Trade Unions and Party Politics pot

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Edited by Björn Beckman, Sakhela Buhlungu and Lloyd Sachikonye

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Published by HSRC Press

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First published 2010

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Preface vi

Acronyms and abbreviations ix

1 Introduction: Trade unions and party politics in Africa 1

Björn Beckman and Lloyd Sachikonye

2 Autonomy or political ailiation? Senegalese trade unions

in the face of economic and political reforms 23

Alfred Inis Ndiaye

3 Disengagement from party politics: Achievements and challenges

for the Ghana Trades Union Congress 39

Emmanuel O Akwetey with David Dorkenoo

4 The failure of Nigeria’s Labour Party 59

Björn Beckman and Salihu Lukman

5 Trade unions, liberalisation and politics in Uganda 85

John-Jean Barya

6 The labour movement and democratisation in Zimbabwe 109

Lovemore Matombo and Lloyd M Sachikonye

7 Unions and parties in South Africa: CoSatu and the aNc

in the wake of Polokwane 131

Roger Southall and Edward Webster

8 Serving workers or serving the party? Trade unions and

politics in Namibia 167

Herbert Jauch

9 Trade unions and the politics of national liberation in Africa:

An appraisal 191

Sakhela Buhlungu

Contributors 207

Index 208

Contents

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vi

Preface

this book originates in a conference that was held at the Parktonian

Hotel in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, from 21–22 July 2006, hosted by

the Sociology of Work Unit (Swop) at the University of the Witwatersrand.

It preceded the World Congress of Sociology that was organised by the

International Sociological Association (ISa) in Durban the subsequent week,

where a meeting of the ISa’s Research Committee on the Labour Movement

(rc44) was coordinated by Eddie Webster and Sakhela Buhlungu of Swop.

As rc44 is global in its orientation, the idea was to hold a special pre-ISa

conference focusing on Africa, the host continent of the World Congress.

The pre-ISa conference was a joint undertaking between Swop, the Politics

of Development Group, Stockholm University, and the Agrarian and Labour

Studies Department at the Institute of Development Studies (IdS), University

of Zimbabwe. It built on a network of labour scholars, including an earlier

workshop in Harare that resulted in a 2001 book on liberalisation and the

restructuring of state–society relations in Africa, edited by Björn Beckman

and Lloyd Sachikonye, as well as a symposium in Harare in July 2002, also

organised by the IdS. Trade unionists were invited to the conference and joint

papers by labour scholars and unionists were encouraged, as relected in

this book. The president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (zctu),

Lovemore Matombo, and other leading Zimbabwean unionists contributed

actively. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (coSatu), the leading

trade union centre of the hosting nation, was well represented. One session

was chaired by Zwelinzima Vavi, the coSatu general secretary, and South

African unionists contributed to panels and debates. The Zambia experience,

not covered in this book, was presented by a unionist. The conference also

involved union-based scholars from the African Labour Research Network

that brings together union-linked research outits, such as South Africa’s

National Labour and Economic Development Institute (NaledI), the Labour

Resource and Research Institute of Namibia, the Labour and Economic

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vii

Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, and the research units of

Ghana Trade Union Congress, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions, and

the Nigeria Labour Congress. The director of NaledI ofered a lead speech

to one session. Although African in focus, the conference contained a

comparative element, taking advantage of the presence of labour scholars

from non-African countries who had come for rc44, including Rob Lambert

and Peter Evans who served as discussants and rapporteurs. A comparative

paper drawing on the Indonesian and South Asian experience by Olle

Törnquist of the University of Oslo was also presented but is not included in

this all-African collection. Funding for the conference was provided by the

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a foundation closely associated with the German

Social Democratic Party and specially concerned with the union–party link.

A Swedish research grant (Sida/Sarec) allowed African participants to attend

the subsequent Durban ISa conference and the meetings of rc44. Both the

conference in Braamfontein and the subsequent rc44 meeting in Durban

were ably coordinated by Anthea Metcalfe on behalf of Swop and the three

cooperating institutions.

