Overview

Author Sylvia Neame’s study of the development of the national liberation movement in South Africa is in stark contrast to the frequent depictions of the history of the ANC by leading academics as fragmented, fractured and discontinuous. Not only does her analyses disprove the belief that the ANC’s development has been episodic, several of the conclusions drawn point to its essential inner coherence. Crucial to the development of the congress movement was the search for an alliance strategy that wouldensure the ANC its central role. Particularly striking, and essentially new, is the depiction of the various alliance partners - including the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), the Communist Party and the South African Congress of Trade Unions - and their complicated interaction. The research, based on extensive primary and secondary sources including some eighty interviews dating back to the early 1960s, uniquely combines narrative and analysis. The Congress Movement invites the reader to engage in the fascinating development of the national liberation movement in South Africa in its formative period and uncovers its outstanding continuities as well as the considerable range of its methods. Volume 2 examines the intricate development of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union and the African National Congress in the second half of the 1920s. Various trends of reformism and radicalism affected these two organisations. This later led to the beginning of the breakup of the ICU with the secession of the Natal contingent, in part under the influence of a narrow ethnic Zulu nationalism. The breakaway also took place in the wake of an important phase in which the ICU leaders had become identified with a peasant uprising on white farms.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sylvia Neame
Publisher:   HSRC Press
Imprint:   HSRC Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.50cm , Height: 3.60cm , Length: 24.50cm
Weight:   0.980kg
ISBN:  

9780796924872

ISBN 10:   0796924872
Pages:   592
Publication Date:   01 May 2015
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Volume 2: April 1926-1928; ICU & SA libs & labs & British social democrats, 1926(-9): Reconstruction of South Africa's socio-economic relations?; Introduction; The joint council liberals; Problem of a united front with liberals & labourites; Economic & wage commission, 1925-6; Libs & labs & the question of the extension of the IC & wage acts to African workers; A retreat on the part of the JJC liberals begins; The question of the ICU's registration/recognition, 1924 to first half of 1928; A new phase opens during 1928 in regard to the ICU's status; Reorganization of the SA trade union movement; Labour & the question of the promotion of manufacturing; ICU & the economic and wage commission; ICU at the time of its 1926 conference; Developments in the British labour movement, in particular in the years, 1925-7; Kadalie & the labour movement in Europe; The African movement in 1926-27: The role of reformism; Introduction; Congress leaders ensure that the ICU decision for a political bureau is dropped; Weakening of the position of the radicals in & around the ANC's 1926 conference; A right wing, centring on Thema & Selby Msimang, begins to shape up in the ANC; ANC's NEC's position on the Hertzog bills, October 1926; Mahabane returns from overseas. ANC's January 1927 conference; Mahabane & the franchise, first half of 1927, including in the framework of the chiefs' convention; The response of Thema & Richard Msimang to the convention of chiefs; Some comments on the group & regional profile of the ICU; Decline of the African movement on the Rand; Municipal locations become important places of organizational activity; What role did the shift of the ICU axis to Natal play in the anti-communist move?; Champion-kadalie alliance, 1926-April 1927: Anticommunism gathers pace; Introduction; Champion's birth & childhood; Champion goes to Johannesburg. His experience on the mines & role in the TNMCA; Champion joins the ICU; Champion & the economic & wage commission; Champion & the Natal African congress; Champion's early activities in Natal; Champion & the national ICU in early 1926; Champion's methods in Natal lead him into conflict with the communists; Kadalie challenges his ban; Kadalie's growing financial dependence on Champion; Loosening of central control; Rising tensions between the ICU & CP; The conflicts become centred in Johannesburg; Was the anti-communist move directed against La Guma?; ICU National council meeting, December 1926; The CP fails to mobilize an effective opposition; The reaction of Mbeki, 'Mote & Khaile to the December NC meeting; The influence of JT Gumede on his return from the LAI conference; ICU's April 1927 conference; The land question comes to the fore, 1927-8: Rural upsurge; Introduction; The question of labour-tenancy; Native administration act, 1927; Madeley affair; Ballinger, the liberals & rural questions; The liberals, Kadalie & the pass issue; ICU & the rural question, 1920-26; The communists & the land question; ICU & the land question, mid-1926 to April 1927; Kadalie & the land question; ANC-ICU relations in the midst of the revolt & their respective attitude to the land question; Nature of the upsurge: Labour-tenancy & the youth-senior divide, Role of the Zulu, Socio-regional profile in the farming districts, The reserves, ICU in Zululand, ICU in the Transkeian territories - a significant regional differentiation; Forms of resistance; Champion breaks with the national ICU, 1928: Role of Zulu nationalism; Introduction; Champion's conference of Natal chiefs, 1930; Solomon kaDinuzulu's contacts with the ANC & ICU, 1930; The connection of Champion's banishment, 1930, with his relations with the Zulu King; Champion & the Durban riots of 1929 & the issue of a location; Natal's sugar fraternity, JL Dube & the issue of a location; Champion's disappointment & his banishment; Champion, Dunn & King Solomon's domain, 1927-8; Champion at the helm; Kadalie returns from his European trip, November 1927; ICU National council meeting, November 1927; ICU special congress, Kimberley, December 1927; Kadalie moves against Champion. January 1928 council meeting; ICU annual conference, April 1928; ANC's convention of Chiefs, April 1928, & Zulu nationalism; Secession; The impotence of the ICU's radical nationalists; Ballinger fails to heal the split; Reference list; Index.

Reviews

The Congress Movement is an historical epic, which no future scholarship in this field can ignore. Coming from within the movement it describes, this is the most authoritative history of the ANC's leadership that we are ever likely to receive. - Tom Lodge, Shedding New Light on the Historical Development of the ANC, Journal of Southern African Studies

Author Information

Sylvia Neame is a long-standing member of the Congress movement who spent several years in jail during apartheid. She has a doctorate of philosophy in the field of African history and is a former teacher and researcher at Leipzig University.

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