Johanna Cornelius
Johanna Cornelius | |
|---|---|
| Born | Johanna Catharina Cornelius 27 February 1912 |
| Died | 21 June 1974 (aged 62) |
| Occupation(s) | Trade unionist, garment worker |
| Organization | Garment Workers' Union of South Africa (GWU) |
Johanna Catharina Cornelius (27 February 1912 – 21 June 1974) was an Afrikaner activist and trade unionist. She served as the Afrikaner Garment Workers' Union of South Africa (GWU) president after Solly Sachs.
Biography
[edit]Cornelius was born in Lichtenburg, South Africa, and grew up in rural South Africa as one of nine children.[1] Her father and grandfather both fought in the Anglo Boer War and her mother was held in a concentration camp during the war.[2] She and her older sister, Hester Cornelius, moved to Johannesburg in the 1920s,[3] where Johanna eventually started working in a garment factory.[1] Cornelius worked as a machinist in the factory.[2]
Cornelius was arrested and detained in jail for several house in 1932 while participating in a GWU strike.[4] After she was released from jail, she spoke to the workers and encouraged them to "demand a living wage and freedom."[4] Her speech also referenced the Great Trek and the Anglo Boer War, joining "nationalism together with the class struggle rather than with the national struggle."[2]
She went to the Soviet Union as part of a workers' delegation sponsored by the South African Communist Party (SACP)[5] in 1933.[1] Her trip there helped her learn more about communism and social equality,[4] as well as exposing her to new experiences and political ideologies.[5] When she returned from the Soviet Union, she became a full-time union organizer for GWU, working from the main office in Germiston.[1]
Cornelius worked as the GWU president from 1935 to 1937 and under her leadership, the union won reduced working hours and increased wages for workers.[1] She and Hester also travelled to Cape Town in February 1936 help the GWU branch there.[2]
Cornelius worked to include people of all backgrounds in the union and felt that working in the union had helped her "transcend the racial attitudes" of her past.[6] She later reflected that "it took me years to get used to the notion that even the English – let alone the natives were human beings."[7]
Cornelius was accused in 1938 of being a "communist accomplice of Sachs and for spending all her time organising black people."[2] She defended her socialism as the logical outcome of Afrikaner resistance to the "imperialist yoke,"[8] and was able to successfully fight off attempts by Afrikaner nationalists who wanted to take control of the union.[1]
She became a founder of the National Union of Cigarette and Tobacco Workers in 1938, later leading a two-week strike in Rustenburg in September 1940.[1] The strike in Rustenberg was "heated" and women in the strike faced tear gas and police attacks.[9] In 1943 she ran unsuccessfully as an Independent Labor Party candidate.[1]
Under the Suppression of Communism Act (1950) Cornelius and Sachs were listed as communists.[10] When Sachs was exiled from South Africa in 1952, she took over the GWU and worked that position until her death.[1]
Cornelius died on 21 June 1974 in Johannesburg.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i Rappaport, Helen (2001). Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers. ABC-CLIO. pp. 164–165. ISBN 1576071014.
johanna cornelius.
- ^ a b c d e f "Johanna Catharina Cornelius". South African History Online. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
- ^ Oakes, Dougie. "Factory workers' fight for dignity". www.iol.co.za. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
- ^ a b c LaNasa, Peter (12 June 2015). "The Rise of Women's Trade Unionism in South Africa". South African History Online. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
- ^ a b Walker, Cherryl (1991). Women and Resistance in South Africa. New Africa Books. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-86486-170-2.
- ^ Berger 1992, p. 124.
- ^ Mark, S.; Trapido, Stanley; Marks, S. (25 September 2014). The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth Century South Africa. Routledge. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-317-86897-2.
- ^ Kruger, Loren (19 August 2004). Post-Imperial Brecht: Politics and Performance, East and South. Cambridge University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-521-81708-0.
- ^ Berger 1992, p. 158.
- ^ "Garment Worker's Union". Wits University Research Archives. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
Sources
[edit]- Berger, Iris (1992). Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900-1980. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780852550779.