REVIEW
 Review
         A Review of Guy Standing, John Sender and John Weeks (1996),
         Restructuring the Labour Market: The South African Challenge,
         An ILO Country Review, Geneva: International Labour Office; and
         Jeremy Baskin (1996), Against the Current: labour and economic
         policy in South Africa, Johannesburg: Ravan.
    Here are two new books—in very different forms— which will be of value to
 those who are looking for a handle on contemporary South African economic
 policy. Standing, Sender and Weeks is a nearly 500-page long compendium of
 information on labour and the labour market in South Africa produced largely at
 the behest of the government. Amongst other things, it contains substantial
 critiques of both statistics used in assessing the situation of labour and of more
conservative approaches to labour issues. On the former, readers will be struck
by a chapter on unemployment which suggests that the indices used as a measure
are so flawed as to be useless and that the real unemployment figures for South
Africa should be considerably lower than are usually put forth. On the latter,
Standing et al are particularly critical of the South African Foundation document
of 1996, Growth for All, which laid such emphasis on making the labour market
more 'flexible'. This book suggests both that the existing labour market is in fact
quite flexible with workers vulnerable to many crude forms of exploitation (farm
labour, domestic labour, outwork, casual labour, temporary labour), some of
which are in the process of expanding and that lower wages are unlikely to be a
source of employment expansion as the Chamber of Business assumes.
   Standing et al conceive of apartheid labour legislation as having been an
elaborate regulatory framework designed at letting state-designated mechanisms
such as Wage Boards and Industrial Councils rope-off distinct labour markets
from one another in accordance with the racial system of politics. What they say
is needed is a regime that reflects the need for collective bargaining, puts an end
to unwarranted forms of discrimination and is as inclusive as possible. They are
somewhat agnostic on whether the goals of the new Labour Relations legislation
to this end will be successfully achieved at all. It is possible to feel that the authors
may be exaggerating their case in the attack on Growth for All both with regard
to the size of unemployment and the irrelevance of a wage/employment
relationship but this book is impressive in changing the terms of debate on
labour-market issues with its emphasis on job creation rather than market
102                                                    TRANSFORMATION 32 (1997)


 FREUND                                                                    REVIEW
 flexibility and can be a source of reference to all students of the South African
economic scene. Chapter organisation is very clear and sub-headed but there is
unfortunately no index.
    In a short collection, Against the Current, Jeremy Baskin has put together a
number of articles that mainly come forth from his work as director of the
COSATU-generated National Labour and Economic Development Institute
(NALEDI). While the articles discuss a variety of economic issues—the GEAR
strategy adopted by Thabo Mbeki and his team, corporatism, privatisation, the
Labour Relations Act—from a left perspective, it cannot be said that they add up
to a concrete alternative strategy. As with Standing et al, they are doubtful about
the possibility of regulating a so-called two-tier labour market without hurting
the interests of organised workers and the Baskin team is also concerned to
uphold the importance of COSATU as a generator of policy on labour in the
economy. COSATU's view of corporatism is lukewarm; these essays reveal, for
instance, considerable skepticism about the efficacy of the LRA-generated
workplace fora. The emphasis lies on redistribution rather than a strategy of
industrial peace based on such fora or NEDLAC. This book is valuable chiefly
as an indication of how COSATU thinkers in the first post-apartheid years are
viewing relevant policy initiatives.
                                                                    BUI Freund
TRANSFORMATION 32 (1997)                                                        103