When social movements bypass the poor: Asbestos pollution, international litigation and Griqua cultural identity

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 577-600

  Waldman, Linda ^a  

^a Institute of Development Studies   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT; SOCIAL MOVEMENT;

AFRICA; NORTHERN CAPE; SOUTH AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 34548150464     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070701475591     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. J. McCulloch, 'Beating the Odds: The Quest for Justice by South African Asbestos Mining Communities' (unpublished paper, n.d.), p. 1.
2. H. Ward, 'Corporate Accountability in Search of a Treaty: Some Insights from Foreign Direct Liability', Royal Institute of International Affairs Briefing Paper 4 (2002), pp. 1-11.
3. S. Jasanoff, Science at the Bar (Harvard, Harvard University Press, 1995)
4. P. Newell, 'Managing Multinationals: The Governance of Investment for the Environment', Journal of International Development, 13, 7 (2001), pp. 907-19.
5. R. Meeran, 'Cape Plc: South African Mineworkers' Quest for Justice', International Journal of Occupational & Environmental Health, 9, 3 (2003), pp. 218-29.
6. J. McCulloch, Asbestos Blues: Labour, Capital, Physicians & the State in South Africa (Oxford, James Currey, 2002).
7. See S. Epstein, Impure Science, Aids, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996).
8. See A. Scott, 'Action, Movement and Intervention: Reflections on the Sociology of Alain Touraine', Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 28, 1 (1991), pp. 30-45.
9. B.T. Mossman and B.L. Gee, 'Asbestos-Related Diseases', New England Journal of Medicine, 320 (1989), pp. 1,721-30.
10. M. Edelman, 'Social Movements: Changing Paradigms and Forms of Politics', Annual Review of Anthropology, 30 (2001), pp. 285-317
11. E. Laclau, and C. Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London, Verso, 1985).
12. Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy.
13. A. Escobar and S.E. Alvarez (eds), The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy and Democracy (Boulder, CO, Westview, 1992), p. 327.
14. Edelman, 'Social Movements'.
15. A. Touraine, Return of the Actor: Social Theory, in Postindustrial Society, Translated from French by M. Godzich (Minneapolis, University of Minneapolis Press, 1988 [1984]).
16. Ibid.
17. A. Melucci, Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996).
18. Castells, in Edelman, 'Social Movements', p. 298.
19. S. Hvalkof, 'Beyond Indigenous Land Titling: Democratising Civil Society in the Peruvian Amazon', in J. Chase (ed.), The Spaces of Neo-Liberalism (Bloomfield, Kumarian Press, 2002)
20. also see K. Warren, Indigenous Movements and Their Critics: Pan Maya Activism in Guatemala (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1998), on pan-Mayan activists, which demonstrates how the revitalisation of ethnic identifiers (including Indian languages, cultural calendrical and numerical systems and spiritualities) formed the basis of a social movement.
21. A. Chhachhi and R. Pittin, 'Multiple Identities, Multiple Strategies: Confronting State, Capital and Patriarchy', in R. Munck and P. Waterman (eds), Labour Worldwide in the Era of Globalization: Alternative Union Models in the New World Order (London, Macmillan, 1999).
22. Edelman, 'Social Movements', p. 301
23. J. Burdick, Blessed Anastacia: Women, Race and Popular Christianity in Brazil (New York, Routledge, 1998).
24. R. Ross, Adam Kok's Griqua (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976), p. 1.
25. S.J. Halford, The Griquas of Griqualand: A Historical Narrative of the Griqua People. Their Rise, Progress, and Decline (Cape Town, Juta and Company, 1949)
26. G.T. Nurse, 'The Origins of the Northern Cape Griqua', Institute for the Study of Man, 34 (1975), pp. 2-21
27. Ross, Adam Kok's Griqua.
28. P.L. Waldman, 'Watersnakes and Women: A Study of Ritual and Ethnicity in Griquatown' (BA (Hons) Dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, 1989)
29. D.M. Martin, 'What's in the Name "Coloured"?' in Social Identities 4, 3 (1998), pp. 523-40
30. K. Schoeman, Griqua Records: The Philippolis Captaincy (Cape Town, Van Riebeeck Society, 1996)
31. M. Legassick, 'The Northern Frontier to 1820: The Emergence of the Griqua People', in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds), The Shaping of South African Society 1652-1820 (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1979)
32. President's Commission, Report of the Constitutional Committee of the President's Council on the Needs and Demands of the Griqua (Cape Town, The Government Printer, 1983)
33. Ross, Adam Kok's Griqua
34. Halford, The Griquas of Griqualand
35. D. Morris, 'The Griqua of Campbell: Questions of History and Identity' (undergraduate fieldwork project, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cape Town, 1982).
36. E. Elbourne and R. Ross, 'Combating Spiritual and Social Bondage: Early Missions in the Cape Colony', in R. Elphick and R. Davenport (eds), Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social and Cultural History (Cape Town, David Philip, 1997), p. 40.
37. According to the President's Commission investigating the needs and demands of the Griqua, 'a Griqua is a coloured and a coloured is a Griqua on the grounds of the definition that "a coloured is neither white nor Black nor Asiatic", and thus all the other coloureds must be classified in this class' (President's Commission, Report of the Constitutional Committee, p. 76).
