Description

José de MATTOS and Manuel dos SANTOS, Editors. / Manuel José de SOUSA AMORIM, Director.

Lourenço Marques [Maputo]; na Tipografia de Os Simples, 1911 – 1913.

 

 

At the end of the 19th century, an organized labour movement representing white workers developed in Portuguese Mozambique. This arose in the context of the industrialization of the colony’s major cities and the completion of grand infrastructure projects, such as the Lourenço Marques-Pretoria Railway (opened 1895). These developments led to the migration of labourers from the home country, who arrived carrying the various influences of established metropolitan Portuguese labour, anarchist, republican, socialist and secret/fraternal organizations.

The newly arrived European workers in Mozambique soon found themselves mixed in with the sizeable community of Portuguese political exiles. Many radical workers, republicans, anarchists and other ‘undesirables’ had been deported to Mozambique, far away from the empire’s centres of powers. While many of these men were common workers, some were professional left-wing journalists and political activists. The exiles formed a key element of the incipient labour movement, lending it ideological radicalism and discipline.

Importantly, the beleaguered Portuguese royalist regime (the monarchy would be overthrown in 1910, creating the First Portuguese Republic) was highly repressive towards the labour movement, both in metropolitan Portugal and in the colonies. In Mozambique, the crown had a vested interest in maintaining a low-wage, supplicant workforce, as almost all industrial concerns were either owned by the government or by its elite domestic or foreign partners. The regime also automictically associated all labour organizations with republicanism and socialism (if not much worse), so heavily regulated and monitored such groups, while forbidding all protests and strikes. While the crown tolerated the formation of worker’s clubs and even unions (the Associação dos Funcionários do Comércio e Indústria, established in 1898, in Lourenço Marques, was one of Africa’s first), these organizations were so heavily suppressed that they were essentially toothless.

The crown also severely censored the press, ensuring that any attempts to create a labour media presence in Mozambique were weak and short-lived. Any labour leaders or journalists who stepped too far out of line (i.e., by advocating for strikes, republicanism, anarchism or Marxism, etc.) were promptly jailed for lengthy terms.

There was a great diversity in the nature and intensity of the political beleifs of the members of the European labour community in Mozambique. On the extreme, some (often underground) clubs adhered to Marxism and anarchism, and desired the total upheaval of society to create a proletarian utopia. On the opposite spectrum, some groups were quite moderate, calling for only incremental changes to the existing order by peaceful means, to merely give workers better wages and conditions.

Importantly, like almost everything else in Mozambique, industrial workplaces operated under an apartheid-like system. Black employees (who made up the vast majority of the colony’s workforce) were paid less and often endured poorer conditions than their white colleagues.

Almost all labour clubs and unions in Mozambique were expressly for European workers, specifically forbidding black membership. While some white labour leaders were known to be diehard ideological racists, on the other end, others were openly sympathetic to their black colleagues, believing that workers of all races should unite to form common cause. In any event, a pan-racial labour movement never developed, as white tribalism and racial tensions always plagued syndicalism in Mozambique.

The overthrow of the monarchy, and the installation of the First Republic of Portugal, in 1910, led to a great flowering of the labour movement in Mozambique. Many new workers’ clubs and unions were freely formed, while some strikes (to a degree, and for a time) were permitted, giving white labourers real collective bargaining rights for the first time. Most imprisoned radical journalists and labour leaders were promptly released.

The rise of the unions and the relaxation of censorship laws under the Republican regime led to the establishment of a labour press in Mozambique, in the form of periodicals written by and for workers. The labour press in Lourenço Marques had a transformative influence upon the European syndicalist movement in the colony, as its members drew inspiration and ideas from its pages, while its editorials served as a rallying cry for action.

While the fitful start of the labour press in Mozambique occurred earlier, in the form of two single issues of O Ideal, in 1901-2, the first serious and (relatively) enduring labour newspaper in Mozambique was Os Simples. Published between February 1911 and September 1913, it held a moderate socialist tone, albeit with a strongly progressive attitude towards black Mozambicans. This paper was succeeded as the colony’s main labour organ by O Germinal (1914-8), followed by O Emancipador (1919-34), the latter of which ran until Portuguese labour movement and media was effectively banned in 1934 by the Estado Novo dictatorship. Additionally, several niche, and usually short-lived, labour newspapers existed, the most notable being O Graphico and O Ferroviário, the latter being the newspaper of the rail workers union. Like the white Mozambican labour movement itself, the various papers represented diverse political-ideological views, from hardcore Marxist and anarchist to quite benign.

