In this chapter, Marlea Clarke argues that South Africa’s high levels of police abuse need to be ... more In this chapter, Marlea Clarke argues that South Africa’s high levels of police abuse need to be understood as part of a wider social conflict over the limited nature of South Africa’s transition from apartheid and the role of neoliberalism in it. She shows how the adoption of neoliberalism has shaped social conflict, police actions, and police reform in the country through an examination of the growing civil society protests, high levels of violent crime, and the government’s response to both. She finds that neoliberalism has created an environment in which police abuse has flourished, directed at suspected criminals and at striking workers and social movements engaged in what the government is quick to label as “violent and unruly behavior” that hampers the economy.
Poverty and the Production of World Politics, 2006
This chapter engages sympathetically, but also critically, with the anti-essentialist and disaggr... more This chapter engages sympathetically, but also critically, with the anti-essentialist and disaggregated conceptualization of unprotected workers presented in previous chapters in this volume (especially in Chapters 2 and 3). It does so in order to offer an analysis of the history of unprotected work and workers’ struggles in South Africa, and the processes of labour market restructuring during the first ten years of democracy. As such the chapter seeks to demonstrate the significance of a modified variant of Harrod’s (1987) typology of unprotected workers for an analysis of the achievements and limitations of postapartheid labour market reforms, as well for a clarification of the strategic terrain of the continued struggle for emancipatory structural reforms in South Africa.
The imperative for minimum standards legislation, probably more so than any of the other pieces o... more The imperative for minimum standards legislation, probably more so than any of the other pieces of labour legislation, is to get the right balance between worker protection and the requirements of employers. In South Africa, with an unemployment rate that is estimated to be between 41.5 per cent and 45 per cent, this imperative assumes very large proportions. The architects of the new Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) responded to the challenge with the concept of "regulated flexibility", which provided extended and expanded protection for workers but with provision for variation by ministerial or sectoral determination, bargaining council agreement, collective agreement, and individual agreement (as well as specific provisions for temporal flexibility in light of the prospect of progressive lowering of the maximum weekly hours of work). Certain key protections (or "core" rights) could, however, not be varied.
Worker representatives were formally recognised as agents in regulating workplace health and safe... more 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.
This article explores the recent history of South Africa's clothing industry, focusing on the... more This article explores the recent history of South Africa's clothing industry, focusing on the rapid decline of formal sector employment and parallel growth in informal work, including small, home-based producers. We show that although the changing global regulatory regime and other external factors have shaped employment patterns in the sector, it is internal factors, particularly the country's powerful domestic retail industry and related changes in domestic sourcing patterns, which are largely responsible for informalisation and the current crisis facing the sector. The article concludes by suggesting that the various ‘low-road’ strategies adopted by manufactures aimed at competing with imports based on price are unsustainable.
In this paper, we assess the South African labour movement's engagement with globalisation in... more In this paper, we assess the South African labour movement's engagement with globalisation in the 1990s and its implications for labour politics in the following decade. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with key informants, we show that, although the labour movement had become committed to a ‘high road’, post-Keynesian restructuring vision by 1993, its representatives failed to pursue that vision consistently in the economic policy negotiations that preceded the historic 1994 democratic election. In fact, labour delegates actually agreed to several policy changes that were more in line with a ‘low road’, neo-liberal approach, with dramatic implications for workers in some sectors. The inability of labour's engagement with globalisation to benefit the working class has led to a long search for a new basis for union strategy.
Using cross-sectional data from a Canadian population-based questionnaire, this article develops ... more Using cross-sectional data from a Canadian population-based questionnaire, this article develops a new approach to understanding the impact of less permanent forms of employment on workers' health. It concludes that employment relationships where future employment is uncertain, where individuals are actively searching for new employment and where support is limited are associated with poorer health indicators.
... The purpose of the consultation seemed to be to secure advance support for the government... more ... The purpose of the consultation seemed to be to secure advance support for the government's proposal; notably, no mention was made of Mlambo-Ngcuka's intention to review the 'unintended consequences' of labour legislation on ... CAROLYN BASSETT & MARLEA CLARKE ...
I) Objective The study aimed to explore the health effects of precarious employment relationships... more I) Objective The study aimed to explore the health effects of precarious employment relationships in Ontario, and understand how various forms of support shape health. II) Methods Three measures make up our "Employment Strain" model: employment relationship uncertainty; employment relationship effort; and, employment relationship support. This new framework was used to measure the characteristics of precarious employment and their effect on health using data from a structured, self-administered, population-based survey completed by 3,244 workers, and 82 semi-structured interviews using a stratified sampling technique to select participants.
