Organizing on the Streets: A Study of Reclaimers in ... - Inclusive Cities

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WIEGO <strong>Organizing</strong> SeriesCompanies with bulk waste make arrangements with the buy-back centres to collect directly fromtheir premises, and there is a system whereby petrol costs are deducted. According to one worker,there are a few sellers with whom these buy-back centres have contracts and pay them monthly.A second approach would be to include buy-back centre workers in organizing attempts. Whilesome may be loyal to their employers at buy-back centres, there were workers willing to shareinformation and insights into the industry with us, volunteering for interviews during their lunchbreaks and providing views from a different entry point in their demanding daily schedules.The challenge of organizing reclaimers is not only because of a special concern for a marginalizedsection of the working class, or the urban and rural poor. It is part of a greater historical challengefacing organized labour under neo-liberal globalization. As millions of workers are expelled fromformal workplaces and as the “workplace” itself becomes a more flexible concept – including, inthis instance, the street – what forms of organizing are appropriate to contest exploitation and toforge greater solidarity? The experiences of reclaimers involved in this project, and their voices,may help not only to illustrate the possibilities of their own self-organization but the possibilitiesof a greater working class unity.22
<strong>Organizing</strong> on the Streets: A Study of Reclaimers in the Streets of Cape TownREFERENCESCORC Narrative Report to Ford Foundation on “Activities Carried Out Under EDAG Funding”(December 2004 – November 2005). KOLPING South Africa (www.kolpingsa.co.za)Gentle, L. (2004). Economic Policy and Democracy: South Africa 10 years after apartheid. Entraide etFraternite: Brussels.ILRIG. (2001). Is there an alternative? South African workers confronting globalization; PPPS: Aquestionable strategy for service delivery. ILRIG: Cape Town.ILRIG. (2002). Globalization Series No. 6. An Alternative View of Gender and Globalization:Cape TownILRIG. (2003). Research into aspects of local government restructuring drawing on workers’ experiences.Research report commissioned by SAMWU, SALGA and DPLG: Cape Town.?Qotole, Xali and Barchiesi (2001). . The Commercialization of Waste Management in South Africa,Occasional Paper No. 3. Municipal Service Project. Cape TownStatistics South Africa. (2007) Labour Force Survey September 2007 – Tsoga Environmental Centreand Recycling Depot (www.urbansprout.co.za).23
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Organizing on the Streets: A Study of Reclaimers in ... - Inclusive Cities

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