Rethinking the labour movement in the "new South Africa"

The socio-economic system underpinning apartheid in South Africa was based on the exploitation of black workers in the mines, the factories, the fields and the shops. It is widely recognized that the struggles of the South African black working class contributed decisively to the overthrow of the racist regime. In recognition of the power of organised labour, the democratic government elected in 1994 granted South Africa's unions unprecedented legal and constitutional rights. However, despite these gains, the country's labour movement has been facing a fresh set of challenges, from macroeconomic policy to the factory floor, many of them emanating from labour’s political allies in Government. The purpose of this book is to examine how the South African labour movement is responding to these challenges in the new millennium. A variety of experts on South African labour, both within the country and outside deal with crucial issues: How has South Africa's labour movement reacted to the ANC Government's neoliberal economic agenda? How do the unions relate to an increasingly diversifying, “flexible” and vulnerable workforce? What are labour’s prospects of contributing to a left project in democratic South Africa? What are the challenges facing the unions in relation to new forms of militancy and social movements?

Communism and Public Opinion in Queensland, 1939-1951 : An Explanation of Queensland's Vote in the 1951 Anti-Communist Referendum

The starting point of this thesis was a desire to explain the rapid demise in the popularity which the Communist Party enjoyed in Queensland during the second world war. Wartime Queensland gave the Australian Communist Party its highest state vote and six years later Queensland again gave the Communist Party its highest state vote - this time however, to ban the Party. From this I was led into exploring the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party, as well as the many sub-groups on its periphery, and the shifts in public response to these. In 1939 Townsville elected Australia's first Communist alderman. Five years later, Bowen elected not only Australia's first but also the British Empire's first, Communist state government member. Of the five electorates the Australian Communist Party contested in the 1944 Queensland State elections, in none did the Party's candidate receive less than twenty per-cent of the formal vote. Not only was the Party seemingly enjoying considerable popular support but this was occurring in a State which, but for the Depression years (May 1929 - June 1932) had elected a Labor State Government at every state election since 1915. In the September 1951 Constitution Alteration Referendum, 'Powers To Deal With Communists and Communism', Queensland regist¬ered the nation's highest "Yes" majority - 55.76% of the valid vote. Only two other states registered a majority in favour of the referendum's proposals, Western Australia and Tasmania. As this research was undertaken it became evident that while various trends exhibited at the time, anti-Communism, the work of the Industrial Groups, Labor opportunism, local area feelings, ideological shifts of the Party, tactics of Communist-led unions, etc., were present throughout the entire period, they were best seen when divided into three chronological phases of the Party's history and popularity. The first period covers the consolidation of the Party's post-Depression popularity during the war years as it benefited from the Soviet Union's colossal contribution to the Allied war efforts, and this support continued for some six months or so after the war. Throughout the period Communist strength within the trade union movement greatly increased as did total Party membership. The second period was marked by a rapid series of events starting in March 1946, with Winston Churchill's "Official Opening" of the Cold War by his sweeping attack on Communism and Russia, at Fulton. Several days later the first of a series of long and bitter strikes in Communist-led unions occurred, as the Party mobil¬ized for what it believed would be a series of attacks on the working class from a ruling class, defending a capitalist system on the verge of an economic collapse. It was a period when the Party believed this ruling class was using Labor reformism as a last desperate 'carrot' to get workers to accept their lot within a capitalist economic framework. Out of the Meat Strike emerged the Industrial Groups, who waged not only a determined war against Communist trade union leadership but also encouraged the A.W.U.-influenced State Labor apparatus to even greater anti-Communist antagonisms. The Communist Party's increasing militancy and Labor's resistance to it, ended finally in the collapse of the Chifley Labor government. Characteristically the third period opens with the Communist Party making an another about-face, desperately trying to form an alliance with the Labor Party and curbing its former adventurist industrial policy, as it prepared for Menzies' direct assault. The Communist Party's activities were greatly reduced, a function of both a declining member-ship and, furthermore, a membership reluctant to confront an increasingly hostile society. In examining the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party and the shifts in public response to these, I have tried to distinguish between general trends occurring within Australia and the national party, and trends peculiar to Queensland and the Queensland branch of the Party, The Communist Party suffered a decline in support and membership right across Australia throughout this period as a result of the national policies of the Party, and the changing nature of world politics. There were particular features of this decline that were peculiar to Queensland. I have, however, singled out three features of particular importance throughout the period for a short but more specifically detailed analysis, than would be possible in a purely chronological study: i.e. the Party's structure, the Party's ideological subservience to Moscow, and the general effect upon it of the Cold War.

