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Although the union had previously denounced the treachery of Neville Chamberlain, once war was declared it supported the war effort, and hundreds of members, men and women, volunteered for the army. When the "blitz" started over England a press statement announced that several thousand British children were coming to South Africa to escape the horrors of bombing.
The Central Executive Committee of the union decided to call for volunteers amongst garment workers to make clothes for these children and, within a short period, over twelve thousand members readily offered to work overtime to do so. Many employers agreed to place their factories, machinery and staff at the disposal of the volunteers and the union voted funds to buy materials. Volunteers from different factories competed to see who could produce the best and largest number of garments. Many Nationalist workers, on purely humanitarian grounds, were among the volunteers. The Nationalist press and a few agents of the Nationalist Party within the union started a furious protest against the proposal to clothe "foreign" children. "Why don't we clothe our own poor children?" they demanded. The union thereupon decided to ask for volunteers to clothe an equal number of South African children and to vote the necessary funds for materials. There was not a single volunteer. The Nationalists were obviously more interested in arousing anti-British feeling than in helping South African children. Ultimately, only about one hundred British children arrived, although clothing had been prepared for many more.
The union also took steps to safeguard the interests of the members who had joined the forces. With the co-operation of the employers, we raised thousands of pounds to help the soldiers and their dependents. Altogether, tens of thousands of pounds were collected during the war by voluntary contributions from members for various humanitarian purposes.
The overwhelming majority of the garment workers gave their wholehearted support to the war effort. Small groups, however, had come under the influence of fascist organisations and often caused disturbances in factories. In one factory where over a hundred workers were employed, four women started repeating a rumour, which had been spread by the Ossewabrandwag, to the effect that policemen had brought to the homes of widows the blood-stained uniforms of their husbands who had been killed in the war. The rest of the workers became incensed and, during the argument that ensued, the four started praising Hitler and expressed the fervent hope that he would soon come to South Africa. Work stopped and I was called in to restore peace. About a hundred indignant Afrikaner women demanded the immediate expulsion of the four Hitlerites from the factory. I called in these victims of Nazi propaganda and spoke to them for about half an hour. At first they tried to deny that they had spoken about the bloodstained uniforms, but eventually they admitted that they had acted foolishly and promised to behave better in future. All the workers went back to the machines, but late in the afternoon, when they stopped work, I received another message, that trouble had started again. A group of young Afrikaner women, whose relatives had joined the army, had sent a note to the four troubleÂmakers, in Afrikaans, saying: "We democrats want to fight the Nazis". And fighting, in this case, meant not a verbal argument but fisticuffs. When I arrived, I explained to the angry workers the futility of physical violence. I told them that we would have to show the masses of misled Afrikaner workers the dangers of Nazi ideas and propaganda, but could do it more effectively without scissors or hatpins.
On another occasion I received an urgent 'phone message from another factory employing about five hundred workers. There I found that a group of patriotic workers were in the habit of coming to the factory with Union Jacks pinned to their lapels. A much smaller group of about twenty retaliated wearing the Vierkleur, emblem of the Nationalists. Offensive remarks from one group to the other had led to a state of civil war. At first it was confined to words, but a few days later scissors and other weapons came into play. When I arrived at the factory, the place was in an uproar and the foreman was utterly helpless to cope with the situation. I asked him to switch off the motors and let me speak to the workers. I told them that they came to the factories to make garments and earn a living. Life was always difficult for the workers, and even more so now, with a terrible war raging. They should help each other and not cause more unhappiness. They had every right to display the Union Jack or the Vierkleur; people should be proud of their flags; but they must not start quarrels, make their own lives miserable, and disorganise production. The union was determined to ensure peace in the industry. All members of the union would have their livelihood protected and be allowed to do their day's work without threats or violence. Henceforth, no flags must be brought to the factory, until the workers had learnt to treat each other's national emblems with respect. In future, anyone who was likely to cause a disturbance would be dismissed from the factory and might even become liable to disciplinary measures by the union. There was tremendous applause and both sides came up to me to express their gratitude to the union. I saw clearly the tragedy of the workers. Ordinarily, they co-operated in their work in the factory and were quite friendly towards each other. But now, as a result of the war and the Nationalists' propaganda, racial bitterness filled their lives. Everyone felt irritated and extremely unhappy, and life in the factory, where co-operation and amity are essential, became unbearable. On neither side would passion yield to reason until the union's policy of toleration was put to them. Then they readily agreed to put a stop to their useless feud. Hatred and bitterness had been suffocating them, but now they could breathe freely again.