This special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, titled Legacies of Liberation:... more This special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, titled Legacies of Liberation: Postcolonial Struggles for a Democratic Southern Africa, seeks to explore the ongoing struggle for legitimate, accountable political leaders in post-colonial contexts where ex-liberation movements form the governments. The first two articles, by Teresa Debly and David Moore, investigate one of the main subthemes, the struggle for liberation and political transformation, in Swaziland and Zimbabwe, respectively. Three articles highlight the nature of rule in states headed by former liberation movements – all of which are now one-party dominant states – Leander Schneider on Tanzania, Roger Southall on South Africa and Linda Freeman on Zimbabwe. The issue concludes with two articles that use specific examples to highlight the processes of governance and resistance in post-liberation contexts, with Grace-Edward Galabuzi on the privatisation of Zambia’s mines and Richard Saunders on blood diamonds in Zimbabwe. The origins of this special issue are a series of discussions that began at the retirement of one of the Canada’s foremost scholars of African studies, York University Professor John S. Saul; the theme of the special issue draws on key questions about the nature and legacy of liberation movements in Southern Africa that have preoccupied Saul for the past half-century. Saul has been one of the most knowledgeable, sympathetic and prolific chroniclers of the anti-colonial struggle as it unfolded between the 1960s and 1990s in southern Africa, highlighting problems that plagued many of the region’s liberation movements once they gained political power. Key themes in Saul’s works include the dialectics of leadership accountability and grassroots participation and the challenge of fostering bottom-up, genuinely participatory processes of social change. Though the authors in this volume do not necessarily accept Saul’s conclusions or even his basic assumptions, and in fact not all directly address his writings, they do engage with one or more of these central questions. Saul has been part of a generation of important western scholars of African liberation politics and perhaps the foremost critical researcher of radical liberation movements in southern Africa. A self-described ‘revolutionary traveler’ (Saul 2009), he not only documented 30 years of liberation struggle in the region, but also sought to actively support those struggles through his writings, his teachings and his ongoing engagement with the region from his base in Toronto, most notably with the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa (TCLSAC). Author of more than 14 authored and
In this chapter, Marlea Clarke argues that South Africa’s high levels of police abuse need to be ... more In this chapter, Marlea Clarke argues that South Africa’s high levels of police abuse need to be understood as part of a wider social conflict over the limited nature of South Africa’s transition from apartheid and the role of neoliberalism in it. She shows how the adoption of neoliberalism has shaped social conflict, police actions, and police reform in the country through an examination of the growing civil society protests, high levels of violent crime, and the government’s response to both. She finds that neoliberalism has created an environment in which police abuse has flourished, directed at suspected criminals and at striking workers and social movements engaged in what the government is quick to label as “violent and unruly behavior” that hampers the economy.
Poverty and the Production of World Politics, 2006
This chapter engages sympathetically, but also critically, with the anti-essentialist and disaggr... more This chapter engages sympathetically, but also critically, with the anti-essentialist and disaggregated conceptualization of unprotected workers presented in previous chapters in this volume (especially in Chapters 2 and 3). It does so in order to offer an analysis of the history of unprotected work and workers’ struggles in South Africa, and the processes of labour market restructuring during the first ten years of democracy. As such the chapter seeks to demonstrate the significance of a modified variant of Harrod’s (1987) typology of unprotected workers for an analysis of the achievements and limitations of postapartheid labour market reforms, as well for a clarification of the strategic terrain of the continued struggle for emancipatory structural reforms in South Africa.
The imperative for minimum standards legislation, probably more so than any of the other pieces o... more The imperative for minimum standards legislation, probably more so than any of the other pieces of labour legislation, is to get the right balance between worker protection and the requirements of employers. In South Africa, with an unemployment rate that is estimated to be between 41.5 per cent and 45 per cent, this imperative assumes very large proportions. The architects of the new Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) responded to the challenge with the concept of "regulated flexibility", which provided extended and expanded protection for workers but with provision for variation by ministerial or sectoral determination, bargaining council agreement, collective agreement, and individual agreement (as well as specific provisions for temporal flexibility in light of the prospect of progressive lowering of the maximum weekly hours of work). Certain key protections (or "core" rights) could, however, not be varied.
Worker representatives were formally recognised as agents in regulating workplace health and safe... more 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.
