{"id":945,"date":"2019-12-05T12:18:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T10:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=945"},"modified":"2020-04-23T11:41:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T09:41:26","slug":"the-1973-natal-strike-wave-how-we-rebuilt-the-unions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=945","title":{"rendered":"The 1973 Natal Strike Wave: How We Rebuilt the Unions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally published as a Congress Militant booklet in 1990.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by David Hemson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Hemson was a leading organiser of black workers\nin Natal in the early 1970s, involved in the formation of the trade unions\nafter the Durban strikes. He was banned in March 1974 and went into exile in\n1976.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spent his years in exile In Zimbabwe and England,\nhelping to build the workers’ movement in these countries, and to build direct-links\nwith the workers’ organisations in South Africa. In exile he joined Sactu and\nthe ANC.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1979, together with Paula Ensor, Martin Legassick\nand Robert Petersen, David was unconstitutionally suspended from the ANC and in\n1985 expelled by the ANC leaders for putting forward Marxist ideas in the ANC\nand Sactu. These comrades have consistently demanded their reinstatement, to\nhelp in building a mass ANC under the control of the working class to achieve\nmajority rule and socialism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1985 David was among eight comrades detained by the\ngovernment of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe for helping to build democratic unions\nfree of state control and to advance the struggle for socialism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this pamphlet we publish an account given by David\nin 1988 of the 1973 Natal strike wave, the building of the trade unions at that\ntime, and his own experiences in this.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Things really\nchanged in Durban in 1973. The revolution really began then, as tens of\nthousands of workers poured out from the factories onto the streets on strike\ndemanding double or treble their existing wages. I can remember in January and\nFebruary it was pure joy to be alive and to be young!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workers would\ngrab sticks and bang on the factory gates shouting “Out! Out! Out!”\nThere were marches up and down in Mobeni and even in the centre of Durban.\nConstruction workers marched through the town and Coronation Brick workers, who\nstarted the whole upsurge, were marching. Everywhere there was movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dockworkers then\nwere transported around in open trucks rather than buses. This became a factor\nagainst the bosses because from the back of the trucks they would see workers\non strike and greet them. As they were driven further, they would shout the\nnews of the strike to other workers across the street and so on. Eventually\nworkers were coming out everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nsignificant that the dockworkers played this role. They had a long tradition of\nmilitant struggle. Also it was they who anticipated the new period of mass\nstruggle which started with the 1973 strike wave when they went out on strike\nin Durban in 1969. This strike was brutally repressed. The police rounded up\nthe workers with machine guns. The 2,000 dockers were all dismissed, and\nphysically escorted by police onto trains and sent to the rural areas. But the\ndockworkers never forgot that strike. Years later they were demanding that\nworkers who were fired then should be re-hired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strike in\n1969 had an enormous effect on me. I remember having arguments with some of the\nleft-liberal types at the University of Natal, who were agonising about the\nneed for “new ways of thinking” about “change in the country”,\nand so on. I said that the strike showed the workers were prepared to move, and\nif only the working class could be organised you would see an end to the\nmonstrous granite-like system of apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though this\nstrike was a defeat, it showed that the workers were prepared to struggle. In\nthe late 1960s I used to organise a lot of the Durban student protests, but I\ncame to feel it was a complete waste of time. If only it was possible get in\ntouch with this massive power of the African working class and link up with\nthat, then we would see that all this joke protest would be in the past and SA\nwould be completely transformed. This line of thinking led myself and other\nwhite students to became involved in organising Wages’ Commissions to link up\nwith African workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wages’\nCommissions were launched in 1971. Soon newspapers were being produced with\nnames like Abasebenzi<\/em>, lsisebenzi<\/em>, though not Umsebenzi<\/em> because that was the paper of the\nCommunist Party of the 1920s and there was great fear of acting illegally. Some\nof the material in these papers was very confused, particularly in relation to\nthe history of the unions. But many of the interviews with workers were marvellous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember going\nwith Halton Cheadle \u2013 then a fellow-organiser, now a lawyer \u2013 to discuss with\nabattoir workers in Durban at this time. As white students we had had sharp\nrebuffs from the black-consciousness-oriented black students, so when we approached\nthe black workers we thought we might get some of the same treatment. But the\natmosphere was entirely different. We were immediately welcomed. The workers\ngrabbed us with their very strong hands and said “Come and sit down here,\npass the beer pot around, and write this down.” And they started listing\ntheir grievances. “When we cut our hand, when we lose a finger, when we\nare working in the abattoir, which happens quite frequently, the knives are\nvery sharp, they say we get no compensation. But you cut through the animal’s\nskin just once and you’re immediately fired.” That was the workers’\nattitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it was\nwritten-up, we took down something like 5,000 copies of that issue of Isisebenzi<\/em> to the abattoir. It swept\nthrough like wildfire! The 5,000 were distributed literally within eight\nminutes! Even African policemen were queueing up for it and I said, “No\nlet me give it to someone else”, but they pleaded, “Please can I have\none”!