In another factory, a young Afrikaner woman flaunted a swastika in the face of another, who had that morning learned that her husband was missing up north. The workers got up from heir machines and demanded she should be dismissed immediately. She was charged before the union committee with a breach of discipline. Asked why she had tried to cause such pain to a fellow-worker, who was already in great distress, she offered no defence and was expelled from the union.
During the war years, the Nationalist Party made little headway the trade union movement. Tens of thousands of Afrikaners from the industrial and rural areas had volunteered for war service and many found employment at reasonable standards in civilian and war industries. In the general election of 1943, an overÂwhelming majority returned Smuts, in co-operation with the Labour Party. As more and more Afrikaners left the rural areas to come into the cities, the leaders of the Nationalist Party began to realise the importance, not only of holding the Platteland, but also of capturing the towns. Especially the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Churches intensified propaganda against the free trade unions. Not only did they deliver sermons from the pulpit, denouncing the trade unions, but also in addition they organised regular visits to clothing factories, ostensibly to hold prayer meetings, but actually to incite the white workers against the non-Europeans. On almost every occasion when such a prayer meeting was held in a clothing factory, relations between, white and non-white workers, deteriorated.
Early in February 1944, a large clothing factory in Germiston employing about seven hundred Europeans engaged nine Coloured women to help execute urgently needed war contracts. These Coloured workers were employed in a section of the factory separated from the Europeans. Indeed, for several days the European workers did not even know that Coloured workers had been engaged. On Wednesday, 9th February, two Nationalists in the factory discovered this fact and immediately started trouble among the workers. A deputation was sent to the employer, demanding the instant sacking of the Coloured workers. The Nationalist troublemakers switched off the motors, called a strike and harangued the workers, violently attacking the union and officials for allowing Coloured workers to work. The branch secretary, Hester Cornelius, arrived at the factory to deal with the matter, but was shouted down by a group of Nationalists, who also threatened those who would not take part in the strike with physical violence. For several hours there was chaos and mob rule in the factory and the employer was compelled to dismiss the nine Coloured workers. On the 18th February 1944, the Germiston branch committee of the union held a meeting, at which the two ringÂleaders were charged with calling a strike and causing a disturbance in breach of the union's agreement with the employers, and also with howling down the branch secretary. Of the sixteen members of the executive, only one was not an Afrikaner. By unanimous decision, the branch committee found the two women guilty on both counts and resolved to expel them from membership of the union. The Nationalists and other pro-fascist organisations started a nationÂwide campaign against the union and its leaders. The Nationalist newspapers came out with big headlines: "White Civilisation in Danger". In Parliament, members of the Nationalist Party moved "the adjournment of the House to consider a matter of grave public importance" and, during the debate on this motion, vicious attacks were made on the Garment Workers' Union and the trade union movement generally. The three Dutch Reformed Churches immediately established an enlarged Church committee to deal with the "danger facing white civilisation". This committee organised numerous public meetings throughout South Africa, at which the union leaders were vilified. The whole campaign was engineered by the Nationalist Party and was designed to weaken trade unionism and to provoke race hatred. Ministers of the Dutch Reformed Churches not only joined willingly, but also took a leading part in it.
The shameless machinations of the Nationalist leaders and the extent to which the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Churches readily abandoned Christianity to serve the interests of reaction and racial domination is clearly demonstrated by a confidential report, which the union received from a thoroughly reliable source on March 1st, 1944. The report read as follows:
"A meeting took place last night and lasted until midnight at which a member of the Reformers' organisation was one of the principal speakers. This was a private meeting and only those intimately associated with the events in the Germiston factory took part. Discussion took place as to whether the girls at the factory would strike or not, but eventually it was decided that the two girls who had been dismissed from the factory and suspended from membership of the Garment Workers' Union should force their way into the factory today (Monday). If they were then ejected, the rest of the girls would be so enraged that a general strike in the factory would ensue. 'This would give the impression that the strike was a spontaneous one by the workers themselves in protest against the two girls' dismissal for refusing to work under the same roof as Coloured workers.
"X---, a Nationalist leader, sent out scouts to ascertain the position at the factory and found that the two girls had entered the factory and sat down to work. He was very pleased and believed that this would set everything going in the direction planned.
