Home » Ausgaben » Scaling Up? Transnational Labour Organising in Globalised Production » Workers’ Power in Marikana: Building Bridges of Solidarity in South Africa’s Platinum Mines (2012-2014)

Workers’ Power in Marikana: Building Bridges of Solidarity in South Africa’s Platinum Mines (2012-2014)

Autor*innen: Sinwell, Luke
https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-38-2-130
Seiten 130-150
Keywords: mineworkers, Marikana, trade unions, jumping scale

Abstract

Between 2012 and 2014, South Africa witnessed an unprecedented labour movement culminating in a five-month strike at what were then the three largest platinum mining companies in the world. Drawing from ethnographic research and in-depth interviews, this article traces the multiple scales within which mineworkers organised collectively, forging unity outside of traditional trade union affiliations. What began as a ‘living wage’ demand amongst a small number of a specific category of workers at one shaft, in one company, soon spread across the entire industry capturing the hearts and minds of 80,000 platinum mineworkers. Mineworkers’ ability to exercise power was intensified by their decision to jump scale and build bridges across companies and regions and to a lesser extent transnationally. The article also describes forms of solidarity in communities, especially by women, and the broader trade union movement and concludes by focusing on the fragmented nature of the working class in South Africa more generally. With few important exceptions, the extent to which mineworkers were able to exercise power beyond a relatively local or narrow scale is quite limited, despite this large-scale mobilisation.

Literatur

Alexander, Peter (2013): Marikana: Turning Point in South African History. In: Review of African Political Economy 40 (138), 605-619. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2013.860893

Antonsich, Marco (2010): Grounding Theories of Place and Globalisation. In: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 102 (3), 331-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.2010.00614.x

Benya, Asanda (2016): The Invisible Hands: Women in Marikana. In: Review of African Political Economy 42 (146), 545-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2015.1087394

Bond, Patrick (2019): Lessons Unlearned as Lonmin Expires and Sibanye Rises Amid Ongoing Labour-Community-Feminist Revolts. In: Swart, Mia/Rodny-Gumede, Ylva (eds.): Marikana Unresolved: The Massacre, Culpability and Consequences. Cape Town: UTC Press, 222-240.

Castree, Noel/Coe, Neil M./Ward, Kevin/Samers, Michael (2004): Spaces of Work: Global Capitalism and the Geographies of Labour. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221044

Chinguno, Crispen (2015a): The Shifting Dynamics of the Relations between Institutionalisation and Strike Violence: A Case Study of Impala Platinum, Rustenburg (1982-2012). PhD thesis, University of Witwatersrand. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2015.1087396

Chinguno, Crispen (2015b): The Unmaking of Industrial Relations: The Case of Impala Platinum and the 2012-2013 Platinum Strike Wave. In: Review of African Political Economy 42 (146), 577-590.

Chinguno Crispen (2019): The Marikana Paradox: “Gaining the Remuneration but Losing the Union”. In: Swart, Mia/Rodny-Gumede, Ylva (eds.): Marikana Unresolved: The Massacre, Culpability and Consequences. Cape Town: UTC Press, 67-86.

Giokos, Heidi/Mahlati, Zintle (2016): Struggling NUM has Lost 40% of Members. Business Report, 3 June 2016. www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/struggling-num-has-lost-40-of-members-2029959, 8.5.2018.

Kenny, Bridget (2020): The South African Labour Movement: A Fragmented and Shifting Terrain. In: Tempo Social 32 (1), 119-136. https://doi.org/10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2020.166288

Mndebele, Magnificent (2021): South Africa: The Deadly Cost of Union Membership in the Northwest. Mail and Guardian Online, 6 September 2021. https://allafrica.com/stories/202108280267.html, 15.10.2021.

Merk, Jeroen (2009): Jumping Scale and Bridging Space in the Era of Corporate Social Responsibility: Cross-border Labour Struggles in the Garment Industry. In: Third World Quarterly 30 (3), 599-615. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590902742354

Nieftagodien, Noor (2017): South Africa`s New Left Movements. In: Paret, Marcel/Runciman, Carin/Sinwell, Luke (eds.): Southern Resistance in Critical Perspective: The Politics of Protest in South Africa’s Contentious Democracy. London/New York: Routledge, 171-188. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315585017-11

Ntswana, Nyonde (2014): The Politics of Workers’ Control in South Africa’s Platinum Mines: Do Workers’ Committees in the Platinum Mining Industry Represent a Practice of Renewing Worker Control? Masters diss., University of Witwatersrand.

Sinwell, Luke (2019): Turning Points on the Periphery? The Politics of South Africa’s Platinum-Belt Strike Wave in Rustenburg, Northwest and Northam, Limpopo, 2012-2014. In: Journal of Southern African Studies 45 (5), 877-894. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2019.1664185

Sinwell, Luke/Mbatha, Siphiwe (2016): The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa. London: Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ddr6gs

Wilderman, Jesse (2015): From Flexible Work to Mass Uprising: The Western Cape Farm Workers’ Struggle. SWOP Working Paper 4, Witwatersrand University.

Interviews, Speeches and Legal Documents
Da Costa, Michael (n. d.): Supplementary Statement to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the events at Marikana Mine in Rustenburg. Vice-President of Karee Mine, Lonmin. Unpublished and undated.

Da Costa, Michael (2012): Witness Statement to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry (chaired by Justice Farlam), 23 November 2012. Unpublished.

Makhanya, Siphamandla (2013): Speech: “South Africa after Marikana”, at Marxism 2013, Hosted by the Socialist Workers Party, London, 22 August 2013.

Makhanya, Siphamandla (2014): Personal communication with author. Rustenburg, 19 January 2014.

Mathunjwa, Joseph (2014): Speech at Olympia Stadium, Rustenburg, 19 January 2014. I personally recorded this public speech at the stadium.

Molapo (pseudonym). Interview on 28 September 2013 (in Marikana). Mineworker leader at Karee Shaft, Lonmon.

Mbatha, Siphiwe (2013): Interview on 23 October 2013 (in Johannesburg). Community-based leader who joined the struggle in Marikana.

Mbulelo (Pseudonym). Interview on 15 August 2013 (in Marikana). Mineworker leader of Karee Shaft, Lonmin.

Zakhele (Pseudonym). Interview on 3 November 2013 (in Marikana). Mineworker leader at Lonmin.