The Congress Movement

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ICU, ANC, CP and Congress Alliance 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 would ensure 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.

VOLUME 2: April 19261928

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
(a) Labour-tenancy & the youth-senior divide
(b) Role of the Zulu
(c) Socio-regional profile in the farming districts
(d) The reserves
(i) ICU in Zululand
(ii) 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