History

The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight.
– Walter Benjamin, 1940

Historical Research & Work of Historical Interest (South Africa)

• The Peasant’s Revolt by Govan Mbeki, 1964
• The Mpondo Revolt 1960 by J. Copelyn, 1974
• The Durban strikes 1973 (“Human beings with souls”), by Rick Turner, 1974
• Dock Workers, Labour Circulation, and Class Struggles in Durban, 1940-59 by David Hemson, 1977
• The Decline and Fall of the ICU: A Case of Self Destruction, by Phil Bonner, 1978
• Birds in the Cornfield: Squatter Movements in Johannesburg 1944-1947 by Alf Stadler, 1979
• Drinking in a Cage: The Durban System and the 1929 Beer Hall Riots, by Paul La Hausse, 1982
• “The Asiatic Menace”: Creating Segregation in Durban, 1870-1900, by Maynard Swanson, 1983
• Class Contradictions and Class Alliances: The Social Nature of ICU Leadership, 1924-1929, by Helen Bradford, 1983
• Black Squatters in Durban 1935-50 by Paul Maylam, 1983
• Lynch Law and Labourers: The ICU in Umvoti, 1927-1928, Helen Bradford, 1984
• The small matter of a horse: The life of ‘Nongoloza’ Mathebula, 1867-1948, Charles van Onselen, 1984
• “We are digging, we are seizing huge chunks of the municipalities land” (Siyawugubha, Siyawugubha Umhlaba Ka Maspala)”: Popular struggles in Benoni, 1944-1952, by Phil Bonner, 1985
• The ‘Black Atlantic Communication Network’: African American Sailors and the Cape of Good
  Hope Connection, by Keletso Atkins, 1986
• Origins of the Amawasha: The Zulu Washermen’s Guild in Natal, 1850-1910, by Keletso Atkins, 1986
• A Taste of Freedom: The ICU in Rural South Africa, 1924-1930 by Helen Bradford, 1987
• The United Democratic Front and Township Revolt by Mark Swilling, 1987
• The 1973 Durban Strikes, by Steven Friedman, 1987
• The Message of the Warriors: The ICU, the Labouring Poor and the Making of a Popular Political Culture in Durban, 1925-1930, Paul la Hausse, 1987
• The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on the Dithakong and Mbolompo by Julian Cobbing, 1988
• Black Consciousness 1997-1987: The Dialectics of Liberation in South Africa, by Nigel Gibson, 1988
• Mkhumbane our home: African shantytown society in Cato Manor Farm, 1946-1960, by Iain Edwards, 1989
• ‘The Cows of Nongoloza’: Youth, Crime and the Amalaita Gangs in Durban, 1900-1936 by Paul la Hausse, 1990
• The Politics of Black Squatter Movements on the Rand, 1944-1952, by Philip Bonner, 1990
• Class, Nation, Ethnicity in Natal’s black working class, by Ari Sitas, 1990
• Seizing the moment: The January 1949 riots, proletarian populism, and the structure of urban African life in Durban during the late 1940s, by Iain Edwards & Tim Nuttal, 1990
• The Making of the ‘Comrades’ Movement in Natal, 1985-91, Ari Sitas, 1992
• Division and Unity in the Struggle: African Politics on the Witwatersrand in the 1920s, Phil Bonner, 1992
• From people’s politics to state politics: aspects of national liberation in South Africa 1984–1994, Michael Neocosmos, 1994
• Cato Manor – Cruel Past, Pivotal Future by Iain Edwards, 1994
• Explaining the Apartheid City: 20 Years of South African Urban Historiography Author, by Paul Maylam, 1995
• The Struggle for Space in Twentieth Century Durban by Paul Maylam, 1996
• Cato Manor, June 1959: Men, Women, Crowds, Violence, Politics and History by Iain Edwards, 1996
• “For sure you are going to die!”: Political participation and the comrade movement in Inanda, Kwazulu-Natal, by David Hemson, 1996
• In Search of 1949, by Vivek Narayan, 1999
• Segregation, Desegregation and De-racialisation: Racial Politics and the City of Durban by Brij Maharaj, 2002
• The UDF Period and its Meaning for Contemporary South Africa by Raymond Suttner, 2004
• The 1973 Srikes & the Birth of a New Movement in Natal, by Nicole Ulrich, 2005
• Forced Removals in Greater Cape Town, 1948-1970, by Martin Legassick, 2006
• The First Globalisation and Transnational Labour Activism in Southern Africa: White Labourism, the IWW, and the ICU, 1904–1934 by Lucien van der Walt, 2007
• Not a Nongqawuse Story: An Anti-Heroine in Historical Perspective by Helen Bradford, 2007
• Feminisms, Motherisms, Patriarchies & Women’s Voices in the 1950s, by Nomboniso Gasa, 2007
• In the Forbidden Quarters: Shacks in Durban till the end of apartheid by Richard Pithouse, 2008
• Labour, Migrancy and Urbanization in South Africa and India, 1900-60, Phil Bonner, 2009
• ‘Wash Me Black Again’: African Nationalism, the Indian Diaspora, and KwaZulu Natal, 1944-1960, Jon Soske, 2009
• State Racism and Biopolitical Struggle: The Evasive Commons in Twentieth-Century Durban, South Africa by Sharad Chari, 2010
• Shacks in the Cracks of Apartheid: Industrial Women & the Changing Political Economy & Georgraphy of Intimacy, by Mark Hunter, 2010
• The Durban strikes of 1973: Political identities and the management of protest, by Julian Brown, 2010
• SASO’s Reluctant Embrace of Public Forms of Protest, 1968–1972, by Julian Brown, 2010
• Re-imagining South Africa: Black Consciousness, radical Christianity and the New Left, 1967 – 1977, by Ian Macqueen, 2011
• Anarchism & Syndicalism in an African Port City, by Lucien van der Walt, 2011
• The capacities of the people versus a predominant, militarist, ethno-nationalist elite: democratisation in South Africa, by Kenneth Good, 2011
• The Life and Death of Dr Abu Baker ‘Hurley’ Asvat, 23 February 1943 to 27 January 1989, Jon Soske, 2011
• Whose Liberation? A Partly-Forgotten Left Critique of ANC Strategy and Its Contemporary Implications, by Steven Friedman, 2011
• ‘The Future is in the Hands of the Workers’: A History of Fosatu, Michelle Friedman, Historical Papers Labour Archive Project, 2011
• An Experiment in Confrontation: The Pro-Frelimo Rallies of 1974, by Julian Brown, 2012
• The Moving Black Forest of Africa: The Mpondo Rebellion, Migrancy and Black Worker Consciousness in KwaZulu-Natal, by Ari Sitas, 2012
• Turning oppression into power, by Mwalele Cele, 2012
• Squatter movements in the Vaal Triangle in the 1940s (audio), by Noor Nieftagodien, 2012

