ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of the United Democratic Front (UDF) trade unions in the political and ideological struggle to promote and expand revolutionary consciousness within the country and to increase participation in the national liberation struggle. The ‘UDF’ unions, by contrast, were regionally based, tending to organise in a particular township or area rather than nationally. The UDF unions were preoccupied with mass mobilisation rather than internal worker control of the unions or organisational practices that encouraged strong unions. In addition, South African Allied Workers’ Union (SAAWU), like the student organisations which existed before the formation of the UDF, identified the need for unity-in-action with other progressive forces in the struggle for democracy. SAAWU’s stated aim was to organise and unite workers employed in various industries and group them according to the nature of the work they were engaged in and thereby establish industrial unions, under the auspices of SAAWU as their national federation.
