ANTHONY BUTLER: SA further from the table as Brics family grows
Ramaphosa puts diplomatic skills to use at summit but SA is unlikely to be a major beneficiary
When President Cyril Ramaphosa ran the fast-growing National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in the mid-1980s, the union needed money from international donors. The trouble was that labour solidarity was complex and unions were divided into hostile camps.
A World Trade Union Federation brought together the workers’ representatives of the Soviet empire. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions was the do-good social democratic umbrella for the West European proletariat. The American Federation of Labor/Congress of International Organisations, meanwhile, was a rich but stridently anti-communist US competitor. ..
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