General Strike in South Africa
Submitted by red jack on Apr 25 2018 16:43
Cities and rural towns across South Africa were shut down today as the new South African Federation of Trade Unions, which is independent of the ruling ANC, and driven by the militant National Union of Metal Workers, held a successful general strike. The strike was strongly supported by popular organisations organised outside of the factory floor, such as Abahlali baseMjondolo. It is being understood as a clear indication that the ANC has lost its hold over the organised working class.
A Victim of Power (Corp) and Police: The La Presse Conflict and the Tear Gas Suffocation of Michele Gauthier
Submitted by greensyndic on Mar 7 2018 04:37
A report on the 1971 conflict at La Presse and the police killing of socialist feminist Michele Gauthier. The broader struggle against Power Corp., the impact of the police killing, and the development of the Common Front and subsequent general strikes.
The post-war strike wave in East, West, and Southern Africa
Submitted by Mike Harman on Mar 2 2018 20:20
From the end of the Second World War until the mid-'60s there was a wave of strikes in British East and West Africa, French West Africa, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The history of this class struggle has been neglected by both mainstream historians and most revolutionary tendencies based in Europe and the US.
1947 General Strike, Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
An account by T. B. Dissanayake of the 1947 general strike in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka
The general strike and Irish independence
Submitted by Anonymous on Jan 24 2018 22:17
Interesting article by John Dorney on the syndicalist tactic of the general strike and its relationship with the struggle for Irish independence in the early 20th century.
The 1945 Nigerian General Strike
In 1945 a general strike involving tens of thousands of workers began with railway workers, then spread to other nationalised industries including dock and civil service workers, with workers at private firms supporting the strike and refusing to cross picket lines. Estimates of involvement range between 42,000 to 200,000 workers making it one of the largest strikes in colonial Africa up until that point.
The 1948 Zanzibar General Strike
A history of the three week general strike in Zanzibar, 1948.
The Nairobi General Strike, 1950: From Protest to Insurgency
The Nairobi General Strike [1950] was the culmination of Kenya’s post war strike wave and urban upheaval. An unprecedented upsurge occurred with the general strikes in Mombasa [1947] led by the African Workers Federation [A.W.F.] and in Nairobi by the East African Trades Union Congress [E.A.T.U.C.]. While this has been termed and treated as a city wide strike, there is enough evidence to suggest a movement that went some way beyond Nairobi. The extent of the cohesion and reciprocal impacts amongst urban and rural Africans involved in the strike were underplayed by the colonial government and the media that followed it.
World War I struggles in Switzerland
Submitted by Steven. on Nov 11 2017 18:37
An informative account of the wave of working class struggles which took place during and immediately following World War I in Switzerland, by Christian Koller.
General strike against state repression in Catalonia
Submitted by Cipo Fraioli on Oct 3 2017 12:14
Workers in Catalonia have launched a general strike today in response to the brutal police repression following Sunday's Catalan independence referendum.
