The Durban strikes of 1973: Political identities and themanagement of protest

The Durban strikes of 1973: Political identities and the management of protest by TigersEye99

Unions: a need to get back to first principles

Terry Bell

by Terry Bell, Tery Bell Writes

On January 31, exactly 40 years ago, the modern trade union movement arrived on the South African scene. Its birth was heralded by a wave of strikes in Durban that had gestated over 22 days from the time 2 000 workers at Coronation Brick and Tile downed tools.

These strikes, that culminated in nearly 5 000 workers at three major plants declaring a dispute on that fateful day in 1973 were not only to demand better pay and shopfloor conditions; they also had a broad, anti-apartheid, political dimension. And, like the worker committees that emerged during the recent turmoil on the platinum belt, they had no fixed leadership or bureaucracy.

Workers' Power Thrives On Unity

Steven Friedman

Steven Friedman, RU Perspectives

The Durban strikes of 1973 empowered workers and helped destroy apartheid.

This month 40 years ago, South Africa learned an important truth which shaped our future - that people without power can challenge those who have it, but only if they act together.

The lesson was taught by the Durban strikes of 1973; they began a process which shifted power to working people and played an important role in defeating apartheid.

The Durban Strikes 1973 ("Human Beings with Souls")

In January 1973 South Africa witnessed a momentous chain of events in its political history. The Durban Strikes were a turning point in the confrontation between the country's minority rulers and the worker majority. Motivated by material need and underpinned by principles of democracy and equality, the strikes conjoined academics, workers and political leaders among others, in a struggle that was to redefine the South African political landscape in the years to follow.

The Durban Moment: Revisiting politics, labour & resistance in the 1970s

The 1973 Strikes and the Birth of a New Movement in Natal

by Nicole Ulrich, 2005

In 1973 61,000 African and Indian workers in Natal downed their tools in the space of a few months. These strikes, which took place in various industries, were not coordinated by any organisation and represented a spontaneous upsurge by workers angered by a sharp increase in the cost of living. The unexpectedness of the strikes, and the large numbers of workers involved, prevented employers and police from simply cracking down on workers.

Building Tomorrow Today

 by Steven Friedman, 1987

The twentieth century, we are told only began in Europe in 1914, when world war swept away its old, complacent rulers. The 1970s began for South African employers early on the morning of January 9, 1973, when 2 000 workers at the Coronation Brick and Tile works on the outskirts of Durban gathered at a football field and demanded a pay rise. 

Click here to download chapters two and 16 of Steven Friedman's Building Tomorrow Today (Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1987)

The People's City: African Life in Twentieth Century Durban

edited by Paul Maylam & Iain Edwards

A lively collection of essays on all aspects of African life in the city of Durban during the twentieth century, including everything from crowds and violence to beer brewing, rickshaw pulling, and black popular music. Case histories of three particular African locations complement more familiar studies of workers and trade union organization, and political history. A marvelous photographic essay of historical Durban is included.

Eddie Webster, the Durban moment and new labour internationalism

by Rob Lambert, Transformation, 2010

An alternative to neo-liberal globalisation

The struggle for an alternative to self-regulating global capitalism, commonly described as neo-liberal globalisation, needs to be contested both at the level of ideas (theory/ideology) and strategy (movement/politics). Firstly, a vision of an alternative model of economy, politics and society, grounded in democratic social regulation has to be forged. Harvey refers to this as 'thought experiments'--painting fantastic pictures of a future society (Harvey 2000:49,). Secondly, realising such a vision depends upon imagining and struggling for a new kind of global social movement, which creates active, globally coordinated civil societies, driven by the desire for a more humane, just way of working and living. Defining the role of unions within such a movement is contested, with some arguing that unions have become an obstacle to the realisation of such a movement (Waterman 2009).