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

摘要

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.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2011.548676