38. See R. Ross, 'Griqua Government', African Studies, 33, 1 (1974), pp. 25-42 and Ross, Adam Kok's Griqua.
39. C. Hamilton, 'Where is the Border Now? The New Politics of Identity in South Africa', in M. Roesler and T. Wendl (eds), Frontiers and Borderlands: Anthropological Perspectives (Oxford, Peter Lang, 1999)
40. C. McEachern, 'Mapping the Memories: Politics, Place and Identity in the District Six Museum, Cape Town', Social Identities, 4, 3 (1998) pp. 499-521
41. Martin, 'What's in the Name "Coloured"?'
42. See R. Ross, Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750-1870: A Tragedy of Manners (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999).
43. G.T. Nurse, J.S. Weiner and T. Jenkins, The Peoples of Southern Africa and Their Affinities, Research Monographs on Human Population Biology No. 3 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1985)
44. J. Sonn, 'Breaking Down the Borders', in W. James, D. Caliguire, and K. Cullinan (eds), Now that We are Free: Coloured Communities in a Democratic South Africa (London, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996).
45. See Ross, Adam Kok's Griqua, p. 137.
46. See R. Ross, 'The Self-Image of Jacob Adams', in P. Skotnes (ed.), Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of the Bushmen (University of Cape Town, UCT Press, 1996).
47. E. Boonzaier, C. Malherbe, P. Berens, and A. Smith, The Cape Herders: A History of the Khoikhoi of Southern Africa (Cape Town, David Phillip, 1996)
48. J. Sharp and E. Boonzaier, 'Ethnic Identity as Performance: Lessons from Namaqualand', Journal of Southern African Studies, 20, 3 (1994), pp. 405-15
49. Sonn, 'Breaking down the Borders'.
50. Case No: Ct/04422/Upi Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Upington Hearing, Day 2, 3 October 1996.
51. At the time of research and when Cape (plc) paid the out-of-court settlement, the exchange rate was about one British Pound to ten South African Rand (£1 = R10).
52. H. Walker and A.D. LaMontagne, Work and Health in the Latrobe Valley: Community Perspectives on Asbestos Issues (Melbourne, Centre for the Study of Health and Society, 2004).
53. The Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA) won the contract to distribute the compensation.
54. Richard Meeran, from Leigh Day Solicitors in London, ran the case.
55. Bergland identifies this as a feature of toxic waste contamination which is 'imperceptible to the senses'. As such, it is necessary to be 'constituted in discourse' before it can be recognised as a problem. E. Bergland, 'Selfdefeating Environmentalism? Models and Questions from an Ethnography of Toxic Waste Protest', Critique of Anthropology, 21, 3 (2001), pp. 317-36, p. 322.
56. McCulloch, Asbestos Blues.
57. See R.D. Benford and D.A. Snow, 'Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment', Annual Review of Sociology, 26 (2000), pp. 611-39.
58. McCulloch, Asbestos Blues.
59. The MBOD used pleural asbestosis, interstitial asbestosis, first grade pneumoconiosis, pleural plaque and asbestosis to refer to first grade; whereas mesothelioma and pulmonary tuberculosis were considered second grade.
60. In order to claim compensation, claimants had to be able to show evidence of mine employment. As the mines had not kept records and many workers were illiterate, a few former employees completed the application forms and vouched for applicants' former employment on the mines.
61. L. Waldman, 'The Griqua Conundrum: Political & Socio-Cultural Identity in the Northern Cape, South Africa' (PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 2001).
62. The NUM is the largest collective bargaining agent representing workers in South Africa's mining, energy and construction industries.
63. Prieska Project (unpublished CPAA document, n.d.), p. 2.
64. IHRC, 'Report on the Audit of the Asbestos-Related Disease Surveillance Programme at GEFCO Crocidolite Asbestos Mine' (unpublished report, conducted on 20 and 21 May 1996).
65. Ibid., p. 2.
66. See Epstein, Impure Science, AIDS, Activism.
67. See A. Jamison, 'Science and Social Movements', International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences (Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2001).
68. Other South African communities exposed to asbestos did engage in citizen science and measured the dust pollution in their villages (M-A. Felix, 'Risking their Lives in Ignorance: The Story of an Asbestos-Polluted Community', in J. Cock and E. Koch (eds), Going Green: People, Politics and the Environment in South Africa (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1991).
69. M-J. Hopley, and G.A. Richards. 'Asbestos-Related Disease. A Community-based Survey and a Capture-Recapture Analysis' (unpublished report, n.d.).
70. Thor Chemicals, the South African subsidiary of a British firm, was based in KwaZulu-Natal. In 1994, the English parent company, Thor Chemical Holdings, was sued by 17 workers for mercury poisoning and by representatives for three other workers who had died of mercury poisoning who had obtained legal aid through UK public funds. In April 1997, Thor Chemicals paid £1.3 million in compensation. Ward, 'Corporate Accountability in Search of a Treaty'.
