From populism to unionism: the emergence and nature of port Elizabeth's industrial and commercial workers’ union, 1918–20

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Abstract
This article attempts to situate the emergence of Port Elizabeth's first general labour union within the local political economy as well as the wider national context. Trade and merchant capital, crucial to the town's economic development during the nineteenth century, were subsumed by the rise of manufacturing and industrial capital after the First World War. Industrial expansion was cut short by the post‐war recession, which caused unemployment amongst a rapidly growing black urban population. Both the aspirant middle and working classes experienced a severe loss in real earnings on account of the spiralling cost of living. The policy of segregation, exemplified by the creation of the location of New Brighton, meant that Africans were subjected to an increasing degree of control and regulation in their daily lives. However, the conditions of reproduction, especially in the mixed residential area of Korsten, created a sense of solidarity amongst African and ‘Coloured’ working class. Drawing on traditions of worker resistance and the populism of community organisations, a radicalised petite‐bourgeois leadership mobilised workers across racial and class lines. Arising out of the struggle with employers for better wages between late 1918 and 1920, the Port Elizabeth Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (PEICWU) was formed to represent the interests of a cross‐section of black unskilled workers. Although it originated independently, the nature of the PEICWU was similar to that of Kadalie's ICU in Cape Town with which it was to later merge.