Extract 1: Clements Kadalie, ‘The Romance of African Labour’, Workers’ Herald, 14 September 1926, pp 1-2.

Introduction

In a landmark speech on the 13th November 1925, the South African prime minister J. B. M. Hertzog announced a four-point programme of segregation (subsequently known as the ‘Hertzog Bills’): (1) the removal of Africans from the common electoral roll in the Cape Province; (2) the limited allocation of additional land to Africans under the Natives’ Land Act; (3) the establishment of ‘Native Councils’ in African territories made up of a mix of elected and nominated members; and (4) the representation of Africans in Parliament by seven white elected members. In response, the ICU reversed its conciliatory policy towards the Hertzog Government, setting out its own anti-segregationist vision of an equal citizenry. Accompanying the Hertzog Bills were efforts to restrict the movements of radical activists – like the ICU’s leadership. Kadalie’s article in the Workers’ Herald, ‘The Romance of African Labour’, describes how he refused to submit to the new restrictions during his visit to Natal where he addressed large crowds about the injustices threatened by the Hertzog Bills.

Extract 

A ban on my movements was planned and put into effect on March 1st [1926]. Thus the back-velders and capitalist imperialists succeeded in their demand upon a weak Government, a Government which in reality is controlled by officials instead of responsible Ministers of the Crown. Lengthy and wearisome correspondence between the ICU in the first place (supported by the South African Trade Union Congress) and the Native Affairs Department, resulted in nothing. I was maliciously accused as a racialist. For over five months the Native Affairs Department restricted my free movements as a free citizen of the South African Dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. I was prima facie illegally detained to pursue the ‘right to personal freedom’, and it is now an open question whether the Union Government will not be compelled to account for the loss of time and money to the ICU. We finally obtained legal advice and I was advised to cross the Natal border.

My proceeding to Natal, in company with Comrade A. W. G. Champion, Provincial Secretary for that Province, cannot, I am afraid, be rightly recorded just yet. Future historians of Black Trade Unionism will write it, perhaps better than I do now. I am excited with our great victory. After we had received the first opinion of our Transvaal legal advisers, confirming the opinion of our Natal advisers, the National Council Executive Bureau decided quite suddenly to put our recent Conference resolution into effect by testing the legality of the ban. Comrade Champion was called from Durban hurriedly. Everything seemed to be kept in secret at first. Hush! The time of excitement would come. On the 11th August the Government was notified that I was proceeding to Natal to test the legality of the ban. Excitement grew tenser as the evening of the 12th August was approaching. Were we first to go to the Garden of Gethsemane and receive strength and consolation? ‘Lo, I am with you always!’ The fateful evening came, some officials had gone to address meetings at Sophia Township and were unable to witness the departing hour. But the General Secretary, Complaints and Research Secretary, the Financial Secretary, and the Johannesburg Branch Secretary escorted us to the Station. I can quite recall sad faces that evening. Comrade Champion and I had made up our plans. We were prepared to meet the worst. The engine steamed out of Park Station. Comrade H. D. Tyamzashe, our Complaints and Research Secretary, like Peter of old, was anxious to see us brought before Pilate. He joined the train and took us as far as Germiston.

We were anxious that none should detect us until we had reached our destination, Durban, but at Germiston Station I was nevertheless detected by a railway native policeman, whom I knew from East London. It is possible that he was unaware of my adventure and took me for a free man, as he introduced me to many workers present at the station. A large crowd of enthusiastic workers witnessed our departure from Germiston Station, and so at 9.30 p.m. the political prisoner steamed off into Natal.

