With good reason, historians regard the 1930s as a decade of profound ANC inertia. Mary Benson claims that in this decade the “gulf between the desires of the ordinary people and [ANC] leadership had never been so deep”. Some recent studies echo this view, variously claiming that historical conditions propelled developments beyond ANC control even as urbanisation was starting to generate new urban groups that eventually would force ANC leaders to adopt policies that were more assertive, and that, whilst the ANC supported black unions in theory, it did little practically to assist them.

Whilst these interpretations capture a key theme of ANC politics (especially at the national level) during the decade—stagnation—they tend to neglect the more complex reality of ANC politics and its relations with labour, and do not deconstruct its multi-layered regional constituency. In the 1930s there were in fact moments of gripping engagement of African political activists with labour struggles. Less spectacular, and more constant, commitments to supporting labour demands also characterised ANC policy.

The 1930s saw world depression and growing South African industrialisation accompanied by a significant increase in the size and stability of the urban work force. This focused many organisations, including the ANC, on economic conditions such as mass lay-offs and wage cuts as well as alternative economic policies.2 This helped ANC leaders—even if some of them remained remote from labouring lives—develop a greater awareness of the lot of black workers who, in the face of savage pay cuts, would have been on the one hand receptive to political mobilisation and on the other hand hesitant to engage in strikes given the decline in jobs. When a number of rival bodies failed to thrive or even survive, the appeal of the ANC as a lobby group for black economic demands increased by default.

These wider changes posed a challenge to the ANC if it was to gain the support of ordinary black people to build its own socio-political base. The ANC in the 1930s was no more a specifically workers’ organisation than before. Often it was moderate in its policies to the extent of supporting black business. The ANC as a national African political body had little choice other than to strive to unite diverse black strata and their representatives.