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It only needed\ncertain additional factors to get the whole movement on the go. In 1972 there\nwas another dock strike. Many of those who took part in it were those who had\nbeen hired in 1969 by the bosses as scabs to take over the jobs of those\ndismissed. The bosses’ strategy had backfired! There was a new sense of\nconfidence. This strike also revealed to me the kind of underground\norganisation that existed among the workers. The Wages Commission produced a\nleaflet in support of the demand for R18 a week which the dockworkers had put\nforward. Immediately a three-page letter arrived at the university, neatly\nwritten by workers, adding to this the demand that the strikers of 1969 should\nbe re-hired, and a number of other detailed industrial demands which showed a\nvery high level of organisation indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That strike in\n1972 was a success. In fact it marked the beginning of the wave of upsurge.\nThen a mass meeting was called in 1972 to protest against the unskilled wage\ndetermination which set starvation wages. Some 2,000 workers attended. The next\nday, three strikes took place, using the pamphlets that had been produced,\ndemanding R18 a week. And immediately the police were active everywhere,\noverseeing the firing of the workers and trying to keep the clamps on. Things\nwere on the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Benefit Fund<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was clear\nfrom what the workers were saying in discussions and meetings that they were a\nbit hesitant about launching a general trade union at that point. So some of us\nin the Wages Commission, including myself and Cheadle, with the Secretary of\nthe Garment Union, Harriet Bolton, who was sympathetic, decided we should\nlaunch a general workers’ benefit fund. We felt that unions could emerge from\nthat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact the\n“benefit fund” had all the features of a general union, except being\nactually called that. It was established in May 1972, and caught on very\nrapidly. And it shook things up. We had premises in Bolton Hall, the home of\nthe registered unions. I remember we put up a poster from the British miners’\nstrike at the time with a slogan: “All we want is a living wage”.\nNone of the registered union leaders (except Harriet Bolton) liked this at all!\nBut, such was the mood, these leaders felt they could not stand in the way of\nwhat was going on. “Let the African workers come in to our Indian garment\nworkers hall”, they said. There was a feeling that things had to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every Saturday\nmorning there would be 5-800 workers in the hall to pay their subs or join the\nfund. It was such a gathering point for Africans that you would even find the sangomas<\/em> present! I remember one woman\nwho used to arrive on a motorbike and give advice, and encourage her patients\nto join this benefit fund. She would come and chat to us. Even small African\nshopkeepers were saying, “This is something new, we should join\nthis”. Domestic servants, too, wanted to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time the\n1973 strikes took place, the benefit fund had about 2,000 paid-up members. Just\nabout every big factory in Durban had some members. It was a colossal\ndevelopment. The benefit fund was well-known by that time. In the midst of the\nstrike wave you could go to Mobeni industrial area and the workers on the\nstreets would greet you because they had seen you at the benefit fund. They\nwould shout the rallying cry of the Zulu royal house, which for them was a call\nto resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

1973 Strikes: The Police Paralysed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the\nstrike wave, the rumour had gone around that workers were going to boycott the\ntrains. So the police were all concentrated in the townships making sure that\nthe workers were getting on the trains. Sure enough, they got on the trains but\nwhen they arrived at the factories, it was a virtual general strike!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police,\ncaught on the wrong foot, rushed in very late. And suddenly you could see that\nthe police were far too few to crush this mass resistance. To cover their\nweakness, they eventually ended up saying, “We’ve got nothing against\nstrikes”! Strikes were prohibited under the Bantu Settlement of Disputes\nAct, the Suppression of Communism Act, the Riotous Assembly Act etc. But\nBrigadier Boshoff who was flown in from Pretoria to deal with the situation had\nto say: “the police have nothing whatsoever against people demanding\nhigher wages, provided they do not break the law”!