According to our plans, Comrade Champion and I took to our beds until we found ourselves on the border of Natal in the small hours of the morning. Hush! We were startled by the presence of an Immigration Officer, who examined the passports of our fellow-passengers (Indians). It was all over in a few minutes. The engine proceeded into Natal. Calm as I was in my pyjamas during the small hours of that morning, I was under the impression that at Charlestown, the first station to be reached in Natal, we should be visited by police officers. Perhaps they were asleep. We soon found somewhere about 10 a.m. Still there was nothing doing! We have entered Natal undisturbed. Comrade Champion alights here and informs our Headquarters by telegram that we were penetrating into the enemy’s camp unmolested. But shall we pass Pietermaritzburg in peace? Yes, we do so at 3.15 p.m., perhaps the enemy is still in his bed! We are approaching Durban now, it is towards 6 o’clock. We shall alight at Berea Station and not at Durban Central according to our plans. But the train ran through to the Central Station without stopping at Berea Station. At 6.15 p.m. we steamed into Durban. Shall I escape arrest at the Station? Champion and I are anxious. We pass the ticket gate, we meet an ICU member. He takes charge of our two suit cases. We are in the ICU offices, best known in Durban as the African Workers’ Club. So we are in Durban at last! Perhaps the warrant of arrest was not issued at Maritzburg, Natal headquarters in time! There is life at the African Workers’ Club, music and singing going on. The Hall is packed as if there was a meeting. The Branch Secretary and his assistant, assisted by members of the local executive, are busy receiving subscriptions from members. ‘When will this stop?’ I ask. About 11 p.m., and this happens every day, Sunday included. We are welcomed by Mrs. Champion at her residence. After supper and recollections of our train adventure, we retire to bed.

It is Saturday, the first day spent in Durban. We proceed to our office at 8.30 a.m. We soon got into touch with our Durban legal advisers. It is decided that we advertise in the daily paper that I address meetings as from Sunday, the following day. We anticipate that the advertisements in the papers will hasten my arrest. Our legal advisers instruct us to get ready with bail, for my arrest at any moment was unquestionable. The first day is gone, it is evening, and we are addressing our first crowded meeting at the African Workers’ Club. Enthusiasm is very high.

Then comes the historical Sunday, my second day spent in the enemy’s camp. A motor ride was arranged by one of the leading Indian merchants. Mr. Tyeb, the honorary treasurer of the South African Indian Congress. We are taken into their country club, where we have luncheon. The Chairman of the Club welcomes us in a grand speech. We are promised every support by the Indian community. In response to the toast, Comrade Champion makes one of the finest after-dinner speeches he has ever made since I have known him. In a few words I also respond to the toast. It was now 2.45 p.m. We return to the City, where thousands of workers are anxiously waiting to welcome me to Durban. The advertisements inserted in the daily press, besides over 5,000 handbills issued by our Natal Provincial Secretary, had attracted thousands of people. Are we to go to the open-air meeting first? We decide to participate in a Muslim Literary Society’s meeting, at which Al-Haj Khwaja Kamalndin, B.A., L.L.B., lectured on the ‘Message of Islam’, and to which I was specially invited to attend and speak also. On arrival at the Rawat’s Bioscope, which accommodates over 3,000 people, we find the hall to be too small to accommodate the audience. With greatest difficulty, stewards of the meeting escorted Comrade Champion and I to the platform amidst vociferous cheers. After the lecturer had ably and intelligently spoken on ‘The Messiah of Islam’, I was asked to speak, and I did so for about 10 minutes, and the Muslim Literary Society’s meeting was terminated. By mutual consent we turned the meeting into an ICU meeting. As soon as I began to address the big meeting, we were told that thousands of workers were waiting at Cartwright’s Flats. We decided to go to the open-air meeting. Thousands of workers were marching to the square – I was almost tempted to say, the Red Square. Here at Cartwright’s Flats I was privileged to address a crowd exceeding 7,000. The evening has come! We close the open-air meeting after 6.30 p.m., but at the African Workers’ Club we shall have to address another meeting. It is now midnight, we retire to our beds and the second day is gone and no arrest is made! I am still at large.

