Building a regional solidarity network of transnational activists: An African case study

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2021.181999

Keywords:

Rooted cosmopolitan, Regional network internationalism, Power Resources Approach, Worker education, Covid-19

Abstract

Drawing on a network of transnational activists, this paper argues that a new type of regional network internationalism has emerged in Sub-Saharan Africa. Initiated by the Global Labour University (GLU), through a short two-month residential course called Engage, it has been able over the last seven years to develop the skills for a new type of union organiser, one who understands the global context, but is rooted in their local community. This network works at forging links of solidarity across national borders and regional frontiers. Their solidarity work aims at sharing knowledge and experience between activists and worker organisations and the development of meetings and campaigns to strategize and put into action these new forms of transnational solidarity.

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Author Biographies

  • Warren McGregor, University of the Witwatersrand

    Programme Coordinator of the Global Labour University at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. He has an ma in Industrial Sociology from Wits, and has been a sessional lecturer with the Wits Department of Sociology since 2014, focusing on African Political Sociology and working class formations. He is currently completing an article for an academic book on the history and 100 year anniversary of the first mass black African trade union organization, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union. He is also currently supervising African trade union organizing research projects in Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. 

  • Edward Webster, University of the Witwatersrand

    Distinguished research professor in the Southern Centre for Inequality and founder of the Society, Work and Development Institute Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1995/1996. He was the first Ela Bhatt Professor at the International Centre for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) at Kassel University in Germany in 2009/2010. His research interests lie in the world of work, labour movements and social inequality. In 2009 his co-authored book, Grounding globalisation: Labour in the age of insecurity, was awarded the prestigious American Sociological Association award for the best scholarly monograph published on labour. In 2017 he co-edited two volumes, The unresolved national question: left thought under apartheid and Crossing the divide; precarious work and the future of labour. His currently completing a book length manuscript on Work and Inequality in the Digital Age. 

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Published

2021-08-16

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Dossier - Transnational labor struggles and political repertoires

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Warren McGregor; Edward Webster

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

McGregor, W. ., & Webster, E. . (2021). Building a regional solidarity network of transnational activists: An African case study. Tempo Social, 33(2), 15-36. https://doi.org/10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2021.181999