided to submit objections to existing labour laws as well as proposals for reforming them. It was an important moment in cementing unity between them.274
Two years after the first meeting, in April 1979, 12 unions ( 3 registered and 9 unregistered)
representing 45 000 workers launched the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu). It was the first national labour federation in South Africa to build worker power through structures that ensured policy was controlled by worker leadership. Policy dictated that the president and vice-president should be full-time workers and that worker representatives to Fosatu structures must emanate from organised factories. Fosatu was founded on the same principles as the Tuacc unions and, like Mawu, it was committed to non-racial industrial unions based on the principles of worker control, shopfloor organisation, independence, international worker solidarity and trade union unity. It was a tight federation committing affiliates to the implementation of common policies and shared organising, administrative and education resources.275 The Federation would become an important support to the emerging unions in their struggle to grow and extend their influence in the 1980s in the changed environment provided by the Wiehahn laws. Sauls viewed it as `the major achievement`276 of the seventies. After its launch Erwin encapsulated Fosatu’s role as “a vehicle for practical co-operation between its affiliated unions and a means of giving ... its weak black union movement a shot in the arm.”277
In the same year another important development unfolded which was not unrelated to the growing power of these unions. The Wiehahn Report recommended that African workers be recognised as employees in the law and would thus be entitled to form registered trade unions. On the basis of this 3 laws were promulgated between 1978 and 1981278 which bestowed on African workers a range of union rights from admittance into official bargaining structures, including industrial councils, to the legal right to strike within the framework of stipulated procedures. The legislation also created an industrial court where employer and trade union rights under the new system would be defined and where precedents for fair employment practices binding both employers and employees could be set. Finally, the laws established the National Manpower Commission which would monitor the new system and advise the government.279 It was thus that the state aimed to incorporate, and tame, the independent unions.
The Wiehahn laws were a major achievement for the independent unions, and a significant breakthrough. Their understated organising methods had successfully manoeuvred the state towards reform rather than further repression and had thereby succeeded in opening up new organising spaces. Tarrow has explored why contentious politics only emerges in particular periods of history and why social movements sometimes flourish and at other times vanish into sectarianism and repression. He concludes that an important factor in the birth of a viable social movement is a shift in political opportunities and constraints. Such changes reveal where the authorities are vulnerable and permit, through the employment of strategic collective action, new opportunities to reveal themselves which lower the cost of action for ordinary people.280 The Wiehahn laws were such a catalyst in the creation of social movement unionism. In the 1980s the
independent unions would grasp these opportunities, supported by lessons learnt in the 1970s as well as by the emergence of strong worker leadership and a core of committed members.
8. Conclusion
By the 1970s a strong national economy had emerged in South Africa. Accompanying this was the emergence of a larger, more homogenous, settled and more skilled proletariat. Large numbers of black workers were herded together in some sizeable factories which increased the potential bargaining power of the black working class. These changes created greater structural possibilities for the formation of national industrial trade unions than ever before.
In this altered context the new metal unions emerged in the 1970s. Although divided ethnically and by different traditions and organising styles, they had all by the end of the decade attained sufficient stability to constitute a threat to the state and to thus force through legislative reforms.
Yet if Macun’s definition of trade union and working class power is considered, they still had a long way to go. Systemic racial and ethnic cleavages and deep divisions between migrant and urban Africans still mitigated against the attainment of working class power. There were
exceptions, Numarwosa and UAW had moved a long way towards destroying ethnic boundaries in their union structures, but in the main divisions remained. Micwu continued to endorse racially defined unions, WPMawu’s membership was almost solely coloured, and Mawu, although non-racial in constitution, was primarily a union of migrant African workers.
These metal unions’ power was severely limited despite some gains. Levels of unionisation were low, recognition agreements few, and bargaining for improved wages and working conditions was proceeding in only a fraction of possible factories. An impressive degree of internal cohesion existed in these unions, but the huge task of integrating their different ideological, bureaucratic and organisational traditions had hardly been conceived of, let alone embarked upon (except in passing during the course of Fosatu unity talks281). Sufficient power to engage or co-operate with political parties or with the captains of industry was still a distant possibility.
Perhaps most remote of all was their ability to wield institutional power. A massive organisational drive still needed to be conducted if these unions were to develop the power `to shape the decision-making agenda`282 and to influence the rules and regulations that directly affected their members.
Intimations of such power had revealed themselves in the government’s decision to open the industrial relations system to Africans, but the manner in which the unions would engage with this dispensation would be critical. It remained to be seen if they could manage such changes to their advantage and whether the strategies they adopted would weaken, limit or enhance their influence in the areas of bargaining, industrial relations legislation, and political processes.
