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Trade Unions In South Africa
Trade unions in South Africa has a history dating back to the 1880s. From the beginning unions could be viewed as a reflection of the racial disunity of the country, with the earliest unions being predominantly for white workers. Through the turbulent years of 1948–1991 trade unions played an important part in developing political and economic resistance, and eventually were one of the driving forces in realising the transition to an inclusive democratic government. Today trade unions are still an important force in South Africa, with 3.11 million members representing 25.3% of the formal work force. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is the largest of the three major trade union centres, with a membership of 1.8 million, and is part of the Tripartite alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). The history Early trade unions were often for whites only, with organizations like the South African Con ...
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Congress Of South African Trade Unions
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is a trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ... federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.One Union expelled, and seven Unions voluntarily suspended their participation in COSATU History On 30 Nov 1985, 33 unions met at the University of Natal for talks on forming a federation of trade unions. This followed four years of unity talks between competing unions and federations that were opposed to apartheid and were "committed to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa." COSATU was officially established on 1 December 1985. Among the founding unions were the affiliates of the Federation o ...
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Mary Fitzgerald (trade Unionist)
Mary Fitzgerald (also known as Pickhandle Mary; 4 August 1883 – 26 September 1960) was an Irish-born South African political activist and was considered to have been the first female trade unionist in the country. She was South Africa’s first female master printer. As editor of the Voice of Labour, she published articles advocating for women’s enfranchisement, racially integrated trade unions and revolutionary socialism. She played a lead role in the Black Friday Riots of 1913. She was the first woman to be elected to the Johannesburg City Council (JCC) in 1915 and later served as Deputy Mayor of Johannesburg. Early life Mary was born into a farming family in the townland of Gortins, near Cleariestown, County Wexford in 1883. Her parents were Thomas Sinnott and Margaret Dunne. They had four other children: Dennis who was born in 1880, Doris and Sarah who were born in 1886, and Barbara. Mary attended the Presentation Convent in Wexford, where she qualified as a shorthand ...
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African Mine Workers' Strike
The African Mine Workers' Strike was a labour dispute involving mine workers of Witwatersrand in South Africa. It started on 12 August, 1946 and lasted approximately a week. The strike was attacked by police and over the week, at least 1,248 workers were wounded and at least 9 killed. African Mine Workers' Union In 1941 a miners' conference was called by the Transvaal Provincial Committee of the African National Congress. The conference was supported by Paramount Chief of Zululand and trade unions. It was here that the African Mine Workers' Union came into being and elected a committee under the presidency of J. B. Marks, who also became President of the Transvaal African National Congress. At first the union was not recognised by the Chamber of Mines, but after sustained pressure for better wages and conditions, the prime minister, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, announced some piecemeal increases improvements in conditions while at the same time issuing War Measure No. 1425—banning ...
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Council Of Non-European Trade Unions
The Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU) was a national trade union federation bringing together unions representing black workers in South Africa. The federation was established in November 1941, with the merger of the Non-European Trade Union Co-ordinating Committee and the recently-founded Joint Committee of African Trade Unions, associated with Max Gordon. Moses Kotane presided over the inaugural conference. Gana Makabeni, who had been the leader of the Coordinating Committee of African Trade Unions was elected president, and David Gosani elected secretary. The war economy led to rapid increases of manufacturing industry, bringing large numbers of African workers into urban areas and increasing the price of food and other goods. This led to much increased industrial unrest. There were 37 registered strikes by African workers in 1941. This led to the government informally recognising African unions. After a one-day strike by the African workers organised by CNETU in ...
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South African Trades And Labour Council
The South African Trades and Labour Council (SAT&LC) was a national trade union federation in South Africa. History The federation was founded in 1930, when the South African Trades Union Council merged with the Cape Federation of Labour Unions. The federation was broadly split between the craft unions and mining unions, which generally only admitted white workers and took conservative positions; and a growing number of industrial unions, which admitted white, Asian and "coloured" members, and often worked closely with unions representing black workers. In 1944, the federation adopted the Workers' Charter, which aimed to bring about a socialist government. In 1947, some unions of white workers resigned in opposition to the SAT&LC admitting black workers, and they formed the pro-apartheid Co-ordinating Council of South African Trade Unions. A further group of right-wing craft unions left in 1951 to form the South African Federation of Trade Unions. In 1950, the Government of Sou ...
