Chapter 13. General Strike, 1932

Lengthy negotiations took place between the union and the employers' association before the agreement expired in the middle of August 1932, but these proved futile. The employers again demanded a reduction of the workers' wages by twenty-five per cent. to bring the wages on the Rand into line with coastal rates. The union, on the other hand, considered the existing wage for women workers of £1 a week to start, rising to £2 10s. a week after two and a half years, as quite inadequate. Four pounds a week was considered to be the minimum on which a woman worker could live. Whilst we realised that it was unrealistic to ask for this figure with the industry in its present parlous state, the union felt that any reduction in the existing wage would not only cause immediate hardship, but would also handicap any future efforts to secure a decent living wage.

At the beginning of August, the employers issued a pamphlet to the workers, denouncing the union and urging the workers to accept the terms they offered. Scabs were promised police protection. The employers also made efforts to strengthen and unite their own ranks. This time, leaders of the employers displayed more vigour and confidence than in 1931. The union, on the other hand, entered the struggle not too hopeful of victory, but resolutely determined to fight to the bitter end against any lowering of standards and to go down fighting rather than surrender.

A strike committee was elected, composed almost exclusively of women workers. As the workers' ranks were divided, it was decided not to call a general strike, but to withdraw labour at first only from those factories where all, or the overwhelming majority, of the workers were loyal. Such tactics, we felt, might lead to a split among the employers and would not overtax the financial and organisational resources of the union. The workers who did not come out could give financial support to those who were on strike. Above all, we were not sure what the response to a general strike would be. Accordingly, acting on the reports of shop stewards, a group of about ten factories was chosen for strike action.

One Monday in August, on instructions from the union, the workers in the selected factories stopped work and assembled outside their respective premises to form picket lines. In one factory, where about a hundred and twenty workers were employed, the forewoman and two other workers tried to break through the picket line to go into the factory. The forewoman's sister, a girl of sixteen, was a militant striker and, when she saw her elder sister attempting to scab, she became furious. Saying "I would rather see you dead than scab", she grabbed her and a scuffle ensued, with he older sister getting the worst of the argument. Within a few minutes, a lorry-load of police appeared, led by a brute of a sergeant. He tried to clear the entrance to the factory by force and, in the process; he violently slapped the face of a little woman striker who was standing by watching. She fell and the crowd of pickets became infuriated. Within a few minutes a fight had started between the girls and the police. Some of the police used their fists freely; others refrained from assaulting the infuriated women. It was early in the morning, but a large crowd soon collected. The sergeant, a big, hefty man, distinguished himself by knocking out about half a dozen women. The battle came to an end when the employer, a respectable Johannesburg merchant, arrived, begged the police to go away, and assured the pickets that no scabs would be employed in his factory.

The police remained, however, but within an hour the scene had changed completely. Nearly all the policemen were young Afrikaners and, like the girls they had been beating up, had been driven off the land through poverty to find employment in the cities as "protectors of law and order". The erstwhile combatants commiserated with each other, in a most friendly manner, the policemen pointing to scratches on their faces and to missing buttons on their tunics and the girls to their multiple injuries. A few nights later, twenty-two policemen turned up in "mufti" at a strikers' dance and the bitterness of the fight outside the factory was forgotten in the music of the boere orkes, playing Afrikaans dance tunes. Nevertheless, several of the girls were later arrested and convicted.

Once again, the stupid action of the authorities, in sending hordes of policemen to beat up girl strikers, had an entirely different result from the one they expected. The strikers became embittered and even more determined; would-be scabs lost their nerve, and the employers were filled with fear lest disturbances occur outside their factories. Most important of all was the effect of the police action on the mass of workers. Hundreds of apathetic and even hostile garment workers were roused to action. Public sympathy, too, was on our side. For several weeks the strike continued on its stormy course, more factories being called out or coming out of their own accord. The employers, determined to break the strike, sent out teams to recruit scabs and picketing became extremely important.

