Copperbelt strike of 1935

The Copperbelt strike in the industrial area, Copperbelt ( " copper belt " ) of the present state of Zambia took place in the copper mines and smelters of the cities Mufulira, Kitwe and Luanshya in May 1935.

Expiration

It was a strike of the black African mines and steel workers, who protested with this against the perceived as unjust taxes that the British colonial government had imposed on them, and met both former owner companies of the mines ( Anglo - American Corp.. , Rhodesia Selection Trust) alike. Been organized was the strike using the Welfare Societies (about: welfare organizations ), as the black African staff members currently no unions are allowed to form, but rather social institutions. Although he proceeded predominantly nonviolent, the British police in Luanshya shot and killed six miners. After the strike was called off, although the direct strike target had not been reached.

Importance

Indirectly, however, this strike was very far-reaching consequences. He was the first industrial union action throughout Central Africa, namely: - regional historically significant - in the then British " Northern Rhodesia " and not in the nearby Belgian Katanga area. He is considered by Zambians today as the first revolt against colonial rule. From the Welfare Societies, the African Mine Workers Union emerged (AMU ), the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress ( ANC) and the United National Independence Party ( UNIP ) from which all other parties in Zambia have split up today.

In the industrial labor struggles of the 1940s and 1950s, the organized industrial working class emerged as final cadre of union and strong and the political elite of the future of Zambia. Moreover, the fact proved that in the Copperbelt working people from African countries of Tanzania to South Africa and were integrated through the common work, so do not neotribalistisch against each organized in the Copperbelt area, for the later national unity Zambia as fundamental. The integration in the Copperbelt has become binding political norm for all 70 tribes in Zambia. Who immigrated always to Zambia, had to submit to this standard.

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