Worker Education in South Africa: Lessons and contradictions

Abstract

Worker education played a crucial role in the development of the trade union movement in South Africa and in the broader struggle for social transformation. This article reviews key moments and dynamics in the trajectory of worker education in South Africa. We argue that international developments, the rise of neoliberalism, and the negotiated compromise between the African National Congress (ANC) and the apartheid state, as well as corporatism resulted in changes to worker education. While the latter as it existed in the past has weakened, the centre of gravity has shifted to community organizations where various forms of learning and creativity continue. Despite the challenges and setbacks of recent years, there remains a significant legacy and influence of the traditions of worker education and militant trade unionism in South Africa, which can and should be drawn upon.

Workers’ education under conditions of precariousness: Re-imagining workers’ education

“…The strategy that was employed was based on popular education, which centred around the lived experiences of workers and encouraged them speak out, naming their problems with a view to developing organisational and collective solutions. A dialogue thus developed between workers and educators (Cooper, 2005; Vally and Treat, 2013).…”

“…In the 1980s, trade unions signed recognition agreements with employers, which, among other things, provided for paid training leave for shop stewards, enabling union leaders to attend workshops and other training events organised or sanctioned by the trade unions. In the 1980s and 1990s, many unions had their own education departments with budgets, making it possible for unions to train their own shop stewards, organisers and staff members on educational topics that went beyond immediate union issues such as wages and working conditions (Vally and Treat, 2013).…”

“…The dawn of democracy in 1994 was accompanied by union education, which leaned towards individual skills development, university and other forms of education and facilitated upward social mobility among shop stewards, union leaders and union employees. In addition, many skilled trade unionists left the union movement and became human resource managers, government officials and managers of state and private companies (Vally and Treat, 2013). With the exception of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the biggest union in South Africa, trade unions experienced a drastic decline in their education programmes.…”

“…According to Vally and Treat (2013), ‘Worker education [has been] simultaneously a consequence, a platform, a site, and a weapon of struggle for the oppressed people of South Africa generally and the black working class in particular’ (p. 449). Vally and Treat (2013) question whether workers’ education, which includes structured interventions and the programmes of trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the context of the restructuring of work and the rise of precarious forms of work, has been sufficiently reconceptualised to respond to precarious work and the conditions of migrant workers.…”

Building Workers’ Education in the Context of the Struggle Against Racial Capitalism: The Role of Labour Support Organisations

“…Attempts to provide education which sought to build workers' power to fight social and economic injustices date back to the early 1900s when activists produced and distributed "accessible educational material" in the form of the Voice of Labour, a publication which supported the work and struggles of trade unions and small groups of socialists (Luckett et al 2016). The International Socialist League, which later constituted itself as the Communist Party of South Africa, organised and facilitated workers' education in the form of night schools in 1919 (Luckett, Walters, and von Kotze 2017;Vally, Treat, and Wa Bofelo 2013). According to Luckett, Walters, and von Kotze (2017, 262), Later on, the struggle against apartheid was punctuated by moments such as the launch of the Defiance Campaign and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) in 1952.…”