Before the rise of studies of the modern labour movement in South Africa from the 1970s, studies of working-class struggles and of workers’ movements were relatively rare. The major works on unions were written by unionists and other activists outside the academy (Gitsham and Trembath 1926; Andrews [1941] 1977; Meyer 1944; Forman [1959] 1992; Walker and Weinbren 1961). Within the academy, the working class was certainly studied, but rarely as an active agent of social change: it appeared in studies of stratification (Seekings 2009); in work on social problems, especially the poor whites (Jubber 1983; Webster 1985b); and in ergonomics, marketing, management and race relations, often with an emphasis on productivity issues (Silberbauer 1968; Tiley 1974).

There was a major shift from the early 1970s, marked by the rise of a more critical ‘radical’ school of social science, especially in history and sociology. Generally speaking, Marxist approaches took centre stage, including Braverman's labour process theory, Thompsonian-style ‘new’ labour history and various forms of structuralism; class analysis was the key (Saunders 1988, 2007; Bonner 1994; Webster 2004). Feminist thinking played a role, but it too was often deeply influenced by Marxism and concerned with political economy (Cock 1980; Bozzoli 1983). Labour history was an integral part of this project, and traditional boundaries between history and industrial sociology largely broke down.

This new body of work was closely associated with a new generation of scholars, mainly at the more liberal English-speaking universities, mostly white South Africans. It emerged against the backdrop of the global rebellions of the 1960s and, within South Africa, the 1973 Durban strikes and the 1976 uprising (Saunders 1988; Bonner 1994; Webster 2004).

It drew much of its energy from engagement with the struggles of the time, and there were notable efforts to reach beyond the academy by, for example, working with the new wave of unions, writing popular histories and holding Open Days at History Workshop conferences at the University of the Witwatersrand, which in 1987 hosted over 3 000 trade unionists and township activists. A complex network of labour service organisations, popular publishers and non-governmental organisations provided a key vector for the circulation of, and a key space for the further development of, the new work and growing emphasis on the importance of labour movements.