THE MAKING or THE ViHKTE WORKING ~CLASS: CLASS EXPEIUH~NCE A~D CLASS ID1ENT~TY IN JOHANNI~§B1URG91890-1922. Maria Lis Lange A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the rcquvements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. January 1998 ------------------- ...... 1 AB§TRACT This thesis looks at the economic, social and political proccssea that shaped the lives of'Johannesburg's white working class between the beginning of deep level mining on the Witwatersrand and the Rand Revolt of 1922. It examines four related topics: white working class families, working class accommodation, the constitution of social networks and the problem of'unemployrnent. It is maintained in this thesis that white working class experience in Johannesburg had an important role in fostering a sense of community between English and Afrikaner workers and their families. It is argued here that the sense of community and identity that workers' developed in the three decades that elapsed between 1890 and 1922 is a necessary element to understand English and Afrikaner workers solidarity and organisation during the 1922 Rand Revolt. This thesis is organised into seven parts. The introduction situates the tor 'c of this thesis in the context of the South African historiography of the while working class. Chapter One is focused on the process off ormation of working class families between 1890 and 1906. Chapter Two deals with the problemr ~)f white W(Y Icing class settlement in the city of Johannesburg bet-veen 1890 and 1906 especially focusing on the problem of white working class accommodation. Chapter Three examines the origins of the 'urban problem' and the government's responses to working class housing between 1907 and 1922. Chapter Four examines the constitutive elements of white working class experience in Johannesburg between 1890 and 1922, and analyses the formation of social networks amongst white workers. Chapter Five is focused on the issue of the ideological construction of the poor white problem and in the ruling class's changing perception of white unemployment. The conclusion analyses the findings of this thesis in terms of the literature on Afrikaner nationalism and the studies of the labour movement. ii : tkrld s that this dissertation is my own, unaided work. It is being submitted for the Derree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of the Witwatersrand. JUllannesburg. It has not beef' submitted for any degree or examination in any other University. /!.i~ 30 day of January, 1998. ________________________, .. ~ ..........a.. WJL~~~~~~j.. ~9~'~....1111111111 iii for my parents, Erik and Amelia Lange. /r ;, iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the seven years I have taken to finalise my doctoral thesis I have incurred in all kinds of debts. I am indebted to the generosity of institutions like Anglo American and De Beers' Chairman Fund, Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, International Association of University Women and the SephisProgramrne at Rotterdam University in The Netherlands. They have all been not only generous with money but also incredibly patient with ,1-.. slow pace of my work. The University of the Witwatersrand welcomed me as a postgraduate student providing me with a Senior Bursary that covered the costs of my studies for three years. The Department of History in the person of Bruce Murray has always been ready to give me the intellectual and material support I needed to proceed with my research. The staff of the William Cullen Library has been efficient and friendly beyond the call of duty. I am especially grateful to Margaret Northey, Fay Blain, Anna Cunninghan, Michelle Pickover, Carole Archibald and Jennie McGee But my larger institutional debt is to the Institute for Advanced Social Research, its director and its staff. I have not only enjoyed the advantages of the institute's infrastructure but also, more importantly, a lively intellectual discussion with colleagues of the stature of Tim Couzens, Jim Campbell, Paul La Hausse, Karin Shapiro, and a host ofinternational visitors who made my life and work enjoyable and productive. Arlene Harris, Joyce Schalker and Celeste Mann and, more recently, Marie Joubert, have always been ready to help with administrative details and, more to the point, have offered sympathy when things were not going according to plan. My gratitude to Celeste Mann can hardly be put into appropriate words. She not only put up with my pitiful computer skills, coped with the layout of the manuscript and was ready to see that endless revisions reached Charles van Onselen' s desk timeously, but also bore my moods and frustrations beyond the normal bounds of duty and friendship. ---------~----- HHBa Qmm.tr~"lIrl v Charles van Onselen has lived up to his reputation as a person of intractability, intellectual obsession, acerbic humour and high standards. If in any way I have become a historian it is because of his guidance, his often brutal criticism and, in particular, his patience and, I now realise, his trust in the value of this maddening enterprise. I have benefited greatly from his talent as a writer and his genius as historian craftsman. I am particularly grater'! to him for never lowering his intellectual demands on me despite my status as a foreign language speaker. I have, at times, felt insulted, aggrieved and furious, but never patronised or diminished in my capacity to do my work. I am moreover thankful to him for his warmth and readiness to understand conflict and pain. The seven years I have been in this count, j have involved an emotional as well as intellectual transition. Thinking and writing in English and leorning to live in a different cultural setting would have been a challenge too great for me to handle had I not been able to count on a group of'friends full of sympathy, sense of humour and patience. I am grateful for the friendship, hospitality and unconditional support of Marion and Rennie du Preez. Anna Dimcu, Paul Stoddart and Pc.er Nowosar' have been ideal house mates always ready to soothe my anxieties and share the joy of my small successes. They have, in many ways, kept me sane. Cato Pedder has not only proved herself a fabulous and reliable friend but she has had the horrible task of editing several versions of my chapters and helping me writing English sentences. This she has done with the generosity and ability of those who love their language. For three years Helena Pohlandt was an invaluable companion. A fierce critic of my work and my first editor, she is partially responsible for my pursuing ideas to their last consequence. I have valued her intellectual partnership and her presence in my life more than I can say. In the final stages of my work when everything around me seemed to be crumbling Rachel Stewart picked up the pieces. Since then she has been a refuge from my vi intellectual obsessions and impatience with myself and the world as well as an irreplaceable companion. To her lowe the present wholeness of my life, And not less important, her work editing the final manuscnpt has been invaluable. I have no words to thank her for this. But although I have been in South Africa for seven years, my family in Argentina has been a constant presence in my life. Not only my parents and brothers encouraged and supported my work in innumerable ways, they have lisa repeatedly reaffirmed their trust and their respect for me as a person. Much of'the courage and sense of freedom I have invested in my work and my life come J directly from my family. To them goes my deepest gratitude. -------------~£j·.... ·...&.&...E........... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Tables x Figures XI INTRODUCTION CLASS EXPERIENCE, CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS Al'.i'D WHITE WORKING CLASS IDENTITY IN SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY CHAPTER ONE THE m,,1ERGENCE OF THE 'SOUTH AFRICAN' WHITE WORKING CLASS 1, Introduction 23 2. White Working Class Families in Johannesburg, 1890 - 1901 29 3. White Working Class Families in Johannesburg, 1902 - 1906: The Immigration Policy of the Reconstruction Administration 55 4. Conclusion 66 CHAPTER TWO THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WHITE WORKING CLASS HOUSING IN JOHANNESBURG 1890 -1906 1. Introduction 70 2. The Origins of the White Working Class Housing Problem: The Land and Property Market in Greater Johannesburg, 1886 -1906 74 3. Johannesburg's Urbanisation and the "Geography of Class", 1890-1906 89 1. Social Engineering and the "Geography of "lass" in Johannesburg, 1901-1906 107 5. Conclusion 119 -------------~.-- .... =r.... !..... : - ~..~.:' '....... "'~,' . viii CHAPTER THREE WHITE WORKING CLASS HOUSING AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE 'URBAN PROBLEM' IN JOHANNESBURG, 1907-1922 1. Introduction 123 2. The Land Issue ill Johannesburg: i'axation, Slum Property and Shortage of White Working Class Accomrnc dation 125 3. The 'Urban Problem' iYl Johannesburg: Public Health and Town Planning, 1907 - 1918 136 4. Public Health and White Working Class Housing, )9i 8 -1922 148 5. Conclusion 160 CHAPTER FOUR EVERYDAY LIFE IN JOHANNESBURG'S WHITE WORKING CLASS NEIGHBOURHOODS, 1890 - 1922 1, Introduction 163 2. Material Conditions of'Existence in Johannesburg's White Werking Class Neighbourhoods, 1890 - 1922 165 3 White Working Class Social Networks in Johannesburg, 1890 - 1922 181 4. Conciusion 208 CHAPTER FIVE THE IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE 'POOR WHITE PROBLEM', 1890-1922 1. Introduction 210 2. Economic Development and the Making of the 'Poor Whites' in Greater Johannesburg, 1890 - 1922 216 3 Knowledge of the Poor: The Ruling Class's and the State's Understanding of the 'Poor White Problem' 239 4. The State and the Poor White Problem: Laissez-Faire versus Social Engineering in the Transvaal, 1906 - 1922 259 ----------------'------ wr........... ~ ....... C..,_ __ ' ix 267 S. Conclusion CONCLUSION THE MAKING OF THE WHITE WORKING CLASS IN 270 JOHANNESBURG D'I JOHANt-.TESBURG, 1890-1922 284 BIBLIOGRAPHY .