ABSTRACT
Strikes are eruptions in the normal pattern of work relations when antagonised capital and labour confront each other. All strikes share characteristics: what sets them apart are the special features of the places and people involved. Here is the story of the canning workers of Wolseley, of their lives in the factory, and the struggle of a trade union to lay the foundations for a 'new life'. It's the story of organisation and growing militancy which equipped workers to take on the bosses, and erupted into Wolseley's great strike. The event, a series of struggles culminating in a major strike and its aftermath, was a significant one for the workers' trade union, the Food and Canning Workers' Union (FCWU) and its sister union, the African Food and Canning Workers' Union (AFCWU). The Wolseley strike is instructive for the way it exposes the problems of organisation among the popular classes in the rural areas.
