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Cape Town - Had the trade unions been embedded in their communities in the manner they tried to do in the 1980s, the xenophobic violence that has this week erupted may have been prevented. So says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap.
He adds that he is deeply ashamed at these developments, having spent part of his exile years in countries including Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Morocco where he always felt welcome.
Bell points out that the modern union movement some 30 years ago attempted to forge links with communities from which their members came. They hoped to educate and organise workers and their families, not on the basis of party politics, but by accepting that an injury to one is an injury to all: the essence of ubuntu.
This did not happen as the unions, by and large, took a bureaucratic turn. Today there are allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement and this week, there were reports of the shooting to death of a transport union leader and the fire bombing of the home of the union president.
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At the same time there were reports of 145 000 mine jobs being at risk while statues were vandalised in an apparently ahistorical emergence of nationalism. Against this background, says Bell, it is unsurprisingly that important developments on the labour front were largely ignored.
The important developments, says Bell, are the new amendments to the labour laws that came into force this year, some of which became effective this month. They reveal, claims Bell, that “all is not doom and gloom”.
The changes that affect temporary employment services or casual employment are a crucial element. And while these may amount to little more than tightening up existing legislation, they are, in Bell’s view, a progressive measure. However, he doubts whether very much will change on the ground, since enforcement will probably continue to be a problem.
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