The significance of trends established in the 1970s cannot however be overestimated in laying the foundations for the access to power in the 1980s. Although some of these fundamentals would be contested in the next decade, others would underpin future efforts at building, sustaining and wielding power. Power lay in the choice of national industrial unionism which unlike the new general unions entailed an emphasis on organisation rather than mobilisation. Organisation rested on strong, democratic shopsteward structures and `an acceptance of the ethic of union democracy and workers’ control` had been firmly entrenched by the close of the 1970s.283 Whilst white intellectuals had been unduly influential in Mawu’s early days284 by 1979 their power had been reduced. A new type of organiser was emerging in the late 1970s. Shopstewards who were dismissed in the course of their union activities became powerful organisers owing to the similarity in class background with those they sought to recruit and train. The surfacing of such organisers, combined with the focus on worker control, permitted the emergence of strong factory leadership and organic worker intellectuals. The seeds of a national metal union also existed with the spread of organisation into all the main industrial centres - Johannesburg, Pretoria, the East Rand, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London.
The survival of unions such as UAW/Numarwosa and Mawu had been linked to their innovative approaches, the range of tactics employed and the flexibility of their organising strategies. Mawu had, for example, progressed from generalised recruitment over a wide range of factories to the more focussed approach of achieving recognition in a small number of companies. This mode of operation was to serve them well in the rapidly changing environment of the 1980s.
By the end of the seventies the metal unions were poised to grow and exert their power in more significant ways. The Wiehahn laws were about to be passed and a new federation, Fosatu, had welded together the power of a sizeable number of well-organised workers. An appreciation of the need to consolidate and grow in order to wield greater power had developed. In the 1970s the key to survival had rested on the maintenance of a small unobtrusive, independent organisational and political profile. In the 1980s this strategy would come under severe contestation. To effect a decisive impact the unions had to increase their membership whilst maintaining high levels of factory organisation so that metal employers nationwide experienced a sustained assault. The following chapter will explore how these metal unions consolidated and extended their power and influence through large-scale, sustained growth and unity initiatives in the 1980s.
ENDNOTES
1 Friedman, Steven (1987): Building Tomorrow Today: African Workers in Trade Unions 1970 - 1984, Ravan Press, Johannesburg; MacShane, Denis and Martin Plaut and David Ward (1984):
Power! Black workers, their unions and the struggle for freedom in South Africa Spokesman, Nottingham England; Lowry, D (1999): 20 Years in the Labour Movement The Urban Training Project and Change in South Africa 1971 -1991, Wadmore Publishing, Johannesburg; Baskin, Jeremy (1991): Striking Back: A History of Cosatu, Ravan Press Braamfontein Johannesburg.
2 Bonin, Deborah R (1982): Class consciousness and conflict in the Natal Midlands, 1940 - 1987:
The Case of BTR Sarmcol Workers MA dissertation, University of Natal; Stewart, Paul (1981): A Worker has a human face: Mahlabatini, Vosloosrus Hostel and an East Rand Foundry-
Experiences of a migrant worker, BA Honours Dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand.
3 Allen, VL (1992) The History of Black Mineworkers in South Africa Volumes 1-3 The Moor Press, Great Britain.
4 Sachs, E S (1957) Garment Workers in Action Eagle Press, Johannesburg, South Africa.
5 Struggle for Workers’ Rights: A History of the Chemical Workers Industrial Union (1994) and Nehawu History: the unfinished story (1997) published by the Chemical Workers Industrial Union and National Education Health and Allied Workers union respectively.
6 Friedman, Steven (1987): Building Tomorrow Today: African Workers in Trade Unions 1970 - 1984, Ravan Press, Johannesburg; Maree, Johann (1992): Developing Trade Union Power and Democracy, unpublished.
7 Sitas, Ari (1984): “The Dunlop Strike: A Trial of Strength”, in The Independent Trade Unions 1974 - 1984: Ten Years of the South African Labour Bulletin, ed Johann Maree Ravan Press, 1987 Braamfontein Johannesburg.
8 Thompson, P (1978:5) The Voice of the Past, Oral History Oxford University Press, Oxford.
9 Bonin, Deborah R (1982:33): “Class consciousness and conflict in the Natal Midlands”.
10 Lambert, RV (1993:276) “Trade Unionism, Race, Class and Nationalism in the 1950s Resistance Movement” in Bonner, P, Peter Delius and Deborah Posel (eds) Apartheid’s Genesis 1935 – 1962, Ravan Press/Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, South Africa.
11 A Numsa General Secretary in the 1990s, Mbuyi Ngwenda; the Vaal branch Secretary in the 1980s and 1990s, Jeffrey Ndamase; and Dorothy Mokgalo a Numsa Nedcom (National Education Committee) chair and Cosatu’s first gender co-ordinator, all died in the course of writing this work.