The third day in Durban is not so exciting to me. I am now in the trenches. The enthusiasm of my fellow workers is very high and encouraging. Message of sympathy and solidarity pour in from all parts of the country. In an interview with the Press I declare that my mission to Natal was ‘to champion the cause of Democracy’. Comrade Champion becomes more defiant. He invites the enemies of the workers to lay their hands on me. Another open-air meeting in the afternoon and in the evening at the African Workers’ Club, I address the female workers’ meeting. It is the third day, still nothing doing. I continue with my open-air meetings for ten days unmolested. There is an air of mystery surrounding the inaction of the authorities in regard to my entry into Natal without a permit. The enemy is confounded and confused. According to Press reports the Police authorities and the Native Affairs Department are closeted for several hours in a conference at Pietermaritzburg on the eighth day. On the same day I am told by a police officer in Durban that the Government has no legal grounds to arrest me. What is all this? Is democracy going to triumph in South Africa? It looks like it. On the ninth day we decide that I leave Durban on the evening of the tenth day. But I have to arm the workers with a new slogan signifying our victory on the tenth day. The tenth day is with us. Mr. Tyeb takes us round Durban in his beautiful car. We motor 38 miles outside the Borough. In the afternoon I address the biggest rally. The theme of my address is that the African Workers have made history in South African Trade Unionism. It is now 5.30 p.m. I must run for my train. The huge crowd rouses three deafening cheers for the success of the ICU over the enemy. I leave Champion with this monstrous crowd. I am on the train now, without a companion. I sit down and contemplate over my experience. I am convinced that the attitude of the Government conveys to me that the ban which was placed upon my movements has all along been without legal grounds. I compliment myself that I have been instrumental in our infant Trade Union movement having administered a crushing defeat to a reactionary Government, and thereby firmly established the right of Trade Union officials to tour South Africa on legitimate trade union business should they so desire. I won a first round in 1920 against the Chamber of Mines Government and this is the second round that I have won against the despotic and tyrannical Native Affairs Department officials. I hope they have now learnt a lesson, and may fate write this epitaph on their graves:

High in his stirrups stood the King

And gave his battle-axe a swing,

Right on De Boune the whilst he past

Fell that stern blow, the first, the last.

Extract 2: ‘ICU Programme for 1928’, Workers’ Herald, 12 May 1928, p 4.

Introduction

From May to October 1927, Kadalie toured Britain and Europe, attempting with limited success to raise funds and rally international support for the ICU. He returned from his tour with a new constitution for the ICU based upon those of British trade unions. His attempts to re-energise the ICU foundered, however, as the parlous state of its finances reached crisis point; the first splits from the national body began with the Transkei branch seceding in March 1928; white mobs assaulted ICU members and burnt down ICU offices in Greytown, Weenen and Kranskop; and two months later, the Durban branch – by far the largest ICU branch – broke away to form the ICU yase Natal. The ICU Programme for 1928 reiterates the ICU’s principal commitments therefore at a moment it no longer had the ability to realise them.

Extract

Opponents of the ICU have frequently asserted that the Organisation is not a trade union in the sense that the term is generally understood in South Africa, but that it is a kind of pseudo-political body. The ground on which this assertion has been based is the fact that the ICU has concentrated its attention on matters in which the issues involved have not been ‘purely economic’, whilst these ‘purely economic’ issues have been neglected.

The new constitution, which was adopted at the Special Congress at Kimberley in December [1927], definitely establishes the ICU as a trade union, albeit one of the native workers whose rights of organisation are only now earning recognition. In these circumstances it has become necessary for the organisation to have a clearly defined economic programme, corresponding to the interests of the membership at large. At the same time, it must be clearly understood that we have no intention of copying the stupid and futile ‘non-political’ attitude of our white contemporaries. As Karl Marx said, every economic question is, in the last analysis, a political question also, and we must recognise that in neglecting to concern ourselves with current politics, in leaving the political machines to the unchallenged control of our class enemies, we are rendering a disservice to those tens of thousands of our members who are groaning under oppressive laws and are looking to the ICU for a lead.

