In this thesis, I examine the centrality of travel geographies – with a specific focus on
urban commuter railway lines between Mamelodi and central Tshwane – and their
influence upon political identities of South African workers. By adopting a historical
approach to our understanding of the South African working class, the thesis brings
into sharper focus the relationship between the social dynamics of apartheid and how
workers perceived the concept of a train. These have permeated into the new era with
the formation of the Mamelodi Train Sector (MTS), as an organisation dedicated to
organising workers on the trains since 2001. The emergence of MTS in the era of the
neoliberal labour regime and its associated assault upon labour movements present
opportunities for labour revival strategies. Drawing on the data collected, I show that
the train can be used as a strategic site of mobilising, particularly for those workers
without workplace representation. By portraying the train as a site of worker power
and political consciousness, I accord primacy to the train as a space of potential union
revival. This is informed by educational sessions on labour rights and labour law that
take place on the train en-route to and from work. Because during these educational
sessions; workers ask workplace or problem specific questions, I suggest, such
questions are informed by the need to seek out useful information that can be utilised
to address specific workplace problems.
The theme ‘labour movement revival’ has gained global traction as labour scholars
from both the north and south grapple with the aftermath of globalisation on organised
labour. This has seen an increase in poverty, unemployment and inequalities in
countries such as South Africa. Labour revitalisation theme came about because, as
Beverly Silver correctly observes:
During the last two decades of the twentieth century, there was an
almost complete consensus in the social sciences literature that
labo[u]r movements were in a general and severe crisis. Declining
strike activity and other overt expressions of labo[u]r militancy, failing
union density and shrinking real wages and job insecurity were among
the trends documented (Silver, 2003: 1).
Reacting to the reality as described by Silver (2003), labour scholars, activists and
likeminded individuals set about to rescue the once militant labour movement from its
ii
perpetual decline. Drawing on case studies from various countries, author after author
sought to offer new ways in which the erstwhile flourishing trade unionism can be
restored to its former glory. This ethnographic study hopes to make a contribution to
this growing body of knowledge. By exploring the activities of the Mamelodi Train
Sector (MTS), the study attempts to show that the train can become a strategic locus
of worker social power.
By historicising the role of the train, it is possible to trace various phases of the ‘making
of the South Africa working class’ starting in 1652 (colonialism era). This was followed
by the period of mineral discovery, segregation and lastly, apartheid. These historical
epochs were characterised by an oppressive and racist capitalist industrialisation
process, which sough, as a point of departure to turn into cheap migrants the
indigenous populations of South Africa. This saw the advent of an elaborate
proletarianisation process backed up a battery of oppressive legislative measures.
Due to these conditions, a particular kind of trade unionism – social movement
unionism (SMU) – emerged in this context as response to the abuse, exploitation and
lack of industrial citizenship of the African majority both as workers and citizens of this
country. As an expression of black anger, SMU was primarily concerned with
liberating South African from the abuses of both the apartheid state and the racist
capitalist system operational in South Africa at the time. This saw black Africans being
accorded labour rights for the first time in 1979 and finally achieving democratic
majority rule in 1994. A social partnership was put in place with the militant labour
movement under COSATU entering into an alliance with the ruling ANC and SACP.
Post-1994, the SMU of the 80s faced new challenges with the advent of the neoliberal
labour regime as the ANC government adopted market friendly macro-economic
policies. The corollary presented the weakening of the labour movements as capital
put in place measure to counter labours organisational power.
This led to a crisis of representation as South Africa’s largely industrial unionism
struggled under the new work paradigm. Under the new work conditions,
casualisation, externalisation and outsourcing were adopted by capital with a view to
weaken labour’s traditional forms of power – associational and structural power. It is
this shifting terrain that required innovative ways to theorise and understand labour’s
attempts to ameliorate the juggernaut that became neoliberalism. Fracturing the
workplace as traditionally understood severely raptured worker solidarities. It is within
iii
this context that this thesis seeks to understand MTS and its locus of operation – the
train. The data collected shows that MTS plays a critical role in filling some of the gaps
left by the weakened SMU. By organising on the train, MTS provides a space of
articulation for the vulnerable sections of the workforce – those without workplace
representation. Drawing from the power resource approach (PRA), the thesis makes
a case for a need to expand our understading of workers’ assciational power. The
case of MTS demonstrate that workers’ associational power need not be limited to the
workplace.
Based on this, the thesis suggests that at the conceptual level, the train, due to its
strategic importance to workers’ daily travel, can substitute the meaning laden
workplace. Drawing on Havery’s concept of spatial fix, the findings demonstrate that
just like capital, labour is also capable of fixes. These are demonstrated by MTS’s
ablity to: (a) provide workers with a space for friendships and political influence, (b)
provide workers with a space of solidarity and belonging and, (c) act as a knowledge
hub. Herod argues that, much like capital, workers also have vested interests in how
the geographies of production are produced and configured. Therefore, workers can
arguably draw strength from this coach and radiate such strength outwards in order to
challenge capital’s spatial fixes. This, Anderson (2015) refers to as a resonant place.
Observations clearly show that workers actively seek out information that can be
useful in their lives. This is a form of agency that can be located at the level of the
individual – scaled at the body. This form of agency, however, needs to be understood
in its context – what Soja refers to as socio-spatial dialctic. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences / Sociology / DPhil / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/67406 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Mmadi, Mpho Manoagae |
| Contributors | Bezuidenhout, Andries, u04407164@up.ac.za |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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