John (JB) Beaver Marks was born on 21 March 1903 in Ventersdorp, Western Transvaal (now North West Province). His father was a railway worker, and his mother was a midwife. His father was a staunch supporter of the African National Congress (ANC).

In 1919, his parents enrolled him at the Kilnerton Teacher’s Training College in Pretoria (now Tshwane), where he received a diploma in teaching. Marks participated in a strike with other students, protesting against the discriminatory conditions at the College. They were not allowed time off to go visit, they were punished frequently, and the food supply was poor. This strike led to his expulsion from College.

A political activist and trade unionist, Marks joined the African National Congress and became the ANC’s President of the Transvaal Branch. After listening to the late SP Bunting (who founded the South African Communist Party in 1921) addressing a meeting of workers at the mine where he was employed, he joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) in 1928 and devoted his life to the fight for national and social emancipation. He narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 1929 when a fascist opened fire on the platform he was speaking from. The incident served only to solidify his determination and fuel his resolve to continue the struggle. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1932 and eventually became the Chairman of the SACP. In 1931, he was barred from teaching due to his political activities.

In 1942, he was elected to the presidency of the Transvaal Council of non-European trade unions, and in the same year, he became the President of the African Mine Workers Union (AMU), which grew to a membership of over 50,000 people. On 12 August 1946, over one hundred thousand miners protested from work and were joined by workers from other industries. Soldiers bludgeoned the workers back into the mine shafts after they were protesting for almost a week, and hundreds of miners were killed. Marks was among the Strike leaders who were arrested and charged with sedition.

As one of the leaders of the 1952 Defiance Campaign, Marks was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. Nevertheless, he participated in the Defiance Campaign and served a prison sentence for breaking a banning order. After he was banned, Marks continued to be active. He was a founding member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and was also listed as a co-conspirator in the famous Rivonia Trial that saw to the persecution and imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Elias Motsoaledi, and many others. Marks left South Africa in 1963 when the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) asked him to leave. He travelled to Tanzania through Bechuanalanda (now Botswana), from where he operated.

Marks fell severely ill in 1971 while on active duty as Treasurer-General at the Headquarters of the ANC External Mission in Tanzania. When he had recovered enough to travel, he was sent to Russia for medical treatment. He suffered a fatal heart attack and died on 01 August 1972 in Moscow, Russia.

In 1999, the South African Government conferred the Order for Meritorious Service, Class 1: Gold, posthumously, on Marks. Following negotiations with the Russian authorities, the Russian government repatriated JB Marks’ remains to South Africa on 01 March 2015.