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Politics & Governance: 1952 Defiance Campaign
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Organisations:African National Congress (ANC)
Organisations: The South African Communist Party (SACP)
People: Lives of Courage
Sources
Maloka, E. (2002). The South African Communist Part in Exile 1963 - 1990. AISA: Pretoria
Names: Marks, John Beaver (JB).
Date of Birth: 21 March 1903.
Date of Death: 1972.
Gender: Male.
In Summary: Political activist and trade unionist, President of the Transvaal Branch of the ANC.
John Beaver (JB) Marks was born on 21 March 1903. A political activist and trade unionist, in 1928 he joined the African National Congress and became the President of the Transvaal Branch of the ANC.
One of the leaders of the Defiance Campaign, in 1952 Marks was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. He never the less took part in the Defiance Campaign and served a prison sentence for breaking a banning order.
Interview in Sechaba (Volume 3 No. 11):
Comrade Marks would you give us some details of your life?
Comrade, I'll be very brief. At present I am 66 years of age. I was born in 1903 in a small town in Western Transvaal known as Ventersdorp. I come from working class parentage, my father was a railway worker all his life, my mother a midwife, and she's still alive today having readied the age of 105. I attended school in a country school and then went to a training college where I received a diploma in teaching. The older people in the community I was brought up in all expressed a desire that one day I should become a minister of religion. When I eventually joined the struggle for national liberation I remember meeting one of the oldest residents in our town who said: "My son, my dreams and wishes hove come true only that you have not gone to the pulpit, but you are today on the platform to demand what we hove been craving for all the time." That was in the early days when I appeared on the platform of the I.C.U. and of the Communist Party and the League for African Rights. I joined the A.N.C. in 1928, I was much influenced by my father who was a staunch supporter of the A.N.C. and I myself had revolted against conditions, particularly those at the institution where I was trained, where the missionaries did not treat the students well. In 1919 I participated in a strike of students because conditions were not good. We were not allowed time to go visiting, we were punished very frequently, and the food supply was very poor. This strike led to my expulsion from school. In 1942 I was elected to the presidency of the Transvaal Council of non-European trade unions, and in the same year I became the president of the African Mine Workers Union, which grew to a membership of over 50,000.
This Union organised the famous strike of 1946 for it commanded the respect of all the African mining workers employed in the mining industry numbering approximately 400,000. The mine strike was a great success, it really exposed the conditions of the mine workers. I was also an executive member of the A.N.C. at this time. both nationally and at provincial level.
After I was banned I continued to be active, and helped to form the South African Congress of Trade Unions which I had to do illegally. I have also had a great deal of contact with the rural areas in South Africa. I knew every nook in the Transvaal, because I travelled with the Native Representative Council which enabled me to establish contact with all the chiefs in the Transvaal, as well as some of the leading figures in the Orange Free State. I left South Africa in 1963 when the National Executive asked me to leave. I came to Tanzania through Bechuanaland and have remained there since.