The National Party wins the general election

A younger generation formed the Youth League to press the ANC toward mass action and African nationalism. Its founders included Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo.

Resisters occupied land in Durban to defy the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act, known as the Ghetto Act. More than 2,000 people were eventually imprisoned.

About 60,000 to 76,000 Black miners struck for higher wages and better conditions. Police and troops violently suppressed the week-long action, killing and injuring workers.

After India raised the treatment of people of Indian origin, the UN General Assembly declared that relations between the two countries should conform to international obligations and the UN Charter.

Alfred Xuma, Yusuf Dadoo and Monty Naicker signed a declaration of cooperation, committing their organizations to joint struggle for full democratic rights.

Violence between African and Indian residents erupted amid poverty, racial segregation and labour competition. More than 140 people died, exposing divisions produced and manipulated by colonial rule.

The programme called for boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and non-cooperation. It marked a shift from petitions toward mass mobilization against white minority rule.

The ANC, Communist Party and trade unions called workers to stay home for political rights and against repression. Police killed at least eighteen people in clashes on the Witwatersrand.

Facing the Suppression of Communism Act, the CPSA dissolved publicly. Members later reorganized underground as the South African Communist Party.

The ANC and allied organizations organized a stay-at-home and day of mourning following the May Day killings and in protest against apartheid laws.