South Africa is a country with most of its history based on Apartheid, this is even apparent when it comes to the organisation of trade unions and the labour movement in the country. However (Fine, 1990,289) that a relationship between capitalism and racism exist which is why the essay will critically discuss the comparison between South Africa and Argentina in terms of trade union organisation and labour movement during the 1940s.
The understanding of Fines analyses of the relationship between capitalism and racism is probably one of the reasons; we have trade unions in South Africa today and are also in Argentina because Marx and Engels once stipulated that unions have an element of socialism in them because (Kelly, 1998) that trade unions are based on the mobilisation of workers through strikes in order to promote the common interest of labour against capital and the process of overcoming sectional division and leadership inertia.
Clock of the LO Castle of the Swedish Trade Union ...
Congress of South African Trade Unions
south africa - zulu reed dance ceremonyThis is probably the first similarity between the Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU) which is one of the first trade unions in South Africa to represent those who were considered 'blacks' (Lodge, 1983:187) and the General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine Republic (CGT) which represented the workers of Argentina who were in support against imperialism and the domination of capitalism (Brysk, 1994). These two unions during the 1940s were basically trying to mobilise workers to a common goal of unfair treatment towards the labours of that time who didn't have any form of representation or the representation that was there was in the hands of an unfair government.
In South Africa the trade union organisation and labour movement had been based on that of racial terms in the improving of lives of those that were beginning to face the wrath of Apartheid (Lodge, 1983:189) because...