Obituary: Eddie Webster’s influence over generations of students extended to the country and beyond its borders
The academic and activist, who helped build the trade union movement, challenged any form of oppression and exploitation
Professor Edward Charles Webster — or Eddie, as he was known to his family, friends and colleagues — unexpectedly died of a heart attack on Tuesday. He was 81 years old, but about two years ago, he led an eight-hour hike in the Amatole Mountains near Hogsback as part of his 80th birthday celebrations. Eddie jogged, swam and regularly played squash. He was also active on Twitter (or X, I guess), where his handle was “Sociology Madala”.
To be sure, numerous tributes to Eddie, often accompanied by photographs of him, were shared on social media this week, ranging from overseas scholars to labour federation Cosatu.
While formally retired for some years now, Eddie never stopped working and only last year published yet another book, titled Recasting Workers’ Power: Work and Inequality in the Shadow of the Digital Age (2023, Bristol University Press). He also continued to supervise and mentor postgraduate students.
How does one even begin to describe the effect of this academic and activist on generations of students, but also the country more broadly? Then there is Eddie’s global stature and influence. His work was read well beyond South Africa’s borders and even used as an example of how theory formulated in the Global South can speak back to an academic field dominated by Northern scholars.
I will attempt to provide some detail on the significance of Professor Eddie Webster’s academic work, but I also want to say something about him as a human being who touched the lives of numerous others. I was lucky to be one of his doctoral students and worked with him at the University of the Witwatersrand for more than a decade.
Activist academic
If there is one insight that defined Eddie’s work and contribution as a scholar, I would say it is the understanding that any form of oppression and exploitation can and should be challenged. This is best done when people organise collectively, because when acting individually people often have limited power. For Eddie, democratic trade unions that are responsive to their members are a key part of attempts to create a more just world.
But building movement is hard work and Eddie was an institution builder par excellence. From the 1970s onwards Eddie was involved in setting up publications in support of the labour movement, most notably the South African Labour Bulletin, which he set up with Rick Turner and others. He was actively involved in the field of workers’ education and supported the emerging trade unions with research. Because of his activism, he was arrested in 1975 and tried under the Suppression of Communism Act.
Understanding the power structures of society was one of the keys to also change society. For this reason, Eddie was central to defining labour studies as an interdisciplinary field of study in South Africa. His first book, Cast in a Racial Mould: Labour Process and Trade Unionism in the Foundries (Ravan Press, 1985), is still considered to be a classic. In this book he analysed changes in the intersection between race and class in South Africa’s engineering industry. He showed how changes in social structures and technological changes in production had opened up the space for the emergence of militant black trade unions during the 1970s — a moment that eventually gave rise to Cosatu.
The spectacular success of trade unions in South Africa during the 1980s certainly provided historical evidence for Eddie’s analysis of the power in democratic movements. Eddie called this “social movement unionism” and the initial successes of the South African labour movement, in particular Cosatu, is also why South African labour studies became globally influential.
Eddie founded the Sociology of Work Project (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand, which became one of a number of such research and education projects that supported the labour movement. At Wits, he contributed to building what must be one of the world’s leading departments of sociology.
Yet, Eddie was always aware of potential conflicts between academics and trade union leaders and insisted that university-based academics, while working in support of democratic movements, should maintain their intellectual independence. He called this position “critical engagement” — an attempt to balance the need for a social science that is committed to social justice, but without getting drawn into the power politics of political organisations such as trade unions.
Going global
After the end of formal apartheid and during the early phases of South Africa’s transition to democracy, Eddie saw a new role for South African labour studies.
He was instrumental in setting up the Global Labour University, a consortium of universities in South Africa, India, Germany, Brazil, and the US who support trade unionists in doing postgraduate studies — almost like an MBA, but for trade unions. This programme is still going strong.
He was also instrumental in setting up the Global Labour Journal, an open-access journal that plays a role similar to the South African Labour Bulletin, but now with an international focus.
His own research turned outward and his co-authored book on how workers in South Africa, Australia and South Korea responded to the insecurities of globalisation, Grounding Globalisation: Labour in the Age of Insecurity (2008, Blackwells) won an award from the American Sociological Association, a testament to the global reach of Eddie’s work.
His most recent book returned to the question of technology in the workplace, trying to formulate new strategies for trade unions to organise workers in the gig economy — workers who are not directly employed, but who work for platforms that directly link them to consumers (such as Uber and food delivery companies).
Teacher roots
Eddie Webster was born in 1942 and grew up in the Eastern Cape. Both his parents worked as teachers at Healdtown school near Fort Beaufort. Eddie’s mother was one of Nelson Mandela’s teachers. His father was an Anglican and his mother a Methodist, and there was a deep commitment to social justice in the household. His parents left Healdtown when it was taken over by the apartheid state.
He studied at Rhodes University, later Oxford and York, and finally at Wits for his PhD. At Rhodes, he was active as a rugby player, but also as a member of the National Union of South African Students.
I only realised how important the Eastern Cape had been in shaping Eddie when I moved here to work at the University of Fort Hare six years ago. His extended family has a property on Hogsback and because of this, he visited a number of times and we were able to catch up.
In keeping with this tradition, Eddie celebrated his 80th birthday on Hogsback. AGuests were treated not only to that eight-hour hike, led by Eddie, but also an historical tour of Alice and surrounds, including the University of Fort Hare and Healdtown, led by Eddie’s older brother Trevor.
At Healdtown I explored with Eddie the ruins of his childhood home. We discussed the significance of the fallout between Robert Sobukwe and his mentor at Healdtown and how we, as South Africans, often still struggle to find common ground. Conversations with him always left one with a sense of purpose.
For me, of all the hats Eddie wore, his role as teacher stood out. To build institutions and movements, you have to build people, and this is maybe the most radical thing anyone can invest their time in.
Eddie was married to the historian Luli Callinicos, the author of Oliver Tambo’s biography, Beyond the Engeli Mountains (2004), among many other books. I admired their deep love for each other and their true intellectual partnership. He is survived by Luli and his two children, Alexia and Kimon, and his grandchildren Marcus and Nicolas.
Andries Bezuidenhout is professor of development studies at the University of Fort Hare in Alice.