The Food and Canning Workers' Union was founded in 1941 by Ray Alexander, a leading member of the South African Communist Party. Its branches were concentrated among the small fishing and farming villages of the Western and Eastern Cape, and its headquarters was in Cape Town; its members were mainly `coloured' women workers. During the late 1950's and early 1960's it was affiliated to the South African Congress of Trade Unions, an allied organisation of the African National Congress. In this period the FCWU was politically considerably more radical than many other trade unions: in the aftermath of Sharpeville, for example, its membership responded to the call of the black nationalist organisations and stayed away from work.
From the guide to the Food and Canning Workers' Union (South Africa); annual reports, publications, resolutions etc., 1948-1976, (York University, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research)
