Social movement unionism emerged in the democratic struggle against authoritarian states in South Africa and other developing countries and is increasingly promoted to revive unions in advanced industrialized societies. The article tests a model of the underlying conceptual foundations of support for social movement unionism using survey data from interviews with members in South African auto and clothing plants. Despite the demobilizing effects of the country's transition to democracy, union democracy and member participation are found to persist on the shopfloor. The article partially counters the ‘democratic rupture’ thesis as worker control remains effective over annual industry-level bargaining, although weaker over political and industrial policy issues.

To understand the development of labor movements like the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which emerged in South Africa in the 1980s as part of the anti-Apartheid movement struggling for national liberation, we need to go beyond conventional categories of economic and political unionism. 'Social movement unionism' combines conventional institutionalized collective bargaining with modes of collective action typically associated with social movements. Based on the experience of COSATU this article develops a four-stage model, using a political process approach, to explain the origins, emergence and development of social movement unionism under a reformist authoritarian regime. The analysis concludes by considering whether social movement unionism can survive the transition to democracy.

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Despite a highly regulated economy under Apartheid, the espoused beliefs of South African entrepreneurs today are founded on Anglo-Saxon ideals of liberal markets and weak regulatory institutions.This belief system is confronted by an influential labour movement that initiated legislative reforms to transform labour market institutions towards a coordinated market economy model regulated by business, labour and the state. The country's skill development legislation aims to shift the low-wage, low-skill economy onto a growth path founded on the empowerment of workers into a skilled labour force by encouraging firms to increase their training expenditure. Case study evidence from food and beverages, manufacturing and services sectors suggests that SME approaches to training are not influenced by this legislation but by the requirements of the competitive business context, sector skill intensity and the entrepreneurs' business growth strategy. For SMEs the appropriateness of the new skill development framework to existing market conditions and institutional foundations is questioned.

Labor law reform in South Afiqca unintentionally precipitated the rapid growth of a powerful black trade union movement and institutionalized collective bargaining in the 1980s. Despite the political crisis, the Independent Mediation Service of South Afi'ica helped to disseminate the cultttre and practice of negotiated order, developed in htdustrial relations, to the broader socie O, and national politics. As a result of the negotiated transition, the new democratic order is characte~gzed by inclusive, consensus-building poliq3p-making processes.