[URBANTH-L] CFP: Rethinking Worlds of Labour: Southern African labour history in international context

[Angela Jancius]

From: "Lucien van der Walt" <vanderwaltl at social.wits.ac.za>

INVITATION TO SCHOLARS OF LABOUR

Rethinking Worlds of Labour: Southern African labour history in  international context  

A conference from Friday 28th to Monday 31st July 2006, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 
South Africa.  Organised by the History Workshop and the Sociology of Work Unit, at the University of the 
Witwatersrand.  

Scholars of labour are invited to the upcoming "Rethinking Worlds of Labour: Southern African labour 
history in international context" conference, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from the 28th to the 
31st July 2006.  

The aims of the conference are to  

1. Promote a transnational and regional view of labour history, with reference to southern Africa, and to 
comparisons of the less developed and semi-peripheral regions of the global "South"  

2. To reflect on the implications of the "first" globalisation of the 1870s to the 1930s for the "second" 
globalisation that started in the 1970s  

3. To foster collaborative work between scholars, particularly those based in Africa, Asia and Latin 
America  

International perspectives

Although the southern African region is a core area of interest, the conference organisers welcome papers 
on aspects labour history in other regions that lend themselves to comparative and transnational analyses. 
Scholars from other regions of the global "South" are therefore especially welcomed.  

It is anticipated that the conference will provide the basis for new and collaborative work on comparative 
and regional labour history, and the panels will be structured to draw together different themes in a 
stimulating manner.  

With best wishes

The organising committee
Peter Alexander, Andries Bezuidenhout, Phil Bonner, Jon Hyslop, Noor Nieftagodien, Nicole Ulrich, and 
Lucien van der Walt.  

Do not hesitate to contact us with any queries.
<history-workshop at social.wits.ac.za

Online conference web page
http://www.wits.ac.za/historyworkshop/conferences.htm


Rethinking Worlds of Labour:
Southern African labour history in international context.

CALL FOR PAPERS

A conference from Friday 28th to Monday 31st July 2006, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 
South Africa.  Organised by the History Workshop and the Sociology of Work Unit, at the University of the 
Witwatersrand.  

Introduction Labour history has traditionally been structured around national labour histories. It is a merit of 
the current interest in "globalisation" that it directs attention towards the transnational dimensions of labour 
history, and of labour movements. If the limitations of a purely national focus on labour are highlighted by 
current international changes, so too are the limitations of national labour histories.  

A transnational perspective has significant implications for the study of labour history, and the analysis of 
its core concerns with labour organisation, ideology and leadership.  

It points to the need to examine the transnational dimensions of labour history, to look at labour history 
through a regional lense, and to undertake comparative and regional labour histories of the less developed 
and semi-peripheral regions that make up the global "South."  

It draws attention to the "first" globalisation of the 1870s-1930s, a period characterised by huge 
international flows of capital and labour.  

It underscores the transnational history and character of labour politics, organisation and tradition, a 
history that includes the anarchist, Communist, nationalist and socialist currents of the nineteenth and 
twentieth centuries.  

And, finally, it provides the basis to foster ongoing collaborative work between scholars based in, or 
otherwise researching, the trajectory of the global "South."  

Southern Africa and the global "South" Such concerns are of particular relevance to southern Africa, 
where national labour histories exist alongside a working class that has never been neatly bounded by the 
borders of States. South Africa industrialised in the context of the "first" globalisation, becoming the nexus 
through which the region was integrated into the global political economy. Flows of capital and labour into, 
within, and from southern Africa welded the region together. Transnational imperial structures linked a 
range of countries. The mines on the Witwatersrand and the central African Copperbelt provided key 
nodes of accumulation, and cross-border infrastructure channelled these flows.  

The labour force, flowing within, and into, and out of, the region, from Africa, from Australia, Europe, and 
from the Americas, was both multi-national and transnational. It was racially structured around two poles, 
in a pattern that replicated itself throughout the region. African labour was unfree, migrant, unskilled and 
subject to racial discrimination and prejudice. White labour was divided between unskilled, but free, poor 
Whites, and the layers that dominated skilled and supervisory positions across the region. Coloured and 
Indian workers occupied an uncomfortable intermediate position as free labour facing racial barriers.  

Each of these sectors of the emerging working class developed its own labour traditions; many of these 
traditions flowed within class and racial conduits, and cut across State boundaries within the southern 
African region. At the same time, international diasporas, and flows of people and ideas, influenced the 
political positions of each sector. Australia, Jamaica, India, Lithuania, and Cornwall are part of these 
histories, as are the Eastern Cape, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and the Congo.  

Southern Africa therefore provides an excellent starting point for rethinking labour history in a transnational 
manner. It underlines the importance of international processes on national labour histories, suggesting 
the importance of connections and comparisons between national labour markets and movements and 
politics.  

