African Mineworkers’ strike starts

A week long strike by African mineworkers, led by John Beaver (JB) Marks, leader of the African Mineworkers' Union, started on this day. The strike was initiated by the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), which was active in distributing pamphlets and other material related to the strike. About 60 000 miners went on strike. Government suppressed the strike by force. According to official figures, nine were killed and 1 248 injured. Fifty-one persons, mainly Communists, were later charged in connection with the strike. They included three Indians, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, J.N. Singh and M.J. Vania. Police also arrested members of the District Committee of the Communist Party in Johannesburg. They were subsequently convicted and given sentences ranging from R30 (or three months) to R100 (or six months). The miners' strike had profound repercussions, which are felt until this day. The intense persecution of workers' organisations, which began during the strike, when trade union and political offices and homes of officials were raided throughout the country, only ceased with the new democratic dispensation in 1994. The most profound result of the strike, however, was the impact it had on the political thinking within the national liberation movement; almost immediately it shifted significantly from a policy of concession to more dynamic and militant forms of struggle. Click here to read our feature on the African Mineworkers' strike.