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some areas\nthe police managed to take sticks away from the workers. But they were only\nable to succeed in this by telling the workers, “Don’t worry. After your\nmeeting you can have your sticks back again”! They even tried to argue,\n“We’re reaching an understanding with the workers, something new is\nhappening, we’re not a repressive force, we’re just here to make sure that\nthings are going nicely between the employers and the workers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although you\ncould have expected massive repression, quite frankly it was a holiday. The\npolice were definitely affected. I remember one incident when the Indian boss\nof a furniture factory called the police in because he definitely wanted the\nstrike suppressed. I went over there, because I was assistant secretary of the\nFurniture Union, with Harriet Bolton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police\narrived, stood inside the factory, and said: “We must get these workers\nback to work”. Harriet Bolton said the grievances of the workers should be\nmet first, that this was a peaceful strike and the police were not wanted. At\nfirst the police insisted on occupying the factory. “They wanted to see\nwhat was going on”, they said. “They didn’t want machines\ndestroyed”. Then one after the other, they started coughing and their eyes\nstarted streaming and they said, “What’s going on here?” They were\nreally in quite a bad shape. Harriet Bolton explained: “These are the conditions\nthese workers live under. They are doing spray painting, completely\nunprotected.” There was varnish and thinner, and other combustible\nmaterial all over the place. The police eventually left the factory. “We\nnever knew it was like this”, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the police\nlearnt a couple of hard lessons. In fact we heard rumours at the time that the\nsecurity police were given a real shake-up, and it may well be that the 1973\nstrikes were responsible for the formation of BOSS. There was a fellow who\nstarted coming round to the unions at this time. He was known by the workers as\n“Mole” because he had a big mole on his neck. He used to ask things\nlike “Are you quite sure that the state is doing the right thing? Is the\nDepartment of Labour up to scratch?” Harriet Bolton had quite a novel\napproach to him. She said “Go and spy on them if you want… Out you go,\nmole or not!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Concessions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of\nthe strikes, astonishingly for the first time in decades a concession was made\nto the workers. The Bantu Labour Settlements and Disputes Act was amended. It\nwas a frivolous amendment, but in some cases it was made legal for strikes to\ntake place. I could not believe the headlines. Workers were dancing. In a sense\nit was a recognition that there was no way that the state could really stand\nagainst the workers, if they were really united in their struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good example\nof the conditions which sparked the strikes was the Frame textile factories.\nMany of the workers there were working on automatic looms, equipment only\nbeginning to be used in Britain now. These workers came from Pondoland, with no\nshoes, almost in rags. They moved through a brief training period on to these\nlooms. But they were paid only R6-7 a week. The majority of the women were paid\nR3.50 \u2013 which was just the consolidated cost of living allowance of the\nprevious period. These wages were astonishing. The workers were just not\nprepared to accept it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another amazing\nthing was that, when the workers went on strike, even the white bosses of\nDurban were virtually unanimous that change just had to come. There were\ninterviews with workers on the front page of the Natal Mercury<\/em>, the most reactionary paper in SA, about how long\nthey had worked for a company, the pittances they had for pensions, the\nshocking conditions etc. Overnight the Natal\nMercury<\/em> and the Daily News<\/em>\nreports were very good. African students were employed to interview the workers\non their grievances. We would try and get them to print the demands in the Daily News<\/em> the afternoon before a strike\nwas planned! It showed that nothing could be quite the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1960 and\n1970 there had been in Natal, altogether, about 30,000 workers on strike.\nBetween January and March 1973, in Durban alone, there were 65,000 workers on\nstrike. It just showed that once the conditions are ripe, the working class can\nmove very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the strike\nwave erupted, I had the idea that once the workers moved, all the traditions of\nstruggle would return overnight. I thought that there must be a latent cadre\nthe working class created by the ANC or Sactu in the past which would suddenly emerge.\nBut things did not work out quite like that. In fact, in building the unions\nthe workers had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, after the\nstrikes, the situation was quite transformed. Three-quarters of the workers\nsaid they had had an improvement in wages and conditions. Very few workers were\nactually dismissed. But 75% were not satisfied with the conditions they had\nachieved, and said they were prepared to strike again. This shows what a change\nin consciousness had taken place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workers\nstarted to talk about Congress. If you went to their homes at night, they would\ndig-up the floorboards and bring out old ANC pamphlets. Political life started-up.