Abolition from Below: The 1808 Revolt in the Cape Colony

ABOLITION FROM BELOW: THE 1808 REVOLT IN THE CAPE COLONY by TigersEye99

Counter Power and Colonial Rule in the Eighteenth Century Cape of Good Hope: Belongings and Protest of the Labouring Poor.

by Nicole Ulrich, 2011

Framed by an anarchist reading of Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker’s The

Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the

Revolutionary Atlantic (2000), this study examines the dynamic nature of colonial and

class rule in the eighteenth-century Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, and the

forms of belonging and traditions of political protest developed by the labouring poor.

This study draws on archival material from national and international repositories,

focusing on government records, criminal court trials, and travellers’ accounts.

Colonial rule, the under-class, and resistance in the Cape are located in a global

context, with special attention being paid to changes associated with the ‘Age of

Revolution and War’ and rise of the modern world. Breaking with the tendency to

treat different sections of the motley (many-hued) labouring poor in the Cape as

discreet, often racially defined, and nationally bounded population groups, segmented

also by legal status, this study provides a comprehensive study of labour in the Cape

that includes an examination of slaves, servants, sailors, and soldiers recruited, or

imported from, Asia, Europe, and other parts of Africa.

The 1973 Strikes and the Birth of a New Movement in Natal

by Nicole Ulrich, 2005

In 1973 61,000 African and Indian workers in Natal downed their tools in the space of a few months. These strikes, which took place in various industries, were not coordinated by any organisation and represented a spontaneous upsurge by workers angered by a sharp increase in the cost of living. The unexpectedness of the strikes, and the large numbers of workers involved, prevented employers and police from simply cracking down on workers.

Only the Workers Can Free the Workers: The origin of the workers’ control tradition and the Trade Union Advisory Coordinating Committee (TUACC), 1970-1979.

Only the Workers Can Free the Workers: the origin of the workers’ control tradition and the Trade Union Adv... by TigersEye99