Militant Migrants - (Studies in Labour History) by Henry Dee (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Born in colonial Malawi, Clements Kadalie dramatically rose to global prominence as general secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of Africa (ICU) during the 1920s. A famed orator, journalist and trade union organiser, Kadalie electrified huge meetings with his call for economic freedom and all-in mass organisation, eclipsing nationalist contemporaries and unionising anywhere between 100,000 and 250,000 workers throughout South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. A global labour history of Southern Africa from the perspective of the ICU's immigrant leadership, Militant Migrants rehabilitates the significance of the early Malawian diaspora, the global importance of Kadalie's ideas, the rationale behind the ICU's transnational organising, and the many awkward difficulties that Kadalie faced in his personal life. Although the ICU dramatically collapsed during the early 1930s, Kadalie's fall from grace encapsulates a broader turning-point in Southern African history, offering unique insights into ideas of gender, nation and family that he and other immigrants challenged. Leaving a complicated legacy of unprecedented successes and inescapable failures, Kadalie's life remains a compelling and necessary tale - of audacity, solidarity, and militant mass struggle - not least of all because of the profound challenges that he faced.

Review Quotes

'A wonderful work of empirical history that is well written, very well sourced and much needed. This is also a unique work of history. The author takes on a complex task for this is not just an excellent 'life and times' of Kadalie, but also a detailed history of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) and its immigrant dimensions' Professor Emeritus Peter Limb, Michigan State University