1. The 1973 Durban Strikes: Building Popular Democratic Power in South Africa
- Author:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Publication Date:
- 01-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Abstract:
- Long after the decolonisation wave swept across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, two large countries – Brazil and South Africa – remained in the grip of wretched political systems. The military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985) and the apartheid regime in South Africa (1948–1994) faced significant challenges from a range of political and social forces. Although many of these struggles are etched into public memory, the role of workers’ resistance is little known outside of unions, as if workers’ struggles were marginal to the story of democratisation. On the contrary, in both countries, the struggles of workers were central in bringing down odious regimes. In South Africa, the 1973 strikes in the industrial port city of Durban began the process of building a militant trade union movement that would, by the second half of the 1980s, have the apartheid regime reeling from its blows. In Brazil, the 1978–1981 strikes in three industrial cities in greater São Paulo – Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, and São Caetano do Sul – are often said to have marked the beginning of the end of the military dictatorship. The strikes were led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, then president of the ABC Metalworkers’ Union and the current president of Brazil. Workers led the way against entrenched forms of domination that not only exploited them, but also oppressed the people as a whole, and the democracies to come were first incubated on the shop floor. This dossier is a contribution to recovering that part of South Africa’s history.
- Topic:
- Apartheid, Democratization, History, Decolonization, Labor Strike, and Workers
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Africa