\nThe Indian petit bourgeois then revived the Natal Indian Congress, though this\norganisation on an ethnic basis did not really help to unite the Indian and\nAfrican workers who were uniting on the shop-floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Registered Unions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My formal job\nwas an official of the Indian trade unions. The main registered unions were the\nNatal Clothing Union, the Furniture Union, the Hotel, Liquor and Catering\nUnion, etc. which were almost exclusively Indian, though with a few white and\ncoloured members. But they had large assets: the Garment Workers Industrial\nUnion, for example, had R3-4 million. They carried a lot of weight in that sense,\nand had a considerable apparatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These unions\nwere bureaucratised, smug and racially-restrictive. But there was a certain\ntradition that they had built-up. In 1972, for example, Harriet Bolton called\nthe Garment Union members to a mass meeting. Every worker in the industry\nturned up, Indian and African except for eight workers who gave their\napologies. They had been locked up by the boss in the factory and couldn’t get\nout even through the windows!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another problem\nwith these unions was that the leadership was anti-Congress. Leaders like Jimmy\nBolton, who was an out-and-out right-winger, bad acted to break any Congress\npresence in the union since Sactu in the 1950s. They managed to achieve this\nbecause of the tradition of loyalty to the union among the members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the\nofficials of these unions were the types that would be seconded onto Indian\nAdvisory Boards and other state puppet bodies. They were using the union as a\nstepping stone. I remember that every time that Harriet Bolton went abroad, the\nexecutive committee would have more meetings than ever \u2013 six to eight a month.\nThey would set up sub-committees. They would call more and more industrial\ncouncil meetings. This big flurry of activity was for the simple reason that\nthe attendance allowance was about R20 to R30 a time! They were getting more\nfrom the union than from their job. (Incidentally, the employers too would\ninsist on all these meetings, just so that they could get their pocket money \u2013 a\nridiculous situation!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Harriet\nwould come back and rap them over the knuckles, to which they would reply,\n“No, it was a democratic decision”! The only response she had was to\ngo to the Department of Inland Revenue and report this additional income, and\nsoon enough the officials would have someone knocking on their door, and they\nwould have long faces because they all had to pay more in tax!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harriet used to\ninstruct the organisers: if you go to a factory, you see the workers first.\nAnd, come what may, you do not at any time accept garments, jeans, jerseys or\nanything of that kind from the bosses. But you would see the organisers go to\nthe factory with their handbags, dodging past the workers, finding a back door\nto get in and see the employer, have a cup of tea, and some other perks! That\nwas what the union was. The only time I ever saw those organisers upset was\nwhen one of them was ill and no one had visited them. They thought the chief\npurpose of a union was to visit people in hospital!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\nbureaucrats were of course not at all sympathetic to African workers on the\nmarch. When Bolton Hall was packed with African workers shouting Usuthu<\/em>, Amandla<\/em> and singing Nkosi\nSikhelele<\/em>… these bureaucrats would come in and tip-toe uncomfortably past\nthe emerging African revolution!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Differences of Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief of the\nSecurity Police, Colonel Steenkamp, put out messages via this union bureaucracy\nwhich eventually reached my ears. Certain areas were “out of bounds”,\nhe was saying. “The unions could go ahead, but if you touch the docks, you\nwill be in deep trouble and everything will be clamped down in no time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were some\ndifferences of opinion over what to do about this, but in fact we never\nsubmitted. But it meant that all the dock work had to be underground. Some of\nthe meetings were held in the hall \u2013 mass meetings of abattoir workers every\nSaturday, for example \u2013 but more of the meetings were held away from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steenkamp’s\nwarning, however, reinforced the idea in our minds that there were only so many\nmonths to go before there would be a clampdown. There was never the thought\nthen that the unions could become permanent open organisations. We thought they\nwould have to continue to have a certain underground component, something\n“more” than the open framework, if they were to survive at all. We\nthought of it something along the lines of underground industrial locals,\ngroupings of factory leaders in the industrial areas. We thought there would be\nan inevitable clampdown on offices and other such centres of activity but that\nthe local could continue organising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The employers\nwere highly organised, by the way. The Natal Employers Association included not\njust the Natal employers but leading national and multi-national bosses like\nBTR, Dunlop, Van Leer. It was like a very centralised union for them. Any\ndemand put to any employer was sent to Mr Thorn, whose job was to repress it\nand set it back. Thorn would have regular meetings with the security police. This\nwasn’t even hidden. The apparatus of the ruling class was very highly\ncentralised indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were\ntremendous difficulties in building the unions: a complete lack of experience,\nfew organising skills among the workers, the implacable hostility of the bosses,\nand the police watching like hawks. There was a desperate urgency to train shop\nstewards and union leaders. There were no dormant Sactu cadres