The irony is that South Africa
is experiencing its fastest period of economic growth in two decades,
and consumer spending has driven much of this growth. So why is
Rex Trueform closing? And why has South Africa lost 150,000 jobs
in the clothing, textile, and footwear sector in the last decade,
including 17,000 in the past year alone?
South Africa has been hit by a “double whammy.” On
one hand, after a decade in slow decline, the rand—the South
African currency—has appreciated sharply since 2002, making
imported goods seem much cheaper. On the other hand, World Trade
Organization (WTO) rules have required South Africa (and other
nations) to relax import tariffs that might otherwise have shielded
domestic industries from foreign competition. Indeed, the South
African government has been so overzealous in its embrace of the
orthodoxy of “free trade” that it has reduced textile
tariffs even more rapidly than the WTO demanded.
As a result, the vast majority of the clothes for sale in Cape
Town shops are made in China and other Asian nations, where workers
usually do not enjoy even the limited protections that South African
workers have won since the demise of apartheid. Even Queenspark,
a chain of retail stores owned by Rex Trueform, is buying most
of their inventory overseas, and not from their parent company.
The Rex Trueform closure has become a lightning rod for the larger
issue of job losses in South Africa. Churches are struggling to
decide how best to respond to these challenges. Some commentators
have blamed the victims, accusing organized labour of driving
up wages and demanding benefits that make South African goods
“uncompetitive” in both foreign and domestic markets.
In contrast, the SACC has formed a “Save Jobs Coalition”
with the main labour federation, COSATU, and community groups
such as the Treatment Action Campaign. The Coalition has supported
organized labour’s call on clothing retailers to sign a
code of conduct that includes a commitment to purchasing 75 percent
of their stock from domestic producers.
The campaign became the centerpiece of the past week’s
activities in conjunction with the Global Week of Action on Trade
(10-16 April). The week was intended to raise awareness of the
injustices of the current international trade rules, which produce
disproportionate benefits for the wealthy, both within and among
nations.
In Cape Town, faith leaders kicked off the week by visiting a
Queenspark store in a local shopping mall to solicit support for
the proposed code of conduct. On Thursday, the SACC and other
groups organized an interfaith service for trade justice in central
Cape Town. During the first part of the service, which took place
in the Anglican cathedral, members of the South African Clothing
and Textile Workers Union spoke movingly about job losses and
the impact they had on their families, and Anglican Archbishop
Njongonkulu Ndungane made an impassioned plea for an end to poverty
and unjust trade rules. Singing the Zulu hymn “Siyahamba”
(We are marching in the light of God), the congregation then followed
the faith leaders out of the church and onto the streets of Cape
Town. The procession passed the Houses of Parliament and the corporate
offices of two large clothing retailers—where they paused
to hand over memoranda calling on the companies to sign the code
of conduct—before concluding at the Catholic cathedral.
Father Peter-John Pearson captured the mood of the marchers perfectly
in his closing remarks: “A luta continua! As long
as people must go to bed hungry at night, as long as people do
not have access to adequate health care and medications, as long
as people cannot afford water, the struggle must continue.”
And so it must.
Shalom,
Doug
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
339 |