71. Although CPAA organisers explained this sequence of events, it differs from Richard Meeran's account. He recalls that NUM (UK) contacted him in 1995, with the first five litigation cases in February 1997 and opening discussions with the CPAA in August 1988. The Institute of Occupational Health, NUM (South Africa), ACTSA and other lawyers subsequently became involved.
72. See M. Castells, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 2: The Power of Identity (Oxford, Blackwell, 1997).
73. M.E. Keck and K. Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1998).
74. See Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy.
75. Although Griquatown residents saw these meetings as infrequent, community meetings were always scheduled and held in both Griquatown and Prieska. As resources were limited, the lawyers were unable to allocate more time to the affected communities.
76. In the 1970s, the district was reasonably wealthy, with residents deriving incomes from sheep farming, karakulpelt farming, lime works and the mining of asbestos, manganese, iron ore and semi-precious stones. By the late 1990s, the asbestos mines had closed and karakul farming had ceased.
77. About 3,000 people eked out a living in this harsh and unforgiving environment. Surveys conducted in 1997 showed that 13-20% of people were economically active. Almost 79% of all households in Rainbow Valley relied on at least one pension, while pensions provided the only income for 22% of all households. Waldman, 'The Griqua Conundrum'.
78. G.M. Foster, 'Peasant Society and the Image in Limited Good', American Anthropologist, 78 (1965), pp. 773-82.
79. J. Myers, 'The Social Context of Occupational Disease: Asbestos and South Africa', in International Journal of Health Services, 11, 2 (1981), pp. 27-245, p. 241.
80. S. Franklin, 'Science as Culture, Cultures of Science', Annual Review of Anthropology, 24 (1995), pp. 163-84, p. 171.
81. However, his research conclusions noted significant undiagnosed uncompensated instances of ARD. See Hopley and Richards. 'Asbestos-related Disease', p. 1.
82. The CPAA estimated as many as 2,000 missing files, whereas other estimates were more conservative.
83. This letter was never directly answered, although people did receive indirect responses in the community meetings that followed.
84. According to South African law, it is not possible to claim for a deceased's pain and suffering. Had the case taken place in South Africa, Cape's lawyers would have argued that South African law had to be applied and relatives of the deceased claimants would not have been able to claim. The lawyers, however, argued for English law - namely The Fatal Accidents Act 1976 and the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 - which allows relatives to claim for the deceased's pain and suffering. Thus, despite the fact that the case was heard in the UK, the lawyers decided, in the interests of 'fairness', to deduct one-third of the compensation in instances where claimants lodged claims for deceased family members. This amount was then included in the overall amount divided among the claimants.
85. P. Worsley, The Trumpet shall Sound: A Study of 'Cargo' Cults in Melanesia (London, Macgibbon and Kee, 1957).
86. Millenarian movements tend to arise in situations where there is no apparent correlation between skills, hard work and honesty - the values taught by society in general - and who gets regular employment, good jobs, and makes money. K. Burridge, New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1969).
87. P. Shipton, Bitter Money: Cultural Economy and Some African Meanings of Forbidden Commodities, American Ethnological Society Monograph Series No. 1 (Washington DC, American Anthropological Association, 1998), p. 55.
88. Also see Hanlon's argument that the idea of foreigners bringing wealth can be linked to the development process itself: J. Hanlon, 'Renewed Land Debate and the 'Cargo Cult' in Mozambique', Journal of Southern African Studies, 30, 3 (2004), pp. 603-24.
89. M. Barkun, 'Millenarianism in the Modern World', Theory and Society 1, 2 (1974), pp. 117-46, p. 129.
90. See Waldman, 'The Griqua Conundrum'.
91. Worsley, The Trumpet shall Sound.
92. A.G. Frank and M. Fuentes, 'On Studying the Cycles in Social Movements' (paper presented at the Conference on 'Movimientos Ciclicos y Recurrencias en Politica y Economia', sponsored by Fundacion Pablo Iglesias, Madrid, May 18-21,1992 [1991]).
93. Cohn defined millenarian movements as collective processes, in which supernatural agencies will bring about an imminent and total transformation of everyday life on earth. Believers will be rewarded for their devotion, while still in this life and on this earth. N. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, Secker & Warburg, 1970).
94. Burridge, New Heaven, New Earth.
95. Worsley, The Trumpet shall Sound.
96. T. Diacon, Millenarian Vision, Capitalist Reality: Brazil's Contestado Rebellion, 1912-1916 (Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1991).
97. M. Barkun, Disaster and the Millennium (Connecticut, Yale University Press, 1974).
98. G.W. Trompf, 'Introduction', in G.W. Trompf (ed.), Cargo Cults and Millenarian Movements: Transoceanic Comparisons of New Religious Movements (New York, Mouton de Gruyter, 1990).
99. Diacon, Millenarian Vision, Capitalist Reality.
100. Barkun argues that some aspects of millenarianism, stemming from Judeo-Christian traditions, have always existed in western society but this has not been accompanied by the interpretation of traditional beliefs as offering immediate and collective transformation. Barkun, 'Millenarianism in the Modern World', pp. 118, 129.
101. Barkun, 'Millenarianism in the Modern World', p. 141.