who could be\ncalled on to play a key role. Most union leaders then were victimised activists\nwho often had only two to three years education. The factory activists were not\nrecognised shop stewards as in British unions, for example \u2013 they had to work\nsecretly. There were no handbooks on how this should be done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also there was\nno clear strategy among the union activists. Differences emerged which soon set\ninto two different approaches: one accepting the revolutionary nature of the\nstruggle for trade union rights, the other more cautious and reformist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not\nrealise how sharply the lines had become drawn until I recently read the book\nby Steve Friedmann on the unions at that time, Building Tomorrow Today<\/em>. The view I had was that the struggle for\ntrade union rights for African workers was revolutionary because the state\ncould never concede rights to the mass of oppressed migrant workers. The only\nway you could break down the implacable resistance of the state and the\nemployers was on the basis of another organised strike movement which would\ninsist on the recognition of the emerging unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now it seems\nthe attitude of other people involved in the unions was different from mine.\nHalton Cheadle is quoted as saying “the whole thing was totally out of\ncontrol” at that time. The upsurge had led to the formation of a textile\nunion, chemical union, furniture union, Mawu, a union for African garment workers\n\u2013 almost a union a month. And the response of those like Cheadle was that this\nwas out of control, it was too “general”. Their attitude was that we\nshould drop the dock workers, and that we should avoid strikes if we were to\navoid a clampdown. Their attitude was that we should look to people like Gatsha\nButhelezi to encourage workers to join unions and consider linking the unions\nto the KwaZulu bureaucracy. There was a feeling that we could use British methods\nin a sense, methods of trade union bureaucracy, and apply them in SA.\nUnfortunately this approach was continued by the leadership of Fosatu when it\nwas formed later on, in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My view, that\nthe only way we could move forward was by a new strike wave, with demands for\nunion recognition as well as wages, was entirely in keeping with the mood of\nthe workers incidentally. It was a question of hammering away on the basis of\nmass action until we could force a breakthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first\nbreakthrough to union recognition at a plant was the historic agreement with\nSmith & Nephew. This did not come out of the blue. It was a result of the\nstrike in February 1973. Even at that stage a certain recognition was accorded\nto the union, and that was built on in the next period. Management had the\nsecurity police coining round to ask management why they had made this\nagreement and to try and stiffen them up to renege on it. But with workers’\norganisation we held on. This could have been achieved at other factories if a\nmore militant strategy had been pursued. But the conventional wisdom of the\nFosatu leaders was that only the Wiehahn Commission made this possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Clampdown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1974 there\nwas a big clampdown on the unions. I and others were banned on 1 March 1974.\nThe unions were quite disorganised. They had relied too much on the existing\nopen structures, and too heavily on people like myself. We had only had about\nseven months or so to really start developing the unions, and there wasn’t a\nstrong layer of organisers to take that forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a\nstrong mood for struggle in the factories, but without thorough organisation.\nThat led to certain setbacks. Friedman says the unions in Natal at the time\nwere like a “sickly infant” not growing at all. That is not true.\nThey were surviving and growing. There was still a movement of the workers into\nthe unions. There were still a number of important industrial battles which\ncarried on. But it was true that the tidal wave wasn’t there. The workers were\nrealising that, unless they could link up with the Transvaal and the Cape, they\nwouldn’t be able to take the struggle forward entirely on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Women at Prilla Mills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The struggle in\nPrilla Mills in Pietermaritzburg is an example of the atmosphere that existed.\nIt was owned by Indians who all donated to the Nationalist Party and were part\nof the local ruling establishment. It employed mainly Indian women, some Indian\nmen, and some African workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1973 that\nfactory became organised virtually overnight. There was an activist of the\nMuslim youth organisation that was a bit left. We discussed with him how the\nunion could be organised by a worker in the factory, and he organised it within\ntwo or three days. A meeting was held; shopstewards were elected \u2013 as it turned\nout, all men. It looked as though the position would be held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there were\nstrikes after strikes in Durban on which the unions were concentrating.\nMaritzburg seemed far away. Praia Mills seemed fairly well-organised, and could\nbe tied up a bit later. But, within a few weeks, the employers\ncounter-attacked. They promoted every shopsteward to foreman. They gave them\npermission to be free with the women. There were seductions and rapes taking\nplace in the factory, a very ugly situation. The women were becoming quite\ndemoralised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We heard\novernight that everyone was going to resign from the union. We decided to turn\nback the situation. We had a mass meeting. Some marvellous young women stood\nup. (Incidentally it was Indian women workers who were in the forefront of the\nstruggle at Smith & Nephew also. This is a marvellous tradition because\nIndian women were much more dominated by their menfolk, generally, than African\nwomen.