A TASTE OF FREEDOM, the ICU in rural South Africa, 1924-1930

364pp., illus., maps, paperback, Johannesburg, 1987

"The resistance of urban black South Africans to exploitation and oppression has long been studied, but the extent to which the struggle has advanced in rural areas has been little documented. The rural poor - oppressed, far-flung, isolated, and illiterate - have been notoriously difficult to organize, and for generations they have been dismissed by urban black sophisticates and largely neglected by political movements...

This analysis of the Industrial and Commercial Worker's Union of Africa (ICU) examines its formation and growth, its impact on the South African countryside, and the complex reasons for its failure to achieve its goals or long-term survival. Drawing on a wide range of archival material and an extensive series of personal interviews with blacks involved in the conflicts, Helen Bradford presents a powerful account of an important yet seldom discussed period in the turbulent history of South Africa." Taken from the book. 

Published by Ravan Press.