AUDIO: Lucien van der Walt, 28 November 2014, “The Relevance of Makhan Singh for Labour Today,” at “Paying Living Wages: A Reality or Mirage?,” colloquium, Kenyan Human Rights Commission (KRC) Consortium, Venue: Panafric Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya, 27-28 November 2014.
MAKHAN SINGH was founder of the Kenyan trade unions, and influenced by the revolutionary Ghadar Party, and through it, the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW); he was later involved in the Communist Party of India. Champion of non-racial workers unity, socialism, anti-colonialism, he was persecuted by the British Empire, and marginalised by the post-colonial, anti-worker, Jomo Kenyatta regime. More about this working class here
Lucien van der Walt 