Speaker 1: All the media.
Speaker 2: Welcome to grappen Here. I'm Andrew SI to a future
Speaker 2: channel Andreism. I'm joined by Mia Wong.
Speaker 1: Did not miss your que this time.
Speaker 2: This will not make any sense to you unless you've
Speaker 2: heard the previous episode in which I missed by you.
Speaker 2: But hello, indeed, indeed welcome, did missic you. So recently
Speaker 2: I read Born a Crime by Trevoroah. It was his
Speaker 2: memoir of his childhood in South Africa and politics society.
Speaker 2: Is a decent comedian and had me laughing out loud
Speaker 2: and thinking a lot as well, and it really reignited
Speaker 2: my long pass and interest in South African history because
Speaker 2: he's given a lot of context when sharing his stories.
Speaker 2: So I decided to look into the history of anarchism
Speaker 2: in So Africa and that's what we will be exploring today.
Speaker 2: Much of the information I gathered is thanks to the
Speaker 2: scholarship of Lucian van der Walt, a South African anarchist
Speaker 2: and professor of sociology. Particularly, I'll be looking at the
Speaker 2: work on anarchism and Cynicalism Southern Africa from the International
Speaker 2: Encyclopedia Revolution and Protest and Anarchism and cynical in the
Speaker 2: Colonial and post colonial world. Without getting into the lengthy
Speaker 2: and storied history of the region, I do need to
Speaker 2: provide some context, so we'll start in the mid nineteenth century,
Speaker 2: where the region that became South Africa was considered marginal
Speaker 2: to the world economy. You had the Port of the
Speaker 2: Cape of Good Hope and Port Elizabeth, which handled me
Speaker 2: in the agricultural exports. And this was during the second
Speaker 2: period of the British Cape Colony's existence, after it had
Speaker 2: briefly fallen into the hands of the Batavia and Republic
Speaker 2: during the Napoleonic Wars. None of that is particularly necessary
Speaker 2: to know for our sake, but you know a little
Speaker 2: fun fact at this point, once again under the British,
Speaker 2: the land was broadly agrarian, and Britain's farms were worked
Speaker 2: by colored and African workers. The neighboring Natal Colony, also
Speaker 2: under British rule, had its plantations worked by indentured Indians.
Speaker 2: The rest of the interior was under various Africana republics
Speaker 2: and African kingdoms. For those not in the know, so
Speaker 2: African in this context refers to obviously Africans, Black Africans,
Speaker 2: to be specific, Indians referring to the indentured laborers from
Speaker 2: the Indian subcontinent, Africanas referring to the Afrikaans or Dutch
Speaker 2: speaking white South Africans. And then we have of course
Speaker 2: the British, which are you know, white British people, and
Speaker 2: the colored as a designation as a group as a
Speaker 2: self identified ethnic group referred to the people of mixed
Speaker 2: European and African heritage that had begun to develop their
Speaker 2: own identity in their own community. Because the settlement of
Speaker 2: South Africa had started centuries before, so other than the
Speaker 2: agricultural export and ports providing a respite for trade between
Speaker 2: the West and the East, the Southern African colonies weren't
Speaker 2: particularly high up on anyone's list of priorities. But then
Speaker 2: the economic landscape of the region transformed with the discovery
Speaker 2: of diamonds in Kimberlee in eighteen sixty seven and gold
Speaker 2: in Woodwater surround in eighteen eighty six. To make a
Speaker 2: very long story short, this led to the rapid centralization
Speaker 2: of mining activities and the growth of towns like Johannesburg,
Speaker 2: one of the most well known towns in South Africa.
