Moral Decay and Social Reconstruction Richard Turner and Radical Reform

by Eddie Webster, Theoria, 1993

In 1972 Richard Turner published a remarkable book, The Eye of the Needle: Towards Participatory Democracy in South Africa. In this wok he stressed the capacity of people to change the world in which they lived while at the same time providing them with a vision of a future South Africa based on participatory democracy . Most importantly, Turner placed heavy emphasis on the significance of black workers in the economy . He believed that it was through collective organization, especially trade unions, that black people could exercise some control over their lives and influence the direction of change in South Africa.

Eddie Webster, the Durban moment and new labour internationalism

by Rob Lambert, Transformation, 2010

An alternative to neo-liberal globalisation

The struggle for an alternative to self-regulating global capitalism, commonly described as neo-liberal globalisation, needs to be contested both at the level of ideas (theory/ideology) and strategy (movement/politics). Firstly, a vision of an alternative model of economy, politics and society, grounded in democratic social regulation has to be forged. Harvey refers to this as 'thought experiments'--painting fantastic pictures of a future society (Harvey 2000:49,). Secondly, realising such a vision depends upon imagining and struggling for a new kind of global social movement, which creates active, globally coordinated civil societies, driven by the desire for a more humane, just way of working and living. Defining the role of unions within such a movement is contested, with some arguing that unions have become an obstacle to the realisation of such a movement (Waterman 2009).