Precarious politics: dynamics of agrarian social movements and coalitions in the rural Western Cape

This research explores how conditions of generalised precarity are impacting rural class rela-tions and struggle in the commercialised agrarian context of the Western Cape in South Af-rica. The study focuses on agrarian social movements that are responding to this multidi-mensional precarity through their political activities, demands and actions. The paper engages theoretical debates regarding class relations in the agrarian context through discussions on the political potential of a rural precariat class, and extends theoretical frameworks of class struggle to show the multiple associational and structural powers of this class in the agrarian economy. This study contributes to gaps in the literature on agrarian politics in the rural Western Cape since the 2012-13 farm worker strikes through an archival approach to exam-ining these politics. In this way, the research examines why agrarian social movements are struggling to build coalitions despite their similarities in political demands and actions. The main findings reveal that the forms of association of movements bear significant impact on their politics, and their capacity to build coalitions. This is resulting in a precarious politics among agrarian social movements, build unsteady coalitions in their attempts to respond to the social reproduction crisis through which the rural precariat class live.