FROM GRASS-ROOTS DEMOCRACY TO NATIONAL MOBILIZATION - COSATU AS A MODEL OF SOCIAL-MOVEMENT UNIONISM

To understand the development of labor movements like the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which emerged in South Africa in the 1980s as part of the anti-Apartheid movement struggling for nation al liberation, we need to go beyond conventional categories of economi c and political unionism. 'Social movement unionism' combines conventi onal institutionalized collective bargaining with modes of collective action typically associated with social movements. Based on the experi ence of COSATU this article develops a four-stage model, using a polit ical process approach, to explain the origins, emergence and developme nt of social movement unionism under a reformist authoritarian regime. The analysis concludes by considering whether social movement unionis m can survive the transition to democracy.