going global going social

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community unionism in south african cities
the politics of public service delivery in cape
town
DAVID CHRISTOFFER LIER GEOGRAPHY SCHOOL OF
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT UNIVERSITY OF
MANCHESTER
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objectives

• COMMUNITY UNIONISM
• PUBLIC SECTOR RESTRUCTURING
• CASE STUDY
• COMMUNITY UNIONISM AND THE POLITICS OF
  
• PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY IN CAPE TOWN

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new geographies of work

• FRAGMENTATION
• CLASS-, WORKER-, WORKPLACE-
• OUTSOURCING, SUBCONTRACTING,
  CASUALISATION
• GEOGRAPHICAL, ORGANISATION AND TEMPORAL
• threatens worker solidarity
• elusive employer networks
• family and community networks carry increased
  social risk
• deunionisation

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the socio-spatial strategies of labour

• COMMUNITY UNIONISM
• new sites of recruitment
• new sources of mobilisation
• new scales of organising
• new targets for action

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geographies of state restructuring (i)

• DESTATISATION
• REDEFINING STATE BOUNDARIES
• DENATIONALISATION
• RELATIVISATION OF SCALE
• NEW STATE SPACES
• LOCAL STATE RESTRUCTURING

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community unionism and the state

• public sector workers facing similar
  socio-spatial challenges
• political leverage?
• public services complex relationship between
  public sector workers and the wider community

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geographies of state restructuring (ii)

• ANGLO-AMERICAN WORLD
• NEOLIBERAL HEARTLANDS
• OTHER TRAJECTORIES
• NORTHERN EUROPE
• POST-SOVIET ECONOMIES
• DEVELOPING WORLD
• SOUTH AFRICA
• FROM RACIAL FORDISM TO
• POST-APARTHEID NEOLIBERALISM
• PARADOX DERACIALISATION AND DEREGULATION

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community unionism in south africa

• SOCIAL MOVEMENT UNIONISM AND THE ANTI-APARTHEID
  STRUGGLE
• POST-APARTHEID CRISIS IN SERVICE DELIVERY
• growth-oriented macroeconomic policies
• cost-recovery principles and commercialisation
  of public services
• urban social movements emerging

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new occasions for social movement unionism?
MUNICIPAL WORKERS IN A PRODUCER-USER
SQUEEZE
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• I. COMMERCIALISATION
• ringfencing, business units, cost recovery
  principles (user fees)
• II. OUTSOURCING
• public-private partnerships, non-core
  activities
• III. PRIVATISATION
• e.g. to water multinationals (Suez, Biwater)
• DISCURSIVE CONTESTATION (ANTI-)PRIVATISATION
  

public sector restructuring and resistance in
cape town
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Cape Town Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF)

• South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU)
• 1999-2000 Response to the Unicity commission
• Social movements, community organisations,
  NGOs, political groupings
• Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC)

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not quite a success story
One of the positive things about the APF is that
it creates a forum for people of different
political persuasions to work together.
(APF member) The APF is very bad. There was
no activity at all, when I was there. (Socia
l movement activist) Their modus operandi -
privatisation was no more than an excuse - was to
attack the ANC government. The union is
completely split on the matter, its completely
schizophrenic. (SAMWU
leaders) The social movements out there, some
of them are two people and a fax machine.
(Union congress leader)
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dimensions of struggle
CHALLENGED SOLIDARITIES Political democratisation
? Economic liberalisation Fragmented labour
market Culture of individualism, upward mobility
NATIONAL POLITICS AND HEGEMONY Tripartite
Alliance (ANC, SACP, COSATU) Internal debate in
the labour movement ANC manufacturing consent ?
representing the people in struggle
ISSUES OF LOCAL ORGANISATION Legitimacy Organisati
onal difference Working methods,
militancy Resource assistance
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points for further thought
BUREACRATIC ENGAGEMENT OR COMMUNITY ACTIVISM? THE
STATE AS EMPLOYER INCREASED POLITICAL
LEVERAGE? THE COMMUNITY SOURCE OF
MOBILISATION? UNRULY ALLY?