WATCH VIDEO: Lucien van der Walt, 2020, "Critically Assessing Social Programmes to Mitigate COVID-19: Long march to rebuilding bottom-up, working class-led change in South Africa"]
On 26 May 2020, NALSU director Professor Lucien van der Walt presented live in the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU)'s online #SAFTUWorkersConversations series, "Coronavirus and the Working Class." His input was entitled "Critically Assessing Social Programmes to Mitigate COVID-19: Long march to rebuilding bottom-up, working class-led change in South Africa." In conversation with SAFTU's Zwelinzima Vavi, Mametlwe Sebei and others, Lucien looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the government’s COVID-19 welfare measures, and how they were shaped by the nature of the capitalist state in South Africa, economic crises and the neo-liberal era, and pressure from below. While the expanded welfare measures were welcome and significant, he argued, they were limited, badly run and unable to reduce inequality. It was, then, essential to reactivate union activity and rebuild union-community alliances, always emphasising bottom-up activity, as we return to work. This defends the working class – and in so doing, also steadily lays the basis for deeper changes to benefit poor and working people. The video, including the question and answer session, can be viewed below: