"Mzabalazo on the Move" : organising Workers on a Commuter Train in Tshwane -An Ethnographic Study of Mamelodi Train Sector

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine the centrality of travel geographies – with a specific focus on urban commuter railway lines between Mamelodi and central Tshwane – and their influence upon political identities of South African workers. By adopting a historical approach to our understanding of the South African working class, the thesis brings into sharper focus the relationship between the social dynamics of apartheid and how workers perceived the concept of a train. These have permeated into the new era with the formation of the Mamelodi Train Sector (MTS), as an organisation dedicated to organising workers on the trains since 2001. The emergence of MTS in the era of the neoliberal labour regime and its associated assault upon labour movements present opportunities for labour revival strategies. Drawing on the data collected, I show that the train can be used as a strategic site of mobilising, particularly for those workers without workplace representation. By portraying the train as a site of worker power and political consciousness, I accord primacy to the train as a space of potential union revival. This is informed by educational sessions on labour rights and labour law that take place on the train en-route to and from work. Because during these educational sessions; workers ask workplace or problem specific questions, I suggest, such questions are informed by the need to seek out useful information that can be utilised to address specific workplace problems. The theme ‘labour movement revival’ has gained global traction as labour scholars from both the north and south grapple with the aftermath of globalisation on organised labour. This has seen an increase in poverty, unemployment and inequalities in countries such as South Africa. Labour revitalisation theme came about because, as Beverly Silver correctly observes: During the last two decades of the twentieth century, there was an almost complete consensus in the social sciences literature that labo[u]r movements were in a general and severe crisis. Declining strike activity and other overt expressions of labo[u]r militancy, failing union density and shrinking real wages and job insecurity were among the trends documented (Silver, 2003: 1). Reacting to the reality as described by Silver (2003), labour scholars, activists and likeminded individuals set about to rescue the once militant labour movement from its ii perpetual decline. Drawing on case studies from various countries, author after author sought to offer new ways in which the erstwhile flourishing trade unionism can be restored to its former glory. This ethnographic study hopes to make a contribution to this growing body of knowledge. By exploring the activities of the Mamelodi Train Sector (MTS), the study attempts to show that the train can become a strategic locus of worker social power. By historicising the role of the train, it is possible to trace various phases of the ‘making of the South Africa working class’ starting in 1652 (colonialism era). This was followed by the period of mineral discovery, segregation and lastly, apartheid. These historical epochs were characterised by an oppressive and racist capitalist industrialisation process, which sough, as a point of departure to turn into cheap migrants the indigenous populations of South Africa. This saw the advent of an elaborate proletarianisation process backed up a battery of oppressive legislative measures. Due to these conditions, a particular kind of trade unionism – social movement unionism (SMU) – emerged in this context as response to the abuse, exploitation and lack of industrial citizenship of the African majority both as workers and citizens of this country. As an expression of black anger, SMU was primarily concerned with liberating South African from the abuses of both the apartheid state and the racist capitalist system operational in South Africa at the time. This saw black Africans being accorded labour rights for the first time in 1979 and finally achieving democratic majority rule in 1994. A social partnership was put in place with the militant labour movement under COSATU entering into an alliance with the ruling ANC and SACP. Post-1994, the SMU of the 80s faced new challenges with the advent of the neoliberal labour regime as the ANC government adopted market friendly macro-economic policies. The corollary presented the weakening of the labour movements as capital put in place measure to counter labours organisational power. This led to a crisis of representation as South Africa’s largely industrial unionism struggled under the new work paradigm. Under the new work conditions, casualisation, externalisation and outsourcing were adopted by capital with a view to weaken labour’s traditional forms of power – associational and structural power. It is this shifting terrain that required innovative ways to theorise and understand labour’s attempts to ameliorate the juggernaut that became neoliberalism. Fracturing the workplace as traditionally understood severely raptured worker solidarities. It is within iii this context that this thesis seeks to understand MTS and its locus of operation – the train. The data collected shows that MTS plays a critical role in filling some of the gaps left by the weakened SMU. By organising on the train, MTS provides a space of articulation for the vulnerable sections of the workforce – those without workplace representation. Drawing from the power resource approach (PRA), the thesis makes a case for a need to expand our understading of workers’ assciational power. The case of MTS demonstrate that workers’ associational power need not be limited to the workplace. Based on this, the thesis suggests that at the conceptual level, the train, due to its strategic importance to workers’ daily travel, can substitute the meaning laden workplace. Drawing on Havery’s concept of spatial fix, the findings demonstrate that just like capital, labour is also capable of fixes. These are demonstrated by MTS’s ablity to: (a) provide workers with a space for friendships and political influence, (b) provide workers with a space of solidarity and belonging and, (c) act as a knowledge hub. Herod argues that, much like capital, workers also have vested interests in how the geographies of production are produced and configured. Therefore, workers can arguably draw strength from this coach and radiate such strength outwards in order to challenge capital’s spatial fixes. This, Anderson (2015) refers to as a resonant place. Observations clearly show that workers actively seek out information that can be useful in their lives. This is a form of agency that can be located at the level of the individual – scaled at the body. This form of agency, however, needs to be understood in its context – what Soja refers to as socio-spatial dialctic.