Marlea Clarke

The Zuma Affair, Labour and the Future of Democracy in South Africa

Abstract South Africas new democracy has been tested by the controversy over the candidacy of Jacob Zuma, who became the successor to President Thabo Mbeki as leader of the African National Congress in December 2007, and is poised to become the countrys new president after the 2009 elections. Few social actors had more at stake than organised labour, which found itself sidelined from the policy process by its erstwhile political allies under Mbeki. Labour supported Zuma throughout the leadership campaign, and can been seen as having ‘won’ in the leadership contest. Yet the labour movement has avoided the critical question: at what cost? We argue that labours strategy of championing Zuma has simply reinforced the ‘insider politics’ that led to its sidelining and diminished the overall democratic process. If organised labour was to take its own post-apartheid history, and the experiences of other Third World labour movements, seriously, it would push for new, more participatory and inclusive forms of politics, rather than merely focus on a new political leader.

Ten Years of Labour Market Reform in South Africa: Real Gains for Workers?

AbstractPeu apres avoir pris le pouvoir en 1994, l’ African National Congress (ANC) a introduit un nouveau systeme reglementaire pour le marche du travail. Cet article traite de la transformation du marche du travail sous l’ANC, explorant les processus contradictoires de re-reglementation et re-segmentation qui ont caracterise la restructuration ces dix dernieres annees. Malgre une nouvelle legislation du travail avec pour but general de re-reglementer le marche du travail et d’accroitre la protection des travailleurs, d’autres politiques economiques et commerciales, introduites durant les deux premiers mandats de l’ANC, ont donne la priorite a l’acquisition de la confiance dans l’economie et du secteur prive et des investisseurs, embrassant ainsi les politiques neo-liberales. Ces politiques et le contexte economique general ou les nouvelles lois sur le travail se sont developpees ont sape l’impact reglementaire et l’efficacite de la nouvelle legislation. Le chomage a augmente, le travail informel et de s...

Precarious Employment and the Internal Responsibility System: Some Canadian Experiences

Worker representatives were formally recognised as agents in regulating workplace health and safety in most Canadian jurisdictions in the late 1970s. This was one component of the transition to an Internal Responsibility System that included mandated Joint Health and Safety Committees, right to know regulations, and the right to refuse dangerous work. Very little has changed in this regulatory framework in the ensuing three decades. The effectiveness of these regulations in improving health and safety was contentious in the 1970s and continues to be debated. Earlier work by Lewchuk et al. (1996) argued that the labour-management environment of individual workplaces influenced the effectiveness of worker representatives and Joint Health and Safety Committees. In particular, the framework was more effective where labour was organised and where management had accepted a philosophy of co-management of the health and safety function. The Canadian economy has experienced significant reorganisation since the 1970s. Canadian companies in general face more intense competition because of trade deals entered into in the 1980s and 1990s. Exports represent a much larger share of GNP. Union density has fallen and changes in legislation make it more difficult to organise workers. Non-standard employment, self-employment and other forms of less permanent employment have all grown in relative importance. This chapter presents new evidence on how these changes are undermining the effectiveness of the Internal Responsibility System in Canada, with a particular focus on workers in precarious employment relationships. Data is drawn from a recent population survey of non-student workers in Ontario conducted by the authors.