Changing Sources of Power and the Future of Southern Labour

Abstract

The concluding chapter begins by returning to the early 1970s in South Africa. At that time, a resurgence of labour’s power seemed implausible. Today, the future for labour also looks uncertain. But the Durban strikes of 1973 show that one underestimates workers at one’s peril. With this basic lesson in mind, we reconsider the findings from each of the case studies to outline the trajectory that worker struggles have taken over recent decades. We see how labour process fixes and the rise of new branches of industry all contribute to a dynamic process that restructures the working class. It is capital’s efforts to overcome impediments to accumulation and find fresh avenues for accumulation that unmakes and remakes the working class in some cases and creates new sections of the class in others. This chapter ultimately considers how workers and their organisations respond in different historical and contextual moments by harnessing diverse sources of power to be unmade, remade and made anew. In the current moment of flux, we suggest that the revival of labour movements in the Global South is likely to come from workers who are experimenting with various forms of organisation and different sources of power.