Like many other African colonies, the Sudan experienced a period of sustained industrial unrest during the late 1940s. The Workers’ Affairs Association (WAA), the representative body for Sudanese railway workers, led a two year campaign of strikes during 1947 and 1948. The escalating labour unrest provoked considerable unease among British officials in the Sudan Government. Not only was there a fear that the strikes might escalate into broader anti-colonial protest but the sustained campaign of industrial unrest also caused significant disruption to the economy. During the strikes the export of cotton - the Sudan Government’s principal source of revenue - was delayed and the movement of other essential goods was severely restricted. The thesis argues that the economic dislocation caused by the strikes, which coincided with growing concerns about rising anti-colonial nationalism and imperial decline, meant that labour discipline among key sector workers was the primary objective for the late colonial state. Although the protests in the Sudan were part of the broader strike wave that was sweeping through the African continent in the late 1940s, it has largely been excluded from the historiography of this period – primarily because of the Sudan’s unique status as a ‘Condominium’ of Britain and Egypt. Through an analysis of the Sudan Government’s labour policy, the thesis challenges this notion of exceptionality, demonstrating that the British officials of the Sudan Political Service (SPS) were animated by similar concerns and motivations to their counterparts elsewhere in colonial Africa. With this in mind, the thesis aims to address two broad research objectives. Firstly, to examine the causes of the industrial unrest: investigating the relationship between the structure of the economy, social organisation, and post-war economic conditions. Secondly, to analyse the Sudan Government’s response to the labour protests, documenting how immediate economic concerns, combined with post-war ideas relating to industrial relations management and social welfare, shaped colonial labour policy.

Abstract: A CASE STUDY: U.S. LABOUR RELATIONS WITH THE TRADE UNION COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA 1960-1973 The aim of this study is to examine US policies towards the South African labour movement through the American Federation of Labour - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and US official institutions, such as the State Department and the Labour Department of the United States, US universities etc. with particular focus on the period between the 1960s and mid-1970s. The study is shaped as a case study. In the study, the labour relations between the US and South Africa in the beginning of the 1960s and the middle of 1970s are examined by specifically focusing on TUCSA. The study is composed to six chapters. Following the first two chapters devoted for introduction and literature review, the developments of the post-Second World War era, such as the internationalization process of capital accumulation around the world, the cold war and the formation process of new international organizations are dealt with. The re-structuring process of the international labour movement under the cold war conditions and the development of overseas labour policies of the ICFTU and the AFL-CIO are also handled in this chapter. In the fourth chapter, the capitalist development process of South Africa in the post Second World War Era is discussed. The capital accumulation process under the apartheid and the developments within the labour movement are the main issues dealt with in this chapter. In the fifth chapter, US investments in South Africa between the beginning of the sixties and the mid seventies and the effects of these investments in the capital accumulation process of South Africa are evaluated. In the last chapter, the main focal point of the study, US labour relations with South Africa between the 1960s and the middle of the 1970s is focused on with particular reference to the relations between TUCSA and the US labour institutions including the AFL-CIO and other official organizations of the US. In the study, a historical framework is developed by focusing on developments in international scale and South African scale. In the third, fourth and fifth chapters, extensive literature on international labour, capitalist development of South Africa, labour history of South Africa and US investments in South Africa is given to elaborate the issue. The sixth chapter, which is the main chapter of the study, is relied principally upon archive materials of TUCSA.