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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Development and Delivery of 'Northern' Worker Solidarity to South African Trade Unions in the 1970s and 1980s
Author:Southall, Roger J.ISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics
Volume:32
Issue:2
Pages:166-199
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:trade union confederations
Ethnic and Race Relations
Politics and Government
Labor and Employment
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/14662049408447679
Abstract:Whereas the 'labour imperialist' school of writing portrayed the machinery and politics of international labour as having been appropriated by union leaderships and bureaucrats, radical mythology simultaneously conceived of workers as inherently imbued with proletarian internationalism. The resulting disjunction between these two perspectives has never really been adequately addressed. This paper, which is drawn from a larger case study of international labour and South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s, proposes that, although during these years the strategies of the ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions), national centres, and international trade secretariats (ITS) might often conflict with expressions of activist, on-the-ground worker solidarity, they would often also prove complementary, congruent and coordinated. International trade union and worker support, notably from the North, made a significant contribution to the struggles of black workers in South Africa to establish their present generation of democratic trade unions. The practical delivery of solidarity was beset by numerous difficulties. These are illustrated by examining the implementation of the ICFTU Programme of Action by a national affiliate, the CLC (Canadian Labour Congress); the nature and dynamics of solidarity among national unions and the rank and file; and the functional solidarity provided by ITS. Ref.
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