Speaker 2: Imperial interests intensified, resultant in the British Wars and Africans
Speaker 2: and Africanas and the establishment of the Union of South
Speaker 2: Africa in nineteen ten an extremely diverse and polygoth society
Speaker 2: under British rule. By nineteen thirteen, almost half of the
Speaker 2: world's gold output came from with waters Round Aeriel and
Speaker 2: with waters Rand Minds employed one hundred and ninety five
Speaker 2: thousand Africans and twenty two thousand white workers. The working
Speaker 2: class clearly faced many racial and ethnic divisions. It was
Speaker 2: primarily composed of various Africans, which had their own divisions
Speaker 2: between them, and there were also divisions between the largely
Speaker 2: skilled white immigrants from Europe and the largely unskilled local
Speaker 2: white africaners. The marginalized African and colored middle classes that
Speaker 2: began to form from the few free laborers involved in
Speaker 2: various grown industries would come to lead early nationalist movements
Speaker 2: while grappling with segregation, discrimination, and linguistic challenges. As Van
Speaker 2: der Wald said and a Coote, they lived in a
Speaker 2: situation where a cheap African labor formed the bedrock of
Speaker 2: the mine as well as state industry and the growing
Speaker 2: commercial farming and manufacturing sectors, and where the cheapness of
Speaker 2: African labor was primarily a function of the black's historic
Speaker 2: incorporation into the country as a subject to people. In
Speaker 2: this sense, local capitalist relations of exploitation were constructed upon
Speaker 2: colonial relations of domination. Fast forward to the eve of
Speaker 2: apartheid in nineteen forty eight, when Africana nationalists took power
Speaker 2: and extended the segregation policies in the first four decades
Speaker 2: of the Union even further, you get two responses to
Speaker 2: the national question preceding the development of apartheid from the
Speaker 2: organized labor crowd at the time. The first response, known
Speaker 2: as white laborism, was associated with the mainstream white labor
Speaker 2: movement leading back to the nineteenth century. The South African
Speaker 2: Labor Party and South African Industrial Federation were key proponents
Speaker 2: of white labourism, and both organizations were born from the
Speaker 2: exclusiveness of early craft unions that later evolved into more
Speaker 2: pronounced racial exclusiveness. This white laborism approach combined social democracy
Speaker 2: with segregation, promoting job reservation and preferential employment for whites,
Speaker 2: urban segregation and Asian repatriation white power for white workers. Basically,
Speaker 2: the other races can figure out their own deal. Of course,
Speaker 2: on the reservations that we put them in. So it's
Speaker 2: no surprise that the apartheid government in part mainstreamed this
Speaker 2: white laborism movement. But the second response to the national
Speaker 2: question was linked to the Communist Party of South Africa
Speaker 2: the CPSA from nineteen twenty eight, when it adopted the
Speaker 2: Native Republic thesis under pressure from the Communist International. This
Speaker 2: approach advocate of the establishment of an independent South African
Speaker 2: Native Republic as a precursor to the Workers and Peasants Republic,
Speaker 2: separating national liberation specifically in the form of nationalism and
Speaker 2: then socialism into distinct stages. The CPSA initially considered leading
Speaker 2: both of these stages, but later abandoned this idea and
Speaker 2: opted for a united front with the African National Congress,
Speaker 2: even for a unitary, democratic and capitalist state with land
Speaker 2: reform and partial nationalization. But there's a hidden history that
Speaker 2: goes unnoticed prior to the rise of apartheid and the CPSA.
Speaker 2: All the way back in the eighteen eighties, Henry Glass
Speaker 2: played a pivotal role in establishing the local anarchist tradition
Speaker 2: in South Africa. He was an Englishman born in India
Speaker 2: with a background in radical London circles. He moved to
Speaker 2: Port Elizabeth in the eighteen eighties and engaged in various jobs,
Speaker 2: including working on the Witwatersrand mines among African people. He
Speaker 2: contributed to the Cape Labor Press, translated key works by
Speaker 2: Kropotkin into English, and distributed anarchist materials through various organizations.
