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Workers’ Education and Political Consciousness: A Case Study from South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Linda Cooper
Linda Cooper*
Affiliation:
Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town
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Abstract

This article poses the question, who or what ‘teaches’ workers political consciousness? It argues that this question cannot be answered in the abstract, but must be located in historical context. Drawing on a case study of a South African local government trade union, it argues that radical education traditions within the labour movement remain, although the trade union movement has lost much of the militancy that characterised its early years, and its education work has been weakened and compromised. The case study union’s education programmes are ideologically directive and transformative in intent. Radical learning does not only take place in these organised spaces, however; members’ participation in ongoing union activities develops their political understanding and working class identity, while moments of mass action ‘teach’ workers not only about tactics, but also about political and economic power.

Type
Meeting Report
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 183 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007

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