The African National Congress (ANC) is the oldest and most durable of African nationalist movements, not only in South Africa but also across the continent. Since 1994, it has governed the country as leader of the Tripartite Alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and South African Communist Party (SACP). The early decades of the twentieth century saw the establishment, survival, and growth of ANC and black labour organisations.
This book focuses on the formative period of engagement of these political and socioeconomic forces before permanent alliances emerged. It analyses the ANC’s attitudes and relationships with the nascent formations of the black working class, with particular attention to the most conscious and active workers. The subject matter in this book also discusses migrant, rural, domestic, and women workers – not always then clearly defined as part of a formal ‘working class’.
Print editions not for sale in Sub-Saharan Africa. This book is part of Routledge’s co-published series 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa, in collaboration with UNISA Press, which reflects on the past years of a democratic South Africa and assesses the future opportunities and challenges.
This book analyses the ANC and its attitudes and relationships with the nascent formations of the black working class, with particular attention to the most conscious and active workers. It focuses on the formative period of engagement of political and socioeconomic forces and also discusses migrant, rural, domestic, and women workers.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Illustrations
Sources of illustrations
Tables
Preface
1. Introduction
Part 1: Nation, Class, and Place in South African History
2. Perspectives on ANC-Labour History
3. Black Labour in South Africa to 1940
4. Early African Political Organisations and Black Labour
Part 2: The ANC and Labour, the First Decade
5. The SANNC and African Working People
6. To Heartily Assist the Working Movement as Best They Can: Congress and
Black Labour in the Transvaal, 1912-1919
7. Join Our UnionYou Will Find Good Result: Congress and Labour in the
Cape, Natal and Free State, 19121919
Part 3: The Second Decade
8. A Strong Seed in a Stony Bed: The 1920s
9. The Ruling Class is Getting Lost in the Mist and Sea of Selfishness:
Natal in the 1920s
Chapter 10 I-Kongilesi Lilizwi ezindlwini (Congresss Name is Household):
The Transvaal, Cape and Orange Free State in the 1920s
Part 4: The Third Decade
11. From Culpable Inertia to Rebuilding: The ANC and Labour in the 1930s
12. Moderate Centre, Militant Province? The Cape in the 1930s
13. A Very, Very Wide Influence, Even When Dead: The Transvaal, Natal,
and Orange Free State in the 1930s
Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Index
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