Entre opposition et participation, les syndicats face aux réformes en Afrique

Rubbers, Benjamin; Roy, Anne Le

doi:10.3917/rtm.224.0009

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…As elsewhere, the existing scholarship on trade unions in Africa has long focused on their role in social and political emancipation movements. Distancing themselves from this tradition, Geenen and McNamara sought inspiration from ethnographies investigating the ordinary work of trade unionists and the dilemmas they face in dealing with employers and workers (Lubeck 1986;Werbner 2014;Botiveau 2017;Lazar 2017; see Rubbers and Roy 2017). Building on this body of literature, they paid special attention to everyday union activities in the workplace, the internal functioning of union organisations, and the competition between unions in the mining sector.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two case studies also highlight the role that political leaders can play in labour disputes, and the special place that is given to Chinese firms in the political arena. By shedding light on the constraints faced by trade unionists in the workplace, and by replacing their ambiguous role in the historical trajectories of trade unionism in both countries, the chapters together provide a nuanced and comprehensive analysis of their actions that contrasts with the more militant approach usually found in the literature (see Rubbers and Roy 2017;McNamara and Spyridakis 2020).…”

Section: Structure Of the Bookmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inside mining capitalism: The micropolitics of work on the Congolese and Zambian Copperbelts

Money

2022

African Affairs

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The project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° 646802). The ideas developed in this work reflect the authors' views alone. The ERC is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it containsA catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library ISBN 978-1-84701-286-9 (James Currey paperback) ISBN 978-1-80010-318-4 (James Currey ePDF)The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate Cover image: Workers washing copper plates in a solvent extraction and electrowinning plant (photograph © Héritier Amonda

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Structure Of the Bookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inside mining capitalism: The micropolitics of work on the Congolese and Zambian Copperbelts

Money

2022

African Affairs

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“…During the last stage, from 1990 to 2002, the reinstatement of a multi-party system led to the permission of trade unionism (Botedi 2013: 38). But ironically, although a number of large trade unions emerged, they were less able to protect worker rights than in the 1990s (Rubbers and Roy 2015) as L. D. Kabila was a ferocious oppressor of trade unionists (Botedi 2013).…”

Section: Unionism In Historical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Post-war Labour Market Reconstruction : The Case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Chi¹

2022

Preprint

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The Democratic Republic of Congo experienced a merciless war from 1998 to 2002 that seriously affected its labour market, as it did all other aspects of society. The effects on the labour market have aroused various debates. This thesis offers a first analysis of the reconstruction process of the labour market in post-war Congo, and of the roles that key actors involved played in it. It asks the following fundamental question: what are the processes involved in the reconstruction of the post-war Congolese labour market, and how did the main actors affect these processes? The research used a constructivist methodological approach and the extended case method to collect detailed data through field interviews conducted with 109 people in Kinshasa. The data suggest that the past of the Congolese labour market is clearly visible in its post-war recovery processes (2003–2018). While the past weighed heavily on the present, from 2003 to 2011 the Congolese government nevertheless delayed the implementation of reform policies aimed at achieving a functioning labour market. Reforms introduced since then have been blunted by poor implementation processes. Moreover, the inherent weakness of Congo’s labour market institutions deepened the lack of impact of the reconstruction attempts. Likewise, the private sector did not contribute substantially to efforts at creating an effective labour market. Entering this landscape, many Congolese employees struggled to achieve integration into the formal labour market. The main argument of this thesis is that the post-war Congolese labour market has experienced an extended reconstruction due to delayed and poorly implemented labour market policies. On a more positive note, this study demonstrates the usefulness of Peck’s theory of labour market social regulation as an efficient theoretical tool in evaluating a problematic transition such as that experienced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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“…In our papers, we attempt to reconcile this disjuncture, exploring union activities in the workplace and linking these to organizing strategies and to the homes and communities that workers create. Rubbers and Roy (2015) describe the analytic confusion surrounding the label 'union'. Authors assume that all workers, along with union managements, and even business syndicates share common meanings of unionism, and in doing so overlook how unionism is imaged and organized in different places at different times.…”

Section: Anthropologies Of Unionism and Labourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A surprisingly important difference between our special issue and much of the trade union anthropology is our focus on unions within the workplace and the links we draw between the anthropologies of unionism and labour (c.f. Rubbers andRoy 2015 andNash 1993). A substantive section of trade union ethnography describes professional union organizers, often exploring uplifting political campaigns and complex court cases, while leaving shop-floor analysis to those (above) who focus on workers (Ashraf and Prentice 2019, Durrenberger and Erem 2005and Werbner 2014).…”

Section: Anthropologies Of Unionism and Labourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction—trade unions in times of austerity and development

McNamara

Spyridakis

2020

Dialect Anthropol

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This special issue seeks to understand how unions resist and are reshaped as they confront global capital and neoliberal austerity. It was born out of panels at the annual conferences of European Association of Social Anthropologists and the American Anthropology Association and through ongoing conversations about the similarities and differences between the challenges unions face from austerity in the Global North and from Global South aspirations for national 'development'. The papers explore unions' interactions with 'actually existing neoliberalisms', where the state and other actors express extreme faith in markets as policy devices, and in the superior efficiency of the private sector (Rizzo 2017). We describe unions responding to the growing criticism (from the right) that they imped the economic growth that would assist all of society and (from the left) that they represent a privileged and increasingly irrelevant minority of workers. While we explore unions' attempts to dispute these narratives, our special issue is equally invested in detailing how unionism is re-constructed inside a community and, through this, how unions respond to, and co-create, legal, economic and cultural structures. In analysing how unionism shapes and responds to economic practices and workplace subjectivities, we foreground that the obligations and entitlements of being a 'unionist' and a 'worker' are negotiated through intra-community expectations and political histories. We therefore link unions to recent breakthroughs in the anthropological study of capitalism, where political economies are enacted through sociality and subjectivity (cf. Bear et al. 2015 andHann andParry 2018). Unionism is only beginning to be analysed using this framework, yet we show that unions are crucial to the concepts of self and relationships that shape and enable intra-national capitalisms (c.f. Kasmir 2014 and Lazar 2017). We explore how unions guide and respond to what it means to be a miner, steelworker or longshoreman, while simultaneously influencing what it means to be Zambian, Congolese, Greek or Dialectical Anthropology

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Entre opposition et participation, les syndicats face aux réformes en Afrique

Cited by 9 publications

References 5 publications

Inside mining capitalism: The micropolitics of work on the Congolese and Zambian Copperbelts

Inside mining capitalism: The micropolitics of work on the Congolese and Zambian Copperbelts

Post-war Labour Market Reconstruction : The Case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Introduction—trade unions in times of austerity and development

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