Die geskiedenis en rol van persorgane in die politieke en ekonomiese mobilasasie van die georganiseerde arbeiderbeweging in Suid-Afrika, 1908-1924

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:During the course of the 20th century the press played an absolutely crucial role as a sourceof information, a medium of communication and propaganda, educator, critic, publicwatchdog and in forming and influencing opinion. In this respect the press may also beregarded as a reflection of South African society. This study investigates the role that thepress played and the influence that it exercised in the political and economic mobilisationof the organised labour movement during the period 1908 to 1924. In view of the racialdivisions that have prevailed in South Africa, the focus here is specifically on the whitelabour movement, because it was this manifestation of the organised labour force thatvirtually dominated the first few decades of the twentieth century. During this time theblack labour movement was still to a large extent under-developed and began to emergeonly around the 1920s.Organised labour flourished during the period under review. This period is characterised asone of political turbulence, as well as of large scale and serious industrial unrest, as part ofthe cathartic process in which the relationship between the state and its subjects in the fieldof labour took shape. The study adopts as its point of departure the year 1908, when theNational Convention began its deliberations on the unification of South Africa, which inturn led to the official founding of the South African Labour Party in October 1909. TheLabour Party operated independently until 1924, when the alliance between the NationalParty and the Labour Party won the election held in that year and formed the Pact coalitiongovernment.From an economic point of view there were two clear positions. On the one hand, therewere the so-called establishment press organizations. These included Afrikaans-languagenewspapers, although - because of their ethnic commitments - they were strongly in favourof the protection of the economic position of the Afrikaner workers. On the other hand,there were anti-capitalist press organisations that wished to promote proactive steps infavour of the workers, which in tum often resulted in industrial conflict in the form ofstrikes. These tensions in the economic terrain spilled over into the political sphere elections, and here too the press played a central role in the often tense relationship betweenstate and subject.In order to understand a meaningful analysis of the social role of the press, the followingpress organs and study materials were selected: The Star was the mouthpiece of thepowerful Witwatersrand gold-mining industry. Die Burger and Ons Vaderland played agreat role in the political and economic mobilisation of the Afrikaner working class whosesympathies lay with the National Party. The following labour-orientated and socialistpapers reflected and interpreted the political and economic points of view of the labourmovement in the period 1908 - 1924: Voice of Labour, The Worker, The Eastern Record,The Evening Chronicle, The War on War Gazette, The International, The Labour World,The Bolshevik and The Guardian. In addition, the role of a number of extremist strikenewspapers In mobilising workers during the strikes of 1913, 1914 and 1922, is alsoinvestigated.The press played an important role in exposing a number of cardinal issues that dominatedthe discourse within the labour movement to greater public criticism and discussion. Theeffect of this was to raise the struggle between labour and capital for hegemony in thepolitical and economic life of South Africa - as happened every time during electioncampaigns - to the level of the national political debate. Furthermore, the press, andspecifically the right-wing labour and left-wing socialist press organs, also reflected thedeep ideological divisions in the labour movement. In this respect, it was particularly theviews of these press organs on race and the place of black people in the industrialdispensation that determined and influenced their political creeds. The mobilising power ofthe press was vividly illustrated by the strike papers. By propounding militant extremismthese papers often succeeded in sweeping up industrial unrest among workers to the level ofviolence, which meant that the authorities were compelled to suppress these publications bymeans of martial law proclamations. It is probable that the SALP, and especially thesocialist organisations, on the periphery of the political spectrum, would not have survivedfor long in South African politics without the communicative support of their mouthpieces.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University