Miners' Strike

South Africa 1946

Synopsis

In August 1946 the African Mine Workers Union (AMWU) in South Africa called a strike of black miners in the country's Witwatersrand gold producing region. The strike was the first widespread action taken by African workers since 1920. Nearly 100,000 black workers struck, completely or partially shutting down 13 mines. Despite the fact that in 1942 the government of prime minister Jan Smuts had declared all strikes by black workers to be illegal, the AMWU took an active role in demanding higher wages for black workers. When the government and the Chamber of Mines largely ignored the demands of the AMWU, the black workers struck. The government quickly used force to crack down on the strike. More than 1,200 people were injured and nine were killed. Authorities also arrested the strike leaders and dismissed some 70 workers. The defeat of the strike marked the end of the organization and unionization of black miners until 1982.

Timeline

• 1926: Britain is paralyzed by a general strike.
• 1931: Financial crisis widens in the United States and Europe, which reel from bank failures and climbing unemployment levels. In London, armies of the unemployed riot.
• 1936: The election of a leftist Popular Front government in Spain in February precipitates an uprising by rightists under the leadership of Francisco Franco. Over the next three years, war will rage between the Loyalists and Franco's Nationalists. The Spanish Civil War will prove to be a lightning rod for the world's tensions, with the Nazis and fascists supporting the Nationalists, and the Soviets the Loyalists.
• 1941: Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December brings the United States into the war against the Axis. Combined with the attack on the Soviet Union, which makes Stalin an unlikely ally of the Western democracies, the events of 1941 will ultimately turn the tide of the war.
• 1946: Winston Churchill warns of an "Iron Curtain" spreading across Eastern Europe.
• 1946: Three months after the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in London in January, the all-but-defunct League of Nations is officially dissolved.
• 1946: At the Nuremberg trials, twelve Nazi leaders are sentenced to death, and seven others to prison.
• 1946: The first true electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), is built.
• 1951: Six western European nations form the European Coal and Steel Community, forerunner of the European Economic Community and the later European Union.
• 1956: Elvis Presley appears on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town, where he performs "Hound Dog" and "Love Me Tender" before a mostly female audience. Nationwide, 54 million people watch the performance, setting a new record.
• 1961: President Eisenhower steps down, warning of a "military-industrial complex" in his farewell speech, and 43-year-old John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest elected president in U.S. history. Three months later, he launches an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.

Event and Its Context

Labor Shortage and the Mine Owners Response

Several causes precipitated the 1946 strike. One key cause was a labor shortage. The gold mining industry depended on African migrant workers from both within and outside of South Africa. Traditionally the migrants had been a stable and reliable source of labor and during the late 1930s, the number of South African migrant workers was up, as the Native Recruiting Corporation secured the labor of many workers.

During World War II, however, domestic sources of migrant labor declined as workers joined the military or took better paying urban factory jobs. The mine owners, therefore, looked to foreign sources of labor. The Witwatersrand Native Labor Association recruited workers from Mozambique and Central Africa. Nevertheless, these foreign workers could not make up for the labor shortage. Even more pressure was put on the mines, as there was also a shortage of white workers, many of whom had gone off to war. The "color bar" prevented black African workers from replacing these white workers in many positions. Therefore, mine owners had to find ways to increase productivity despite a lack of workers.

The mine owners took three main steps to increase output. First, starting in the late 1930s, the mine owners introduced more machines to replace traditionally labor intensive tasks. Mechanization helped to increase production and ore output increased by 10 percent per person per year. Yet, overall, mechanization was limited, as mine owners spent their capital more on expansion than on machines.

A second response was scientific management, which was led by J. S. Ford, the general manager at the Langlaagte mine. He argued that racism in the mining industry hurt productivity. He believed that African workers needed to be treated better and conditions should be improved. To achieve this, he called for standard practices and written training manuals.

Finally, tighter supervision was imposed on workers. Mine owners urged the managers to monitor more closely the underground work. There were both surface checking stations and underground native checkers that ensured that workers were putting forth maximum effort.

African Miners Respond: The Formation of the AMWU

All of these conditions made African workers unhappy and eventually led to the 1946 strike. As early as 1942 there were sit-down strikes and confrontations at some mines. In early 1943 miners at the Langlaagte mine complained about their working conditions. In the ensuing confrontation, some 500 miners were arrested. Owners and the police feared, however, that there would be even more problems if all of the workers were tried. The recently created African Mine Workers Union (AMWU) provided legal counsel for those on trial. All but eight leaders kept their jobs, which signaled a victory for the AMWU and give the organization credibility.

In 1941 Guar Radebe, a member of the Communist Party, established the Committee to Organize African Mineworkers. In 1942 this group became the AMWU. In the 1920s and 1930s the Communist Party had made some attempts to form trade unions of black miners. These efforts had met with little success. By the late-1930s blacks in other industries had begun to organize. When high inflation combined with low rainfall hit the country during World War II, many black miners began to join the AMWU.

The early leaders of the AMWU were President J. B. Marks and Secretary J. J. Majoro. At first, the AMWU attracted relatively few workers. Those who did join were mostly from mines near urban areas such as Johannesburg. By 1943 the AMWU had about 1,800 members out of some 300,000 African miners. Members were mainly mine clerks, who had to meet secretly.

In 1943 black miners began demanding higher wages. In response, the government formed the Witwatersrand Mine Natives' Wages Commission, more commonly known as the Lans-down Commission. Although the Lansdown Commission granted a small wage increase to the miners, it was less than wartime inflation.

