The ANC's Early Years

This book analyses the ANC and its attitudes and relationships with the nascent formations of the black working class, with particular attention to the most conscious and active workers. It focuses on the formative period of engagement of political and socioeconomic forces and also discusses migrant, rural, domestic, and women workers.

Abbreviations and Acronyms Illustrations Sources of illustrations Tables Preface 1. Introduction Part 1: Nation, Class, and Place in South African History 2. Perspectives on ANC-Labour History 3. Black Labour in South Africa to 1940 4. Early African Political Organisations and Black Labour Part 2: The ANC and Labour, the First Decade 5. The SANNC and African Working People 6. To "Heartily ... Assist the Working Movement as Best They Can": Congress and Black Labour in the Transvaal, 1912-1919 7. "Join Our Union-You Will Find Good Result": Congress and Labour in the Cape, Natal and Free State, 1912-1919 Part 3: The Second Decade 8. "A Strong Seed in a Stony Bed": The 1920s 9. "The Ruling Class is Getting Lost in the Mist and Sea of Selfishness": Natal in the 1920s Chapter 10 "I-Kongilesi Lilizwi ezindlwini" (Congress's Name is Household): The Transvaal, Cape and Orange Free State in the 1920s Part 4: The Third Decade 11. From "Culpable Inertia" to Rebuilding: The ANC and Labour in the 1930s 12. Moderate Centre, Militant Province? The Cape in the 1930s 13. "A Very, Very Wide Influence, Even When ... Dead": The Transvaal, Natal, and Orange Free State in the 1930s Conclusion Select Bibliography Index