Federation of South African Trade Unions (1959)

Federation of South African Trade Unions (1959)
Name	Federation of South African Trade Unions (1959)
Founded	1959
Dissolved	1977
Location	Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Headquarters	Johannesburg
Key people	Bram Fischer, Raymond Mhlaba, Albert Nzula
Affiliation	none
Members	~70,000 (peak)

Federation of South African Trade Unions (1959) was a South African trade union federation established in 1959 that sought to coordinate industrial unions across the Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal Province. It emerged amid debates involving the African National Congress, South African Communist Party, Natal Indian Congress, South African Congress of Trade Unions, and independent craft organisations in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The federation operated through affiliated unions representing miners, railway workers, metalworkers, textile operatives, and municipal employees in cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Bloemfontein.

Background and formation

The federation formed from a milieu shaped by events such as the 1956 Treason Trial, the 1955 Congress of the People, the 1948 South African general election, and the suppression following the Sharpeville massacre. Influential figures connected to the federation included activists with ties to the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, South African Communist Party, and trade union leaders emerging from the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union and the South African Railways and Harbours Union. Early conferences drew delegates from organizations that had split from the South African Trades and Labour Council and sought a federative alternative to the South African Congress of Trade Unions. The federation's creation was framed by labour disputes involving the Witwatersrand goldfields, the Durban strikes, and legal constraints imposed by statutes such as the Industrial Conciliation Act.

Membership and affiliated unions

Affiliates included prominent unions active in sectors dominated by urban centres: miner and metalworker unions linked to the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, constitutional craft unions with roots in the Amalgamated Engineering Union, municipal worker associations from Pretoria and East London, railway unions connected to South African Railways, and textile unions in the Eastern Cape aligned with the Port Elizabeth factories. The federation's roll of affiliated bodies incorporated both racially segregated associations and multi-racial unions, reflecting tensions reminiscent of splits between the Trade Union Council of South Africa and the South African Confederation of Labour. Membership surged during industrial disputes influenced by employers such as Anglo American plc, De Beers, Sasol, and municipal authorities, peaking with an estimated 60,000–80,000 members across affiliated unions.

Ideology and policies

Ideologically the federation occupied a contested space among African nationalism, Marxism–Leninism, and pragmatic industrialism, with policy debates echoing positions from the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. Leadership articulated demands for wage parity, shop-floor organisation, and opposition to pass laws rooted in the Natives Land Act and segregationist statutes. The federation endorsed collective bargaining, strike action, and solidarity with anti-apartheid campaigns while internally negotiating whether to pursue non-racialism akin to the South African Congress of Trade Unions or maintain sectional approaches similar to the Trade Union Council of South Africa.

Activities and campaigns

The federation coordinated major strikes and labour actions in mining districts around Johannesburg and across harbor workplaces in Durban and Port Elizabeth, aligning at times with campaigns led by the African National Congress and the Black Consciousness Movement. It issued statements condemning repressive measures after the Sharpeville massacre and mobilised support for victims of detentions under the Terrorism Act. The federation also organised educational programmes influenced by trade union schools in Soviet Union-aligned pedagogy and hosted solidarity delegations to international forums such as the International Labour Organization conferences and contacts with unions in United Kingdom, United States, and Sweden.

Relationship with apartheid and politics

The federation navigated a fraught relationship with apartheid-era institutions including the National Party (South Africa) and security apparatuses such as the South African Police and Bureau of State Security. It engaged politically through alliances with the Congress Alliance, coordinated boycotts linked to the Freedom Charter, and sometimes faced proscription and bannings that mirrored repression experienced by the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. Internal tensions surfaced over collaboration with liberation movements like the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and debates about participation in electoral politics versus extra-parliamentary struggle evident in parallels with the Black Consciousness Movement and the stance of trade unionists connected to figures such as Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.

Decline, mergers and legacy

By the early 1970s the federation confronted state repression, legal restrictions derived from amendments to industrial relations law, and competition from emerging organisations including the revitalised South African Congress of Trade Unions and new workers' movements catalysed by strikes on the East Rand and in the Western Cape. Affiliates gradually merged into broader federations, with some unions joining the Trade Union Council of South Africa or contributing to the formation of successor bodies that influenced the later Congress of South African Trade Unions and the 1980s mass trade unionism linked to the United Democratic Front. The federation's legacy endures in institutional memory within unions connected to metalworkers' unions, miners' unions, and municipal worker organisations, and in historical studies of labour resistance during apartheid alongside scholarship on the Sharpeville massacre and the 1955 Congress of the People.

Category:Trade unions in South Africa Category:Trade unions established in 1959 Category:Trade unions disestablished in 1977