Around the same time, women in South Africa also played a prominent role. As early as 1912, in what was probably the first resistance campaign in the country, women encouraged miners in Newcastle to strike against starvation wages. In 1913, women in the Free State, organised by Charlotte Maxeke, protested against having to carry passes. In 1918, Charlotte Maxeke started the first formal women's organisation called the Bantu Women's League, the forerunner to the ANC Women's League. In the 1930s and 1940s, there were a number of mass protests, demonstrations and passive resistance campaigns in which women participated.