In the past the offices of the ICU in the field have had no definite programme to follow, and this has resulted not merely in confusion of ideas, but it has led to the dissemination of conflicting politics. This being so, we make no apology for introducing the subject of an Economic and Political Programme for the Organisation at this stage. The ICU is a homogenous national organisation. As such it must have a national policy, consonant with the terms of its constitution, which will serve as a programme of action by which its officers will be guided in their work. The framing of such a programme is essentially the work of Congress, and we propose to give here the broad outlines of for a programme, which we trust will serve as a basis for discussion. In view of what we said above it will be realised that it is not necessary to divide the programme into political and economic sections, the two being closely bound up with each other.

We will further preface the proposals we have to make by remarking that our programme must be largely of an agrarian character, for the reason that the greater proportion of our membership comprises rural workers, landless peasants, whose dissatisfaction with conditions is with good reason greater than that of the workers in urban areas. These conditions are only too well known to you to require any restatement from you. The town workers must not, however, be neglected. More attention must in future be given to their grievances, desires and aspirations if their loyalty to the ICU is to be secured. At the present stage of our development it is inevitable that our activities should be almost entirely of an agitational character, for we are not recognised as citizens in our own country, being almost entirely disenfranchised and debarred from exercising a say in state affairs closely affecting our lives and welfare. Our programme will therefore be almost entirely agitational in character.

We now detail our proposals as follows:–

1. Wages. A consistent and persistent agitation for improved wages for native workers must be conducted by all branches of the Union. The agitation must be Union-wide, and regard must always be had to local conditions and circumstances. . . . . As an immediate objective a minimum wage of £5 per month (plus food and housing in country districts) should be striven for. . . .
2. Hours. Insistence should be made on a maximum working day of eight hours and a working week of 5 ½ days for town and country workers alike. This demand will have the support of all right thinking and justice-loving people. . . . .
3. Illegal Practices. Illegal practices by employers, such as withholding wages, seizing stock, etc., should be reported to the local Magistrate and Native Affairs Department, with fullest particulars. . .
4. The Franchise. The proposal of the present government to withdraw the very limited franchise granted to Natives in the Cape Province should be unequivocally condemned at every public gathering of the ICU. Further, on the principle, ‘No taxation without representation’, and extension of the franchise to Natives should be demanded. We would suggest that a monster petition be organised by the ICU against the present reactionary proposal and presented to Parliament during the present session. . . .
5. Pass Laws. The Pass Laws are a legal expression of Native enslavement, corresponding with the dark days of Tsarist Russia. They manufacture criminals and possess no moral or ethical justification. It is therefore the duty of the ICU to oppose them by every possible means at its disposal. . . . In the event of the government refusing to comply with such [an anti-Pass Law] petition, the ICU Congress should fix a day of national protest against the Pass Laws to be marked by mass demonstrations at which all natives should be asked to hand in their passports, the same to be burned in public by the demonstrations. In addition, those assembled should be pledged by solemn resolution to refuse to carry any further passports or to give any further recognition of the Pass Laws.
6. Land. The total area of land set aside for exclusive native occupation in the Union is notoriously inadequate. Parliament should be petitioned through one or more of its members to increase the Native reserves so as to make provision for the landless native farmers. The assistance of labour organisation overseas should be invoked in this matter. In addition, an agitation should be started against the laws prohibiting native squatting.
7. Free Speech. Vigorous propaganda must be carried on against those provisions in the Native Administration Act which place restrictions on the right of free speech. Ostensibly these provisions are designed to prevent the stirring up of hostility between the white and black races. Actually they are intended to limit the opportunities for trade union propaganda and organisation among the native workers. These provisions must therefore be strenuously fought against and their legality challenged where wrongful arrests are carried out. In this connection, no opportunity must be lost of stressing the fact that the ICU is not an anti-European organisation, and that where it has occasion to criticise Europeans it is on grounds of their actions (usually as employers of labour) towards the natives and not on account of the colour of their skins.
8. Propaganda. Members must be kept fully informed of the activities of the organisation and of all happenings affecting their interests. For this purpose regular members’ meetings must be called by Branch Secretaries and the speeches made thereat must not, as heretofore, be of a vague or general agitational character, but must deal with concrete and immediate problems. Every endeavour must be made to stimulate a direct personal interest in the affairs of the organisation, and to this end questions and discussion by the audience must be encouraged. The Workers’ Herald, our official organ, must be further popularised among members. If every member bought the paper its circulation could be easily quadrupled and more. The paper could be made to possess an interest for each district if Branch Secretaries would take the trouble to contribute notes concerning local happenings with their comments thereon.
9. New Recruits. There are large numbers of native workers to whom the ICU is scarcely known. I refer to the workers on the Witwatersrand gold mines, the Natal coal mines, and the railways. Branch Secretaries in these areas should make every endeavour to rope these men in as members of the ICU as they would be an undoubted source of strength. The good work commenced some years ago among dock workers has unfortunately been discontinued very largely. Renewed efforts must be made during the ensuing year to bring the strayed ones back to the fold.
10. Representation on Public Bodies. It was decided at a previous Congress that advantage be taken of the laws governing Provincial Council elections in the Cape to run official ICU candidates. Native Parliamentary voters are qualified to enter the Cape Provincial Council, and definite steps should be taken to select candidates to stand on behalf of the ICU in Cape constituencies where there is a possibility of securing a fair vote at least. . . .

