ILRIG

Mission Statement

ILRIG is an NGO providing education, publications and research for the labour and social movements in South and Southern Africa. The main focus of our work is globalisation. Our work on globalisation is informed by the view that globalisation is not a heightened form of international integration but an attempt to restructure class relations so as to restore capitalist profitability. Globalisation is neither neutral nor inevitable. There is an alternative!

ILRIG was founded in 1983. For many years we were linked to the sociology department of the University of Cape Town but since 2003 ILRIG is an independent Trust. Over the years we have built up a reputation for high-quality publications and education programmes which are accessible and useful to social movement activists and trade unionists. All our work stresses democratic participation and interaction and is geared towards building strong, active formations of the working class able to develop alternatives to the neo-liberal agenda.

ILRIG's Research and Education Work

Through ILRIG’s education programmes and research we aim to bring the experiences of working and poor people in other countries to Southern African organisations, and to draw on this information to inform the search for alternative policies. ILRIG’s objective is also to assist in the development of strong bonds of international solidarity between social movements and trade unions. ILRIG conducts its research in collaboration with organisations and networks internationally. We take this information to organisations by running education courses and training programmes, and producing popular publications.

Since 2002 ILRIG has convened an annual Globalisation School - a week-long event which draws activists from all over Africa and elsewhere to an occasion combining debate and learning and cultural events.

In addition to publishing popular booklets on international issues, ILRIG also produces a quarterly newsletter called Workers World News.

The Context of ILRIG's Work

The 21st century world economy has a number of characteristics which have impacted on developments in South Africa and the greater African region:

The global spread of neo-liberal economics, characterised by deregulation, privatisation, industrial restructuring and cuts in social spending;
The growth and increased mobility of global corporate power, including South African transnational corporations, with about forty percent of all world trade taking place within individual transnational corporations;
The liberalisation of international investment and trade relations, engineered through the World Trade Organisation and the domination of finance markets and speculation over production.
The reorganisation and flexibilisation of production and work, resulting in a small layer of permanently employed workers in contrast to a majority of unskilled and casualised or informalised workers
The generally negative impact of these developments on women in particular, and the increased incorporation of women into waged work, but in informalised, poorly paid and vulnerable working conditions.

South Africa has radically opened its economy to and championed the cause of its own transitional companies and for TNCs internationally. These neo-liberal economic policies have impacted on the lives of millions of ordinary South Africans leaving them poorer and less serviced while the wealth gap increases. This has had serious implications for working people and the poor in South Africa, and for women in particular. And as South African companies become dominant investors in Africa the neo-liberal policies of privatisation and cost recovery have been exported. Social movements, trade unions, women's organisations and other community-based organisations in South and Southern Africa are therefore faced with important challenges. There is a critical need for capacity building in order to challenge the current neo-liberal policies and to seek alternatives which place people's needs before profits.

Since South Africa's reinsertion into the world economy there is a growing need for organisations to understand their experiences in a global context, to draw from the experiences of organisations world-wide in the development of strategies, and to build international worker solidarity.

ILRIG's Focus

It is with this vision in mind that ILRIG has focussed international issues. In line with this, the subject matter of ILRIG's work is international socio-economic issues and politics, concentrating on globalisation and its impact in South and Southern Africa.

ILRIG's Aim

ILRIG seeks to build the capacity of trade unions and social movements to pro-actively respond to the challenges of globalisation. Linked to this, we also aim to contribute towards the development of independent, democratic and participatory alternatives.

History

ILRIG was founded in 1983 as a labour service organisation dedicated to research, education, training, and production of popular materials in the interests of then advancing unions and workers power.

ILRIG has generally focused on international labour, economic and political issues in the context of contributing to solidarity amongst workers across the globe. In its early years ILRIG became known for the publication of popular worker history materials, particularly booklet histories of workers in Botswana, Brazil, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, and Bolivia.

In more recent years ILRIG’s overall focus has shifted to the process of globalisation, with a number of projects linked to contributing to a working class critique of the free market and the exploration of alternatives to TNC dominance. ILRIG’s constituency has also changed in recent years with its orientation now jointly towards the emerging social movements and the trade unions, with a view to facilitating greater unity between these two initiatives within the working class.

