JB Marks

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

JB Marks or John "Beaver" Marks , actually John Joseph Marks , (born March 21, 1903 in Ventersdorp , † August 1, 1972 in Moscow ) was a South African politician and trade union leader .

Life

Marks was born during apartheid as one of seven children to an inter-ethnic couple. At the age of 16 he was admitted to Kilnerton Teachers' Training College in Pretoria , where he was qualified to teach . Due to the poor treatment by the white principals, the students, led by Marks, went on strike. The strike itself was unsuccessful, but it politicized Marks, who committed himself to the “fight against racial and social oppression”. During his student days he was given the nickname "Beaver", which he abbreviated with a B. from which JB developed. His birth name was only recorded in police files.

After joining, he worked at various schools in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State , where he primarily taught the children of mine workers . After hearing a speech by Communist leader Sidney Percival Bunting in 1928 , he joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). In 1929 he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in which eleven other people present at the memorial service in memory of the Zulu War died. In 1931 his teaching license was withdrawn because of his political activities. From then on he devoted himself to the fight against oppression and was elected to the Central Committee of the CPSA in 1932 .

Marks' main goal was to improve the working conditions of black workers in the gold mines in the Witwatersrand . In 1941, the decisive meeting to found a union took place with the support of the African National Congress (ANC) and Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon . The African Mine Workers' Union was founded in 1942 and Marks was elected its first chairman, at the same time he was president of the Transvaal section of the ANC. Despite small concessions from the government under Jan Christiaan Smuts , the situation of the workers did not improve; Meetings of more than 20 people were banned, and in 1944 some union officials were arrested. In August 1946 there was a general strike by the miners, which lasted a week and was brutally suppressed by the police: Hundreds of workers were injured and nine killed. Like others, Marks was arrested and banned several times and had to go underground from 1950 onwards . In 1952/53 he was one of the organizers of the Defiance Campaign , in which he himself participated and was therefore sentenced to prison. In 1962 Marks became chairman of the illegal South African Communist Party, the former CPSA, and a member of the ANC's national executive committee; most recently he was treasurer . He supported the establishment of a national trade union federation, the South African Congress of Trade Unions , which in 1985 became the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

John B. Marks' grave in the Novodevichy Honorary Cemetery in Moscow, 2014 before his reburial

In 1963, Marks left South Africa on the advice of the ANC and fled to Tanzania . He stayed there, expanded the party structures and ensured international networking. In 1971 he suffered a heart attack ; He was flown to the Soviet Union for treatment , where he died of another heart attack in 1972. His successor as SACP president was Yusuf Dadoo .

Reburial

In 2015 his body was transferred to South Africa along with that of Moses Kotane , where they were received by President Jacob Zuma .

Honors

In 1997, the JB Marks Education Trust Fund was established by the Miners Union in memory of Marks. Its aim is to promote the education of union members and students. The foundation has presented awards in various categories every year since 2010 , for example the JB Marks Award and the JB Marks Leader of the Year award.

In 1999 he was posthumously awarded the South African Order for Meritorious Service in gold.

In 2017 the municipality of Tlokwe / Ventersburg was renamed JB Marks .

A secondary school in Johannesburg and several streets in South Africa, including Durban , are named after Marks.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Acknowledgment of Marks ( Memento from June 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on the pages of the JB Marks Educational Trust Fund , accessed on February 8, 2016 (English).
  2. ↑ 1946 African Mine Workers Strike . In: South African History Online , accessed February 8, 2016.
  3. ^ Remains of struggle heroes Kotane and Marks back in SA. news24.com from March 1, 2015 (English), accessed on March 1, 2015
  4. ↑ Background of the Fund ( Memento from February 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
  5. ^ New Donors Join MIC to Beef Up JB Marks Education Trust . In: Gauteng Business News of August 11, 2011, accessed on May 24, 2012.
  6. ↑ List of recipients of the medal 1999 (English), accessed on August 25, 2018
  7. ↑ Jb Marks Secondary School ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: southafricaschools.co.za , accessed on May 24, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.southafricaschools.co.za
  8. ^ Old and New Street Names in The EThekwini Municipal Area . In: durban.gov.za , accessed on May 24, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Marks, JB
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marks, John Joseph (real name); Marks, John Beaver; Uncle JB
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician and union leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Ventersdorp
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1972
Place of death Moscow