According to Adam Smith, liberty “is at the heart of capitalism, and at the heart of liberty lies the commitment to human good”. This freedom does not only speak to the owners of the means of production, but also refers to workers, human capital.
In Smith’s view, “liberty means that each person, as long as he does not violate the law of justice, is left free to pursue his own interests in his own way…” In addition, Smith expressed his belief that liberty “reduces suffering by reducing the cost of living for people- the poor, but it also allows the poor to develop skills, move freely, and bring their work into competition with others … from the free market. The fact that the working poor is a common phenomenon and wages tend to fail to meet the demands and needs of workers. There is also the illusory power of determining the cost of labor according to free market fundamentalism, because it is a one-sided affair, benefiting only those who own the means of production.
William Robinson’s work shows us how global capitalism causes a humanitarian crisis. Capitalism has violated the basic principles of the common good; even exploitation is justified in the guise of profits which are reinvested for expansion meant to increase employment opportunities. However, what we have seen in society is an expansion of wealth inequality.
Neoliberal capitalism has also broken its promise to improve the lives of the poor. The crisis has manifested itself in the existence of the working class (people who are employed, unemployed or outside the labor market). According to 2022 data, 18.2 million South Africans live in extreme poverty. Workers feel that they are living in a state of slavery and that the high rate of inflation has not been matched by a corresponding increase in wages.
According to Expastian, the estimated cost of living for a family of four is R43 639 per month, but the average income for an entry-level nurse in South Africa is R21 240, before tax. Payscale also shows the average salary for teachers in South Africa, depending on qualifications, experience and workplace. A level 1 teacher (the lowest paid) earns less than R20 000 per month and, even if he is single, his income does not cover the cost of living for a single person who has an estimated monthly cost of R22 280 per month. .
The demands made by the trade unions are legitimate as the whole country is suffering, especially due to inflation.
However, when the National Union of Health and Allied Workers (Nehawu) chose to block access to hospitals, especially public hospitals that serve poor black people, who have no alternative, we must start thinking about the ethics of protest in the context of legitimate demands by workers.
On Wednesday, an ailing woman was not admitted to hospital in Sebokeng, Gauteng. She ended up going to a nearby private hospital, where she had no access to services because she had no medical assistance or health insurance and her family had no money to pay for the baby to be sent there.
At the heart of this nightmare is a terrifying intersection of class, gender and race – reinforced by Nehawu. There is no denying the importance of trade unions in the divide and conquer tactics of capitalism. Friedrich Engels argued that trade unions are important because they “direct themselves against the vital nerve of the present (capitalist) social order”.
In addition, with his faith and belief in the proletariat, Karl Marx opposed the revolution of the working class and believed that the working class could succeed in overthrowing the bourgeoisie by “getting rid of all the muck of the age and becoming fit for a new society”. The key to this revolution was mass participation as a means of expanding the popular democratic leadership of the workers. Apart from class antagonism, and the violence it causes, everyday awareness of oppression is the muck of all ages.
And the task of establishing a new society requires overcoming the humanitarian crisis brought about by capitalism, especially global capitalism. However, according to what we have seen in the past few days, especially with some patients who have died and pregnant women who have been rejected, we note that capitalism has not only caused a humanitarian crisis but the working class is also engulfed by an ethical crisis. of protest. What is the ethics of mass mobilization against the state when the guarantor is the innocent people who are the most marginalized in society?
Events in the health sector over the past few days reflect the lack of ubuntu of the Nehawu protesters. A tool meant to be a weapon against the ruling class has been turned on the masses, who are harmed in the process. Unfortunately, at this particular time, Nehawu showed that he did not have the capacity to rebuild society for his members. By ruining the lives of the sick and depriving women of their work, they are replicating the neoliberal ethic that manifests itself through self-interest and collective selfishness.
It remains mind boggling that, at the moment of realizing that a woman is at work and must access the hospital, what becomes more important is the struggle of workers without humanity, directed to achieve the 10% request for a wage increase at any cost, instead of trying to make the request be carried out without harm and destroy the lives of the most vulnerable.
What should distinguish the worker from the bourgeois state is the distance from the masses, which is essential for socialist democratization. Do workers not have a moral responsibility to protect the interests and well-being of society that has also been transformed into a class that is an ally against capital? (See Marx’s Philosophy of Poverty.) The masses that Marx promised us would rise up for collective class struggle and revolution, but the actions of the Nehawu workers do not seem to deviate from the capitalist state that always uses violence and violations to maintain it. hegemony and achieving the goals of capital’s private interests.
It is also ironic that the violation of the health rights of pregnant women who were expelled from Sebokeng Hospital also happened on March 8, which is International Women’s Day.
Cintia Frencia and Daniel Gaido remind us of the socialist origins of International Women’s Day. “In agreement with the class-conscious political organizations and trade unions of the proletariat of their countries, socialist women of all countries must hold a special Women’s Day which must, above all, promote … women’s suffrage. This demand must be discussed in connection with the question of women as a whole, according to socialist conception.
The socialist concept includes advocacy for mothers and children to be socially assisted. What happened to women in labor who were prevented from accessing hospitals shows what happens when the labor movement lacks feminist awareness and principles.
Socialist feminists have worked hard to make us aware of the intersection of patriarchy and capitalism and the dangers of worker consciousness without a socialist feminist ethic. The result we witnessed this week. This serves as a call for trade unions to reflect deeply on the important work of infusing socialist feminism and transcending the liberal feminist trap of the numbers game.
If Nehawu and other unions fail in the task of substantive and qualitative gender revolution in the workers’ struggle, then we cannot trust the workers to find a society again, different from the remnants of the capitalist patriarchal order.
Dikeledi Mokoena holds a PhD in Political Science. He is a lecturer, researcher, facilitator and public speaker.