South Africa's Political Crisis: Unfinished Liberation and Fractured Class Struggles

by Alexander Beresford

Overview

South Africa's current political upheavals are the most significant since the transition from apartheid. Its powerful trade unions are playing a central role, and the political direction they take will have huge significance for how we understand the role of labour movements in struggles for social justice in the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137436597
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	179
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

Alexander Beresford is Lecturer in the Politics of African Development at the University of Leeds, UK, and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His work examines contemporary South African politics. He has previously published a range of articles on issues including patronage politics, crony capitalism, nationalism and labour politics in the post-apartheid era.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
PART I: LIBERATION'S DREAM DEFERRED
1. A Dream Deferred: The Transition to Democracy
2. The Awkward Embrace of Neoliberalism
3. Towards a Post-nationalist Era?
4. A Brief History of the Alliance
5. The Implicit Ideological Compromise of the Alliance
6. Whither the Alliance?
7. Summary of the Argument
8. Unpacking the NUMSA Moment
9. Organisational Dilemmas and the Great Transition from Below
10. Exhausted or Regenerative Nationalism?
PART II: RESPONSES TO THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (NDP)
11. Responses to the Militant Strike Wave
12. The Marikana Massacre: the Final Straw?
13. Ideological Blurring and the Nationalist-populist Backlash
14. Conclusion: Fragmented Labour Struggles and Defensive Nationalism
PART III: INTERNECINE FACTIONALISM
15. The Interpenetration of Union and ANC Political Struggles
16. Patronage Politics in the Unions?
17. Coups, Purges and Fractures
18. Violence
19. Corruption Allegations
20. Sexual Misconduct Allegations
21. The Blurred Lines of Patronage Politics
22. Conclusion: A Labour Movement at War with Itself
PART IV: CLASS FORMATION AND THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL MOBILITY
23. Class Formation and the Mobility Divide
24. Competing Class Interests within Union Structures
25. The Double-edged Sword of Upward mobility: The Positive Side
26. The Double-edged Sword of Upward mobility: The Negative Side
27. Conclusion: Understanding the 'Transition from Below'
PART V: UNION DEMOCRACY, SOCIAL MOBILITY AND STIFLED MILITANCY
28. Democracy at the Grassroots?
29. Social Mobility as a Source of Union Decline?
30. The Loss of a Collective Mobilising Identity
31. Conclusion: Mobilise or Gradually Wilt
PART VI. EXHAUSTED OR REGENERATIVE NATIONALISM?
32. The Symbolic Political Capital of ANC Nationalism
33. The Limits of Symbolic Political Capital
34. The Broad Reach of Nationalism
35. Workers' Relationships with the Post-apartheid State: Workers' Rights
36. Workers' Relationships with the Post-apartheid State: Service Delivery
37. Workers' Relationships with the Post-apartheid State: Social Welfare
38. No Ordinary Party
39. Conclusion
PART VII: CONCLUSION: FRAGMENTED LABOUR STRUGGLES AND THE UNFINISHED PROJECT OF LIBERATION
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

'Does 'the NUMSA moment' prefigure a regeneration of transformative politics? Or will it encourage the ANC to resort to defensive nationalism and authoritarian populism? The extraordinary importance of Beresford's analysis extends well beyond South Africa. It will become required reading by all those concerned with the prospects for organised labour in the global South.' Roger Southall, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

'If you are interested seriously in 'the NUMSA moment' and its context in the complex web of South African politics, read this book now but don't expect another romantic overture to a clear class and ideological break from today's contradictions.' David Moore, Professor of Development Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

'South African trade unions today are ruptured by political divisions and the ANC led alliance is divided. Beresford's book offers important fresh perceptions about the fragmentation of the labour movement as well as the possibilities of a new kind of class politics in South Africa.' Tom Lodge, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Limerick, Ireland

From the Publisher