Excitability changes in human forearm corticospinal projections and spinal reflex pathways during rhythmic voluntary movement of the opposite limb

Rhythmic movements brought about by the contraction of muscles on one side of the body give rise to phase-locked changes in the excitability of the homologous motor pathways of the opposite limb. Such crossed facilitation should favour patterns of bimanual coordination in which homologous muscles are engaged simultaneously, and disrupt those in which the muscles are activated in an alternating fashion. In order to examine these issues, we obtained responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), to stimulation of the cervicomedullary junction (cervicomedullary-evoked potentials, CMEPs), to peripheral nerve stimulation (H-reflexes and f-waves), and elicited stretch reflexes in the relaxed right flexor carpi radialis (FCR) muscle during rhythmic (2 Hz) flexion and extension movements of the opposite (left) wrist. The potentials evoked by TMS in right FCR were potentiated during the phases of movement in which the left FCR was most strongly engaged. In contrast, CMEPs were unaffected by the movements of the opposite limb. These results suggest that there was systematic variation of the excitability of the motor cortex ipsilateral to the moving limb. H-reflexes and stretch reflexes recorded in right FCR were modulated in phase with the activation of left FCR. As the f-waves did not vary in corresponding fashion, it appears that the phasic modulation of the H-reflex was mediated by presynaptic inhibition of Ia afferents. The observation that both H-reflexes and f-waves were depressed markedly during movements of the opposite indicates that there may also have been postsynaptic inhibition or disfacilitation of the largest motor units. Our findings indicate that the patterned modulation of excitability in motor pathways that occurs during rhythmic movements of the opposite limb is mediated primarily by interhemispheric interactions between cortical motor areas.

Intercepting a moving target: effects of temporal precision constraints and movement amplitude

The effects of temporal precision constraints and movement amplitude on performance of an interceptive aiming task were examined. Participants were required to strike a moving target object with a 'bat' by moving the bat along a straight path (constrained by a linear slide) perpendicular to the path of the target. Temporal precision constraints were defined in terms of the time period (or window) within which contact with the target was possible. Three time windows were used (approx. 35, 50 and 65 ms) and these were achieved either by manipulating the size of the bat (experiment 1a), the size of the target (experiment 1b) or the speed of the target (experiment 2). In all experiments, movement time (MT) increased in proportion to movement amplitude but was only affected by differences in the temporal precision constraint if this was achieved by variation in the target's speed. In this case the MT was approximately inversely proportional to target speed. Peak movement speed was affected by temporal accuracy constraints in all three experiments: participants reached higher speeds when the temporal precision required was greater. These results are discussed with reference to the speed-accuracy trade-off observed for temporally constrained aiming movements. It is suggested that the MT and speed of interceptive aiming movements may be understood as responses to the spatiotemporal constraints of the task.

What's scene and not seen: Influences of movement and task upon what we see

Studies concerning the processing of natural scenes using eye movement equipment have revealed that observers retain surprisingly little information from one fixation to the next. Other studies, in which fixation remained constant while elements within the scene were changed, have shown that, even without refixation, objects within a scene are surprisingly poorly represented. Although this effect has been studied in some detail in static scenes, there has been relatively little work on scenes as we would normally experience them, namely dynamic and ever changing. This paper describes a comparable form of change blindness in dynamic scenes, in which detection is performed in the presence of simulated observer motion. The study also describes how change blindness is affected by the manner in which the observer interacts with the environment, by comparing detection performance of an observer as the passenger or driver of a car. The experiments show that observer motion reduces the detection of orientation and location changes, and that the task of driving causes a concentration of object analysis on or near the line of motion, relative to passive viewing of the same scene.