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the\nwomen, Princess Osman, took up the battle and went door-to-door with the union\norganisers to persuade every worker to stand fast and withdraw their resignation.\nShe tried to organise with the men who were prepared to stand with the union to\nfight against these foremen, fix them up, because the way they were handling\nthe women could not be tolerated. There was a campaign against child-labour.\nChildren of ten years old were employed to do night-shift. That was exposed in\nthe Sunday Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tide was\nbeginning to turn. But then the security police visited every single worker to\ntry to persuade them to resign. Then one night when Princess Osman was walking\nhome some thugs beat her up and poured acid all over her face. She was a\nmarvellous fighter and a beautiful woman. But her personality changed\ncompletely after that, and she had terrible nightmares. She refused to speak to\nanybody. The union was effectively broken at Prilla Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conservative\ntendency including some of the people who were later the leading lights in Fosatu\nsaid: “You see. We’re not properly organised. We should concentrate on\nthose factories where we can deal with the employers. We must pull our horns in\nand not over-extend. The union must just adopt a factory-to-factory approach,\nnibble away at the problem and eventually deal with these questions.”\nBecause of that we found the unions in a sense turning inward, and the ideas of\nthe early period, which the workers had put into the union, that they should be\nfighting organisations, was rejected by these leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everybody in Maritzburg\nthen knew that the unions had lost the struggle at Prilla Mills. But the\nworkers at Scottish Cables still walked into the union. BTR, Howick Rubber as\nit was then, marched into the union. Workers recognised there was a force here,\nand this force was probably going to link up with the Congress tradition. Here\nwere Indian workers prepared to struggle shoulder-to-shoulder with African\nworkers. Here were Indian women prepared to struggle. It was almost a challenge\nto African workers to get organised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Further Struggles \u2013 Repression Countered<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that there\nwas the organisation of the Frame factories. The textile union was based in the\ncotton factories. There was ALCAN aluminium in Maritzburg which was 100% with Mawu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also\nBTR which was becoming well-organised at that time. In fact the present BTR\ndispute actually dates from 1973. I remember making a call to Howick Rubber at\nthat time, putting forward Mawu’s demand for recognition. The attitude of the\nmanager, by the way, just to emphasise the point that there was no difference\nbetween foreign capital and local capital was, “I don’t know who you are.\nIf you’re not an Oxford or Cambridge man, I’ve got nothing to say to you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bosses\ndidn’t take the situation lightly. They started repressing the workers, trying\nto stiffen up a layer of black foremen against the workers. One foreman at the\nPinetex Frame factory used to do what the Prilla Mills foremen were doing. He\nhandled the women and also marked out the organisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A meeting was\nheld in the textile union. Workers said something had to be done. A death\nsentence was called for. I said, “Are you sure there won’t be a huge\nreaction to this? The state’s going to clamp down. Have we built a strong\nenough foundation to be able to take the attack.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workers said\nthat it would look as though he had many lovers, that he fought with one of the\nlovers’ boyfriends. Sunday he was dead. Monday the police started to pick up\nour organisers. Instead of it breaking the union, the police did not take it\nvery far because they were not as enthusiastic about following up allegations\nof murder of a black person as of a white person. But they beat the hell out of\none of the leading organisers who was from Pondoland. When they knocked out a\nlot of his teeth, they said to him, “Aren’t you scared of us?”, and\nhe said, “Scared? You’re paid to hit me. If I was going to do this, I’d do\nit for nothing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally,\nwhen the wave of repression came down, and you saw police at the big mass\nmeetings, this worker would say to them from the platform, “We’re getting\nready to deal with you. You can stand there with your cameras but we’re marking\ntime.” And there would be roars of applause from the audience and the\npolice disappearing out through the gate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The KwaZulu Government and Barney Dladla<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barney Dladla,\nMinister of Labour in the KwaZulu government, appeared at this time. No-one had\nheard of him before the Durban strikes. But by March 1973 he was on the front\npages almost every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He turned up at\na strike at the ALUSAF factory in Richards Bay, where the army was sent in to\nkeep up production. He stood in the rain on the picket line with the workers\nand said that we should be prepared to fight even if we all go to jail. No-one\nhad ever seen this before, a petit-bourgeois on a picket line in the rain \u2013 when\nhe was quite sick actually. After it, in fact, he went into hospital in\nMaritzburg with pneumonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No-one knew how\nto respond to Dladla. The workers were very cautious about Gatsha Buthelezi.