Mabel Balfour

Mabel Balfour was a South African trade unionist and an anti-apartheid activist. Balfour was first involved with the unions representing food and canning workers.[1] After many leaders in the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) were arrested in the 1956 Treason Trials, she became part of the Management Committee in 1957.[1] Balfour was considered good at keeping "the spirits of workers high during very difficult times."[2]

Balfour was arrested in 1958 for her participation in the April Stay-At Home and sentenced to £20 or 30-days hard labor for "inciting non-white workers on the Rand." The punishment was eventually suspended.[1] In 1962, she became the General Secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers Union (A-FCWU) in Transvaal.[1] She was banned in 1963[3] and confined to house arrest in Roodepoort.[1]

See also

References
  1. Luckhardt; Wall. "Organize... or Starve! - The History of the SACTU". South African Congress of Trade Unions. South African History Online. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  2. "Mabel Balfour". South African History Online. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  3. Berger, Iris (1992). Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900-1980. Indiana University Press. p. 267. ISBN 9780852550779.


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