ABSTRACT
This chapter considers neoliberal corporatism and its implications for South African labour. It identifies the traditional or ‘welfare’ model of corporatism typical in the post-war decades through to the 1970s. Neoliberalism involves an offensive against the gains made by workers during the long boom, a purging of the weaker and smaller companies through a process of concentration and centralisation of capital involving mergers and acquisitions, and the opening of new areas for realisation of surplus value through processes of privatisation. The strength of the organised working-class within respective countries has compelled their respective states and bourgeoisie to adopt neoliberal corporatism – involving elements of corporatism alongside neoliberal economic policies – in an effort to constrain any major resistance to this system. In some countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, the neoliberal revolution of the 1980s was implemented without any consultation with trade unions.
