Bibliography: pages 122-128. / The dominant and current theory about the African National Congress in the 1940s is that the Youth League in particular, led by the young, aspirant middle-class intellectuals, radicalised the organisation: that it was a bourgeois revolution within the ANC that led to its rejuvenation. This thesis presents an alternative viewpoint. The study reveals that in Port Elizabeth, there was a distinctively communist-trade unionist oriented group which revolutionalised the ANC: It was this group which consolidated racial and class co-operation against the apartheid system in the mid-1940s and early 1950s. This thesis postulates that in Port Elizabeth it was the working-class activists such as Raymond Mhlaba, with their militant working-class ideologies that gave the ANC a new lease of life and gave the organisation its broad mass appeal. The thesis therefore examines Raymond Mhlaba as an actor in the founding of the Congress Alliance in Port Elizabeth. It looks at how Mhlaba succeeded in building a firm alliance between the trade union movement, the Communist Party and the ANC. It is through this alliance that we learn about the political transformation of the ANC 'from below', that is, from a working-class cadre of activists rather than the middle-class leadership. Mhlaba himself was involved in all three formations and thus played a key role in the alliance politics. Chapter one examines the period before 1941 in order to provide background to the central focus of the study. It looks at the history of the Eastern Cape, Mhlaba's birth place Fort Beaufort, and his early life in the context of the subject of enquiry, the national struggle in its wider context, and the political economy of the period between 1910 to 1941. Through these perspectives the study is able to examine and show the changing forms that the struggle takes at different periods of time. It gives an understanding of the influence of those historical developments on the period and of the form that the struggle took during the period under study. Chapter two looks at the period 1942 to 1946, the years of Mhlaba's early involvement in the labour and political movements. It examines how, when and why Mhlaba got involved in these movements. The study considers the relationship between the Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU) trade unionists, the communists and the ANC activists. (Mhlaba belonged to all three formations.) It looks at how the ANC leadership was changed from a middle into a working class and Mhlaba's role in this transformation. Also the study examines how mass action in this period reflected racial and class co- operation; and the emergence of a distinctively working class leadership. Chapter three examines Mhlaba's leadership role in the ANC and the Communist Party. It looks at examples of mass action and a selection of important events that took place between 1947 to 1952, in order to demonstrate how the foundation of the broad Congress Alliance solidified. That unity was influenced by the changing polity, post war conditions, and new leadership which included Mhlaba, in Port Elizabeth. Chapter four examines the clandestine conditions in which Mhlaba operated, from 1953 until his imprisonment at Rivonia in 1963. It looks at: the transition from open mass organisation to underground mobilisation; the implementation of the M-Plan; the activities of the Communist Party underground. At the same time it examines the sustenance of the mass organisation through the formation of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and the use of strategies such as stayaways and consumer boycotts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The chapter also looks at repression by the government, which led to Mhlaba's departure to China, and finally his arrest at Rivonia in 1963.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/21837 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Orie, Thembeka |
| Contributors | Saunders, Christopher, Bundy, Colin |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Historical Studies |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | application/pdf |
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