Speaker 2: Glass seems to have taken a good look at Cloud
Speaker 2: saw how Africans were treated, and didn't shy away from
Speaker 2: calling it out now self is writing did idealize pre
Speaker 2: capitalist cultures, for example, pointing out in a letter to
Speaker 2: Kropotkin that you can still find amongst them the principle
Speaker 2: of communism, but his main focus was on pointing fingers
Speaker 2: at an order that treated Africans like second class citizens,
Speaker 2: and going even further to champion the idea of a
Speaker 2: working class movement that bridged racial divides. He understood the
Speaker 2: foolishness of white workers to try and pursue their liberation
Speaker 2: alone while sidelining their colored comrades, and though Glass spent
Speaker 2: his time agitating in Port Elizabeth, this was also a
Speaker 2: perspective shared by the Social Democratic Federation or SDF, based
Speaker 2: in Cape Town, which despite its name, was all about
Speaker 2: pushing anarchism and syndicalism. Actually, the maybe more precise there
Speaker 2: was a dominant wing within the SDF of Cape Town
Speaker 2: that emphasized anarchism and syndicalism. There will also moderate and
Speaker 2: status elements in the SDF as well. Cape Town was
Speaker 2: quite different at that time from Port Elizabeth. Port Elizabeth
Speaker 2: was mostly African and white, but Cape Town had a
Speaker 2: significant colored population, which created a situation where much of
Speaker 2: Cape Town's working class was free labor rather than bound
Speaker 2: to some form of slavery or dansure. Coloreds were facing
Speaker 2: growing official segregation and popular discrimination from the late nineteenth
Speaker 2: century onwards, though, so there was a growing discontent as
Speaker 2: the working class fractured even further. But there was a
Speaker 2: key figure in the Cape Town SDF that pushed anarchism
Speaker 2: and cynicalism, and that was Wilfred Harrison, another friend of Kropotkin.
Speaker 2: A carpenter, a trade unionist, and an ex soldier, he
Speaker 2: was known as a very dynamic speaker and a staunch
Speaker 2: anarchist communist who pushed for a future where workers owned
Speaker 2: and controlled everything. With Harrison at the Helm, the SDF
Speaker 2: set up shop in Adelaide Street, where they were allizing talks, events,
Speaker 2: and even standing in elections for propaganda purposes. The sdf's
Speaker 2: events attracted thousands, creating truly uniquely integrated public spheres that
Speaker 2: would bring colors, whites, and Africans in some of the
Speaker 2: same spaces. They were holding speeches in Afrikaans, which was
Speaker 2: the most popular language of the colors, and in Eating Closer,
Speaker 2: the language of the closer people. They had bookshops, reading rooms,
Speaker 2: refreshment bars, beach trips, choirs, and even a few socialist
Speaker 2: christ Nets. At the various talks, they welcomed controversial figures,
Speaker 2: including a young Gandhi. Harrison's wing of the SDF further
Speaker 2: sought to remove union colour bars, unionize colors, secure equal pay,
Speaker 2: and build unions that would unite all workers, regardless of race.
Speaker 2: In the early nineteen hundreds, Socialists with Waters Round launched
Speaker 2: the Weekly Voice of Labor, led by Archie Crawford and
Speaker 2: Mary Fitzgerald. The People served to connect socialists across cities
Speaker 2: from Duban to Kimberley, to Cape Town to Johannesburg. Archie
Speaker 2: Crawford was a staunch anti segregationist, pushing back against the
Speaker 2: South African Labor Party for its policies and organized in
Speaker 2: the neglected colored workers. In nineteen ten, the SDF hosted
Speaker 2: British Synicolas tom Mann, whose tours the region would inspire
Speaker 2: the founding of the Socialist Labor Party or SLP. In Johannesburg.
