Seeking Trade Union and Community Organization Linkages in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Public awareness of the emergence of localized struggles in South Africa was heightened in August 2002 when a huge number of protestors marched against the deliberations of the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) under the banner of Social Movements United. A notable absentee in the WSSD protest marches was that of the Congress of South African Trade Union shop steward layer, who had been a leading force in the struggles in the 1980s. This article looks at obstacles that stand in the way of linkages between organized labour and the new social movements. We examine relations between the Cape Town metropolitan branch of the South African Municipal Union, and the community-based social movement, the Western Cape Anti Eviction Campaign. The article argues that, in addition to political differences, there are structural reasons of composition, organizational forms and methods of campaigning, which militate against joint action.