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Chapter 4. From The Poverty of the Platteland to the Slums of the City: Farm Girls Turned Into Factory Hands
The Poor White problem spread to the factories and the slums of Johannesburg and was soon felt in the offices of the union. There was a constant flow into the…
Chapter 14. Rebuilding the Union-Constitution
When I returned to South Africa in March 1933, I found the stillness of the grave in the union office. The mass of workers in the factory section had lost…
Chapter 13. General Strike, 1932
Lengthy negotiations took place between the union and the employers' association before the agreement expired in the middle of August 1932, but these proved…
Chapter 9. The Struggle against Sweating - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
All South African labour laws have objectionable features which cause bitter resentment among the workers, and nearly all of them are punitive in character. …
Chapter 8. Capitalists without Money
In 1928 the clothing industry presented a picture of primitive capitalism. There were about fifty factories on the Rand, roughly forty in Johannesburg and the…
Chapter 27. The Police State in Action
The triumphs of the anti-communist crusaders have been made possible only by the tacit support, cowardice and confusion of large sections of people who, at…
Chapter 1. The South African Trade Union Movement- Historical Background - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
GUNS AND GALLOWS In outward appearance South Africa is a calm, peaceful land, spacious and sunny; its peoples-Black, White and Coloured-are fundamentally…
ArchiveGarment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
Five years after the Government forced him to relinquish his general Secretary, the name of E. Sachs still lives in people's minds with the Garment Workers'…
Chapter 24. Sack All Non-Europeans
In May 1948, when the Nationalist Government came to power, the union was engaged in a struggle with the clothing manufacturers. The agreement for the industry…
Chapter 12. The General Strike Of 1931 - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
The worldwide depression, which started in 1929, had a serious effect on South African economic life. By 1930, industrial production, which was only in its…
Chapter 29. Policy and Tactics of The Union
The tremendous achievements of the union in all spheres since (928 were made possible largely by the rapid development of South African industry generally and…
Chapter 10. Cleaning Up the Clothing Industry - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
Bad as conditions were in factories, the evil of homework was even worse. The worker who is compelled to turn his home into a workshop usually belongs to the…
Chapter 23. How the United Party Betrayed South Africa - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
The Nationalist Party, though always claiming to have no association with Nazism, had staked everything on a Nazi victory. Hitler's defeat, therefore, weakened…
Chapter 28. I Fight Back
Serving the orders upon me at the union office was the first of a series of blunders on Swart's part. For many months the committee had been discussing what…
Chapter 3. The Poor White Problem - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
From the moment I assumed office, I came face-to-face with the "Poor White" problem, one of the major tragedies of South Africa. People abroad believe that…
Chapter 6. A Daughter of the Free State - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
Katie Viljoen "Work Like Hell and be Merry" I was born in 1912 on a farm near Bloemfontein, in the Orange Free State. My parents were at first well-to-do…
Acknowledgements
Chapter 21. Civil War in the Factories - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
Although the union had previously denounced the treachery of Neville Chamberlain, once war was declared it supported the war effort, and hundreds of members,…
Chapter 7. An Afrikaner Working Mother
Anna Sophia Swanepoel (Told in 1950) I was born on 2nd April 1893, on Tapfontein Farm, Edenvale district, Orange Free State. My father was a small farmer. My…
Chapter 25. A Reichstag Fire Trial Replete With A Van Der Lubbe
In the general election of May 1948, the Nationalist Party polled 400,453 votes and its ally, the Afrikaner Party, 41,885, a total of 442,338 votes. On the…
Eye of the Needle - Chapter 8 - The Impracticality of Realism
From the book: The Eye of the Needle by Richard Turner The Christian human model is one of freedom and openness. To love means to be free and open to other…
Eye of the Needle - Chapter 7 - Participatory Democracy for South Africa
From the book: The Eye of the Needle by Richard Turner South Africa is an unequal society. The inequalities are the result of the skilful use of power in…
Eye of the Needle - Chapter 6 - Education for Freedom
From the book: The Eye of the Needle by Richard Turner At this point I want to make a small excursion into the field of education, for four reasons: 1. Most…
Chapter 7 - ‘We Are Also People’
From the book: Le Rona Re Batho (An account of the 1982 Maseru Massacre) by Phyllis Naidoo, South Africa, 1992 Three days before the massacre on Monday 6…