The Dispute over Food and Wages

Another issue that contributed to the 1946 strike was food. Traditionally, mine management provided food to African miners at their compound dining halls. Owners could not realistically reduce food rations out of fear of riots. Instead they sought to modernize and rationalize food preparation to eliminate waste. A problem was that a series of poor harvests between 1943 and 1946 reduced the amount of corn available to mine owners. In addition, there were shortages of meat. Starting in early 1945 and into 1946, black gold miners initiated a series of sometimes violent food riots. The AMWU made this issue of food a key union issue. Soon, the AMWU and African miners were demanding to be able to provide their own food.

Yet another factor that led to the 1946 strike was a reduction in the profits earned by mine owners. By the mid-1940s their profits declined due to several problems. Labor shortages decreased production in some mines. At the same time, costs of operating mines were increasing. The costs of mine supplies and equipment were on the rise, as were the wages of white mine workers. At the same time, the world price of gold was stable and not based on the cost of production. Owners could not simply pass on their costs to the consumer.

In light of this situation, owners were not willing to increase wages for African miners. Once again, this led to a conflict with the AMWU. African wages had increased slightly in absolute terms but had declined in real terms. The AMWU was particularly upset over the implementation of the recommendations of the Lansdown Commission, which had called for wage increases for African mine workers. The Chamber of Mines, however, argued that the mine owners could not afford to pay such increases. The government thus agreed to pay the higher wages but paid only part of the recommended amount.

Unionization and Confrontation

In response to this situation, Marks and the AMWU decided to appeal to more workers. Thousands of African miners began to attend union meetings, which were watched carefully by police and management. The key issues discussed at these meetings were better wages, better food, and better living conditions. The labor leaders encouraged organization and unity of African workers through the union instead of relying on old ways of dealings with grievances such as destroying buildings or taking food from kitchens. At the same time, when such disturbances occurred, the AMWU often paid for the legal defense of the miners. The high point of this early organization came at the annual meeting in July 1944 in Johannesburg. Some 700 delegates from every mine on the Rand attended along with 1,300 rank-and-file members.

Soon, however, the government made union organization among African workers more difficult. In August 1944 the government issued Proclamation 1425, which prohibited organizations from meeting on mine property without permission. Because most of the compounds where the miners lived were surrounded by mine property, this law was a virtual ban on union meetings. Police dispersed any unauthorized meetings, and once again African miners had to rely on secretive meetings in Johannesburg.

Given the uncompromising attitude of the government and Chamber of Mines, AMWU leaders began to discuss the possibility of a general strike as the only alternative. By April 1946 numerous meetings and strikes on the mines and compounds made the demands for pay raises. The meetings and strikes sometimes became violent, with workers breaking ranks and throwing rocks and management calling in the police. These incidents in early 1946 were not organized directly by the AMWU, but rather were local and spontaneous.

In May 1946 the meeting of the AMWU was not well attended. This time, however, the union put a time limit on their demand for pay raises. The union leaders set a deadline of 4 August for mine owners to accept their demands. When the union met again on that date, Marks and Majoro explained to the workers that their demands had been ignored by both the Chamber of Mines and the government. Thus, AMWU leadership called for a strike to being on 12 August, and the workers approved.

On 12 August, African mine workers succeeded in shutting down seven mines completely and another five partially. According to the Department of Native Affairs, 21 out of a total of 47 mines were eventually affected. More than 70,000 workers were involved, about 25 percent of the total. To counter the strike by the African mine workers, authorities brought in some 1,600 police who used troop carriers borrowed from the military. These police often used force against the strikers, utilizing their batons, bayonets, and revolvers. Police arrested more than 1,000 workers, including leaders such as Marks. Some 1,200 African workers suffered injuries and nine miners were killed.

The strike was more widespread and successful than most thought it would be. It attracted workers from all job categories. In part, the AMWU succeeded in distributing its pamphlets. It was helped in this effort by other groups such as the Communist Party and the African National Congress. At the same time, many workers were only vaguely aware of the union. Instead, these miners relied on informal networks; grassroots organization at each mine compound was key.

Poor communications between the union and the workers also was significant. Finally, police violence and the early arrest of key leaders doomed the strike to failure. In the end, the government did not improve the situation of the African miners. Prime Minister Jan Smuts never thought the strike was based on legitimate grievances but rather had been caused by outside agitators. He felt that it was the government's duty to protect the African workers from such influences.

Key Players

Majoro, J. J.: Majoro was one of the principle leaders of the1946 strike and served as first secretary of the AMWU. He worked as a clerk in the gold mines.

Marks, J. B. (1903-1972): Marks was a South African labor leader who served as the first president of the African Mine Workers' Union (AMWU). He also worked as the chairman of the South African Communist Party and was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress. Marks died in the Soviet Union.

Smuts, Jan Christian (1870-1950): Smuts served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and again from 1939 to 1948. Smuts' government cracked down on the organizational activities of the African miners in 1946, claiming that outside agitators were stirring up the black workers.

See also: Miners' Strike, South Africa: 1922.

Bibliography

Books

Moodie, T. Dunbar. Going for Gold: Men, Mines, and Migration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Simons, Jack and Ray Simons. Class and Colour in South Africa, 1850-1950. London: International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1983.

Periodicals

James, Wilmot G. "Grounds For a Strike: South African Gold Mining in the 1940s." African Economic History 16 (1987): 1-22.

Moodie, T. Dunbar. "The Moral Economy of the Black Miners' Strike of 1946." Journal of Southern African Studies 13, no. 1 (1986): 1-35.

O'Meara, Dan. "The 1946 African Mine Workers' Strike and the Political Economy of South Africa." Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 8 (1975):146-173.

—Ronald Young