While the non-white majority of Mozambican workers (mostly black, but also Asian) were not formally represented by the colony’s labour movement, some of their concerns were advanced by the elements of the assimilado elite (the approximately 0.04% of black Mozambicans, who by their affluence, family status or education were exempt from the colony’s racist legal code). Most notably, the great assimilado intellectual João Dos Santos Albasini, who, in 1908, founded the Grêmio Africano (the first Mozambican black rights lobbying group), supported workers’ rights and railed against the racism of the white unions in his paper O Africano.

Moreover, the white Mozambican labour movement and its press had a profound influence upon the rising black intellectual class as, in many cases, it introduced them to international revolutionary ideologies, such as Marxism and socialism, which would later be at the heart of the Mozambican independence movement.

As for the fate of the labour movement in Mozambique, the wave of strikes launched by the Port and Railway Employees’ Association from 1917 to 1921 saw the First Republic regime sour on syndicalism. These strikes were eventually met with martial law and were brutally crushed. While unions and the workers’ press were still permitted to exit, their heyday was over. In 1934, the right-wing Estado Novo dictatorship that took over Portugal the year previous, banned all independent unions and workers clubs and shut-down the labour press in Mozambique. Organized labour effectively remained dormant for the duration of the colonial era.

Os Simples in Focus

Os Simples was the first major and (relatively) enduring workers’ newspaper published in Mozambique, issued in Lourenço Marques by the purpose-created Typographia dos Simples. Its title, O Simples, translates literally as the “The Simple Ones”, meaning the “common people”, and was billed as being “intended for the defence of all those who have their rights usurped and who are hungry and thirsty for justice”.

While the management of Os Simples entertained guest articles from across the political spectrum, it editorial bent was relatively moderate, while its attitude to race relations was highly progressive. It was operated by a group calling itself of the “Troupe Musical Os Simples”. The paper’s founders were associated with the Portuguese Socialist Party (a legally sanctioned entity founded in 1875, holding seats in the national parliament) and the Carbonária Portuguesa, a republican secret society influenced by the Freemasons. The paper received funding from the important Civil Construction Workers’ Class Association.

Os Simples’s management team consisted of its director, Manuel José de Sousa Amorim, a prominent labour leader; its editors, José de Mattos (who served until February 1912) and his successor Manuel dos Santos; its editorial secretary, Manuel Gomes dos Santos (who was also the editor of O Ferroviário); and J.M.D. Pires d’Almeida, its administrator. Some of the paper’s employees worked for the official colonial press, the Imprenta Nacional, by day, and for the Typographia dos Simples by night.

Os Simples operated from its Issue no. 1, Year I, dated February 25, 1911, to Issue no. 79, Year III, dated 14 September 1913. It was published weekly, although at times intermittently, due to the chronic illness of some of its staff, which is presumed to be the reason that the newspaper ceased operation (otherwise, it was well funded and had a viable readership). The first six issues were published in quarto format (8 pp. each), while the remainder were issued in folio (4 pp. each).

Present here is an almost complete run of Os Simples, being 76 of 79 issues (missing only nos. 1, 6 and 7), housed in an attractive contemporary binding. This is an extraordinary find, as the only institutional collection of Os Simples (being a complete run) of which we are aware is held by the Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique (Maputo) [Referenced in Capela, O movimento operário em Lourenço Marques, p. 58], while we are not aware of any sales records for any examples of the work. Indeed, all such ephemeral works printed in Sub-Saharan Africa are exceedingly rare.

Each issue of Os Simples features various articles, including guest columns by leading labour figures representing a variety of backgrounds/ideologies; regular coverage of current labour events within Mozambique (ex. the formation of new unions/clubs, strikes, celebrations of May Day, and the ‘Typographic Crisis’, concering unemployment in the printing industry, etc.); as well as international news, such as on unionism in neighbouring South Africa and even ‘On the Suppression of Labour in Japan’. There are also many notices on the injustices inflicted upon working people by the colonial authorities, such as police brutality against labour protesters and the crackdown on the Carbonária Portuguesa, as well as a serial column called ‘The Holy Inquisition!”, which accuses the former monachal regime of covering up terrible crimes against the common man.

There are many political editorials and articles, often promoting the Portuguese Socialist Party and the republican cause. Os Simples even give their opinion on Mozambique’s governors-general, opining that José de Freitas Ribeiro, a temporary appointee to the post, was a “Friend of the People”, while his predecessor, Alfredo Augusto Freire de Andrade, was a horrific, oppressive figure. Most issues of the paper feature an advertisement for the Tipografia de Os Simples, which offers to perform “all typographic work”, employing “new national and foreign types”.

