Round about 1940 the propaganda committee of the Nationalist Party issued a pamphlet under the title, The Road to A New South Africa, in which the party's attitude towards trade unions is clearly stated. This policy is identical in every respect with that expounded by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, as Section IX of the pamphlet states:
Labour
Labour is as indispensable as capital for the country's economic welfare. Both must serve the country; neither may be applied solely to selfish ends. The Nationalist Party is accordingly of the opinion that, taking into account the interest of the nation at large, labour is entitled to the special care and protection of the State. But, as elsewhere, State responsibility must be attended with a stated degree of State control.
The Party lays down the following chief points in its labour policy. (a) Administration
(1) There must be Labour Council which will devote itself exclusively to the problems and needs of labour. This Council will act on the principle of responsibility to the government and be subject to its ultimate decisions.
(2) The Labour Council will be representative of both the employers and the employees in State and State-supported as well as in private undertakings.
(3) The responsibilities and duties of the Labour Council will include, inter alia, the determination of wages and labour conditions for all employees.
Organisation of Labour
(1) The Party considers the organisation of the working classes, just as that of any other economic section of its own terrain, as desirable and necessary for protecting and serving their own specific interests. Such organisation must therefore be encouraged by the State. Conversely, the State ought to guard against such organisation being misused, for purposes inimical to the country and its people, or in order to disturb the proper and necessary equilibrium between the respective sectional interests in our economic structure.
(2) The Party considers the present system" of wage control and the regulation of working conditions as ineffective, and proposes that the system of collective bargaining be supplemented by a system of State responsibility, exercised by means of the Central Economic Council and the Labour Council, as described above.
(3) The Labour organisations will indicate on their own the members who are to represent them on the Labour Council and its subordinate councils or committees and will have the right to make represenÂtation to the Government, to whom the Labour Council is to be responsible,
(4) The Labour Council will exercise effective control over the appointment of officials by, and the general activities of, the trade unions or workers' organisations.
Mr. B. J. Schoeman, who in 1948 when the Nationalist Government came to power, was appointed Minister of Labour, said in a speech outlining future policy:
"The basic principle of trade unionism-collective barÂgaining-will be abolished, since the State will fix wages. What powers the union will have left will be in the hands of the Volk, for all foreigners, kaffir-boeties, communists and parasites will be removed".
On the broader issue of Nationalist policy . Dr. N. Diederichs, a leading theoretician of the Nationalist Party, who had spent many years in Germany and openly proclaimed his sympathies with Nazi ideas, explained his party's policy in a speech in Parliament.
"On the one hand we have nationalism, which believes in the existence, in the necessary existence, of distinct peoples, distinct languages, nations and cultures, and which regards the fact of the existence of these peoples and these cultures as the basis of its conduct. On the other hand, we have liberalism and the basis of its political struggle is the individual with his so-called rights and liberties. Nationalism is the standpoint of members on this side of the House; and we say that this ideal of liberalism is unnatural and impossible and should it be achieved one day, which fortunately is not possible, the whole world would be the poorer for it". (Hansard, Vol. II, Col. 1620, August, 1948.)
The Dutch Reformed Churches enthusiastically accepted all the principles of the Nationalist Party and, from 1936 onwards, devoted much energy and attention to the trade union movement. In most countries, it is usual for ministers of the Church to confine their activities to religious matters; in South Africa, some manage to combine business with their spiritual work. In 1942, Dr. G. E. N. Ross, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church and for some time also a director of a clothing factory in Johannesburg, violently attacked the closed shop principle.
"The principle of the closed shop is an unholy weapon for the accomplices of the bosses to deprive Afrikaners of their bread".
Another minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Mr. van der Walt, also a director of a clothing factory in Johannesburg, heartily supported these views and regularly attacked the trade union movement in the official church organ, Kerkbode , and at meetings.
When war broke out in September 1939, General Hertzog, who was then Prime Minister, made an impassioned plea in support of Hitler Germany and opposed the declaration of war on Germany by South Africa. His government was defeated on this issue and Smuts became Prime Minister; Hertzog, grown old, subsequently retired from politics. Mr. Oswald Pirow, who had been Minister of Defence and of Railways, fell out with both the United and the Nationalist Parties and set up an organisation of his own, known as the "New Order". Confident of Hitler's ultimate victory, he was undoubtedly anxious to become the Gauleiter of South Africa. The Nationalist Party and its stooge organisations opposed the war throughout the years and did everything possible to hinder the war effort. The more extreme elements even engaged in sabotage. Bands of Nationalist ruffians frequently beat up men in uniform. Hundreds of their members were interned and several were convicted of acts of sabotage and high treason. Ministers of the Dutch Reformed Churches prayed for a Hitler victory and many refused to solemnise marriages of members of their Churches who volunteered for war service, or to baptise their children.