Although originating in the 2006 Braamfontein conference, the

chapters of this book have been developed further to take account of

subsequent developments. Some are new altogether, including the South

Africa chapter by Roger Southall and Eddie Webster that seeks to make

sense of the Polokwane events. The Zimbabwe situation has continued to

deteriorate and some of the participants in the workshop, including the zctu

president, have been subjected to brutal violence by the henchmen of the

regime. The concluding chapter by Sakhela Buhlungu, one of the editors,

is also a fresh contribution to the debates. We are happy to include Herbert

Jauch’s piece on Namibia, also speciically written for the book. Sadly, the

continued repression of independent unions in Egypt has prevented the

inclusion of a chapter by Rahma Refaat, a scholar–activist from the Centre

for Trade Union and Workers Services, who contributed efectively to the

discussions in Braamfontein and Durban.

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viii

We are grateful for the inancial support provided by the Faculty of

Humanities at the University of Johannesburg towards the production of

this book.

The book is dedicated to Eddie Webster, a South African labour

scholar, who has been instrumental in advancing the ield of labour studies

globally, and whose achievements were celebrated in Johannesburg in June

2009 to mark the occasion of his oicial retirement from the Department of

Sociology of the University of the Witwatersrand. We wish him a continued

productive life!

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ix

Acronyms and abbreviations

aatuf All Africa Trade Union Federation

afl–cIo American Federation of Labour–Congress of Industrial

Organisations

aGoa African Growth and Opportunity Act

aNc African National Congress

aof Afrique Occidentale Française (French West Africa)

Bee black economic empowerment

cNtS Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs du Sénégal

coftu Central Organisation of Free Trade Unions (Uganda)

coSatu Congress of South African Trade Unions

cpp Convention People’s Party (Ghana)

cSa Confédération des Syndicats Autonomes

epa Economic Partnership Agreement

epz Export Processing Zone Act (Namibia)

eSap economic structural adjustment programme

eu European Union

fc Forces du Changement

foSatu Federation of South African Trade Unions

fue Federation of Uganda Employers

futu Federation of Uganda Trade Unions

Gear Growth, Employment and Reconstruction

Gtuc Ghana Trade Union Congress

Icftu International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

IdS Institute of Development Studies (University of Zimbabwe)

Ilo International Labour Organisation

IMf International Monetary Fund

INec Independent National Electoral Commission

ISa International Sociological Association

lra Labour Relations Act

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Mdc Movement for Democratic Change (Zimbabwe)

Mp Member of Parliament

Mwt Marxist Worker Tendency

Nactu National Council of Trade Unions

NaledI National Labour and Economic Development Institute

(South Africa)

Nca National Constitutional Assembly (Zimbabwe)

Nec National Executive Committee

Nedlac National Economic Development and Labour Council

NGo non-governmental organisation

Nlc Nigeria Labour Congress

Nlc National Liberation Council (Ghana)

Notu National Organisation of Trade Unions (Uganda)

Nra National Resistance Army (Uganda)

NrM National Resistance Movement (Uganda)

NrM–o National Resistance Movement–Organisation (Uganda)

NSSf National Social Security Fund (Uganda)

NuBIfIe National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions

Employees (Nigeria)

NulGe National Union of Local Government Employees (Nigeria)

NuNw National Union of Namibian Workers

opo Ovamboland People’s Organisation

pdS Parti Démocratique Sénégalais

poSa Public Order and Security Act (Zimbabwe)

pS Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party, Senegal)

rc44 Research Committee on the Labour Movement (of the ISa)

Sacotu South African Confederation of Trade Unions

Sacp South African Communist Party

Sactu South African Congress of Trade Unions

Sap structural adjustment programme

Sdf Social Democratic Front (Ghana)

SoNatel Société Nationale des Télécommunications du Sénégal

x

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SudeS Syndicat Unique et Démocratique des Enseignants du Sénégal

Swapo South West Africa People’s Organisation

Swop Sociology of Work Unit (University of the Witwatersrand)

tuc Trades Union Congress (Ghana)

tuc Trade Union Congress (Britain)

tucNa Trade Union Congress of Namibia

ucc University of Cape Coast (Ghana)

uK United Kingdom

ulc Uganda Labour Congress

uNSaS Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes du Sénégal

upc Uganda Peoples’ Congress

uSa United States of America

utGlawu Uganda Textile, Garments, Leather and Allied Workers’ Union

utuc Uganda Trade Unions’ Congress

zaNu-pf Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front

zctu Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions

zftu Zimbabwe Federation of Trade unions

xi

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1

Introduction: Trade unions and party politics in Africa

Björn Beckman and Lloyd Sachikonye

Labour movements and political parties

are trade unions capable of enhancing their political influence through

engaging with political parties while simultaneously protecting their

autonomy? Do they use political parties to transform society or are they part

of the status quo? Are they primarily concerned with protecting the special

interests of a small and dwindling wage-earner population or are they voicing

the grievances of a wider popular constituency? These are the core questions

addressed in this volume about the politics of Africa’s labour movements.

