Δευτέρα 21 Δεκεμβρίου 2020

A Greek in the front line of the working class movement in South Africa and Mozambique, 1900-1920

 Working conditions in the diamond mines of Kimberley and the gold mines of Johannesburg were extremely difficult. In 1902, Dimitris Spanos tried to establish a miners’ association in Johannesburg, along with other Greeks. According to the narrations of his contemporaries, Spanos was the leader of the socialist movement

in South Africa. However, in 1903, for unknown reasons he left Johannesburg and settled in Lourenço Marques in Mozambique. There he started an agency that was responsible for the distribution of foreign newspapers and magazines, a pioneer business in the whole Mozambique. Although he was temporarily absent from the first line of the working class movement, Spanos distributed the newspaper of the Industrial Socialist League, International, from 1915 until 1921, trying to establish a local working association in Mozambique.