12 Von Holdt, K. (2000:383) From Resistance to Reconstruction: A Case Study of Trade Unionism in the Workplace and the Community (1980 - 1996), PhD, University of the Witwatersrand
.
13 Interview Enoch Godongwana, September 2003.
14 Lambert, RV (1993) “Trade Unionism, Race, Class and Nationalism in the 1950s Resistance Movement”.
15 These were three interviews by Tom Bramble with shopstewards and organizers from the Numsa Wadeville Local, the Springs Local and shopstewards from Scaw Metals; an interview by Matthew Ginsberg of a Numsa education officer, Adrienne Bird..
16 Bonin, Deborah R (1982:33): “Class consciousness and conflict in the Natal Midlands”.
17 Martin, Ross, (1989:10) Trade Unionism: Purposes and Forms Clarendon Press, Oxford.
18 Bachrach, P and M.S. Baratz “Two faces of power” in Castles, FG, Murray, DJ, Potter, DC &
Pollit, CJ (eds) (1976:392) Decisions, Organizations and Society, Harmondsworth: Penguin in Association with the Open University.
19 Macun, Ian (2000:69): Growth, Structure and Power in the South African Union Movement in Trade Unions and Democratization in South Africa, 1985-1997, G Adler and E Webster (eds) Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg
.
20 Robinson, J The Power of Apartheid: State, Power and Space in South African Cities Department of Geographical and Environmental Sciences University of Natal (undated).
21 Michels, Robert (1959: 389/390) Political Parties Dover, New York.
22 Lester Richard (1958) As Unions Mature: An Analysis of the Evolution of American Unionism, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
23 Crouch, Colin (1982: 75 -77; 213 -214) Trade Unions: The Logic of Collective Action Fontana Great Britain.
24 Simkin C (1988:7) The Prisoners of Tradition and the Politics of Nation Building South African
Institute of Race Relations, Johannesburg, South Africa.
25 Ibid, p99.
26 Bachrach, P and M.S. Baratz (1976:401) “Two faces of power”.
27 Lukes, Steven (1974) Power: A Radical View The Macmillan Press Ltd.
28 Bachrach, Peter and Morton Baratz (1962) “The Two Faces of Power” in American Political Science Review, 56.
29 Lukes, Steven (1974:24) Power: A Radical View The Macmillan Press Ltd.
30 Wright, E O (1994:535) “Political Power, Democracy and Coupon Socialism” in Politics and Society Vol 22 No 4.
31 Ibid, 538/9.
32 Ibid, 539.
33 Ibid, 539.
34 Ibid.
35 Macun, Ian (2000:70): “Growth, Structure and Power in the South African Union Movement”.
36 Tarrow, S (1998:19): Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
37 Ibid, p22.
38 Ibid, 24,25.
39 Crouch, Colin (1982: 86) Trade Unions: The Logic of Collective Action Fontana Great Britain.
40 For example Moses Mayekiso, Enoch Godongwana, Mike Murphy, Alec Erwin, and Bethuel Maseremule. Lowry also testifies to the influence of Rick Turner in Lowry, D (1999:213): 20 Years in the Labour Movement The Urban Training Project and Change in South Africa 1971 -1991, Wadmore Publishing, Johannesburg.
41 Turner’s writings and teachings were considered a threat by the apartheid regime and he was murdered by an unknown gunman at his home in 1978.
42 Hyman, Richard (1973:5) Marxism and the Sociology of Trade Unionism Pluto Press Ltd, London.
43 V I Lenin (1902:375) Collected Works Vol v 1961 Lawrence & Wishart, London.
44 Ibid, p384.
45 Hyman, Richard (1973:14) Marxism and the Sociology of Trade Unionism.
46 Ibid, p103.
47 Cammett, J (1967:94) Antonio Gramsci and the Origins of Italian Communism Stanford University Press, Stanford , California.
48 Davidson, Alistair (1977:116/117): Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography, Merlin Press Ltd, Great Britain.
49 Fiori, G (1970) Antonio Gramsci: Life of a revolutionary, Schocken Books, New York
50 Williams, Gwyn (1975) Proletarian Order: Antonio Gramsci, Factory Councils and the Origins of Communism in Italy 1911 -1921, Pluto Press, Great Britain.
51 Davidson, Alistair (1977:116/117): Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography, Merlin Press Ltd, Great Britain.
52 Caprioglio, Sergio: Rinascita “Il Programma del Ordine Nuovo”, XX11, No 11, 13 March
52 Caprioglio, Sergio: Rinascita “Il Programma del Ordine Nuovo”, XX11, No 11, 13 March