Since
our last issue the Rand has witnessed the unprecedented spectacle
of a strike of 40,000 mine natives. Owing to the compound
and indenture system, the general public have seen very little
of the strike, as the natives, herded in their compound quarters,
are not allowed abroad. Practically the only source of information
is "The Star," which is notoriously the Chamber of
Mines paper. For a week it has given lists of mines whose natives
refuse to work. The lists are not the same every day. To-day
the E.R.P.M. natives are out, to-morrow they return and other
mines are affected, keeping the average total about 40,000. During
the week double this number of native workers must have refused
work. Police and military have poured on to the Reef, but there
has been very little for them to do, as the native workers have
learnt the lesson of absolute passivity to perfection. There
have been charges made by the Native Congress of wholesale sjamboking,
which of course are denied. There are scant means of verifying
these charges at present.

On some mines white workers have
taken on the labouring work, and have kept on partial operations.
The ethic of solidarity
is woefully weak in regard to the native workers. There has been
no single clear call from any trade union leader. The only lead
given has been by the I.S.L., whose leaflet, "Don't Scab," has
been distributed at crucial points, and republished in full on
the cable page of Tuesday's "Star" as a heinous example
of "Socialist poison," for which publicity we give
thanks! 12

The demands of the natives have been vague. The strike is undoubtedly
an instinctive mass revolt against their whole status and pig
level of existence. The Native Congress has had very little to
with the movement, other than to hold a watching brief. The strike
is in no man's control. Organisation within the compounds there
is, of course, but of necessity there can be very little definite
organisation as between mines owing to police surveillance. There
are few incidents to record, owing to the peaceful nature of
the strike and the "cordon sanitaire" of police ringed
round it.

Needless to say, we view the movement as a splendid example
of the power of industrial solidarity, of the power of large
industry to smash up tribal psychology. The advice given to the
natives by us in our first message to them two years ago was:

There is only one way of deliverance for you Bantu workers. Unite
as workers, unite! Forget the things that divide you. Let there
be no longer any talk of Basuto, Zulu, or Shangaan. You are all
labourers'. Let labour be your common bond.

The native mine workers have followed this advice to the letter.
To-day there are no tribal divisions among industrial natives.
Only the chiefs seek to perpetuate these, their old prerogatives.
The stern demands of mass industry in South Africa, as in all
parts of the world, are moulding the Bantu workers into the image
of the world proletariat. The faction fights which used to be
so common - and though put down by the police, yet put down good-humouredly
as rather too much of a good thing - are rapidly disappearing.
The present strike is our witness to it.

The native workers have found a soul to strive for. They have
awakened to a new earth. It is potentially theirs from this day
out. The immense complications facing capitalist industry are
aggravated by this unlooked-for trouble in the production of
gold. The natives must be given substantial concessions, otherwise
we shall see intermittent strikes on a large scale without end.
The native is the very apotheosis of the figure visualised by
Marx with nothing to lose but his chains. A day off now and then
is for him, IN THE MASS, just as easy as a day at work. Industry
can only run by conceding all he wants eventually.

The duties of white workers in the matter we deal with in another
article