Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:47:59.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

South African Labor and International Support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Edward I. Steinhart
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the early 1960s when the South African Government outlawed the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the South African trade union movement was an almost unnoticed casualty. The South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), affiliated with the ANC in the Congress Alliance since 1955, had become the leading trade union movement based on non-racial principles in direct competition with the racialist Trade Union Congress of South Africa (TUCSA). Although not completely outlawed, SACTU's leadership was driven into exile or underground and a decade after its founding SACTU was moribund and union organizing within the country was at a virtual standstill (Luckhardt and Wall, 1980; Feit, 1975).

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, what little international support was generated for the South African working class was funneled through the exiled SACTU organization and its ANC ally. This was a small but important part of the general campaign against Apartheid South Africa, which like the campaign against apartheid sport, sought the total isolation of the regime and all apartheid institutions. As with the sports movement, statements of support by international bodies and the exclusion of internal Soulh African bodies from international forums was the key to the SACTU/ANC policy on South African labor (Luckhardt and Wall, 1980: 470-91).

In the early 1970s, a spontaneous revival of trade union activity within South Africa challenged the racialist principles of TUCSA and the authority of the South African state. The independent black trade union movement which dates from the Durban strikes of 1973 represented a new phenomenon among South African workers (Macshane et al., 1984).

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , September 1988 , pp. 17 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adam, Heribert and Moodley, Kogila. 1986. South Africa Without Apartheid. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Africa News. 1985. “Unionists Form Historic Confederation.” 16 Dec.Google Scholar
Africa News. 1986. “Workers Show Massive Power.” 19 May.Google Scholar
Africa News. 1986. “Labor Unions Take on Pretoria.” 21 July.Google Scholar
Canadian Labour Congress, n.d. The CLC Against Apartheid. International Affairs Department pamphlet: Ottawa.Google Scholar
Canadian Labour Congress. n.d. Special Appeal. Ottawa.Google Scholar
Cason, James and Fleshman, Michael. 1986. “U.S. Unions and Apartheid.” Southern Africa Reports (June): 28ff.Google Scholar
Chronicle of Higher Education. 1988. “Outlawed African National Congress Urges Foreigners to Back ‘New Anti-Apartheid Culture’ in South Africa.” 16 March.Google Scholar
Claris (pseudonym). 1985. “Conference Expells ‘Left-Wing’ Deviationists.” Sechaba (August): 18–24.Google Scholar
Cohen, Robin. 1986. Endgame in South Africa? London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Coventry (South-East) Labour Party. 1981. “Organise the Labour Movement for Sanctions against South Africa.” Broadsheet: Coventry. March.Google Scholar
Coventry (South-East) Labour Party. 1981. “Why Workers Need Direct Links.” Broadsheet: Coventry. July.Google Scholar
Coventry Workshop, n.d. British Leyland in Britain—and in South Africa. Pamphlet. Coventry.Google Scholar
Davies, Robert and O'Meara, Dan. 1984. “The Workers' Struggle in South Africa.” Review of African Political Economy 30 (Sept.): 109–16.Google Scholar
Ensor, Paula, Hemson, David, Legassick, Martin and Petersen, Rob. 1980. The Workers' Movement, South Africa and the ANC. Booklet. Birmingham.Google Scholar
Fatton, Robert Jr. 1984. “The African National Congress of South Africa: The Limitations of Revolutionary Strategy.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 18, 3: 593–608.Google Scholar
Feit, Edward. 1975. Workers Without Weapons. The South African Congress of Trade Unions and the Organization of the African Workers. Hamden, CT: Archon Books.Google Scholar
Innes, Duncan. 1985. “The Freedom Charter and Workers' Control.” South Africa Labour Bulletin 11, 2 (Oct.-Dec): 35–42.Google Scholar
Inqaba ya Basenbenzi. 1984. “Lessons of the 1950s.” 17–18 (March-May): 2–47.Google Scholar
Inqaba ya Basenbenzi. 1986. “Expulsion of Marxists.” 20 (Feb.): 78–81.Google Scholar
International Socialism. 1985. “Marxism and Revolution in South Africa.” Special Number 2, 31.Google Scholar
‘Labor.’ 1980. “The Workers' Fight for a New South Africa.” African Communist 81 (2nd Quarter): 58–65.Google Scholar
Labour, Capital and Society. 1985. “South African Labour.” Special Number 18, 2.Google Scholar