In submitting the above outline, we trust that the delegates will see with us the urgent necessity for a national policy for the organisation. Once a policy is adopted, and a programme arranged, it must not be allowed to remain on paper, and every official will be expected to do his utmost to translate this same into practice. Only in this way can the organisation grow and become an effective agency for liberating the African workers from the thraldom of slavery.

Extracts 3: Cartoons published in the Workers’ Herald

Extract(s) 4: Advertisements in the Workers’ Herald

Introduction

The funding of the Workers’ Herald derived from two main sources: (1) the membership fees of ICU members, and (2) advertisements. The Workers’ Herald’s financial dependency on advertising is reflected in the (frequently repeated) appeal in the Workers’ Herald of 15 June 1926 ‘The Workers’ Herald is the BEST Advertising Medium for African Trade. Advertisements Translated into All Native Languages’. The two advertisements reproduced here from the Workers’ Herald of 17 March 1926 reflect more than the economic basis of the Workers’ Herald’s survival; they also communicate a sense of the ideological tensions the ICU was obliged to negotiate.

Extract

Advertisement in the Workers’ Herald, 27 March 1926, p. 5.

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Extract

Advertisement in the Workers’ Herald, 27 March 1926, p 1.

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Further Reading on the ICU and the Workers’ Herald

Helen Bradford, A Taste of Freedom: The ICU in Rural South Africa (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987).

Henry Dee, ‘Central African immigrants, imperial citizenship and the politics of free movement’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 45, 6 (2019), 319-37.

Sheridan Johns, ‘Trade union, political pressure group or mass movement? The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Africa’ in Robert Rotberg and Ali Mazrui (eds), Protest and Power in Black Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), 695-794.

David Johnson, Dreaming of Freedom in South Africa: Literature Between Critique and Utopia (Edinburgh and Cape Town: Edinburgh University Press/ UCT Press, 2020).

David Johnson and Henry Dee, ‘I See You!’. The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (ICU), 1919-1930 (Cape Town: Historical Papers of Southern Africa, 2022).

Clements Kadalie, My Life and the ICU: The Autobiography of a Black Trade Unionist in South Africa (London: Frank Cass, 1970).

Sylvia Neame, The Congress Movement: The Unfolding of the Congress Alliance 1912-1961, Vols. 1-3 (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2015).

Les Switzer and Jo-Anne Richards, ‘The Workers’ Herald, organ of the ICU, October 1925-January 1929’, Communicatio, 6, 1 (1980), 22-7.

P. L. Wickins, The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Africa (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1978).