Unions essential to working class in a capitalist society
Capitalism’s aim is to maximise profit, even when it is exploitative, so unions have a crucial role but must ensure their slates are clean
There is an open hostility towards organised labour among South Africa’s political leadership and the professional class. It is not uncommon for striking workers to be branded as unreasonably disruptive, self-serving and ungrateful. From a certain viewpoint, this hostility is understandable, although ultimately narrow-minded.
Indeed, there are numerous flaws in the landscape of organised labour that dissuade workers from seeing unions as structures that can improve their lives.
The growing chasm between union leadership and members; the often cosy relationship between unions, self-interested government representatives and employers; the seemingly endless factional battles between unions that should be working to build organisational capacity and solidarity across economic sectors; and the dilution of democratic accountability in unions themselves are leading workers to lose faith in the ability of their leaders to advance their interests.
But the gradual decay of unions over the past 27 years does not justify their eradication, nor does it justify attempts to increase the leverage capitalists have over their employees. The Marikana massacre, a tragedy in which corporate power colluded with the state to lethally silence striking miners, is a reminder of the extent to which capital views human labour as mere objects for amassing profits and wealth.
South African political analysis is too often bloated by a fixation on state decay and government failure as the primary and singular cause of the country’s demise. No rational citizen can deny the integral role played by the ANC in plunging the country into a state of unrelenting crisis.
But one would be naive to think the government is the only or predominant centre of power post-apartheid. Lurking behind the government are what economist Adam Smith called the “masters of mankind”, the class of capitalists who orchestrate and reap the fruits of economic production.
Liberal naivete and conservative tendencies, the ideological outlooks that dominate mainstream political analysis, render many blind to the location, function and outcomes of capitalist power. Instead, capitalism is often cast as an apolitical system of efficient economic production or declared as the best and only option we have to produce collective well-being and expand individual freedom.
Even as industrialists and multinational corporations push human civilisation to the edge of collapse, poisoning the natural environment in the insatiable pursuit of profit, a great many South African political thinkers believe the free market and more power being granted to employers is our salvation.
Such a narrow vision leaves us with an incomplete understanding of why our society has been on a downward trajectory. Without such an understanding, our ability to create pragmatic and just solutions is hindered.
Let us then try to provide analytically sound and empirically fortified answers to a pertinent question. What relevance do labour unions have in post-apartheid South Africa? To grasp the purpose and need for unions, one must understand the pervasive power at the heart of capitalism.
South Africa’s economy is a capitalist economy. The mild state provision of basic services and moderate welfare does not make a socialist state. Economic production is privately owned and managed by capitalists, who employ workers for paid wages and sell their produce on the market.
Within this system, the aim of economic production is not, primarily, the satisfaction of human needs, but rather the maximisation of profit, achieved through competitive strategies in the market.
Through seizing vital resources and privatising the means of producing goods, a power disparity blooms because society is dependent on the enterprise of capitalists for their survival and well-being.
This unhealthy dependency can be seen in how governments contort policy and dilute their sovereignty to please international investment, even if it is at the expense of citizens.
Eager to lick the boots of international capital, the ANC has in recent years pursued a policy of austerity, slashing or limiting spending on social services, education and healthcare in an age of ever-increasing destitution and financial precarity for people.
Grassroots movements of the working class and unemployed, human rights organisations and a United
Nations committee have highlighted how austerity intensifies inequality. The ANC government ignores such objections to foster an investment-friendly environment, to the detriment of human dignity for millions.
There are those who dispute the existence of worker exploitation, arguing that workers seeking employment consent to labour, even if it is under inhospitable conditions and for low pay.
This assertion resonates in a country plagued by mass unemployment, where people are expected to be grateful for any job, even if it insults their dignity and stifles their ability to climb out of poverty.
Others claim that the legal instruments of democracy provide the tools for workers and employers to settle disputes without the intervention of organised labour. Some would even argue that employees and capitalists meet at the negotiation table as equals seeking a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Before laying out the theoretical explanation for exploitation, one can simply take a look at the reality of working-class South Africans and it becomes clear that capitalism post-apartheid has failed to uplift most citizens from poverty.
Statistics South Africa reports that about five million citizens can be classified as the working poor, doing arduous labour that cannot keep themselves and their dependants out of poverty.
A 2014 Labour Market Dynamics report found that “95% of those employed in domestic services and 90% of those in agriculture earn less than R4125 per month”. Some economists place a living wage for a single individual at between R5 582 and R9 648 a month and this figure increases depending on the size of a household.
Across major industries, chief executives and shareholders rejoice as they report an increase in profits and salaries while their workers struggle to survive or lift themselves out of poverty.
In 2016 Shoprite chief executive Whitey Basson “earned” a salary of R100-million, 1331 times more than the average Shoprite employee. Such inequality cannot be rationally justified.
Who is Basson, or any chief executive, without the labour of their employees?
This is what Marxists would call a contradiction. Under capitalism, employers seize for themselves the wealth that is produced by many and inevitably such contradiction produces conflict.
One could perceive these inequalities as resulting from the insatiable greed of capitalists.
In reality, one must understand that capitalism is designed to be exploitative.
Recall that the greatest priority of a capitalist is maximising profit and this can be done by enhancing their competitive edge in the market and by minimising the costs of production.
Workers must have the right and be granted the space to build capacity for organising to advance their collective interests, in the workplace and on the national stage.
If left unorganised and unrepresented, capitalists will prey on the vulnerability of workers by using their legal, financial and political resources, which are considerable relative to the resources of a working class that is divided and unorganised.
But, as Roger Etkind recently argued, unions must change and embrace an internal culture of democracy, distance themselves from political elites, reach out to all strands of the working class and build the organisational capacity to reignite the labour movement.
Andile Zulu is with the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Cape Town. He writes in his personal capacity.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the