Trade Unions and Democracy: COSATU Workers Political Attitudes in South Africa

Carefully analyzing the changes that characterize workers’ political orientations, this study considers the results of a survey of the political attitudes of members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) undertaken prior to South Africa’s third democratic general election in 2004. Key issues—such as internal union and parliamentary democracy, black empowerment, and the marginalization of women within the trade union movement—are discussed in relation to the working-class politics and the democratic transformation of South Africa. The findings of two previous surveys, conducted before the before the elections of 1994 and 1999, are also included.