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From: South Africa's Radical Tradition, a documentary history, Volume Two 1943 - 1964, by Allison Drew
Document 59 - Letter from Ruth First to The Secretary, South African Institute of Race Relations', 17 August 1944
Box 5498 128 Main Street,
JOHANNESBURG.
August 17,1944.
Secretary,
South African Institute of Race Relations,
University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg
Dear Sir,
We wish to draw your attention to the dangerous implications in the resolutions on in farm labour which will be moved at a special congress of the Transvaal Agricultural Union in Pretoria on August 17.
The main points contained in the proposals as reported in the "Daily Mail" of 28 July 44 are as follows:
1. The apprenticeship (presumably compulsory) of Africans from the age of 14 for a period of 3 years.
2. The compulsory registration of labourers providing for identity cards.
3. The establishment of a Committee by the Minister of Native Affairs in consultation with agricultural unions to control African farm labour.
4. The objection to interference by the Native Affairs Department in disputes over labour contracts between farmers and labourers.
5. The prohibition of young Africans not liable for poll tax, from working in urban areas unless their parents live there.
The proposals are Fascist in character and reminiscent of Nazi forced labour. Should they be adopted they will virtually reduce Africans to conditions of serfdom by restricting their freedom to seek more remunerative employment.
We hope that your Institute will take up this issue and strongly protest against the resolutions outlined above.
ours sincerely,
Ruth First
Hon. Secretary