Labour Party National Executive Committee. 1983. “Labour Movement Relations with South African Trade Unions.” Advice Note 7 (Feb.).Google Scholar
Legassick, Martin. 1979. “British Capitalism, Sanctions against South Africa, and the Labour Movement.” Conference Paper 7. Anti-Apartheid Movement Conference on Sanctions against South Africa, June. London.Google Scholar
Legassick, Martin. 1985. “South Africa in Crisis: What Route to Democracy.” African Affairs 84, 337: 587–605.Google Scholar
Leighton, J. 1986. “Work Place Democracy.” Conference Paper. African Studies Association, Madison, WI, 30 October.Google Scholar
Lodge, Tom. 1983. Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Luckhardt, Ken and Wall, Brenda. 1980. Organize or Starve! The History of the South African Congress Trade Unions. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
MacShane, Denis, Plaut, Martin and Ward, David. 1984. Power Black Workers, Their Unions and the Struggle for Freedom in South Africa. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
MacLean, Hugh. 1986. “Socialism and the Freedom Charter.” South African Labour Bulletin 11, 6 (June-July): 8–20.Google Scholar
Mahlalela, L.N. 1986. “Workerism and Economism.” African Communist 104 (1st Quarter): 77–88.Google Scholar
Marxists Workers Tendency. 1982. South Africa's Impending Socialist Revolution. Perspective of the Marxist Workers Tendency of the African National Congress. Pamphlet. London.Google Scholar
Mbeki, Govan. 1984. “The Fatton Thesis: A Rejoinder.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 18, 3: 609–12.Google Scholar
Metal and Allied Workers Union and National Union of Motor Assembly and Rubber Workers of South Africa. 1981. “Press Statement.” 22 October.Google Scholar
Monroe, Richard. 1981. “Trade Union Struggle in the South African Revolution.” Inqaba ya Basenbenzi 1, 1(Jan.): 32–39.Google Scholar
New Internationalist. 1986. “Race Against Time: Making the New South Africa.” (May): 4–6.Google Scholar
Newman, Anne. 1986. “Is American Support Dividing South African Labor?” Africa News (2 June): 7–11.Google Scholar
Nyawuza, . 1985. “New ‘Marxist’ Tendencies and the Battle of Ideas in South Africa.” African Communist 103 (4th Quarter): 45–62.Google Scholar
Partridge, E. comp. 1970. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. 7th ed. New York.Google Scholar
Plaut, Martin. 1984. “Changing Perspectives on South African Trade Unions.” Review of African Political Economy 30 (Sept.): 116–23.Google Scholar
Plaut, Martin. 1986. “The Political Significance of the South African Congress of Trade Unions.” Unpublished typescript. August.Google Scholar
Puritt, Paul. 1986. Personal communications. 7 February and 9 September.Google Scholar
‘Reader, A.’ 1980. “Role of Trade Unions in the South African Revolution.” The African Communist 82 (3rd Quarter): 81–89.Google Scholar
Saul, John and Gelb, Stephen. 1986. The Crisis in South Africa. 2nd Edition. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Sechaba. 1986a. “COSATU, SACTU and the ANC.” Joint Statement. (May): 11–12.Google Scholar
Sechaba. 1986b. “Labour and the Unions.” Book Review. (May): 24–26.Google Scholar
South African Congress of Trade Unions. 1985. “Interview.” South African Labour Bulletin 11, 2 (Oct.-Dec): 43–49.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1980. Profiteering from Cheap Labour Wages Paid by British Companies in South Africa. Booklet. London.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1981. Asinamali: The Workers' Case. Pamphlet. London.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1982. We Live Like Dogs. Slide Tape presentation.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1983. SALEP's Socialist Education Work—Why Does the Labour Party NEC Want to Ban It? Pamphlet. London.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1985a. COSATU—Congress of South African Trade Unions. Pamphlet. London.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1985b. Letter to National Union of Mineworkers, Johannesburg. 25 October. London.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1986a. “Report of the Visit to Britain by Brother Jeremiah Zulu, 28 March-25 April, 1986.” Typescript. London.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Labour Education Project (SALEP). 1986b. Isolate the S.A. Bosses: Build Direct Links with the Workers and Youth. Broadsheet. London.Google Scholar
Southern Africa Report. 1986. “ANC-COSATU Meetings.” (April): 27.Google Scholar
Spence, J.E. 1986. “The Long-Term Endgame.” Times Literary Supplement (25 August): 882.Google Scholar
United Mineworkers of America. 1986. Protect Our Jobs—Boycott Shell. Broadsheet. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Zulu, Jeremiah. 1986. “Report on Visit to Britain, April 1986, by Jeremiah Zulu, President of the TGWU of South Africa.” Typescript. London.Google Scholar