Delayed postural contraction of transversus abdominis in low back pain associated with movement of the lower limb

The temporal parameters of the response of the trunk muscles associated with movement of the lower limb were investigated in people with and without low back pain (LBP). The weight shift component of the task was completed voluntarily prior to a stimulus to move to allow investigation of the movement component of the response. In the control subjects the onset of electromyographic (EMG) activity of all trunk muscles preceded that of the muscle responsible for limb movement, thus contributing to the feed forward postural response. The EMG onset of transversus abdominis was delayed in the LBP subjects with movement in each direction, while the EMG onsets of rectus abdominis, erector spinae, and oblique abdominal muscles were delayed with specific movement directions. This result provides evidence of a change in the postural control of the trunk in people with LBP.

Psychological distress among female sex workers

The prevalence and correlates of psychological distress were examined in a sample of 171 female sex workers in Queensland. It was found that 28 per cent were above the GHQ-28 threshold for mild psychiatric morbidity, a rate that is not appreciably different from that of women in the general community. The sample included only eight street sex workers, all of whom reported significant distress. Logistic regression analyses showed that a history of injecting drug use, an early age at leaving home and wanting to leave the sex industry were independent predictors of poor mental health. Distressed sex workers reported fewer sexual health examinations and less consistent condom use with their clients than those who were not distressed.

Speciation of arsenic metabolites in the urine of occupational workers and experimental rats using an optimised hydride cold-trapping method

A hydride cold-trapping technique was developed and optimised for the measurement of urinary arsenic metabolites. The analytical precision of the method was found to be 6.1, 4.0 and 4.8% (n = 5) for inorganic arsenic (As-i), monomethylarsonate (MMA) and dimethylarsinate (DMA), respectively, with recoveries close to 100%, The detection limits were 1.0, 1.3 and 3 ng for As-i, MMA and DMA, respectively. The method was then used to analyse urine samples obtained from three groups of workers for occupational exposure in three companies where copper chrome arsenate was used for timber treatment. The results were compared with those for a normal control group of laboratory workers. Arsenic and its metabolites were also measured in experimental rats given 5 mg As kg(-1) body mass by oral gavage in the form of sodium arsenite, calcium arsenite or sodium arsenate. Occupational workers showed a significantly higher excretion of As-i, Up to two fold increases of urinary As-i excretion in rats compared with control rats were also observed in animals dosed with various forms of arsenicals. The method is suitable for the measurement of arsenic metabolites in urine of both humans and experimental animals.

Preparatory trunk motion accompanies rapid upper limb movement

Evaluation of trunk movements, trunk muscle activation, intra-abdominal pressure and displacement of centres of pressure and mass was undertaken to determine whether trunk orientation is a controlled variable prior to and during rapid bilateral movement of the upper limbs. Standing subjects performed rapid bilateral symmetrical upper limb movements in three directions (flexion, abduction and extension). The results indicated a small (0.4-3.3 degrees) but consistent initial angular displacement between the segments of the trunk in a direction opposite to that produced by the reactive moments resulting from limb movement. Phasic activation of superficial trunk muscles was consistent with this pattern of preparatory motion and with the direction of motion of the centre of mass. In contrast, activation of the deep abdominal muscles was independent of the direction of limb motion, suggesting a non-direction specific contribution to spinal stability. The results support the opinion that feedforward postural responses result in trunk movements, and that orientation of the trunk and centre of mass are both controlled variables in relation to rapid limb movements.

Relationships between movement initiation times and movement-related cortical potentials in Parkinson's disease

Movement-related cortical potentials recorded from the scalp reveal increasing cortical activity occurring prior to voluntary movement. Studies of set-related cortical activity recorded from single neurones within premotor and supplementary motor areas in monkeys suggest that such premovement activity may act to prime activity of appropriate motor units in readiness to move, thereby facilitating the movement response. Such a role of early stage premovement activity in movement-related cortical potentials was investigated by examining the relationship between premovement cortical activity and movement initiation or reaction times. Parkinson's disease and control subjects performed a simple button-pressing reaction time task and individual movement-related potentials were averaged for responses with short compared with long reaction times. For Parkinson's disease subjects but not for the control subjects, early stage premovement cortical activity was significantly increased in amplitude for faster reaction times, indicating that there is indeed a relationship between premovement cortical activity amplitude and movement initiation or reaction times. In support of studies of set-related cortical activity in monkeys, it is therefore suggested that early stage premovement activity reflects the priming of appropriate motor units of primary motor cortex, thereby reducing movement initiation or reaction times. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.