Labour Struggles in Southern Africa, 1919-1949: New Perspectives on the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union / David Johnson, Noor Nieftagodien, Lucien van der Walt.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Johnson, David, editor.

Nieftagodien, Noor, editor.

Van der Walt, Lucien, editor.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (286 p.)

Place of Publication:

HSRC Press, [2023]

Boulder Lynne Rienner Publishers, [2023]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU)the largest black political organization in southern Africa before the 1940swas active in six African colonies, as well as in global trade union networks. Labour Struggles in Southern Africa provides fresh perspectives on the ICU, exploring its record in the 1920s and 1930s and assessing its achievements and failures in relation to the present. In its One Big Union approach to protecting workers' rights, its emphasis on economic freedoms, its internationalism, and its robust protection of women and migrant workers, the ICU fundamentally challenged the axioms, tactics, and programs of rival organizations like the African National Congress. Reflecting that, this book demonstrates that the legacies of the ICU continue to be of crucial contemporary relevance.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Map of ICU Branches in Southern Africa, 19191930

Introduction

Section A The ICU in Southern Africa

1 The ICU, the Mines and the State in South West Africa, 19201926: Garveyism, Revolutionary Syndicalism and Global Labour History / Lucien van der Walt

2 The Rabble-Rouser: Robert Sambos ICU Stint in Rhodesia / Anusa Daimon

3 Organising the Unorganised: ICU Internationalism and the Transnational Unionisation of Migrant Workers / Henry Dee

Section B Local and Regional Histories of the ICU

4 The ICU in Free State Dorps and Dorpies / Peter Limb, Chitja Twala

5 The ICU and Local Politics: Kroonstad, from the Late 1920s to the 1930s / Tshepo Moloi

6 Trouble Brewing: The ICU, the 1925 Bloemfontein Riots and the Women Question / Nicole Ulrich

7 The ICU in the Western Transvaal, 19261934: Re-Imagining Ideological, Spatial and Political Realities / Laurence Stewart

8 The ICU in Port Elizabeth: The Making of a Union-Cum-Protest Movement, 19201931 / Noor Nieftagodien

9 Home Truths and the Political Discourse of the ICU / Philip Bonner

Section C Factions and Legacies of the ICU

10 Leadership Contestations and Worker Mobilisation in the Early Years of the Twentieth Century: Selby Msimang and the ICU, 19191921 / Sibongiseni Mkhize

11 Tom Lodge, The Communist Party of South Africa and the ICU, / Tom Lodge

12 Elizabeth van Heyningen, Illusion and Disillusion: White Women / Elizabeth van Heyningen

13 David Johnson, The Romance and the Tragedy of the ICU / David Johnson

About the contributors

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed April 14 2026)

ISBN:

0-7969-2727-8

9780796927279