Historical Research & Work of Historical Interest (Elsewhere)

• The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population by Edwin Chadwick, London, 1842
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, 1845
• The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, by C.L.R. James, 1936
• Death in the Dust by John Steinbeck, 1936
• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, 1938
• Time, Work, Discipline and Industrial Capitalism, 1967 by E.P. Thompson, 1967
• The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the 18th Century by E.P. Thompson, 1971 (This article is also available on the LibCom site)
• 1921: Kronstadt: Proletarian spin-off of the Russian Revolution, by Cajo Brendel 1971
• How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney, 1973
• On Deifying & Defying Authority: Managers & Workers in the Jute Mills of Bengal 1890-1940 by Dipesh Chakrabarty, 1983
• A Concise History of Liberation Theology by Leonardo and Clodovis Boff, 1983
• The Industrial City and the Working Class: The Glasgow Rent Strike of 1915, by Manuel Castells, 1983
• Cities & Revolution: The Commune of Paris, 1871, by Manuel Castells, 1983
• The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, and the Atlantic Working Class in the Eighteenth Century by Peter Linebuagh & Marcus Rediker, 1990
• An Unthinkable History, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 1995
• Gerard Winstanley: 17th Century Communist by Christopher Hill, 1996
• The Story of A Marriage: Being a tale of selfrespect unions and what happened to them by V. Geetha, 1999
• The Many-Headed Hydra by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, 2000
• All the World Needs a Jolt: Social Movements and Political Crisis in Medieval Europe by Silvia Federici, 2004
• The Great Caliban: The Struggle Against the Rebel Body by Silvia Federici, 2004
• Charters of Liberty in Black Face and White Face: Race, Slavery and the Commons by Peter Linebaugh, 2005
• Reds On The Green – A Short Tour of Clerkenwell Radicalism, by Fagin, 2005
• The Idea of 1804, by Nick Nesbitt, 2005
• Turning the Tide: The Problem of Popular Insurgency in Haitian Revolutionary Historiography by Nick Nesbitt, 2008
• Meandering on the Semantical-Historical Paths of Communism and Commons by Peter Linebaugh, 2010