Yours for the Union: Class and Community Struggles in South Africa: African History Archive

“A key theme in Hirson’s work is ‘the enthusiasm, courage and weakness of the workers.’ In his view, this courage and enthusiasm was squandered. . . . South Africa’s working class communities are still paying the price . . . and Baruch Hirson’s tragic history is still their story.”

Baruch Hirson (1921–99) was a South African historian and anti-apartheid activist. His books include Year of Fire, Year of Ash, also published by Zed Books.
 

Photographs and Illustrations
Foreword by Tom Lodge
Abbreviations
Preface
Map of South Africa
 
1. The African Worker: Class and Community
2. Desperately Lean Times: The Socio-economic Background
3. Industrial Legislation and Minimum Wages
4. Rebuilding the African Unions, 1932-40
5. Organising Domestic Servants
6. Vereeniging: “To Hell with the Pick-up!”
7. The Politics of War and the Black Working Class
8. Trade Unions in Struggle
9. Organising Under War Conditions
10. Rural Protest and Rural Revolt
11. Azikwhelwa!— We Shall Not Ride
12. Umagebule— The Slicer
13. Organising the Migrant Workers
14. The 1946 Miners’ Strike
15. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index