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... It was a successful campaign. Not only were South Africans introduced to Wal-Mart's anti-labour history, but the collective effort of submissions to the Tribunal by unions and their global allies contributed to several conditions being placed on the merger: these included rehiring of formerly retrenched workers, confirmation that SACCAWU's collective agreement be extended, and agreement to fund a supplier development program to support "emerging" (black) producers to enter its supply chain (Greenberg and Paradza 2013). This ruling was followed by 92 B. Kenny an appeal by trade unions as well as a request to set aside the Tribunal decision on the grounds of discovery by the three state Ministers in charge of the Departments of Economic Development (EDD), Trade and Industry (DTI) and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). ...
... The literature is polarized as to whether integrating small-scale farmers into these formal value chains is practical or indeed desirable (Du Toit & Neves 2007). The reality is that the vast majority of fresh produce small-scale farmers operate in informal or 'loose' value chains and these provide particular benefits to producers, other actors in these value chains through income and employment opportunities and for the local communities they serve (Greenberg and Paradza, 2013;Cousins, 2018/3;Chikazunga and Paradza, 2013). However, a number of authors from within the international 'development' paradigm writing on agro-food systems, argue that integrating small-scale fresh produce producers into corporate value chains will have a positive impact on incomes and livelihoods (Brown and Sander 2007;Emongor & Kirsten, 2009;Vermeulen et al, 2010;Seville et al 2011;Louw et al, 2008). ...
... These value chains are highly concentrated, with market power largely in the hand of retailers who determine the terms of governance. However, retailers are themselves subject to competitive pressures and they tend to shift the costs of meeting quality standards onto producers, which risks squeezing small-scale farmers out of production (Buthelezi, 2013;Greenberg & Paradza, 2013;Emongor & Kirsten, 2009). ...
This report documents the status of fresh produce production (vegetables and green maize) under irrigation by small-scale farmers in South Africa and investigates the potential for expanding current levels of production, with an emphasis on land redistribution. There are an estimated 100, 000 existing 'market-oriented small-scale farmers' already producing on irrigation schemes and in homestead gardens (Cousins, 2018). There are likely to be an additional 10, 000 operating outside these contexts, in rural areas and in land reform contexts (Cousins and Chikazunga, 2013; Khulisa, 2016). These ‘market-oriented’ small-scale farmers, who are already succeeding in spite of receiving little or no support, are proposed as the key beneficiaries of a redistribution programme aimed at extending fresh produce production. It is envisioned that this could precipitate a process of ‘agricultural accumulation from below ’ (Cousins, 2015; Greenberg, 2013). Many of these households are located in the former ‘homelands’. Redistributing land and resettling these producers outside of these areas, could also free up plots on existing irrigation schemes and contribute to decongesting communal areas. Production of vegetables is particularly labour-intensive, creating between one and five jobs per hectare. Fresh produce under irrigation provides particular promise for creating a large number of jobs year-round (Bunce, 2019; BFAP, 2011).
... It was a successful campaign. Not only were South Africans introduced to Wal-Mart's anti-labour history, but the collective effort of submissions to the Tribunal by unions and their global allies contributed to several conditions being placed on the merger: these included rehiring of formerly retrenched workers, confirmation that SACCAWU's collective agreement be extended, and agreement to fund a supplier development program to support "emerging" (black) producers to enter its supply chain (Greenberg and Paradza 2013). This ruling was followed by an appeal by trade unions as well as a request to set aside the Tribunal decision on the grounds of discovery by the three state Ministers in charge of the Departments of Economic Development (EDD), Trade and Industry (DTI) and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). ...
Sweatshops lie at the core of the fashion industry worldwide. While awareness about large sweatshops in export-processing zones is broad, little is known about small local sweatshops in large cities both in core and peripheral economies, employing migrant labour and supplying cheap garment to fast-fashion branded retailers. Having been left at the margins of this industry during Fordism, these ‘local sweatshops’ are back since the late 1970s. In these, working conditions range from precarious employment to forced labour. This chapter asks what does the return of local sweatshops mean for debates on unfree labour and capitalist accumulation. Through an analysis of the changes in the production and commercialisation of fashion clothing since the late 1970s, I show that the flourishing of forced labour during recent decades along the success of well-known brands and retailers, suggests that, far from being a pre-capitalist reminiscence, forced labour is not only compatible with capitalist accumulation, but it can also be critical for its survival. Following from this, responses from unions and community organisations are analysed, based on the case of anti-sweatshop activism in Buenos Aires. I conclude by showing that when the agenda against forced labour is taken by NGOs rather than by labour activists, class perspectives are largely absent and improvements are poor.
This chapter examines the US multinational Wal-Mart’s acquisition of South African listed Massmart Holdings. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest private employer, is well known for wage theft, work intensification, eroded benefits, and anti-union practices. This chapter examines the current conjuncture of retailing in South Africa, with globalization of retail capital, supply chain management, corporate consolidation, and expansion into new working-class markets. The chapter explores how nation is now modelled in the market and through consumption and juxtaposes this to the low-wage service worker, employed through labour brokers and as general workers. It concludes by examining the reproduction of retail worker politics redefining abasebenzi, race, and skill in a fraying relationship of labour to nation.
Examining retail workers, one of the most precarious workforces within South Africa, this paper asks why workers have consistently maintained a politics around the workplace. It interrogates how and why in the context of intensifying precarity, and the resulting fragmentation of the labour market through casualisation and subcontracting, retail workers themselves sustain ongoing attachments to a collective labour politics. This paper critiques labour sociology which seeks out ‘spectacular’ protest or which explains labour politics in terms of bargaining power. It argues that both strands offer teleological explanations of worker action and political aims. Through research covering twenty years of work with retail workers in Johannesburg, as well as a focus on several sites of current retail labour politics in Massmart/Wal-Mart subsidiaries, this paper shows the persistence of workers’ collective political subjectivity in Johannesburg stores. Forms of action and collective subjectivity endure in complicated relation to the trade union. Retail workers’ labour politics within this local labour market offer us a context in which to trace the constitution, reproduction and contradictions of class identities under conditions of precariousness, which build from the concrete to explain workers’ experiences and labour politics.
