The Rand Rebellion ( af, Rand-rebellie; also known as the 1922 strike) was an armed uprising of white miners in the Witwatersrand region of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, in March 1922. Jimmy Green, a prominent politician in the Labour Party, was one of the leaders of the strike. Following a drop in the world price of gold from 130 shillings (£6 10s) per fine troy ounce in 1919 to 95s/oz (£4 15s) in December 1921, the companies tried to cut their operating costs by decreasing wages, and by weakening the colour bar by promoting cheaper black mine workers to skilled and supervisory positions.

History

The rebellion started as a strike by white mine workers on 28 December 1921 and shortly thereafter, it became an open rebellion against the state. Subsequently the workers, who had armed themselves, took over the cities of Benoni and

Brakpan Brakpan is a mining town in the Gauteng province of South Africa. History The name Brakpan comes from a small pan on a farm called Weltevreden, which was filled with very brackish water and was probably referred to as the "brakpan," and it was nea ...

, and the

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

suburbs of Fordsburg and Jeppe. The young Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) took an active part in the uprising on grounds of class struggle whilst reportedly opposing racist aspects of the strike, as did the

syndicalists Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of prod ...

. The racist aspect was typified by the slogan; "''Workers of the world, unite and fight for a white South Africa!''" and by several pogroms against blacks. Several Communists and syndicalists, the latter including the strike leaders Percy Fisher and Harry Spendiff, were killed as the rebellion was quelled by the Union Defence Force. The rebellion was eventually put down by "considerable military firepower and at the cost of over 200 lives". Prime Minister

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...

crushed the rebellion with 20,000 troops, artillery, tanks, and bomber aircraft. By this time the rebels had dug trenches across Fordsburg Square and the air force tried to bomb but missed and hit a local church. However, the army's bombardment finally overcame them. Lieutenant Colonel Llewellyn Andersson's role in creating the

Union Defence Force (South Africa) ) , headquarters = Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa , commander-in-chief = , commander-in-chief_title = Sovereign of South Africa , minister = , minister_title = , commander = , commander_title = Chief ...

was instrumental in crushing the rebellion. Smuts' actions caused a political backlash, and in the 1924 elections his

South African Party nl, Zuidafrikaanse Partij , leader1_title = Leader (s) , leader1_name = Louis Botha,Jan Smuts, Barry Hertzog , foundation = , dissolution = , merger = Het Volk South African PartyAfrikaner BondOrangia Unie , merged ...

lost to a coalition of the National Party and Labour Party. They introduced the Industrial Conciliation Act 1924, Wage Act 1925 and Mines and Works Amendment Act 1926, which recognised white trade unions and reinforced the colour bar. Under instruction from the Comintern, the CPSA reversed its attitude toward the white working class and adopted a new 'Native Republic' policy.

In popular culture

A TV series in 8 episodes produced by the

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's stat ...

in 1984 and entitled ''1922'', tells this part of South African history. In Agatha Christie's ''

The Man in the Brown Suit ''The Man in the Brown Suit'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by The Bodley Head on 22 August 1924 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The character Colo ...

'', published in 1924, the Rand Rebellion is mentioned both by name and as a backdrop for the mystery. Christie washes over the specifics and uses the Rebellion as nothing more than a minor inconvenience for her characters.

Bibliography

* Jeremy Krikler, ''Rand Revolt: The 1922 Insurrection and Racial Killings in South Africa'', Jonathan Ball Publishers SA, 2006, * Wessel Pretorius Visser, ''A History of the South African Mine Workers' Union, 1902-2014'', Edwin Mellen Press, 2016,

References

{{Political history of South Africa 1921 protests 1922 protests Conflicts in 1921 Conflicts in 1922 South African Communist Party Syndicalism in South Africa History of South Africa History of Johannesburg History of the East Rand Protests in South Africa 1921 in South Africa 1922 in South Africa Jan Smuts Labour disputes in South Africa Miners' labor disputes Military operations involving South Africa Revolutions of 1917–1923

History

In popular culture

Bibliography

See also

References