The volume looks specifically at the way in which trade unions engage with

political parties either by being part of them, taking a lead in their formation,

or refusing to join party politics altogether. There is a strong tradition

globally of close union–party relations. In Europe in particular, trade unions

have played a crucial role in the formation of social democratic or labour

parties. Here there is a prevailing notion of the ‘labour movement’ being

composed of two wings, a union wing and a party wing. Unionists are often

recruited into leading party positions and unions play a key role in funding

‘their’ parties. They are also occasionally, as in the British case, granted

bulk voting rights in party congresses. In a number of European countries,

especially in the northern parts, social democratic or labour parties have

played a dominant role on the political scene, as a governing party, a part of

a governing coalition, or as the mainstay of the political opposition. There is

a built-in conflict between being part of a government, actual or prospective,

and negotiating a collective agreement on behalf of your members. Union

1

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2 TRADE UNIONS AND PARTY POLITICS

leaders are often accused of betraying their immediate constituency either by

supporting the policies of their immediate party allies or in order to ensure

privileged access to political power for the leadership itself. The emergence of

communist parties after the First World War was linked to political divisions

within the labour movements over the wider societal role of labour and, in

particular, over a ‘revolutionary’ or ‘reformist’ road to political power. Where

communist parties became ruling parties in a one-party context, as in the

Soviet Union and its allies, trade unions lost much of their independent clout

although they often retained privileged access to government and welfare

benefits. In much of Latin America and in Asia, the strong links between

trade unions and political parties were reproduced along similar lines to

those in Europe. However, unions have occasionally been fragmented on

party lines, as in India where each political party, including the Hindu

nationalists, operates their own unions. This is similar to the situation

reported in the Senegalese case in Chapter 2. The colonial experience has left

its mark on the union–party relation with trade unions playing an important

role in liberation movements, often being incorporated into a dominant

political party that claimed to represent the emerging nation. This, we shall

see, is central to the African historical experience.

Labour movements are politically contested, both by those who

identify themselves as labour and by those who are part of a different camp,

either as employers or as governments that seek to ensure modes of control

and regulation in line with strategies of their own. Central to the labour

movements, however, is the notion of a common interest as determined by

the position of labour in production. In both the social democratic and the

communist traditions, there is the notion of a conflict between labour and

capital, between employees and employers, although obscured in the case

of ruling parties and collective forms of ownership. In the post-colonial

situation, the conflict is often suppressed with reference to wider notions of

national liberation and national development. How do contemporary African

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INTRODUCTION: TRADE UNIONS AND PARTY POLITICS IN AfRICA 3

trade unions strike the balance between such wider commitments and collec￾tive bargaining on behalf of workers in individual workplaces? How do their

ties to political parties affect this balance?

Unions engage in politics most directly by intervening in the political

processes and institutions that regulate and control labour relations and the

price of labour, that is, labour legislation, labour courts, and government

labour departments with their officials engaged in monitoring the system.

To what extent do they depend on links to political parties in advancing

their position in the workplace? Governments and political parties differ in

their views of these things and workers therefore get involved in politics in

order to ensure labour-friendly outcomes. But how can workplace matters

and issues of wider national development be separated? Conditions of work

are fundamentally affected by the regular supply of reasonably priced water,

energy, transport and communication, and other factors that are essential for

production and employment. Unions therefore also engage themselves politi￾cally in order to influence conditions of production in the interests of their

members. Similarly, the value of wages depends on developments outside

the workplace, on consumer prices, the costs of housing and producing a

family, the services needed to ensure the health and education of workers’

dependents, and the care offered for the elderly, disabled and unemployed.

This, too, becomes an area where unions are under pressure from their

members to influence politics. Political parties and political actors are differ￾ently committed in this respect, thus affecting the allegiances of unions

and workers. Programmatic differences of ideology and macroeconomic

policy contribute importantly to unions’ political identifications. Apart from

causing unions to engage politically at the local level, these differences also

bring them into confrontation with international financial institutions and

development agencies that have their own agenda and views of an appro￾priate policy framework. Unions are commonly seen as a stumbling block to

international strategies of privatisation and neo-liberal reforms of trade and

property rights.

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