Solly Sachs
| Solly Sachs | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 October 1900 Kamai, Lithuania |
| Died | 30 July 1976 (aged 75) London, England |
| Occupation | trade unionist, anti-apartheid activist |
| Spouse(s) | Rae Ginsberg |
| Children | Albie Sachs |
Emil Solomon “Solly” Sachs (11 November 1900 – 30 July 1976) was a South African trade unionist and an anti-apartheid activist.
Solly Sachs was born in 1900 in Kamai, Lithuania to Abraham Saks and Hannah Rivkin. His early childhood education was in Hebrew and the study of the Talmud. In 1914, he and his family had emigrated to South Africa and settled in Ferreirasdorp, Johannesburg. He left school in Standard 5 working as shop assistant and aside from organising a union for shop assistants he also studied for his matric. By 1919, he was active in the Reef Shop Assistants' Union. He had an interest in politics and was drawn to socialism joining the Communist Party of South Africa in 1919 and the Communist Youth League in 1921. By 1930, Sachs was a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party. He started an engineering degree in 1924 at the University of the Witwatersrand but left to tour the Soviet Union and England before returning to the university to study law, English and economics.
Solly married Rae Ginsberg in 1926 and had two sons, one of whom is the anti-apartheid lawyer Albie Sachs. The marriage lasted until 1942 when he married Dulcie Hartwell and had a further son and a foster son but this second marriage ended in 1951.
Known for his unionism, in 1926 he was part of the national executive committee of the South African Trades and Labour Council and by 14 November 1928, secretary of the Witwatersrand Taylors' Association (WTA). Noticing that women garment workers, consisting of working class Afrikaners were not represented on union committees, he became general secretary of the WTA, changing its constitution in July 1929, and renaming it the Garment Workers' Union of South Africa (GWU) in 1930. He encouraged the Afrikaner women to become activists and organisers. Its membership during 1930/31 stood at 1700 members, two-thirds were garment workers made up mostly of Afrikaans women though men made up the union committee but this would change and by 1939, all were women. The early years in this union involved defending work conditions and employment security in the garment industry. Using the courts and strikes he ensured garment workers wages increased from 23s/week in 1928 to £2/week by 1938, paid leave rose from three days to ten, they received morning and afternoon breaks and created a sick fund. By 1938, GWU membership had grown to 7000 members.
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