If Southern Africa can be examined as a region, in which the working class cannot be neatly confined to a 
single country and national narrative, its labour history must be rethought at a regional level. Likewise, 
research on Southern African labour history would benefit greatly from comparison with economic 
development in other regions, and of the formation of other regional working classes.  

A transnational approach, in which labour history is rethought at a regional level, at a comparative level, 
and as a part of a broader global history, has potentially enormous implications for historical studies and 
contemporary concerns.  

If current debates on "globalisation," then, direct attention to the experiences of working classes and 
labour movements in the era of the  "first" globalisation, these experiences are, in turn, highly relevant to 
contemporary debates on labour and other social movements in the today's era, the "second" 
globalisation.  

Current debates can reshape our thinking about labour's past; rethinking the past opens new perspectives 
for thinking about labour's future.  

Broad aims and outcomes 

The proposed conference has several aims, in light of the above:  

    * To foster transnational and regional studies of labour
    *  To rethink the "givens" of South African 
and southern African labour historiography in 
light of international processes and linkages, 
with particular reference to the emergence of labour as a regional
process and
    * force and movement in southern Africa, the 
importance of imperial context and the 
international flow of ideas and workers, and 
labour diasporas, and of comparisons with other regions.
    * To promote develop comparative labour 
histories with reference to southern Africa, and 
to comparisons between southern Africa and other 
regions of the global "South."
    * To introduce new approaches and debates 
within labour history more generally into the 
field of South African and southern African labour history.

Possible themes
Within this broad aim, there are a number of possible areas of interest, including, but not restricted to:  

·        International labour markets and labour migration 
·         Transnational and international trade unionism and labour activism  
·        Labour diasporas and labour politics
·        Race, gender and nation in a transnational labour history
·        Labour migration, gendered labour and the sphere of reproduction  
·        Gender, identity and the labour movement
·        Labour radicalism and internationalism in comparative perspective  
·        Labour biography and the transnational history of labour
·        Comparative analyses of Southern Africa and South Asia
·        The Indian diaspora and the Indian working class
·        Workers, war, politics and militarisation
·        Labour under, against, and after colonialism
·        Labour in the Southern African region: connections, conflicts and conduits  
·        Comparative labour radicalism in Southern Africa
·        Comparing labour radicalism in the global "South"
·        Labour, communism and labour parties
·        Anarchism, syndicalism and working class internationalism
·        International labour federations and Southern labour
·        Labour movements and the Cold War
·        Labour and the multiple meanings of racial identity
·        Working class literary cultures and consciousness
·        The geography of labour movements
·        Race, space and place in comparative labour histories
·        Labour movements and the "first" and "second" globalisation
·        Reflections on the pasts and futures of labour history

Registration

We welcome proposals for presentations on specific aspects of these themes, suggestions for related 
themes, and for panels.  

The deadline for submitting abstracts for proposed papers, or panels is 30 November 2005.  

The online conference web page contains more information, including a basic timetable, a schedule of 
registration fees. <http://www.wits.ac.za/historyworkshop/conferences.htm  

You can pre-register your proposed paper, or panel, online here: 
<http://www.wits.ac.za/historyworkshop/prereg.htm  

Acceptance of papers
Please note that in order to maintain the conference focus and to minimise parallel sessions, acceptance 
of proposals for papers or panels is not automatic. Applicants will, however, be informed of the organising 
committee's decisions by no later than 30 January 2006.  

Accepted papers must be submitted in electronic form to the organisers by no later than 30 May 2006  

Opening night
The conference will be opened with a public meeting and a lively public debate on "Labour 
Internationalism and Worker Rights: trade unions, China and Zimbabwe."  

Labour History Tour
The conference organisers will also be organising a unique labour history tour of Johannesburg and its 
environs. This will be open to delegates on the last day of the conference for an additional charge. Details 
of other tour options in South Africa will be made available on request.  

Final registration
Accepted papers must be submitted in electronic form to the organisers by no later than 30 May 2006.  

All accepted participants are required to finalise their registration by arranging their full conference 
payment before 15 June 2006.  

If you wish to attend the conference, but will not be presenting a paper, you must nonetheless pay the full 
conference fee before 15 June 2005.  

The organising committee is made up of Peter Alexander, Andries Bezuidenhout, Phil Bonner, Jon Hyslop, 
Noor Nieftagodien, Nicole Ulrich, and Lucien van der Walt.  

Do not hesitate to contact us with any queries.
history-workshop at social.wits.ac.za

Click for the online conference web page.
http://www.wits.ac.za/historyworkshop/conferences.htm

History Workshop
University of the Witwatersrand
Central Block 44
Tel: 717 4281/2Fax: 717 4289
E-mail: history-workshop at social.wits.ac.za 
Postal address: History Workshop, Wits University, Private Bag
3, Wits 2050, SOUTH AFRICA