The 1914 South African industrial strike : the first internal deployment of the Union Defence Force

Abstract

The first internal deployment of the Union Defence Force (UDF) since its inception in 1912 was to suppress a violent labour strike in January 1914. Because the inexperienced UDF was still assimilating various British and Boer military traditions, the Permanent Force was not yet sufficiently organised to quell the strike on its own. Therefore, the commandos of the Citizen Force Reserve were deployed. The traditional commando system of the former Boer republics and the Transvaal Colony was thus briefly revived to subdue the strike, in the unstable and complex South African socio-economic environment of 1914. This operation marked the end of the Boer commando system in its established format. It formed part of a vanishing military culture and was destined to be replaced by the modernising military systems of the early twentieth century. The deployment of burghers during the strike sets the background against which the article investigates both the customary and changing nature of military service for the long-established commandos. This article explores the conditions, abilities, and experiences of the ‘burghers’ on commando that participated in the crushing of the strike from a social-military history perspective.