Following is a list of abstracts presented for the 1973 Durban Strikes - Celebrating 50 Years Conference.

  1. “White ladies [do not] push heavy skips”: Examining NUDW and CCAWUSA organising of occupational categories in the retail and distributive trade in the late 1960s and 1970s by Bridget Kenny 
  2. “I want to live not survive”: the politics of refusing low-wage work in a time of mass joblessness by Hannah Dawson 
  3. “Human beings with Souls”: Reconsidering The Durban Strikes Pamphlet by Alex Lichtenstein 
  4. “Exodus without a map”: What happened to the Durban moment? by Edward Webster 
  5. “Dockers and solidarity activism: from the Durban Strikes to choke points in today’s global economy” by Peter Cole 
  6. Worker Culture: It’s Emergence, Gains and the Implications of Decline by Frank Meintjies 
  7. Trade unions and Popular Resistance in the 1980s and New Alliances and the Different Unions Traditions by Kaizer Thibedi 
  8. The Student Wages Commissions, the 1973 Durban Strikes, and the Politics of Statistics by Grace Davie 
  9. The Road to Durban: Workers’ struggles, student movements, and the resurgence of resistance politics in Namibia and South Africa by Heike Becker 
  10. The Lessons of the Transition Era, Inequality and the Politics of Universal Health Care:  Re-visiting the Proposals of the Macro-Economic Research Group (MERG) and the Reconstruction and Development Programme by Robert Van Niekerk 
  11. The Fruits of the 1973 Durban Strikes: A Powerful Black Trade Union Movement. Are they still on track or are they off the rails? by Johann Maree 
  12. The Durban Mystery Unraveled: An empirical analysis by Eddie Cottle 
  13. The British Government, The Trade Union Congress, and Black South African Trade Unionism, 1973 to 1994 by Dan Feather 
  14. Reclaiming Radical Traditions of Workers' Education by Linda Cooper and Sheri Hamilton 
  15. Performance, Violence and the Collapse of a Cultural Movement by Ari Sitas 
  16. NEDLAC, Union Investment Companies, the Tripartite Alliance and the Shock of the Government's New Economic Policies by Sifiso Gwala 
  17. Gigs, hustles and hope: work for young South Africans beyond the wage by Adam Cooper and Bernard Dubbeld 
  18. From Durban Falkirk to Defy: Changing sources of workers’ power in the metal industry by Andries Bezuidenhout and Edward Webster 
  19. Exploring Student-Worker Alliance: the role of COSAS in trade unions, 1979-1985 by Noor Nieftagodien 
  20. Exhibition: Durban, 1973: Strike against cheap labour by David Hemson 
  21. Excavations: Shirts, Placards, Posters and the Remnants of Spectacular Protest in the LRS’s Collections by Lebogang Mokwena 
  22. Durban 1973, a National Breakthrough, in the Context of a Globally Developing Socialism? But what if the reality was actually an emergent 50-year international capitalist 'counterrevolution' of 1973-2022? by David Cooper 
  23. Allies or collaborators? Dladla, Buthelezi and the KwaZulu regime, 1972-75 by David Hemson 
  24. 1973: Neo-apartheid and the Sleeping the Giant by Mbuso Nkosi 
  25. The trade union movement and the burden of the future by Monique Marks
  26. An evolution of Worker Education in South Africa since 1973 and its impact on Worker Movement by John Mhandu
  27. Trade Unions in South Africa by Ari Sitas and Bianca Tame
  28. 40 Years of Shop Floor Resistance in a Rubber Factory by Sithembiso Bhengu
  29. The Changing Nature of the African Working Class: Migrant Workers, Identity and Struggles by Sithembiso Bhengu
  30. The Durban Strikes and the making of the Political Struggles in South Africa by Vuyisile Msila
  31. Academia and activism: A unique alliance in working class organisation post 1973 by Vannessa Kruger
  32. Speaking for ourselves: FOSATU Worker News by Victor Gwande and Nicole Ulrich
  33. A Matter of ‘Principle’: Corporate America and the South African Worker in the Early 1970s by Mattie C. Webb
  34. Can Shop Stewards Rekindle the post-1973 Union Traditions? Setting A New Agenda for Union Revitalisation! by Mojalefa M Musi
  35. The Durban Strikes of 1973 and the End of a Cycle of Struggle by Mondli Hlatshwayo
  36. Writing the 1973 Durban Strikes: From ‘black worker unrest’ to the ‘birth of independent trade unions’ by Debby Bonnin
  37. Half a century later: Durban Strikes – 1973 by Gerhard Maré

Collections in the Archives

Abstracts presented for the 1973 Durban Strikes Conference
1973 Durban Strikes Conference , 26-28 January 2023 - Celebrating 50 Years