ILRIG's Supporters / Partners

ILRIG is grateful for the support it has received from:

Fund for Co-operation and Development (FOS), Belgium
Steelworkers’ Humanity Fund (SHF), Canada
Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace
Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst e.V. (EED), Germany
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Germany
Entraide et Fraternite, Belgium
Mensenbroeders, Belgium

Service Providers:

Designs4development
Jon Berndt
Logoprint
GoMedia

Overall situation in South Africa

South Africa achieved democracy at a time when globalisation defined the balance of forces in the world. Within a few years of our young democracy the South African government abandoned its Keynesian programme - the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) - in favour of the neo-liberal Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. In terms of GEAR there has been widespread privatisation, cuts in social expenditure and extensive relaxation of restrictions on businesses. Private investment is seen as the panacea for development and government's main function is to create the conditions in which businesses can make maximum profits. As a result South Africa has unemployment levels above 40%, no social security net and millions of people get cut off from electricity and water if they cannot pay.

In 2004 South Africa celebrated 10 years of democracy. South Africa held its third national General Elections, in which the ruling party increased its majority but voter registration and participation was down. The ruling ANC has not only embraced neo-liberalism but has entered alliances with, including symbolic acceptance of its leader into a cabinet ministry, of the erstwhile Apartheid National Party.

Over the past ten years a number of measures were set up in South Africa, which were about extending the scope of popular participation in governance beyond voting in elections. We speak here of local forums such as the RDP Forums, the Integrated Development Plans and Workplace Forums, which were supposed to be spaces for local communities and workers to shape public and company policies at the local level, and national co-deterministic intuitions such as the National Economic and Labour Council (NEDLAC) which were spaces for organised labour to contest economic and social policy. In combination with a progressive Constitution these were seen as opportunities for the trade unions and local communities to define public policy. Yet with neo-liberal economic polices framed by GEAR public participation is at a low and COSATU has failed to roll back government commitments to privatisation and cost-cutting.

While ex-liberation stalwarts and black businessmen have benefited from the intervention of the state and the largesse of white Capital to create a black bourgeoisie, figures on poverty and inequality indicate a greater disparity between the rich, mainly white elite and the mass, mainly black urban and rural poor. The South African elites have not only become enthusiasts for neo-liberal policies at home but have become active interventionists elsewhere in Africa exporting these policies via the New Policy for Africa's Democracy (NEPAD) and military and diplomatic intervention.

Since 2002 there has been an emergence of a number of new social movements - small but vocal forces of the urban and rural poor outside the mainstream - many of whose activists openly decry parliament and electoral politics as having any relevance for the poor at all. Alliances and networks of new social movements, such as the Social Movements Indaba, have debated their response to the 2004 elections, whilst COSATU has championed the cause of the ruling African National Congress, although surveys indicate widespread dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal policies of the government. COSATU has called for electoral reform away from the current system of proportional representation but struggles with its alliance with the ruing party.

With the launch of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU) - in which the South African government has been as a driving force, if not the architect - South Africa is emerging as a regional power in Africa. NEPAD's perspective of economic growth and development is consistent with the championing of privatisation and trade liberalisation. The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU), as the leading force within the labour movement, has called NEPAD, the "Africanisation of GEAR".

Post-Apartheid South Africa, in the 10th year of its democracy is emerging as a country of extreme poverty and extreme wealth with a pro-private sector government, a rich, largely (but now not exclusively) white elite, with ambitions in Africa that are not benign. Amongst the working people, already wracked by HIV/AIDS the following are some significant recent developments:

Decline of the impact of the labour movement on public policy in SA. The trade unions have been forced onto the defensive, have lost many able opinion makers and are suffering a crisis of expertise in comparison with the 1980s and early 1990s.
There have been massive job losses and a growing informalisation of labour and a huge scale of personal debt amongst workers.
There has been an emergence of new social movements. These are new and inexperienced working class activists; small in number and regionally and politically uneven, yet vibrant and eager for political education.
There currently exist sharp tensions between activists in the new social movements and the trade unions, notwithstanding resolutions to work together.
We have not yet seen the emergence of new organic intellectuals, with many young skilled people preferring government or private sector opportunities. There is thus a shortage of supply of skilled, critical people to assist in the building of capacity within civil society. The new activists within the labour movement and the emerging social movements lack skills and knowledge of traditions of the battle for ideas.

