Federation of South African Trade Unions

FOSATU is founded

📅 14 April 1979

Independent unions created a nonracial federation built around strong workplace organization. FOSATU helped lay foundations for a larger labour movement in the 1980s.

A major Transvaal stay-away begins

📅 5 November 1984

Workers and students launched a two-day stay-away against repression, unequal education and apartheid local government, demonstrating growing coordination between workplace and township struggles.