Our fortunes fluctuated. In some cases, the employers succeeded in getting their workers back to the factories. In others, workers who had at first refused to come out now joined the strikers. In Johannesburg, almost the entire industry was brought to a standstill, but in Germiston there were hundreds of scabs. We therefore decided to back up the strikers in Germiston by sending pickets from Johannesburg. The employers were beginning to feel worried. On Monday, the 4th September, the strike committee decided to proclaim a general strike in the industry and notices to that effect were posted up on all factories. The response was good and the prospects of a negotiated settlement seemed fair. We knew that we could not expect a victory and would have agreed to call off the strike on the old conditions.

Suddenly Mr. Oswald Pirow, then Minister of Justice in the Nationalist Government, began to take a hand in the strike. There was a by-election pending in Germiston and the Nationalist Party was anxious to win the seat. Pirow feared that the strike might impair the chances of his party. Here were masses of Afrikaner women fighting against starvation wages, and the Nationalist Government, the so-called friend of the Afrikaner people, was doing nothing to help them. Germiston is largely a working-class district and most of the garment workers were the daughters, wives or sisters of miners, railway workers and labourers. The workers' vote would be decisive. Pirow, instead of trying to gain the workers' support for the Nationalist Party by showing sympathy for them, decided to use ruthless methods to break the strike. Large numbers of foot and mounted police were mobilised to protect scabs and break the picket lines. Scores of girls were arrested and, in Germiston, a group of mounted police rode into a crowd of pickets and several girls were badly injured. This high-handed action caused widespread indignation among the workers of Germiston and thousands attended a mass meeting called by the union to protest against Pirow's action.

On one occasion we received a message that two young girls had been arrested in Germiston. The union solicitor and I called at the Germiston police station to try and find out the nature of the charges and to secure their release on bail. The sergeant in charge was not only very abusive, but threatened to arrest me if I did not "get out." That night I addressed a public meeting in a hall in Germiston which is meant to hold about five hundred people, but over a thousand crowded into it. I had been on duty since three a.m. that day and, at 7.30 p.m., when I arrived, I was so exhausted that I could hardly stand, but the hall, including the platform, was so crowded that there was no room to collapse. Incensed by the outrageous attitude of the police, I told the audience it, while we were holding the meeting, two young girls were being kept in jail and terrorised and that the police refused to release them on bail. A wave of anger swept the crowd and they wanted to storm the jail there and then. I appealed to them to try peaceful means first and a deputation of five was appointed to secure the girls' release. The crowd shouted in Afrikaans to the members of the deputation before they left: " Bring the two girls here or we shall come and fetch them."

The meeting lasted for hours and sometime after eleven a.m. the two girls were brought in, half asleep. Their release had been obtained only when the deputation informed the police of the mood of the crowd. When they were hauled on to the platform, there was a roar of cheering which nearly brought the roof down. They were asked to say a few words.

Gertie Guites, who looked about fifteen, made a short speech in English, which was very well received.

Then came Johanna Cornelius, a young girl from Lichtenburg, dressed in a school blazer, dark and attractive. She spoke in Afrikaans and told the crowd what the girls were fighting for:

We Afrikaner girls, the daughters of our fathers who fought for freedom, are not frightened of Mr. Pirow and his police. We are tired of slaving for a few pence and of starva­tion, and will carry on the fight for a living wage to the bitter end. The police threatened us and said that we would be charged with murder. But we are not afraid. Our fathers rebelled for freedom, and we are their daughters.

When she finished, there was tense silence in the hall, broken only by sobbing. Johanna is a born speaker, and I saw immediately that here was a girl who, given the opportunity, could become a great leader. And a leader she became. Twenty years later, when the Malan Government removed me from my position as general secretary, an overwhelming majority general secretary of the Garment Workers' Union against a Nationalist opponent, and this position she still holds elected Johanna Cornelius. Like many other Afrikaner women, Johanna began her trade union education on the picket line and in prison.

Pirow, meanwhile, was busy with the employers. Years later, one of the leading employers of Germiston told me that Pirow had called the Germiston employers to a private meeting and had told them that the strike was having a serious effect on the by-election and must be settled. The employers had said that they were willing to settle the strike, but Sachs was the obstacle, whereupon Pirow promised to deal with me.

