Yours for the Union

Baruch Hirson (1921–1999) was a lifelong activist who spent nine-and-a-half years in South African prisons as a result of his opposition to the apartheid regime. Following his release in 1973 he left for England, where he lectured in history at several universities and produced eight finely written, passionately argued books on the history of the left in South Africa. These include Year of Fire, Year of Ash (1984), The Cape Town Intellectuals (2000) and his autobiography, Revolutions in My Life (1995). He also founded the controversial critical journal Searchlight South Africa. Tom Lodge is professor of peace and conflict studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He was formerly professor of political studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is the author of Mandela: A Critical Life (2006) and Politics in South Africa: From Mandela to Mbeki (2003).

Foreword by Tom Lodge
Preface
1. The African Worker: Class and Community
2. Desperately Lean Times: The Socio-economic Background
3. Industrial Legislation and Minimum Wages
4. Rebuilding the African Unions, 1932-40
5. Organising Domestic Servants
6. Vereeniging: 'To Hell with the Pick-up!'
7. The Politics of War and the Black Working Class
8. Trade Unions in Strnggle
9. Organising Under War Conditions
10. Rural Protest and Rural Revolt
11. Azikwhelwa! - We Shall Not Ride
12. Umagebule - The Slicer
13. Organising the Migrant Workers
14. The 1946 Miners' Strike
15. Conclusion