\nThe dockers knew his uncle J.B. Buthelezi, who was a \u2018compound induna\u2019 and one\nof their chief oppressors. But here was Dladla, apparently prepared to stand by\nthe workers, at a time when important struggles were taking place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dladla’s\nattitude accelerated links of the unions with the KwaZulu government \u2013 it\nseemed that here was a short-cut to building the unions. A decision was reached\nthat Dladla would be asked to come to strikes to try and rally the workers, to\nwiden the demands, to be able to force the employers back. In a number of cases\nwhere defeats were in the offing he was called in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the\ncase, for example, at Frame in Pinetown in 1974, when dismissal notices had\nbeen handed out. A mass rally was held at which Dladla spoke, and the mood\nchanged. Workers started pouring out of the factories to come to the meeting,\nand tore up the dismissal notices. Then the workers marched on the factory. The\npolice arrived with machine-guns. Dogs were going to be let loose but the\nworkers stood firm. Eventually out of that, not only did the workers all get\nre-employed but those charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act had the charges\nwithdrawn. The workers even got two days strike pay, which was unheard of by\nany company, let alone the Frame group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course the\nNatal employers did not like this. Big business put pressure on its puppet\nButhelezi. Finally Dladla was dismissed as a Minister. He came to the unions in\nDurban and asked for a job. He wanted to build an ICU-like organisation based\non the unions but with the support of chiefs, to sweep through the rural areas.\nThis idea was turned down. It was utopian to think that mass democratic\norganisation could be built with the support of the reactionary chiefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this,\ndespite continuing strikes and struggles, increasingly Buthelezi was able to\ntap the mood. He formed Inkatha for this purpose, to channel workers into Inkatha\nin order to try to defuse the militant mood and break it up. I can remember\ndistinctly that at the launch of Inkatha in 1975 the first resolution was for a\ngeneral strike. Buthelezi didn’t oppose this. What he said was: “we must\njust wait for the right time”. Of course the time was never right for\nGatsha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union\nofficials were taken aback by the large meetings Buthelezi held in the\ntownships. They argued that here was someone else who could provide a short-cut\nto mass trade unions. They asked that he should call on all the workers to join\ntrade unions, as Chief Luthuli had done in the 1950s. But instead Buthelezi\nused these rallies to get the workers to put their money then and there into\nthe Black Bank, now riddled with corruption and mismanagement! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But instead of\ndrawing the lessons from this experience the conservative union officials felt\nthey should go further with Buthelezi \u2013 even make the unions an industrial wing\nof Inkatha. There were ‘co-ordinating’ meetings with Buthelezi held at the\nBantu Administration Department offices in Pietermaritzburg. But he was\nintensely suspicious and never lifted a finger to support the unions. Instead\nyou would often see Buthelezi touring the factories in his KwaZulu government\nlimousine at the invitation of the bosses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this should\nhave made it clear to these conservative union leaders \u2013 at least by 1980 when\nInkatha brutally attacked students boycotting classes \u2013 that Buthelezi and\nInkatha were part of the bosses’ state, and that their strategy towards him was\nentirely wrong. Instead of struggling to break Inkatha’s influence over the\nworkers, they continued to justify themselves on the basis that some workers\nsupported Inkatha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buthelezi used\nto bring ANC veterans released from Robben Island and make them guests of\nhonour at Inkatha rallies. This caused quite a lot of confusion among political\nlayers as to what was going on. We now know that this was part of a disastrous\nplan worked out between the ANC leadership in exile and Buthelezi to build\nInkatha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this meant\nthat the workers didn’t have hostility towards Inkatha. They just had\nscepticism, saying “Are they going to deliver? We are not sure. But we\nknow this union is ours.” With experience they became increasingly\nsuspicious. They were not sure whether Buthelezi was for struggle or not. They\ndid not want to get involved in anything that would cut them off from the\nworkers in Johannesburg and Cape Town and elsewhere. A clear strategy by the\nunions at that time could have cut across the growth of Inkatha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Struggles in the 1980s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emphasis of\nworkers’ struggle in the late 70s and early 80s moved to the Western and then\nthe Eastern Cape, and the Witwatersrand. Particularly with the development of Saawu,\nthere was a radical transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Durban never\nbecame totally quiet. Figures show that in 1983 and 1984 Durban was the leading\ncity for industrial strikes per worker \u2013 though these years were not high\npoints of national struggle. In every other year from 1980 to 1985 Durban was\nsecond in terms of industrial strikes per worker, usually behind the Eastern\nCape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That shows that\nwhat had been built in the unions in the 1970s was not lost. In fact the\nstruggles in Natal were more protracted and tougher in some senses than some of\nthe struggles elsewhere. This is partly because the Natal employers, foreign\nand local companies, stand together in a very tight bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, it\nis only in 1986 that union recognition was forced from the Frame group \u2013 a\nstruggle that started in 1973. And this was despite a mass strike, virtually an\ninsurrection, in the Frame factories in Pinetown in 1980, where the police\nturned out in force, and workers set up barricades in Clermont township.