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Rand Revolt

South African history

Quick Summary

The Rand Revolt was an armed uprising by white workers in South Africa in 1922. It was primarily a response to the Chamber of Mines' plan to replace semiskilled white workers with lower-paid Black laborers, driven by rising costs and a falling gold price. This plan challenged the established "job colour bar," which reserved skilled labor for whites and ensured them significantly higher wages than Black workers.

The protest began as a miners' strike in January 1922 but escalated into a general strike and then an armed insurrection. White workers organized as commandos and took control of Johannesburg. The South African government, led by Prime Minister Jan Smuts, deployed artillery and aircraft to crush the revolt, resulting in approximately 200 deaths. The conflict ended with the passage of the Industrial Conciliation Act in 1924, which established new state mechanisms for managing industrial disputes.12

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