Speaker 2: They adopted the ideas of Daniel de Leon, the American
Speaker 2: leader of the International Workers of the World, and were
Speaker 2: followed by the Industrial Workers' Union, which linked with the
Speaker 2: IWW in Chicago. The IWW's ideas spread to Duban and Pretoria,
Speaker 2: but it was Johannesburg where they flexed their muscles with
Speaker 2: successful strikes and challenges to labor laws. The IWW's position
Speaker 2: carried the same as its forebears, fight the class war
Speaker 2: with the aid of all workers, whether efficient or inefficient,
Speaker 2: skilled or unskilled, white or black. IWW organizer Jock Campbell
Speaker 2: would be the first to specifically make propaganda amongst the
Speaker 2: African workers in which waters Rand. But don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: these efforts do not mean that they necessarily succeeded. The
Speaker 2: IWW and SLP's struggle to recruit to cross racial lines
Speaker 2: stems not primarily from prejudice, but from their overall weakness
Speaker 2: as union organizers outside the tram sector where they saw
Speaker 2: the most successes, and of course the practical challenges of
Speaker 2: organizing the predominantly unfree African workforce Underwitwater's Rand. So they
Speaker 2: talked a good talk about reaching across racial lines, but
Speaker 2: not a massive success because they didn't have a strategy
Speaker 2: in place to actually establish those connections between Africans, colored
Speaker 2: and Indian workers in this regard. Actually, the SDF in
Speaker 2: Cape Town was a lot more successful. However, something did
Speaker 2: happen in witwaters Rand. In May nineteen thirteen, a significant
Speaker 2: general strike erupted on the witwaters Rand, initiated by white
Speaker 2: miners and quickly spread in across industries. The strike was
Speaker 2: marked by riots and gun battles and escalated on what's
Speaker 2: called Black Saturday, July fifth, resulting in twenty five deaths
Speaker 2: at the hands of the imperial troops. Subsequent strikes by
Speaker 2: African miners and Indian passive resistance campaigns further intensified the
Speaker 2: social unrest, with the failure of a compromise in the
Speaker 2: aftermath of the nineteen thirteen strike led to a second
Speaker 2: general strike in January nineteen fourteen. The State responded swiftly,
Speaker 2: declaring martial law, mobilizing forces and suppress in the unions,
Speaker 2: resulting the arrest and deportation of key activists, including Archie Crawford.
Speaker 2: Then World War One further disrupted things, with the U
Speaker 2: s Country joining the British side. While some organizations suspended
Speaker 2: activities to support the war efforts, hardline African and nationalists
Speaker 2: launched an armed rebellion, leading to split within the SDF
Speaker 2: and the South African Labor Party. Although anarchism and syndicalism
Speaker 2: played a role in these turbulent events, the actual syndicalist
Speaker 2: movement on the Witwater Strand was weak and divided. By
Speaker 2: nineteen thirteen, despite attempts to forge unity through the United
Speaker 2: Socialist Party, the USP it fell apart due to existing
Speaker 2: divisions and ideological differences among the constituent groups. While organized
Speaker 2: syndicalism struggled to lead the strikes, syndicalist ideas and sloguans
Speaker 2: gained considerable traction in labor circles. The strikes and war
Speaker 2: issues reinvigorated existing anarchists and syndicalists, radicalized new activists, and
Speaker 2: sparked widespread interest in radical ideas, which would lead to
Speaker 2: a new development. In September nineteen fifteen, the Industrial Socialists
Speaker 2: League the ISL emerged as a prominent syndicalist formation. Comprising
Speaker 2: of the syndicalist veterans and anti war South African Labor
Speaker 2: Party activists, the ISL quickly became the largest left political
Speaker 2: group before the Communist Party of South Africa. The ISL
Speaker 2: rooted in theww tradition, advocated for the organization of workers
Speaker 2: on industrial alliance irrespective of race, and envisioned an integrated
Speaker 2: revolutionary one big union for national liberation and class struggle.
Speaker 2: The ISL criticized whitecraft unions for the divisive practices and
Speaker 2: advocated fundictrial unions to confront the challenges posed by jant
Speaker 2: corporations and trusts. Racial prejudice, according to the ISL, served
Speaker 2: the ruling class's interests insuring a study supply of cheap,
Speaker 2: unorganized African labor at the same time that the ISL
Speaker 2: was actively opposing discriminatory laws. The ISSL also doubted the
Speaker 2: efficacy of African nationalist programs in genuinely emancipating the black masses.