Os Simples claims that it was founded in response to the 1911 tram workers strike, as Issue no. 14 (June 3, 1911) notes that “This newspaper is almost an offshoot of the tramway staff strike; It was because of it that we decided to put Os Simples on the streets…”.

Summing up the core of Os Simples’s philosophy, in Issue No. 40 (February 27, 1912), Manuel Gomes dos Santos writes that “we are socialists, we defend always, as long as we can, this sublime ideal, fighting the sly bourgeoisie, which has no doubt constantly provoked strikes, with the aim of disuniting the proletarians and compromising those who place themselves at the forefront of any movement of the working class in general”.

Yet, consistent with the title of the editorial entitle ‘Prudence, a lot of Prudence’, in Issue No. 12 (May 20, 1911), the paper assumed a moderate line, radical ideologies.

Os Simples and Race: A Progressive Voice in Support of Black Mozambicans

Os Simples was an ardent supporter of the rights of black workers and the African population of Mozambique in general, although it never went as far as advocating that white and black workers join to form racially integrated unions. Specifically, it included editorials and articles that called for far more state resources to be allocated for the education of black Mozambicans; it railed against the frequent incidents of police violence against black people; and, notably, supported the efforts of black workers to form their own unions (which could supposedly cooperate with the white unions).

In Issue No. 5 of Os Simples (March 27, 1911), there appears an anonymous article entitled ‘Social Questions’, which asserts that “Mozambique’s economic problems lie in indigenous education”. Only education could successfully ‘integrate’ black Mozambicans “into civilization”. It is lamented that “We force them [blacks], yes, to contribute to the maintenance of the State, without granting them anything in return”. It notes that only 3% of the colonial budget was allocated to education, while over 20% went to funding the military.

The article maintains that the schooling of black Mozambicans must focus on practical skills, notably in the agrarian sciences, as that field is “the basis of the Province’s wealth”, and that “education for indigenous people must be professional and agricultural, without however neglecting intellectual education, which will be reduced to the indispensable knowledge of reading, writing and counting”.

Notably, Os Simples was strongly supportive of the only known serious attempt to organize a union of black workers in colonial Mozambique. In its Issue No. 17 (June 24, 1911), it was announced, under the heading ‘União dos Trabalhadores Africanos [African Workers Union]’, that “This is the name of a new class association, composed solely and exclusively of Africans, which will be founded in this city very soon”. It also recorded that a committee had been formed to draft the union’s statutes.

Issue no. 18 of Os Simples (July 13, 1911) included a proclamation entitled ‘Os Africanos’ written by Alfredo de Oliveira Guimarães (one of the members of the aforementioned organizing committee). This was as follows:

At the moment when our bosses are preparing to exploit us, despite being in a regime of ‘Liberdade, Igualdade e Fraternidade’, we must also prepare for the attack, associating ourselves.

A committee of Africans, of which I am a member, decided to propagandize among people of their race and colour to establish a class association where all African workers could educate themselves so they could claim their demands.

The black man is exploited by all the anti-humanitarians, and they often pay him with a load of seahorses [here slang for ‘trinkets’] instead of paying him with a few measly pennies. This leads me to believe and say that every chief who exploits black people is a slave master.

To avoid all these exploits of the capitalists, it is necessary that we all unite in our association called the African Union and which is composed of all classes from the humblest carrier to the simplest worker or public employee. In our association there are no distinctions. Thus, may we all unite…

And at the same time that I ask for protection for our collective, I ask for a working-class newspaper of this city, a newspaper where there are no distinctions of race or colour and which fights for the interests of the oppressed. Helping each other is a duty. Workers of my race and colour: let us unite, let us go to our association; let us instruct one another; Forward, then; Forward is the way.”

Os Simples also had progressive views towards women, which was almost unprecedented within the Mozambican labour movement. Issue no. 67 (January 15, 1913) even included an article by a woman, Florinda Gonçalves Rego, which attacked prostitution as form of oppression of women who could otherwise have honourable gainful jobs.

References: José CAPELA, Moçambique pelas u ahistória (Famalicão: Edições Húmus, 2010), pp. 151-4; José CAPELA, O movimento operário em Lourenço Marques, 1898-1927 (Porto: Edições Afrontamento, 1981), esp. pp. 58-62 [Referencing on p. 58 the complete set of Os Simples held by the Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique (Maputo)]; Ilídio ROCHA, A imprensa de Moçambique: historía e catálogo (1854-1975) (Lisbon: Livros do Brasil, 2000), p. 108.