The month of July marks the centennial of the culmination of the 1913 white mineworkers strike on the Rand. Although it was not the first large-scale industrial action to affect South Africa’s mining industry, it certainly was the first strike to erupt in violent clashes between miners and the State. Moreover, it was the first instance in South Africa’s history in which there was a spilling of blood as a result of industrial disturbances.

The early 1910s was a period marked by significant unrest among the working class the world over. In particular, between 1910 and 1914, Britain was wracked by a series of strikes of such militancy that the State was, for a time, shaken to its very foundations.

Inevi- tably, such a troubled mood filtered back to South Africa and served to further enrage an already disaf- fected community of white mineworkers. Their frustration stemmed from the fact that, in general, mine managers had not yet learned the advantages of employer-employee consultations and were concerned only with maintaining their already powerful position and the maintenance of high profits.

In such an atmosphere, it was inevitable that there would be trouble on the mines and all it needed was just a minor disagreement to provide the spark. The fuse was ignited in May 1913, when the manager of the New Kleinfontein gold mine, in Benoni, changed, without consultation, the Saturday shift hours for the underground mechanics from 7:30 to 12:30, to 7:30 to 15:30. Such an alteration affected just five white workers on the mine.

Incensed that they were not consulted and that the manager had failed to implement the 30-day notice period, the five, led by officials of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers union, went on strike.

While the directors of the mining company were sympathetic to the strikers’ grievances and attempted to settle the dispute with their own employees, such negotiations proved futile as the company refused to negotiate with officials of the unions, whose status they refused to recognise.

As the strikers became increasingly frustrated, their demands broadened to include the abolition of all work on Saturday afternoon. The company refused and threatened to bring in strike breakers if employees did not return to work.

It was at that stage that, after a strike ballot was taken by all white employees and a large majority resolved to cease work, the mine was brought to a standstill on May 27. Within three days, the strike had spread to 63 other gold mines along the Rand and more than 18 000 white mineworkers had downed their tools. (Interestingly, black mineworkers were not included in that strike – they were forced to continue work or else remain in their compounds.)

Such was the extent of the strike that mine managers had little choice but to bring in strike breakers to continue mining operations. From June 11, under cover of strong police protection, thousands of strike breakers were drafted into the stricken mines.

With the knowledge that strike breakers were taking their jobs, their pay cut off and a month of enforced idleness, it was inevitable that the strikers’ frustration changed to sullen anger. Large parties began to visit the mines along the Rand to target the ‘scabs’. The angry mobs beat up the strike breakers, burnt their belongings and made life hell for their families.

By the beginning of July, there was no resolution to the dispute and the strike committee arranged for a mass demonstration on Johannesburg’s Market Square on July 4. Up to this point, government had tried to adopt an impartial attitude to the strike, holding the directors of the New Kleinfontein Company responsible for the disturbance.

However, plans of a mass demonstration in the country’s financial heart compelled the State to step in and ban the meeting. But the decision was taken far too late and there was no way of getting word to the thousands of strikers already converging on Johannesburg.

When the crowd that marched into Johannesburg was greeted by two squadrons of the Royal Dragoons (600 officers) and a large force of mounted and foot police carrying pick handles and guns arms, the rage of the strikers spilled over and the streets of Johannesburg were engulfed by riots.

The rioters attacked the police with stones and bottles and unsuccessfully tried to attack the power and railway stations. While the police were able to prevent them from doing any serious damage, the riotous mob returned to the city after dark, broke through the police cordon and set the railway station and the premises of The Star newspaper on fire. They then made an attempt to attack the buildings of the mine owners, chief among them the Corner House building.

It was at this point that the police fired the first shots at the rioting strikers. For the next few hours, the streets of inner Johannesburg were engulfed in chaos, with rioters raiding stores that sold rifles and ammunition. The streets resounded with the noise of gunshots, breaking bottles and stones falling on corrugated iron.

The next day, the mob assembled in Loveday street and attacked the Rand Club. This resulted in a prolonged exchange of shots between soldiers and strikers, and a couple of cavalry charges to clear the streets.

The strike ended that afternoon, when the Prime Minister, Louis Botha, and his Deputy, Jan Smuts, drove into Johannesburg to nego- tiate with strike leaders at the Carlton hotel. It was there that, while the mob howled in the streets outside, they signed the agreement, which Smuts was afterwards to describe as a “humiliation”. He later remarked: “We signed it because the police and Imperial forces informed us that the mob was beyond their control. If quiet was not restored anything could happen in Johannesburg that night. The town might be sacked, the mines permanently ruined.”

By the time it ended, 21 people had been killed and 47 injured. But all the strikers’ demands were met – the men at New Kleinfontein were reinstated and the strike breakers lost their jobs.

Significantly, the 1913 industrial action was just the first of a connected series of strikes that continued for nine years, being stimulated not only by class tensions, but also by racial antipathies, and which was to bring the country to the edge of destruction.