Fifty years ago, women led the Durban mass strikes

Abstract

The historiography of the Durban mass strikes in 1973 has tended to focus on the role of white scholars or on the competing accounts of the events by different political currents that were active at the time. The most astonishing omission in these accounts was that while it is widely acknowledged that the textile and clothing workers gave the strikes an explosive character, the role of women as prominent actors remains invisible. This article will provide evidence and analysis of the leadership role in the strikes of women in the textile and clothing industry.