Speaker 2: It contended that national oppression was rooted in capitalism, making
Speaker 2: national liberation unlikely under the prevalent system. The ISL aimed
Speaker 2: to reform white unions, but while leading efforts to organize
Speaker 2: people of color, they faced challenges, of course, in the
Speaker 2: form of opposition from white workers, electoral defeats, and hostility
Speaker 2: from established unions. They were evicted from Trades Hall in
Speaker 2: nineteen seventeen for resistant discriminatory policies, but continued the activities
Speaker 2: cultivating links with people of color, particularly through its passionately
Speaker 2: anti Zionist Yiddish speaking branch. The ISL played a pivotal
Speaker 2: role in establishing unions among people of color, launching the
Speaker 2: Indian Workers Industrial Union in Durban in nineteen seventeen, and
Speaker 2: later through night schools for Africans initiating the Industrial Workers
Speaker 2: of Africa in the same year, both of which would
Speaker 2: be led by their own constituents. By nineteen eighteen, there
Speaker 2: would be another general strike, this time primarily by Africans.
Speaker 2: Earlier that year, one hundred and fifty two African municipal
Speaker 2: workers were sentenced to hard labor for striking, leading to
Speaker 2: protests organized by the Industrial Workers of Africa, the International
Speaker 2: Socialist League and the South African Native National Congress and
Speaker 2: the South Africa Native National Congress. The SANNC, which was
Speaker 2: the precursor to the currently ruled in African National Congress
Speaker 2: the ANC. The Joint Action Committee proposed a general strike
Speaker 2: on the Witwatersrand for the release of the sentenced workers
Speaker 2: and better pay for African workers. Although the strike was
Speaker 2: canceled last minute, several thousand African miners participated anyway, resulting
Speaker 2: in arrests for incitement to public violence. The rested individuals
Speaker 2: included ISL members and a member of both the Industrial
Speaker 2: Workers of Africa and the SANNC. A year later, in
Speaker 2: March nineteen nineteen, ISL members played a role in their
Speaker 2: civil disobedience campaign against past lords, which required non whites
Speaker 2: in South Africa to carry documents authorizing their presence in
Speaker 2: restricted white areas. That resistance campaign led to nearly seven
Speaker 2: hundred arrests. That same year, in Kimberley, the ISSL established
Speaker 2: syndicalist unions among colored workers, such as the Clothing Workers
Speaker 2: Industrial Union and the host Drivers Union. These unions achieved
Speaker 2: significant successes, including wage increases in Cape Town. ISL members
Speaker 2: City Way and CRY aimed to organize the Industrial Workers
Speaker 2: of Africa on the docks. They collaborated with the Industrial
Speaker 2: Socialist League, the ind sl a syndicalist breakaway from the SDF,
Speaker 2: and played a role in the major strike on the
Speaker 2: docks in December nineteen nineteen. Now, the strike ultimately disintegrated,
Speaker 2: but it still marked a significant event. All in all,
Speaker 2: the ISL, heavily influenced by syndicalism, would play a major
Speaker 2: role in the strikes of the late nineteen tenths. The
Speaker 2: ISL's influence extended to the formation of the Communist Party
Speaker 2: of South Africa CPS alongside the SDF and the INDs
Speaker 2: CEL and a few other groups in the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 2: That party would go underground after the Anti Communists Act
Speaker 2: of the fifties and re emerge as the South African
Speaker 2: Communist Party the SAACP. For most of its history, it
Speaker 2: has been explicitly Marxist Leninist, heavily influenced by the Bolsheviks. However,
Speaker 2: when it first started, syndicalist concepts still lingered within the
Speaker 2: party for many years before was eventually excised. The internationalist
Speaker 2: and multi racial vision of the syndicalist movement was later
Speaker 2: taken over by the two stage strategy of the cpsa
Speaker 2: slash SACP, which sought to establish an independent, democratic, capitalist
Speaker 2: republic as a precursor to a socialist order. This, of course,
Speaker 2: diverges from the earth anarchist and syndicalist strategy, which viewed
Speaker 2: the anti colonial independence and class struggles as interconnected and
Speaker 2: didn't see national liberation as solely the purview of nationalism,
Speaker 2: a view which to me is more sophisticated and revolutionary
Speaker 2: than this one track status view that Marxist tend to
Speaker 2: adopt contrary to the organizing efforts of actual working class people. Interestingly,
Speaker 2: Van der Walt argues that while CPSA undeniably contributed to
Speaker 2: working class struggles since the nineteen forties, a critical look
Speaker 2: reveals that they made consistent cricketures of the pre CPSA left.
