This week in history
November 28, 1820: Frederick Engels born
The son of a wealthy Rhenish textile manufacturer, Engels took a position in a factory which his father owned in Manchester, England, in 1842. Two years later, he first met Karl Marx in Paris and began a lifelong association. Engels' first major book was The Condition of the Working Class in England. He was active in Germany, France and Belgium, organising revolutionary movements and collaborating with Marx on several works.
Marx and Engels are recognised as the founders of scientific socialism, writing The Communist Manifesto in 1848, which became a definitive guide to revolutionaries. Engels pioneered a Marxist philosophical outlook with Anti-Duhring, which remains one of the most thorough Marxist philosophical works. He helped found the Communist League and the First International. After Marx's death he completed, edited and published Marx's unfinished second and third volumes of Capital.
November 30, 1930: Mother Jones dies
Mary Harris Jones was born in Ireland in 1830. She would be referred to as many things: "the most dangerous woman in America" by the media, "the grandmother of all agitators" by the US Senate, "the miner's angel" by workers and "Mother Jones" by most.
She took an interest in the labour movement, becoming active after the death of her husband and children in 1867. Mother Jones won fame as a strong speaker and agitator for workers' rights and went on to help found the Socialist Party (1898) and the Industrial Workers of the World (1905). She helped to organise miners, garment workers and streetcar workers.
She championed campaigns to end child labour. At the age of 73, she led a march of several hundred textile workers from Philadelphia to New York City. Most of the workers where under 16 years old, representing almost 2 million other children working in mills, mines and factories throughout the country. This action was part of a campaign that led to most US states passing child protection laws.
Mother Jones was an active unionist into her 90s. She once told a rally, "I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser".
November 29, 1985: 33 black unions unite to form 500,000 member COSATU
On the last weekend of November 1985, 760 worker delegates from 33 unions gathered at the sports hall of the University of Natal to launch the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The launch was announced under an apartheid regime and a state of emergency, amidst township uprisings and tensions between unions.
Unity talks had started informally in 1979, become more formal in 1981 and continued up to the launch. Although the talks had covered many issues, there were still many unresolved differences. However, unionists felt that these could still be discussed in the framework of a federation.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the convener of the launching congress, set the tone with a short opening address: "The formation of this congress represents an enormous victory for the working class ... What we have to make clear is that a giant has risen and will confront all that stand in its way."