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“To Fight the Battles of the Workers”: The Emergence of Pro-strike Publications in Early Twentieth-Century South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2004

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Abstract

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The role of pro-strike newspapers during the first two decades of labour history in twentieth-century South Africa, an era of intense industrial strife, has not been researched in depth by labour historians. This article examines the emergence of a pro-strike press and examines its position on various strike issues. It served as a conduit for workers' grievances during industrial disputes, such as the strikes of 1911, 1913, 1914, and 1922. Such papers were often also the only means of communication between the strike committee and the strikers themselves. The article also discusses the extent to which such publications might have impacted upon their readership and actual strike action. It concludes that pro-strike literature in essence reflects a “white-labour” discourse and a fusion of the class and racial consciousness that prevailed among the white working class of South Africa.

Type
ARTICLE
Copyright
© 2004 Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis

Footnotes

I am deeply indebted to Jon Hyslop of WISER and Lucien van der Walt of the Sociology Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, for their sound comments, advice, and constructive criticism of this article.