In the 1920s, the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Africa (ICU) emerged as a significant force in Southern Africa, organising as many as a quarter of a million workers throughout throughout South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

Its general secretary, Clements Kadalie, was like many of those in the ICU leadership, himself a migrant, from Malawi. 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. In the UK, he influenced Fenner Brockway, then secretary of the Independent Labour Party, and helped shape his ideas on anti-colonialism, and in South Africa, he inspired future generations of leaders in the national liberation movement, among them Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress.

In his new book, Militant Migrants: Clements Kadalie, the ICU and the Mass Movement of Black Workers in Southern Africa, 1896-1951, launched at an event organised by the Society for the Study of Labour History, Dr Henry Dee, research fellow at Northumbria University, 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.

The launch event, held at the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell, drew a large audience to hear Dr Dee introduce the book, which is published by the Society with Liverpool University Press as part of the Studies in Labour History series. The meeting also heard from Dr Wayne Dooling, senior lecturer in the history of Southern Africa at SOAS, who acted as discussant. Referring to earlier works on Kadalie and the ICU, said the book provided ‘an interesting take on how wemight bring together the different themes of nationalism, trade unionism and South African agriculture’.

Find out more about Militant Migrants and order a copy.