A few days later, on a Sunday night, at about eleven o'clock, there was a knock on the door of my flat. Two men entered and introduced themselves as Mr. Moll, Transvaal organiser of the Nationalist Party, and Mr. Wentzel, also a leading Nationalist. When I asked them the purpose of this nocturnal visit, Mr. Moll told me that they had come to ask me to settle the strike. I told them that nothing would give me greater pleasure than to have the strike settled. The workers would return to work immediately, providing they were assured that their wages would not be cut.

Mr. Moll informed me that, if I did not settle the strike, Mr. Pirow would deal with me. I explained to them the terrible hard­ships which thousands of Afrikaner girls had to endure in the factories and suggested that here was an opportunity for the Nationalist Government, which claimed to be the only friend of the Afrikaner people, to show its sympathy for masses of suffering Afrikaners. I told them that in no circumstances would I advise the workers to accept a cut in wages nor was I going to be intimi­dated by Pirow's threats. The two spokesmen of the Nationalist Party, however, were interested solely in the results of the Germiston by-election. The poverty and suffering of large masses of workers did not concern them in the least.

Then, for the first time, Mr. Pirow and the Nationalist press introduced the communist bogey into South African politics and exploited it on a big scale in the Hitler fashion. The grave economic problems that were facing the country, the mass unemployment and starvation, were completely ignored. At political meetings in Germiston, the " menace of communism " was flogged to death and I, of course, was held up as the " arch-communist conspirator," out to destroy white civilisation and put the " kaffirs" in power. It was well known that I had been expelled from the Communist Party in September 1931-my expulsion and the expulsion of others had received widespread publicity-but facts and truths have never bothered the unscrupulous politicians of the Nationalist Party. These Nazi tactics failed in their purpose and Mr. J. G. N. Strauss, who later became leader of the United Party, the major opposition party in South Africa, hopelessly defeated the Nationalist candidate. The union leaders had asked the people of Germiston to show their disgust with Mr. Pirow and his mounted police by voting against his candidate, and they responded magnificently.

The struggle against wage cuts continued for two months under the greatest difficulties. The funds of the union grew desperately low and, at the beginning of October, we were only in a position to pay a few shillings a week strike pay. At one meeting called by the strike committee to discuss the critical situation, hundreds of women workers got up and offered to give up the money to which they were entitled so that their few shillings could be given to those who had children to support.

Starvation, physical exhaustion, lack of adequate support from the rest of the trade union movement and, last, but not least, police violence, sapped our strength and, by the middle of October, there were only five hundred workers left out of a total of three thousand who were prepared to carry on the fight to the bitter end. We saw that we had no hope of whining and resolved to surrender as a defeated army, rather than allow the strike to fizzle out. By the middle of October, Colonel F. H. P. Creswell, leader of the Labour Party, who was then Minister of Labour in the Nationalist Government, intervened-not on the side of the workers-and suggested that the workers should return to work and the dispute should be submitted to arbitration. We put the position clearly to the strikers and left the decision to them. We stressed the fact that we had no confidence in the arbitrator whom the Nationalist Government would appoint, but also emphasized that our forces were exhausted and that, by accepting arbitration, we would at least go back as an organised body. I remember addressing a meeting of several hundred strikers in Germiston one night in an open field, which was almost in complete darkness. I put the position squarely to them. Scores were in tears, heart-broken, but I could see that, although we had lost the struggle, they were still full of courage.

Defeat was terrible to accept, yet there was no choice but to agree to arbitration. We knew that all our efforts would be futile, yet we worked hard to prepare our case. The Government appointed a single arbitrator, the late Mr. Britten, Chief Magistrate of Johannesburg. He gave the impression of being a devout Christian gentleman, but completely ignored the plea of the union and gave an award a hundred per cent in favour of the employers. The employers had withdrawn their demand for a twenty-five per cent reduction in wages, but had insisted on a ten per cent cut. In his anxiety to help the employers, the arbitrator had first issued an award which, in effect, meant a reduction in wages in excess of ten per cent, but when we drew his attention to the fact that he was going beyond the terms of reference, he amended his award. It was all a foregone conclusion, but at least we signed the "terms of surrender " as a union.

