When 4,000 black workers at Volkswagen South Africa went on strike on the morning of June 16, 1980, their walkout and march through Uitenhage—twenty-five kilometers inland from the Indian Ocean city of Port Elizabeth—did far more than disturb the streets of a conservative industrial town. The Workers struct after an impasse in negotiations between the automobile companies and their union, the National Union of Motor Assembly and Rubber Workers of South Africa (NUMARWOSA) over the union's demand for a “living wage.” Within days the entire town was engulfed in a general strike. The South African Police declared Uitenhage a “security area,” effectively cutting it off from the outside world. The other strikes soon ended or were repressed, most fiercely at the American multinational Goodyear, where the work force was dismissed and then selectively reemployed under police guard. However, Volkswagen workers continued their action for more than three weeks before winning awage increase and returning to work with their jobs intact and their union strengthened (Plates 1, 2, 3).
