Spaces of Hope: Rethinking Trade Union–Community Alliances and Citizenship in a Post-alliance Era in South Africa

Abstract

A critical debate in contemporary post-1994 South Africa is the extent to which organised labour can join forces with community-based movements to construct coalitions which might be called ‘spaces of hope’ where policies more conducive to constructing an egalitarian society can be pursued. Using three organisations: the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and Housing Assembly (HA) in Cape Town, this paper will explore coordinated labour–community interactions. It advances a new analytical framework for thinking about ways in which the poor in South Africa are mobilised to actualise their rights. In the new political and trade union landscape (post-Marikana and post-Numsa's historical decision to dissociate from the ANC)—what I term the ‘post-alliance landscape’—new repertoires of protest and participation linked to national formations (such as Numsa who have called for a united front of the poor and working class leading to a new left party) are emerging. These emerging repertoires might help in promoting ‘shared spaces of citizenship’ where common issues and a feeling of shared fate can arise among sections of the broader oppressed. This paper will further suggest that while the social movement left criticises neo-liberalism, they have unwittingly helped the neol-iberals because of their frequently ‘misplaced criticism’ of the trade unions and their attachments to specific organisational principles.