Speaker 2: They sort of established themselves as the true vanguard in
Speaker 2: the fight for South Africa's liberation. So they portrayed the
Speaker 2: pre CPSA left in two main currents. The Proto Bolsheviks
Speaker 2: considered true socialists and everyone else. The pre CPSA left
Speaker 2: was deemed a failure, with the Proto Bolsheviks credited for
Speaker 2: pioneering socialist work among black workers. According to their narrative,
Speaker 2: it was only in the nineteen twenties the cpsa's adoption
Speaker 2: of the native republic thesis and Marxistleninist ideas that the
Speaker 2: national question was adequately addressed. Anarchism and syndicalism are portrayed
Speaker 2: as marginal and bothersome predominantly white movements that at best
Speaker 2: underestimated the significance of national oppression or at worst endorsed
Speaker 2: white supremacy and segregation. This interpretation, of course, positions a
Speaker 2: CPSA slash SACP as the sole bearers of revolutionary socialist
Speaker 2: solution to the national question, while ironically erasing the history
Speaker 2: of early African socialist and syndicalist radicalism. So wrapping up
Speaker 2: a bit here, we delved into the intricate history of
Speaker 2: anarchism and syndicalism in South Africa, uncovering a movement that
Speaker 2: played a significant role in Southern Africa from the eighteen
Speaker 2: eighties to the nineteen twenties and consistently grappled with the
Speaker 2: complexities of the national question. We've seen a multi racial
Speaker 2: and internationalist movement marked by a step fast opposition to
Speaker 2: racial discrimination and a commitment to interracial labor organization and
Speaker 2: the unity of the working class. They had a vision
Speaker 2: of a society rooted in class solidarity of an industrial
Speaker 2: republic distinct from the conventional nation state and in lockstep
Speaker 2: with an international industrial republic. Now, despite the decline of
Speaker 2: anarchism and cynicalism in the years following the founding of
Speaker 2: the CPSA slash SACP anarchism is still alive today in
Speaker 2: South Africa. The Zaba Laza Anarchist Communist Front or ZACF
Speaker 2: is a specific anarchist political organization based in Johannesburg, South
Speaker 2: Africa and founded on May Day in two thousand and three.
Speaker 2: The organization operates on an individual membership basis by invitation only,
Speaker 2: emphasising theoretical and strategic unity among members. The Zaba Lazas
Speaker 2: align with the anarchist, communist, platformist and a specifistic traditions
Speaker 2: within anarchism, subscribe to the idea of an active minority
Speaker 2: pushing anarchist ideas within larger movements. In fact, unlike the anarchisynicalists,
Speaker 2: the Zablazas don't aim to build mass anarchist movements, but
Speaker 2: rather to participate in existing social movements, spreading anarchist principles
Speaker 2: within heterogeneous organizations. Zablaza advocates for direct democracy mutual aid, horizontalism,
Speaker 2: class combativeness, direct action, and class independence. It emerged during
Speaker 2: a time of political closure within trade unions which were
Speaker 2: controlled by the African National Congress government. It oriented itself
Speaker 2: towards emergent social movements such as the Anti Privatization Forum
Speaker 2: and the Landless People's Movement, aim into advance anarchist principles
Speaker 2: within these movements. Sablas's work includes popular political education, combatant
Speaker 2: reformists and authoritarian tendencies, and advocating for the independence of
Speaker 2: social movements from political parties and electoral politics. So that's
Speaker 2: the story the history of anarchism and cynicalism and South Africa.
Speaker 2: Obviously this is a summary, but it goes to show
Speaker 2: the influence that these movements have had in shaping the
Speaker 2: history of that often forgotten region of the world. Thanks
Speaker 2: for joining me once again or power to all the people.
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