1927–1940: (Strike Action and the Settled Proletariat — The Shamva Mine Strike of 1927, the Northern Rhodesian Copper Belt Strikes of 1935 and 1940, the Mben…

1927–1940: (Strike Action and the Settled Proletariat — The Shamva Mine Strike of 1927, the Northern Rhodesian Copper Belt Strikes of 1935 and 1940, the Mbeni Dance Societies as Vehicles of Worker Solidarity, Women as Dancers and Organizers, and the 1940 Strike Demonstrating That Organized Workers Possessed Economic Muscle the British Could Not Ignore During Wartime): Toward the end of the 1920s and through the 1930s, collective consciousness translated into strike action, connected to the emergence of a settled proletariat as temporary migration gave way to more permanent residency in industrial areas. The 1927 strike at Shamva mine in Southern Rhodesia was organized by Nyasa workers settled there for several years, who now put their understanding of the system to strategic use. In the Northern Rhodesian copper belt, where mines were closer together, workers organized more widely and passed information more easily from one mine to the next. Major strikes took place in 1935 and 1940, the latter particularly painful for the British during the Battle of Britain — the miners knew little about the air war over England, but they knew the British needed copper, and the concessions they won demonstrated that organized workers possessed real economic muscle. These strikes were not organized by trade unions — which would emerge later — but by innovative associations developed within the mine and the compound. Watchtower was important in mobilizing workers, as were cultural associations like the Mbeni dance societies, originally organized for entertainment and as an outlet for repressed energy. Miners divided into competing teams, adopted uniforms and titles mocking the authorities, and created a sense of worker solidarity — it was Mbeni members who acted as intermediaries during the copper belt strikes. Women as well as men were involved as dancers and organizers. The compound, designed to atomize and control, had become the very incubator of collective resistance.