But Mr. Pirow was not satisfied with the crushing defeat he had helped to inflict on the workers and, on Saturday morning, November the 5th, 1932, when I came to the Trades Hall, Detective-Sergeant Toerien served me with an order, which read:

"To:

Emil Solomon Sachs

In terms of the provisions of sub-section (12) of Section One of Act No. 27 of 1914 as amended by section One of Act No. 19 of 1930, you are hereby notified that WHEREAS I find that you are creating feelings of hostility between the European inhabitants of the Union, on the one hand, and the Coloured and Native inhabitants, on the other hand, in the Magisterial districts of Benoni, Boksburg, Brakpan, Germiston, Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and Springs, in the Province of the Transvaal, I HEREBY prohibit you from being present within the aforementioned Magisterial districts of Benoni, Boksburg, Brakpan, Germiston, Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and Springs, in the Province of the Transvaal, for a period of twelve months as from the seventh day after the delivery or tender to you of this notice.

0. PIROW,

Minister of Justice."

I had devoted years of my life to the promotion of harmony between the European and non-European members of the Union and now, without any semblance of a trial, without even a hearing, I was told peremptorily to get out of the Witwatersrand for a period of twelve months because I was creating inter-racial hostility. Such tyranny had to be fought at all costs. Pirow's action caused widespread indignation, not only in the ranks of the trade union movement, but among all fair-minded people.

I decided to make application to the Supreme Court to have the order set aside, and engaged the services of Colonel G. F. Stallard, K.C., then leader of the Transvaal Bar, who, in addition to being a lawyer of outstanding ability, was also an active politician, conversant with the South African political structure. I knew that the decision of the court would be of great importance, not only to me personally, but that it would vitally affect the liberty of every citizen in South Africa.

On Tuesday, the 24th November 1932, my application was heard in the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court before Judges de Waal, Tindall and Barry (E. S. Sachs v. 0. Pirow, N.O.; 1933 T.P.D. pp. 141-169). J. Murray, K.C., now Justice Murray, a formidable opponent, appeared for Pirow.

Judge Tindall and Judge Barry were both lawyers of great ability, who had long maintained the high tradition of the South African Bench. I did not like Judge de Waal, who had been one of the judges of the Special Criminal Court which, in 1922, had passed the death sentence on Taffy Long, the miners' leader.

The three judges in Pretoria gave judgment in favour of the Minister, but awarded me a portion of the costs.

I gave notice of appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and, on the 26th September 1933, the appeal was heard before A. C. J. Stratford, J. A. Beyers, J. A. de Villiers and A. J. A. Gardner. I had no money to engage the services of senior counsel and Advocate Julius Lewin, who is now Senior Lecturer in Native Law and Administration at the University of the Witwatersrand, very kindly appeared on my behalf pro deo; Mr. J. Murray, K.C., again appeared for the Minister. My appeal was dismissed. (E. S. Sachs v. 0. Pirow, K.O. 1934 A.D. p. 11.)

The banishment order against me was, however, never enforced. Early in 1933 General Smuts became Minister of Justice and he withdrew the order.

On the 17th December 1932, the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court dismissed my application to set aside Mr. Pirow's banishment order. A few days later, Mr. Justice Barry, in the Witwatersrand Local Division of the Supreme Court, gave judgment in my action for defamation and awarded me £75 damages with costs. Months of intensive struggle had left me exhausted and, as the time was not propitious for attempting to revive the union, I left for England to recuperate. I intended to tackle the big task of rebuilding the union with renewed energy on my return.

Mr. Pirow, however, was determined to harass me and, when I landed in Southampton, I was declared an " undesirable alien" and detained in Bargate Gaol in Southampton for five days. No one could tell me why I was detained, but from one of the detectives I learned that the authorities had received a request for my detention from South Africa. The British Trade Union Congress intervened and I was released. I spent a few weeks in London and then went to Berlin, where I stayed for a momentous week, when Adolf Hitler was appointed Reichs-Chancellor of Germany on January 30th, 1933.