Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
1161748290
Author
Meier, James,1962-
Title
The African National Congress and the Black working class 1937-1948
Degree
M.A., History -- Queen's University, 1994
Publisher
Kingston, Ont. : [publisher not identified], [1994]
©1994
Description
vi, 140 leaves ;
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-139).
Copy 2, microfiche.[1994]2 microfiches ; 11 x 15 cm.
Abstract
This thesis studies the African National Congress and its relationship to the black working class during the 1937-1948 period. This relationship is examined against the backdrop of black workplace and community struggles. Specifically, this thesis focuses on the emergence and growth of African trade unionism, and traces the role the ANC played in its development. It is argued that in the 1937-1948 period, the circumstances were not in place for the ANC and the African trade union movement, individually or in combination, to successfully challenge the state and secure significant and lasting concessions for either African workers or the black working class. The black opposition lacked the organization, solidarity, and leadership to force the government to accede to its demands. For a brief time, from 1941 to 1942, the government, owing to weakness and a more liberal African policy, may have been prepared to extend concessions, but probably these would have been withdrawn as it consolidated its power and made ready to fend off the challenge of Afrikaner nationalism. Chapter 1 introduces the context of the thesis and provides a brief analysis of the historiography on the subject of the ANC, the black working class, and African trade unions. Chapter 2 surveys the ANC and the black working class in the lead-up period of 1917-1937. In Chapter 3, the roles of the state and capital in relation to the development or African trade unions are examined. Chapter 4 investigates black community struggles, concentrating on the Alexandra bus boycotts of 1940-1945 and the Witwatersrand squatter movements between 1944 and 1947. Chapter 5 analyzes the African trade union movement and the relationship it bore to the ANC. Chapter 6 concludes with a summary and brief commentary on the relevance of the thesis to an understanding of contemporary event in South Africa.
Subject
Labor unions South Africa History.
Working class South Africa History.
Black people Employment South Africa History.
Syndicats Afrique du Sud Histoire.
Travailleurs Afrique du Sud Histoire.
ISBN
0315903600
9780315903609