Industrial Workers of Africa (IWA)

The International Socialist League: laying the foundations

/ griffin36

The International Socialist League: laying the foundationsCompiled by Warren McGregor (TAAC, ZACF)

What was the ISL and what were its aims?

The International Socialist League (ISL) was a revolutionary syndicalist political organisation founded in Johannesburg in 1915. Many founders were militants who had broken from the South African Labour Party (SALP) over its support for the British Imperial war effort in World War I. They were opposed to capitalist war and imperialism.

The ISL aimed to organise “One Big Union” of the entire South African working class to fight for the overthrow of capitalism and the taking over of society by the working class, for the working class.

What did the ISL say about race?

Key to this project in the South African context was the breaking of the racial divisions within the working class. This required raising the specific demands of black workers for equality with white workers, in order to practically unite all workers and to enable them to work together toward “their common emancipation from wage slavery.”

Continue reading →

T.W. Thibedi and the Industrial Workers of Africa, April-July 1919

/ griffin36

T.W. Thibedi and the Industrial Workers of Africa, April-July 1919by Lucien van der Walt

T.W. Thibedi, radical school-teacher, was a leading figure in the anarchist / syndicalist International Socialist League (ISL) and the revolutionary syndicalist Industrial Workers of Africa (IWA) union. He was involved in late 1910s struggles, like the March-April 1919 anti-pass law campaign on the Witwatersrand. The campaign had been driven by more radical members of the Transvaal ANC — including members of the revolutionary ISL and IWA, like Fred Cetiwe and Hamilton Kraai. But the campaign was called off by conservative leaders of the South African Native National Congress (now the African National Congress, ANC).

Continue reading →