NALSU NEWS: Labour Studies podcast/video - Dinga Sikwebu | COSATU@40: Decades of Political Alignment and Entanglement (Neil Aggett Labour Studies Lecture)
TOPIC: In this Lecture—on the eve of COSATU’s 40th anniversary—labour stalwart Dinga Sikwebu examines the federation's long history of political alignment. Founded in December 1985, the federation became one of the world’s fastest growing union movements. It demonstrated a remarkable dynamism and bottom-up worker politics. When the ANC and SACP were unbanned in 1990, the federation was at the heart of the mass democratic movement. To gain political influence, COSATU opted to be part of the Tripartite Alliance with the two organisations.
He explores on the efficacy of COSATU's political alignment strategy, including the original Alliance model, deployment of unionists onto election lists and repeated calls for workers to “swell the ranks of the ANC”. He evaluates COSATU strategies to push for pro-working-class policies through its alignment with the ANC, attempts to build a left axis with the SACP, as well as battles for Alliance reconfiguration.
Beyond this, the Lecture critically examines the deeper conceptual framings that underpin the strategy, like the Leninist theory of trade union limitations—and suggested new ways of thinking about unions and politics, beyond union/party alliances.
PODCAST: https://tinyurl.com/2ht26z74
VIDEO: https://shorturl.at/yZqtG
DETAILS: The Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) hosts the Annual Neil Aggett Labour Studies Lecture as part of its labour studies seminars series, in partnership with its annual Vuyisile Mini Workers School and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), South Africa. This Lecture was delivered 4PM, Thursday 20 November 2025, Graham Hotel, 123 High Street, Makhanda, South Africa & via Zoom.
SPEAKER: Dinga Sikwebu is a retired trade unionist based in Johannesburg. He worked for 25 years as the head of education at the head office of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (NUMSA). Presently, he is a Global Labour 欧洲杯足球网_外围买球app推荐-投注|官网 (GLU) Research Associate at the 欧洲杯足球网_外围买球app推荐-投注|官网 of the Witwatersrand.
ABOUT NALSU: Based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) at Rhodes 欧洲杯足球网_外围买球app推荐-投注|官网 is engaged in policy, research, and workers' education, has a democratic, non-sectarian, non-aligned, and pluralist practice, and active relations with a range of advocacy, labour, and research organisations. We draw strength from our location in a province where the legacy of apartheid and the cheap labour system, and post-apartheid contradictions, are keenly felt.