Trade Unions

	Title	Federation of Unions of South Africa
	Description	Established in 1997, FEDUSA represents in excess of 550 000 members from more than 26 affiliated trade unions. As the second largest trade union federation in South Africa, FEDUSA is committed to providing exceptional service and adding value to all its affiliates, at an affordable affiliation fee.
	View Website


	Title	COSATU
	Description	Congress of South African Trade Unions - also contains links to other union sites in South Africa.
	View Website

Social Movements

	Organisation	Anti Evictions Campaign (AEC)
	Province	Western Cape
	Contact Person	Fonky Goboza & Soraya Hendricks
	Email	sorayahendricks@hotmail.com


	Organisation	Youth For Work
	Province	National
	Contact Person	Nomasonto
	Email	sontom@union.org.za


	Organisation	Concerned Citizens Forum (CCF)
	Province	KZN
	Contact Person	Brandon Pillay
	Email	brandonpillay@hotmail.com


	Organisation	Landless People's Movement (LPM)
	Province	National
	Contact Person	Ann Eveleth
	Email	aeveleth@sn.apc.org


	Organisation	JUBILEE SA
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	George Dor
	Email	george@sn.apc.org


	Organisation	Anti Privatisation Forum (APF)
	Province	Western Cape
	Contact Person	Bobby Wilcox
	Email	rwilcox@fastmail.fm


	Organisation	Anti Privatisation Forum (APF)
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	Trevor Ngwane
	Email	trevorngwane@hotmail.com


	Organisation	Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF)
	Province	National
	Contact Person	Ace
	Email	ace@ejnf.org.za


	Organisation	Rural Women's Movement
	Province	KZN
	Contact Person	Thabo
	Email	thabo@afra.co.za


	Organisation	New Women's Movement
	Province	Western Cape
	Contact Person	Kholiwe Dyose
	Email	nwm@intekom.co.za


	Organisation	Artisanal Fisherfolk
	Province	Western Cape
	Contact Person	Andy Johnstone
	Email	artfishers@worldonline.co.za

NGO's with Relationships with Social Movements

	Organisation	Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI)
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	Console
	Email	console@fxi.org.za


	Organisation	Khanya College
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	Nina
	Email	nina.benjamin@khanyacollege.org.za


	Organisation	ILRIG
	Province	Western Cape
	Contact Person	Leonard
	Email	leonard@ilrig.org.za


	Organisation	Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC)
	Province	Western Cape
	Contact Person	Brian
	Email	brian@aidc.org.za


	Organisation	Labour Research Service (LRS)
	Province	Western Cape
	Contact Person	Sara
	Email	lrs@lrs.org.za


	Organisation	Ground Work
	Province	KZN
	Contact Person	Bobby
	Email	bobby@groundwork.org.za


	Organisation	Public Services International (PSI)
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	Maria
	Email	maria@psi.wn.apc.org


	Organisation	Legal Resources Centre (LRC)
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	Vincent
	Email	contact@lrc.org.za


	Organisation	Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR)
	Province	PTA
	Contact Person	Rudolph
	Email	Rudolph@lhr.org.za


	Organisation	Centre for Civil Society (CCS)
	Province	DBN
	Contact Person	Richard
	Email	pithouser@nu.ac.za


	Organisation	SAHA
	Province	JHB
	Contact Person	Verne
	Email	harrisvkb@worldonline.co.za


	Organisation	Education Policy Unit (EPU)
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	Brian
	Email	ramadirob@epu.wits.ac.za


	Organisation	lndymedia
	Province	Gauteng
	Contact Person	Prishani
	Email	prishani@red.org.za


Board

ILRIG is governed by a Board which is made up of the following people:

	Name:	Roger Ronnie
	About:	SAMWU-Chairperson of the ILRIG Board


	Name:	Linda Cooper
	About:	Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT


	Name:	Dinga Sikwebu
	About:	National Union of Metalworkers of SA


	Name:	Soreya Hendricks
	About:	Anti Evictions Campaign, Delft


	Name:	Soreya Jawoodeen
	About:	National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union


	Name:	Godfrey Silinga
	About:	Calusa land project, Transkei


	Name:	Patricia Appolis
	About:	South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union


Staff Members

	Name:	Leonard Gentle
	Job Title:	Acting Director
	Email:	leonard@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Aileen April
	Job Title:	Finance Officer
	Email:	aileen@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Phumeza Ndidi
	Job Title:	Administrator
	Email:	phumeza@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Judith Kennedy
	Job Title:	Researcher / Education Officer
	Email:	judith@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Koni Benson
	Job Title:	Researcher / Education Officer
	Email:	koni@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Mthetho Xali
	Job Title:	Researcher / Education Officer
	Email:	mthetho@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Anna Davies-van Es
	Job Title:	Researcher / Education Officer
	Email:	anna@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Ronald Wesso
	Job Title:	Researcher / Education Officer
	Email:	ronald@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Mzimasi Mngeni
	Job Title:	Resource Centre Officer
	Email:	mzimasi@ilrig.org.za


	Name:	Ntswaki Mareane
	Job Title:	Office Co-ordinator
	Email:	ntswaki@ilrig.org.za