Metal That Will Not Bend

Kally Forrest is Senior Researcher in the Society, Work & Development Institute (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and was previously Editor of the South African Labour Bulletin

In the 1980s there was a surge of trade union power in South Africa. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) was prominent and innovative in this assertion of muscle.Metal that does not Bend traces Numsa's accumulation, from a few small unions in a handful of factories to the staging of national strikes involving thousands of workers in auto and engineering. It examines how the union used its influence in macroeconomic and political arenas. Numsa was Cosatu's most radical socialist affiliate, and the book explores its attempts to implement its vision. Historians have framed apartheid's downfall as resulting from the activities of the exiled liberation movement, global anti-apartheid boycott strategies and internal township insurrection. This book reasserts the critical role of the internal labour movement.

Building local power: 1970s; power through numbers: 1980-1985; power in unity: 1980-1987; breaking the apartheid mould: 1980-1982; worker action fans out: 1980-1984; melding institutional, campaign and bureaucratic power: 1983-1990; conquest of Metal Industrial Council: 1987-1988; auto workers take power: 1982-1989; auto takes on the industry: 1990-1992; new directions: 1988-1991l defeat of Mawu strategy: 1990-1992; towards a new industry: 1993; the Cinderella sector: 1983-1990; applying vision in auto and motor: 1990-1995; applying vision in engineering: 1994-1995; independent worker movement: 1980-1986; beginnings of alliance politics: 1984-1986; weakening the socialist impulse: Civil war in Natal 1987-1994; Civil war in Transvaal: 1989-1994; new politics: 1987-1990; disinvestment: Pragmatic politics 1985-1989; compromising on socialism: Legacy of the Alliance 1989-1995.