Luli

They live in townships and hostels around Johannesburg and the other industrial cities, which have since developed. Their history has still to be written.

This volume is the first in a series. It is simply written, yet history is never simple. It tries to analyse the basic issues. It is offered as one contribution to the work that still has to be done.

It studies the rise of the gold mining industry from 1886 to 1924. Why? We believe that gold mining laid down a pattern. It became the pattern of a special form of capitalism. This developed in South Africa over the years and continues to develop. Our history tries to understand its origins.

There are different ways to tell every story, and the same time is true of history. For instance the story of the gold mining industry has often been told as the story of 'progress' - modernisation , technological achievements, an expanding economy and progressed is most often related as the story of the 'Randlords', men like Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato. Told that way, the story shows how they were able to gain fabulous wealth - and, at the same time, shape the future of a country.

The same story can be told a different way, as in this. We tell it as the struggle for survival of those whose hands made the wealth, the workers who came to Egoli. Some of these workers were white, and this is their story, too. The great majority were black. When gold production began, their lives were drawn into a system. The system developed until it affected every part of their lives, from the cradle to the grave.

In studying the rise of gold mining we shall also be studying:

The coming of gold. The revolutionary changes that the gold mines imposed on South Africa.
The workers: their creation and control. The ways in which men and women were forced to leave their land and become wage-earners; how mine-owners and government used their powers to set up: the migrant labour system; the compound system; the contract system; the pass system; and other methods used to control workers and keep their wages low.
Workers’ resistance. Workers did not just sit back and accept their situation. There were many ways in which they resisted - desertions, strikes, boycotts, wage campaigns, the beginnings of political action. They struggled over a long period to gain control over their lives and their work. Today, that struggle continues.

This shows how methods of control on the mines, created and used a racial system. This divided workers into a small group of well-paid, privileged, white workers and a massive force of low-paid, black workers. The system of control is experienced, painfully, by black workers in South Africa every day. But to experience is not always to know. We need to understand how the system came into being. We need to know how workers long ago experienced it. To do this we need to look at life in South Africa before the coming of gold. And so we begin with a topic, which deals with society in South Africa before industrial times

on to Coming of the Gold

	In less than 20 years, Johannesburg was transformed from bare veld into a rich mining city. In this time, black South Africans - neither rich nor citizens - came to work on the mines - and in eGoli. These men and women were the forerunners of the people whom, today, continue to produce South Africa’s wealth.
	They live in townships and hostels around Johannesburg and the other industrial cities, which have since developed. Their history has still to be written. This volume is the first in a series. It is simply written, yet history is never simple. It tries to analyse the basic issues. It is offered as one contribution to the work that still has to be done. It studies the rise of the gold mining industry from 1886 to 1924. Why? We believe that gold mining laid down a pattern. It became the pattern of a special form of capitalism. This developed in South Africa over the years and continues to develop. Our history tries to understand its origins. There are different ways to tell every story, and the same time is true of history. For instance the story of the gold mining industry has often been told as the story of 'progress' - modernisation , technological achievements, an expanding economy and progressed is most often related as the story of the 'Randlords', men like Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato. Told that way, the story shows how they were able to gain fabulous wealth - and, at the same time, shape the future of a country. The same story can be told a different way, as in this. We tell it as the struggle for survival of those whose hands made the wealth, the workers who came to Egoli. Some of these workers were white, and this is their story, too. The great majority were black. When gold production began, their lives were drawn into a system. The system developed until it affected every part of their lives, from the cradle to the grave. In studying the rise of gold mining we shall also be studying: The coming of gold. The revolutionary changes that the gold mines imposed on South Africa. The workers: their creation and control. The ways in which men and women were forced to leave their land and become wage-earners; how mine-owners and government used their powers to set up: the migrant labour system; the compound system; the contract system; the pass system; and other methods used to control workers and keep their wages low. Workers’ resistance. Workers did not just sit back and accept their situation. There were many ways in which they resisted - desertions, strikes, boycotts, wage campaigns, the beginnings of political action. They struggled over a long period to gain control over their lives and their work. Today, that struggle continues. This shows how methods of control on the mines, created and used a racial system. This divided workers into a small group of well-paid, privileged, white workers and a massive force of low-paid, black workers. The system of control is experienced, painfully, by black workers in South Africa every day. But to experience is not always to know. We need to understand how the system came into being. We need to know how workers long ago experienced it. To do this we need to look at life in South Africa before the coming of gold. And so we begin with a topic, which deals with society in South Africa before industrial times on to Coming of the Gold