Similarities and Differences between Rebels with and without a Cause

Abstract

Both our articles accept the construct that white officials in black unions were in a contradictory location. In an earlier article I wrote reflecting on the role of white intellectuals in black unions (Maree, 1989a) I also employed Eric Olin Wright’s ‘contradictory locations within class relations’ as a way of understanding the role of white intellectuals. Buhlungu innovatively extends the concept to include class and race relations, which strengthens its analytic power in the South African context. Buhlungu and I agree that white officials played a positive role in the black unions that emerged in the 1970s. Although Buhlungu fairly frequently mentions negative attributes of some white officials, he concludes that, ‘In short, the legacy of white officials in the black union movement was generally a positive one’. He attributes their positive role to the intellectual, strategic and administrative skills they brought to the unions as well as their access to financial resources. I attribute the positive role of white officials to the important role they played in helping to create democratic structures and practices in the black unions as well as helping to build the unions into powerful organizations. We both accept that white officials’ role in the black unions diminished during the 1980s, but for different reasons: Buhlungu attributes it to an increase in the number of young black assertive organic intellectuals who challenged white officials who then ‘retreated’ from the unions. I maintain that it was the objective of most white intellectuals right from the outset to train and develop black workers to take over the running of the unions. Rather than retreat from the unions, white officials could leave the unions