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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The ICU and the white parliamentary parties, 1921-1924: a study in contradictions and compromises
Author:Zania, Theresa
Year:1990
Periodical:The African Communist
Issue:120
Pages:70-83
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:political parties
labour history
black trade unions
Abstract:The development of Kadalie's Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) in South Africa in the first half of the 1920s was extremely contradictory. This contradictoriness was not unrelated to the renewed capitalist offensive which was to take place. Of special interest in these years was the reaction of the ICU leaders to the strike and uprising of the white workers on the Rand in the early months of 1922. The strike, centred on the defence of the job colour bar, was supported by the Communist Party, an ally of the ICU. Despite contradictory feelings about supporting the government, the ICU finally took up a position on the side of the Smuts regime. This loyalty, however, was not recompensed. On the contrary, the Natives (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 and falling wages made the ICU, together with the Communist Party and the ANC, move away from the Smuts government. During the 1924 elections ICU leaders campaigned on behalf of Hertzog and his Nationalist-Labour Pact. Ref.
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