Women Must Be At The Centre of Revitalising Trade Unions

Dr. Reneva Fourie

In August, South Africans honour the courage of women in the struggle for freedom, dignity, and equality. The unveiling of Dora Tamana’s tombstone on 23 August, along with the commemoration of the assassination of Ruth First, forty-three years ago on the 17th, and the birth of Dulcie September ninety years ago on the 20th, lends significance to the month.

Their lives demonstrate the interconnectedness of the struggles of women, workers, and communities, holding lessons for the contemporary trade union movement, which faces significant challenges spanning technological disruption to organisational fragmentation.

Dora Tamana understood that the daily struggles of women in the townships were intimately linked to the struggles of workers in factories and on the land. Her activism around food security and her leadership in the Federation of South African Women and the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA/SACP) demonstrated that the liberation of women cannot be separated from the liberation of the working class. She deftly drew the connections between poverty, unemployment, race, and gender, strengthening the foundation for mass-based resistance to apartheid capitalism.

Ruth First, born to founding members of the CPSA/SACP, was the first national secretary of the Young Communist League. She embodied the role of the intellectual activist whose journalism and scholarship were embedded within social movements and trade unionism.

She exposed the workings of apartheid capitalism, highlighting its transnational nature and providing workers and activists with the analytical tools to challenge exploitation. Her life illustrates that the struggle is not only waged in factories and on picket lines, but also in the battle of ideas, where analytical astuteness empowers grassroots and shopfloor action.

Dulcie September emulated their commitment as reflected in her teaching, trade union activity, and later in her international work for the African National Congress. She believed that freedom is meaningless without justice for all. September recognised that South African workers were enmeshed in global systems of exploitation, which necessitated global solidarity.

Her assassination in Paris in 1988 silenced a tireless advocate for international links between workers and activists. This principle remains deeply relevant for trade unions confronting multinational corporations in the twenty-first century.

The contributions of these three women highlight the deep interlinkages between gender justice, labour rights, and liberation. They also illuminate pathways for contemporary unions in South Africa, which are facing a moment of crisis. Recent reports from Statistics South Africa indicate that unemployment remains persistently high, with women and young people being the most affected. 

The 25th Commission for Employment Equity Report records slow transformation in the workplace, with women, especially ‘coloured’ and African women, underrepresented in senior positions. The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group’s Household Affordability Index has reported that the cost of a basic food basket continues to outpace wage growth, affecting women-headed households most severely.

International research echoes these findings. The International Labour Organisation has warned that global labour market gaps disproportionately impact women and young people. The International Trade Union Confederation’s Global Rights Index shows that the space for unions is shrinking in many countries, including South Africa, where collective bargaining is under threat.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has urged governments to address the gendered impact of technological change and ageing workforces, stressing the need for childcare, skills development, and secure employment pathways for women. The state of the working class in South Africa is dire, with women at the sharpest edge of precarity.

Meanwhile, the South African trade union movement, once among the spearheads in the fight for justice, is weakened by division. With fewer than three out of ten workers unionised, federations compete with each other while employers and corporations grow stronger. Workers face the rise of casualisation, surveillance, and automation with little coordinated defence. The fragmentation of worker representatives spells disaster.

The lessons of Tamana, First, and September speak directly to this crisis. Tamana showed that the strength of unions is grounded in the lived experiences of communities. First demonstrated that intellectual clarity and critical inquiry are weapons in the struggle against exploitation. September proved that no national movement can succeed without international solidarity. Their legacies underscore the need for unions to transcend narrow institutional rivalries and adopt a unified vision of worker power.

A revitalised and united labour movement must set ambitious goals. Defending wages and worker conditions is necessary, but it is insufficient. Workers must demand workplace democracy, the development of cooperatives, and common ownership of digital platforms to ensure technology serves society. Beyond the factory floor, they must join community struggles against imperialism, privatisation and inflation, and for universal healthcare, free education and affordable housing. These are not abstract ideals but material conditions that give meaning to freedom.

Women must be central to this revitalisation. Reports show that women continue to carry the heaviest burdens of low pay and insecure work. Yet history demonstrates that women have been the backbone of movements for justice. Trade unions must place more women in leadership positions, particularly address the gender pay gap, and advance policies that promote worker safety and support workers with care responsibilities. 

August, as Women’s Month, provides the opportunity to reflect on the lessons from past women leaders and to recommit to a vision of worker power that is inclusive, bold, and internationalist. The lives of Dora Tamana, Ruth First, and Dulcie September remind us that the struggle for justice is not simply about material gains, but about dignity, equality, and the creation of a humane society.

This generation of trade unionists must draw from the courage of Tamana, the clarity of First, and the internationalism of September. If unions unite and if women are placed at the centre, workers will not only defend their livelihoods but also build a society that is just, equitable, and sustainable. Women’s Month should therefore not be a time of mere commemoration. It should be a call to action to humanise the economy and to reaffirm the belief that organised workers remain one of the most potent forces for social transformation.

* Dr Reneva Fourie is a policy analyst specialising in governance, development, and security.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.