Is There Room for International Solidarity within South African Borders? COSATU's Responses to the Xenophobic Attacks of May 2008

Abstract

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is an essential part of South African civil society, with the largest representation of organized workers and a history of struggle against apartheid in the workplace and the townships. The post-apartheid and globalization era pose organizational challenges for COSATU and its affiliates. Besides the necessity to organize vulnerable workers, it also has to address the question of xenophobia and issues pertaining to the rights of migrant workers. This article argues that some of COSATU's provincial structures, among other things, played an important role in providing humanitarian aid to victims of xenophobia in 2008, but COSATU as a federation did not have a co-ordinated approach during the xenophobic attacks. COSATU has still not developed a strategy for organizing migrants. But, on a positive note, the 2009 COSATU Congress resolution on xenophobia opens a space for developing a platform for protecting the rights of migrants.

Notes

In this article the word ‘migrants’ means working class and poor people from other African countries. This categorization also includes petty traders from other countries who are largely based in the city and town centres, townships and informal settlements. These are the sections that were largely affected by the xenophobic attacks. For more detail on the politics of the concept of ‘migrants’, see Lehulere (2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mondli Hlatshwayo

Industrial Sociology Doctoral candidate, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. The research was commissioned by Strategy and Tactics and the University of Johannesburg's Centre for Sociological Research and was funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies.