Southern African Collections : Correspondence

Southern African Collections

A small file including letters from Alex Hepple to 'The Star' and the 'Evening Post' newspapers, and letters to Alex Hepple and Girlie Hepple from the Cape Trade Unionists' Committee, the South Africa Railway and Harbour Workers' Union, the Basutoland Typographical Workers' Union, the Non-European Metal Workers Joint Committee, the African Mine Workers Union Organising Committee, and the International Federation of Free Trade Unions. Several letters include enclosures. The correspondence discusses the proposed Native Labour Relations Act, the recognition of African trade unions, wages and working conditions, the formation of splinter unions, and relations with employers and the government (25 sheets).This file forms part of a series of files, being material collected by Alexander Hepple while researching the history of the trade union movement, specifically African and non-European trade movements. For articles by Alex Hepple see <a href='/view/MS-RCMS-00199-00002-00004-00001'>RCMS 199/2/4/1</a>, for excerpts from secondary sources see <a href='/view/MS-RCMS-00199-00002-00004-00003'>RCMS 199/2/4/3</a> and for excerpts from official documents see <a href='/view/MS-RCMS-00199-00002-00004-00004'>RCMS 199/2/4/4</a>.Alexander Hepple (1904-1983) was born in Johannesburg on 28 August 1904. He was the leader of the South African Labour Party, 1953-1958, and founder and chairman of the Treasons Trials Defence Fund, 1956-1961, and of the South African Defence and Aid Fund, 1960-1964. With his wife Girlie he established the International Defence and Aid Fund's Information Service in London in 1967, which they managed together until their retirement at the end of 1972. Hepple was the author of 'Verwoerd' (Pelican, 1967) and 'South Africa: a political and economic history' (Pall Mall, 1966), as well as numerous pamphlets and articles on political and trade union affairs in South Africa. He died in Canterbury, England, on 16 November 1983.