A Brief History of South Africa’s Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (1919-1931)

Tricontinental Institute for Social Research: Dossier No. 20

The Industrial & Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) – a trade union, rural peasant movement, and urban squatters’ movement – formed on the docks in Cape Town in 1919. Within a decade, the ICU had expanded across Southern Africa without regard for national borders and counted people from various African countries and the Caribbean in its leadership, as well as people who were Indian and mixed race. The largely forgotten history of the ICU is well worth recovering in a time of escalating chauvinism and xenophobia.

In Durban the ICU was a shack dwellers’ movement with tens of thousands of members. It was strong in areas like Sydenham, and Cato Manor, where Abahlali baseMjondolo organises today, and had an office in Prince Edward Street, not far from the Surat Hindu Hall where Abahlali often meet today. Its colour was red.