Lucien van der Walt. “‘Fight for Africa, Which you Deserve’: The Industrial Workers of Africa in South Africa, 1917-1921”

Lucien van der Walt, 2000, “‘Fight for Africa, Which you Deserve’: The Industrial Workers of Africa in South Africa, 1917-1921”, Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library, number 24, pp. 2,5,6

This article provides a short introduction to the Industrial Workers of Africa, a revolutionary syndicalist union formed by black African workers in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1917. It also includes a early leaflet issued by the union. The union was closely linked to the revolutionary syndicalist International Socialist League, in which its leading figures, like Fred Cetiwe, Hamilton Kraai and T.W. Thibedi, were key militants. In 1918 the union was involved in an attempted general strike on  the Witwatersrand, and in 1919, co-organised a key strike at the Cape Town docks. It championed class struggle, anti-capitalism and anti-colonialism.

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