Inaugural lecture by Professor Thulani Zengele at the Senate Hall-University of South Africa: 10 November 2016-17h00

Abstract

Trade unionism has a very long and rich history as its roots are traceable back to the 1850’s. Most importantly, trade unions and the proletariat have a mutual and cordial relationship of all time. I open my lecture with a quote from The Communist Manifesto of 1848 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the proponents of emancipator reasoning as they state, “of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes simply decay and eventually disappear in the face of modern industry because the proletariat is its special and essential product.” They further contend that the clashes between individual workers and individual bourgeois take more of the form of clashes between two classes. Consequently, the workers begin to form trade unions against the bourgeois; they club together in order to maintain and protect their salaries; they also form permanent associations in order to make provisions ahead of time for these occasional revolts.”