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Dunlop it was\nin 1975-6 that demands were first raised which were won only much later. In the\ncase of BTR the struggle is still in progress. Compare this with the speed with\nwhich union recognition has been won in other areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compare the\nsituation even with the mines, which has been one of the most difficult areas\nof all to organise. In 1982 the Chamber of Mines offered union recognition to mineworkers\n\u2013 though to a “company union”. But immediately the NUM began to take\noff, to 10,000 members, 25,000, and so on \u2013 and rapidly won recognition on some\nmines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1980s\nNatal was also the initial focus for a number of struggles which spread around\nthe country. For example, there was the AECI dispute in 1984, the Dunlops\ndispute, and, most importantly, the pension disputes in 1981 and 1983. In 1981\nthirteen of the pension strikes took place in Natal, and, for the first time,\nplantation workers took action. The Natal workers were determined not to be hemmed-in.\nThey wanted to link-up with and push forward the struggle nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also\npolitical development among the workers despite the policies of the leadership.\nThe conservative tendency which crystallised in Fosatu had allowed a\n“division of labour” to develop between themselves and Inkatha. They\ndid not challenge Inkatha’s reactionary domination of the rural areas and of\nthe townships. In turn they hoped that Buthelezi would leave them alone to\nbuild the unions quietly and smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this “division\nof labour” had to break down. In the October 1983 referendum against the\ntricameral constitution, the biggest response to the “No” campaign\nthat Fosatu launched was in Natal. This showed that the workers had by no means\nsuccumbed to the domination of Inkatha, but were asserting their political independence\nof it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then,\nthere have continued to be important battles in Natal. In the bakery industry,\nfor example, there have been occupations of the factories. Dunlop is now known\nas a fortress for Cosatu. Cosatu’s launching Congress was held in Natal, for\nthe specific reason of trying to turn the tide against Inkatha \u2013 though this\nwas not followed through by the leadership. The BTR workers have fought a protracted\nand determined struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youth took the\nlead in a struggle against Inkatha repression. But we should not forget that\nbus drivers, TGWU workers, and other sections of the workers have played an\nimportant role in helping the youth to do the job \u2013 despite the futile\n“peace talks” policy put forward by the UDF and ANC leadership. More\nand more, the tide has turned against Inkatha. Now we are hearing, even in\nremote areas, that headmasters who are members of Inkatha have had their houses\nburnt down, their cars smashed, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this is just\nthe beginning of a movement that is going to transform Natal into a key storm\ncentre of the South African revolution. Natal missed out, in a sense, on the\nuprising of 1976, and also on the insurrectionary movement in the townships in\n1984-86. But this does not mean we have a permanent backwater. It is being\nrapidly changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact of the\ntide turning against Inkatha, together with the deep roots which have been\ndeveloped by the unions, roots which have been fought for time and time again\nwith nothing easily conceded, and despite a number of serious defeats \u2013 that is\nquite an explosive combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is great\npotential for struggle, particularly if the socialists in Congress succeed in\nlinking the youth with the organised workers. As the workers enter into\nstruggle for decent wages and conditions of life, and for majority rule, they\nwill begin the process of transforming the unions, and throwing out the\nconservative right-wing leadership that has accumulated at the top. On this\nbasis, the Natal workers can be a key force in the transformation of South\nAfrica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2019).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published as a Congress Militant booklet in 1990. by David Hemson David Hemson was a leading organiser of black workers in Natal in the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":932,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-945","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"_hostinger_reach_plugin_has_subscription_block":false,"_hostinger_reach_plugin_is_elementor":false,"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1280,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/945\/revisions\/1280"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}