Coal, Control and Class Experience in South Africa's Rand Revolt of 1922

The Rand Revolt, the culmination of major strikes by white workers, was a pivotal event in South African history. More than 200 lives were lost, the workers and their unions were crushed, and an era of working-class militancy was brought, abruptly, to a close. Defeat led, in March 1924, to the passage of an Industrial Conciliation Act that further bureaucratized the mainly white unions and institutional-ized a deep divide between these organizations and African workers. It also, however, produced a reaction against the prime minister, General Smuts, who was removed from office in the general election of June 1924. For historians, the revolt, and the strikes preceding it, present an enigma. Why was it that whites, a relatively well-paid elite, were so militant, whilst the majority of the workforce, poorly-paid Africans, did not strike at all? This question raises broader,