This article explores the recent history of South Africa's clothing industry, focusing on the... more This article explores the recent history of South Africa's clothing industry, focusing on the rapid decline of formal sector employment and parallel growth in informal work, including small, home-based producers. We show that although the changing global regulatory regime and other external factors have shaped employment patterns in the sector, it is internal factors, particularly the country's powerful domestic retail industry and related changes in domestic sourcing patterns, which are largely responsible for informalisation and the current crisis facing the sector. The article concludes by suggesting that the various ‘low-road’ strategies adopted by manufactures aimed at competing with imports based on price are unsustainable.
In this paper, we assess the South African labour movement's engagement with globalisation in... more In this paper, we assess the South African labour movement's engagement with globalisation in the 1990s and its implications for labour politics in the following decade. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with key informants, we show that, although the labour movement had become committed to a ‘high road’, post-Keynesian restructuring vision by 1993, its representatives failed to pursue that vision consistently in the economic policy negotiations that preceded the historic 1994 democratic election. In fact, labour delegates actually agreed to several policy changes that were more in line with a ‘low road’, neo-liberal approach, with dramatic implications for workers in some sectors. The inability of labour's engagement with globalisation to benefit the working class has led to a long search for a new basis for union strategy.
Using cross-sectional data from a Canadian population-based questionnaire, this article develops ... more Using cross-sectional data from a Canadian population-based questionnaire, this article develops a new approach to understanding the impact of less permanent forms of employment on workers' health. It concludes that employment relationships where future employment is uncertain, where individuals are actively searching for new employment and where support is limited are associated with poorer health indicators.
... The purpose of the consultation seemed to be to secure advance support for the government... more ... The purpose of the consultation seemed to be to secure advance support for the government's proposal; notably, no mention was made of Mlambo-Ngcuka's intention to review the 'unintended consequences' of labour legislation on ... CAROLYN BASSETT & MARLEA CLARKE ...
I) Objective The study aimed to explore the health effects of precarious employment relationships... more I) Objective The study aimed to explore the health effects of precarious employment relationships in Ontario, and understand how various forms of support shape health. II) Methods Three measures make up our "Employment Strain" model: employment relationship uncertainty; employment relationship effort; and, employment relationship support. This new framework was used to measure the characteristics of precarious employment and their effect on health using data from a structured, self-administered, population-based survey completed by 3,244 workers, and 82 semi-structured interviews using a stratified sampling technique to select participants.
This special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, titled Legacies of Liberation:... more This special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, titled Legacies of Liberation: Postcolonial Struggles for a Democratic Southern Africa, seeks to explore the ongoing struggle for legitimate, accountable political leaders in post-colonial contexts where ex-liberation movements form the governments. The first two articles, by Teresa Debly and David Moore, investigate one of the main subthemes, the struggle for liberation and political transformation, in Swaziland and Zimbabwe, respectively. Three articles highlight the nature of rule in states headed by former liberation movements – all of which are now one-party dominant states – Leander Schneider on Tanzania, Roger Southall on South Africa and Linda Freeman on Zimbabwe. The issue concludes with two articles that use specific examples to highlight the processes of governance and resistance in post-liberation contexts, with Grace-Edward Galabuzi on the privatisation of Zambia’s mines and Richard Saunders on blood diamonds in Zimbabwe. The origins of this special issue are a series of discussions that began at the retirement of one of the Canada’s foremost scholars of African studies, York University Professor John S. Saul; the theme of the special issue draws on key questions about the nature and legacy of liberation movements in Southern Africa that have preoccupied Saul for the past half-century. Saul has been one of the most knowledgeable, sympathetic and prolific chroniclers of the anti-colonial struggle as it unfolded between the 1960s and 1990s in southern Africa, highlighting problems that plagued many of the region’s liberation movements once they gained political power. Key themes in Saul’s works include the dialectics of leadership accountability and grassroots participation and the challenge of fostering bottom-up, genuinely participatory processes of social change. Though the authors in this volume do not necessarily accept Saul’s conclusions or even his basic assumptions, and in fact not all directly address his writings, they do engage with one or more of these central questions. Saul has been part of a generation of important western scholars of African liberation politics and perhaps the foremost critical researcher of radical liberation movements in southern Africa. A self-described ‘revolutionary traveler’ (Saul 2009), he not only documented 30 years of liberation struggle in the region, but also sought to actively support those struggles through his writings, his teachings and his ongoing engagement with the region from his base in Toronto, most notably with the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa (TCLSAC). Author of more than 14 authored and
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