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William H
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the given name ''Wilhelm'' (cf. Proto-Germanic ᚹᛁᛚᛃᚨᚺᛖᛚᛗᚨᛉ, ''*Wiljahelmaz'' > German ''Wilhelm'' and Old Norse ᚢᛁᛚᛋᛅᚼᛅᛚᛘᛅᛋ, ''Vilhjálmr''). By regular sound changes, the native, inherited English form of the name shoul ...
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South African Trades Union Council
The South African Trades Union Congress (TUC) was a national trade union federation in South Africa. The council was established in 1924, as the South African Association of Employees' Organisations. It was founded at a special congress, held after the collapse of the South African Industrial Federation, which was called by the Minister of Labour, Frederic Creswell. All the affiliated unions were registered under the Industrial Conciliation Act 1924 and represented white workers. The federation was expected to be very moderate, but unexpectedly elected the leading communist Bill Andrews as its general secretary.Wessel Visser'Exporting Trade Unionism and Labour Politics: the British Influence on the early South African Labour Movement' ''New Contree'' 49 (2005), 145-62 As president, it elected Jimmy Briggs, a Labour Party Senator. The unexpected radicalism of the federation led some long-established unions not to affiliate, while the Mine Workers' Union and South African Typog ...
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Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demographia, the Johannesburg–Pretoria urban area (combined because of strong transport links that make commuting feasible) is the 26th-largest in the world in terms of population, with 14,167,000 inhabitants. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm. Due to the extremely large gold de ...
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Clements Kadalie
Clements Kadalie (1896 – 1951) was born Lameck Koniwaka Kadali Muwamba in Nyasaland (present-day Malawi). At age sixteen, he was a qualified teacher. He later settled in Cape Town, South Africa where he became South Africa's first black national trade union leader. Early years Clements Kadalie was born Lameck Koniwaka Kadali Muwamba in 1896 in Nkhata Bay District at the village of Chifira village near the Bandawe Mission Station in Nyasaland, presently Malawi. He was the second born son of Mr. and Mrs. Musa Kadalie Muwamba. He was the grandson of Chiweyu, a paramount chief of the Tonga of Nyasaland. Educated by Church of Scotland missionaries, Kadalie completed teacher training in 1913 graduating from Livingstonia. After a short stint of primary school teaching, Kadalie joined the stream of Nyasalanders seeking employment in neighbouring South Africa in early 1915. Career In 1918, he settled in Cape Town, where he befriended Arthur F. Batty, an emerging trade unionist and po ...
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Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after Johannesburg). Colloquially named the ''Mother City'', it is the largest city of the Western Cape province, and is managed by the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The other two capitals are Pretoria, the executive capital, located in Gauteng, where the Presidency is based, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital in the Free State, where the Supreme Court of Appeal is located. Cape Town is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is home to 66% of the Western Cape's population. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place ...
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Industrial And Commercial Workers' Union Of Africa
The Industrial and Commercial Union (ICU) was a trade union and mass-based popular political movement in southern Africa. It was influenced by the syndicalist politics of the Industrial Workers of the World (adopting the IWW Preamble in 1925), as well as by Garveyism, Christianity, communism, and liberalism. Origins The original ICU was founded in Cape Town in 1919. Later that year it held a famous joint strike on the docks with the syndicalist Industrial Workers of Africa, a black-based union modelled on the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World. In 1920, the two unions merged with a number of other emergent African and Coloured-based unions into an expanded ICU with the stated aim of "creating one great union" of workers south of the Zambezi river i.e. spanning South Africa, South West Africa, Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. The first journal of the ICWU, ''Black Man'', ran for six issues in 1920. The ICU has been described as "one of the most radical moveme ...
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International Socialist League (South Africa)
The International Socialist League of South Africa was the earliest major Marxist party in South Africa, and a predecessor of the South African Communist Party. The ISL was founded around the syndicalist politics of the Industrial Workers of the World and Daniel De Leon. History Formed in September 1915, it established branches across much of South Africa (excluding the Western Cape). While early attempts to recruit white workers failed, the ISL soon came to the attention of the young African National Congress, (then called the "South African Native National Congress") and several prominent early ANC members attended ISL meetings. By September 1917 the ISL had helped to form the first black African trade union in the country, the Industrial Workers of Africa. While its founders were mainly drawn from the radical wing of the white working class, the movement would develop a substantial black African, Coloured and Indian membership. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917 ...
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