Anarcho-Syndicalism and Union Education in South Africa: A Critical Evaluation of the Tradition of the Congress of South African Trade Unions

January 8, 2024January 8, 2024 / Zabalaza Books

Authors: Mandy Moussouris and Lucien van der Walt

PDF file size: 357 KB

This chapter focuses on the potential of trade union education as a revolutionary force in society. It aims to provide a deeper understanding of types of union education in history and practice – primarily anarchist / anarcho-syndicalist education – which have either led to revolution or built a strong revolutionary culture, and to use these to evaluate critically the evolution of union education in South Africa from the late 1980s.

IN: Linda Cooper and Sheri Hamilton (eds.), Renewing Workers’ Education: Towards a Radical, Alternative Vision, HSRC Press: Cape Town, pp. 199-214.

Continue reading →

Red, Black and Gold: FOSATU, South African ‘Workerism’, ‘Syndicalism’ and the Nation

January 7, 2024January 7, 2024 / Zabalaza Books

Authors: Sian Byrne, Nicole Ulrich and Lucien van der Walt

PDF file size: 283 KB

Download PDF

The Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU) inaugurated in 1979, the strongest working class organisation opposing apartheid in the early 1980s. FOSATU was associated with the distinct radical politics of South African ‘workerism.’ ‘Workerism’ has been widely caricatured: this pamphlet provides a recovery of its politics and history. Its emphasis on strong, industrial, autonomous unions, free of party control, its project of building a working class movement and identity, its participation in a wide range of struggles, and its left-wing, anti-capitalist and class-based (and anti-nationalist) approach to the national question is outlined.

Sian Byrne, Nicole Ulrich, and Lucien van der Walt, 2017, “Red, Black and Gold:¹ FOSATU, South African ‘Workerism’, ‘Syndicalism’ and the Nation,” in Edward Webster and Karin Pampillas (eds.), The Unresolved National Question in South Africa: Left Thinking Under Apartheid, Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Continue reading →