"He then contacted several Afrikaner parsons and told them that the preservation of Christianity and white civilisation was in jeopardy and that they must join him at the consistory of the Rev. Boneschans at 5.30 p.m. today, when the whole matter would be discussed. In the course of other conversations, X-- said that the whole affair must appear to be under the aegis of the Afrikaans churches and that no word of Reformers must be mentioned. The public must be made to believe that the workers were fighting the black menace and that the Churches had given this fight their blessing. In the meantime, the Reformers and X-- would work behind the scenes, egging on the workers and endeavouring to make the flames spread to every corner of the Witwatersrand, so that all the workers of the Garment Workers' Union would be out on strike in due course and, feeling that Solly Sachs and his associates on the committee of the union were not disposed to help them fight the black menace, the workers would eventually throw Sachs and his friends out of the control of the union and good Afrikaners would be elected in their place. The nation must be roused to action, as this was a golden opporÂtunity for the Afrikaners to gain control of the industrial workers.
"There must be no mention of any political intrigues. Stress must be laid on the fact that the Churches were in the forefront of the struggle, to preserve Christianity and white civilisation. The Armsorg Raad (an Afrikaner welfare organisation) would be approached in Johannesburg and X-- was to leave at 9 a.m. for Johannesburg to see everyone worthy of contacting in the matter. He asked all the parsons whom he contacted to lay aside any business they might have for the next few days, as it was essential that all forces should be marshalled for a lightning strike."
The Enlarged Church Committee issued a pamphlet entitled White South Africa, Save Yourself. The pamphlet was not only an incitement to race hatred, but also defamatory. I thereupon made an application to the Supreme Court and was granted an order forbidding the distribution of the publication, with costs against the individual members of the committee.
The union issued a circular to all its members, exposing the tactics of the Nationalist leaders and their stooges. We could not call a public meeting in Germiston, as the Nationalist hooligans would have broken it up. But on 16th March 1944, a mass meeting of garment workers was held at the City Hall, Johannesburg. Some five thousand members of the union crowded into the hall. A gang of about fifty Nationalists, some in clerical garb, armed with sticks and bicycle chains, tried to force an entry into the hall, but were barred by the stewards, nearly all of who were women. Several of them were violently assaulted. One was hit in the face, punched over the left eye and struck with a baton on the shoulder. Another woman was so severely kicked in the stomach that she had to stay three weeks in hospital. One ruffian drew a knife, but was quickly disarmed. Many other women were attacked, but the stewards succeeded in ejecting the hooligans from the hall and the meeting proceeded peacefully. Three resolutions were unanimously adopted:
1. Expressing full confidence in the leadership of the union;
2. Urging all members to stand loyally by the union;
3. Instructing the central executive committee to proceed with the negotiations for a new industrial agreement.
The campaign of slander against the union was carried on for many months, all because nine Coloured garment workers had been allowed to work in a factory and earn an honest living. For years, thousands of Coloured garment workers had been employed in Johannesburg and "white civilisation" had not collapsed, but Germiston was a Nationalist stronghold.
During the campaign, a certain minister of one of the Dutch Reformed Churches, the Rev. A. B. du Preez, issued a "congregaÂtional letter", which contained defamatory material about me. I issued a summons against du Preez and, on the 12th March 1945, the case started in the Witwatersrand Local Division of the Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Neser. It lasted twenty-one days and the defendant engaging Mr. Oswald Pirow, K.C., to appear on his behalf, added much interest to the proceedings. Once more, the forces of democracy and reaction engaged in a great battle within the precincts of the court, where lawlessness cannot be tolerated. For three weeks, the newspapers gave prominence to the proceedings and this cause celebre became the talk of South Africa.
Judgment was reserved and both sides waited anxiously for the verdict.
On the 24th October 1945, Mr. Justice Neser delivered his judgment. The court was crowded and over fifty Dutch Reformed Ministers assembled to hear the result. I was awarded £300 and costs amounting to over £11,000.
The learned judge held that the occasion was privileged, but that the defendant was actuated by an indirect and improper motive and stated of me what he did not know to be true, or was reckless whether it was true pr false.
This defeat had a disastrous effect upon the disrupters, whilst it raised the prestige of our union enormously, and inspired the trade union movement and other democratic forces to carry on the struggle for freedom.