Black workers under South Africa's system of apartheid produce that nation's wealth, while enjoying little of it.

PASSING THE MESSAGE is a film about the struggle to organize trade unions for black majority in the face of a vast entanglement of repressive government policies.

Three black union activists who we follow through their grassroots organizing efforts tell this story of courage and hope. Black trade unions, although legal since 1979, have had to register and operate under state control. Some unions have refused to comply. These unions have been opening a new chapter in the struggle for justice in South Africa, a chapter revealed in PASSING THE MESSAGE.

"Anyone interested in the new black trade unions must see PASSING THE MESSAGE. Far and away the best way to understand this crucial new development."—Sandy Boyer, American Committee on Africa