The and Lessons for the Left

Mary Smith

TV coverage of the Marikana massacre dozen of the dead were cap- had a sickening sense of d´ej`avu about tured in news footage shot it; uniformed men, rifles aimed, the crack at the scene. The majority of gunfire, black bodies in the dust - of those who died, according Sharpeville, Soweto, iconic images of South to surviving strikers and re- Africa under . But this was Au- searchers, were killed beyond gust 16th 2012, not the last century; the the view of cameras at a non- killers took their orders not from the old descript collection of boulders racist Apartheid regime of Botha or de some 300 metres behind Won- Klerk, but from the state headed by the derkop. ‘liberators’ - the African National Congress (ANC). On one of these rocks, encom- Another image of : the passed closely on all sides by long patient queues, waiting since dawn solid granite boulders, is the to vote for the first time; hope and pride letter ‘N’, the 14th letter of and joy in the faces. That was 1994 - the alphabet. Here, N repre- the year the struggle had smashed through sents the 14th body of a strik- Apartheid and ushered in a government led ing miner to be found by a po- by the ANC, pledged to ‘peace, jobs, free- lice forensics team in this iso- dom’. lated place. These letters are So how could it have come to this, used by forensics to detail were to state-sponsored murder, eighteen years the corpses lay. later? One of the leading unions There is a thick spread of blood in the Confederation of South African deep into the dry soil, show- Trades Unions (COSATU) commented ing that N was shot and killed that ‘..[Marikana] must go down in our on the spot. There is no trail history as the first post-apartheid South of blood leading to where N African State massacre of the organised died the blood saturates one working class, in defence of the local and spot only, indicating no fur- international mining bosses and their prof- ther movement. (It would have 1 its.’ This article attempts to explain not been outside of the scope of only why such a thing could happen but the human body to crawl here why it was almost inevitable that it should. bleeding so profusely.) Ap- But first we look at the massacre itself the proaching N from all possi- events surrounding it and the wider rele- ble angles, observing the lo- vance of the strike. cal geography, it is clear that A local reporter describing the events to shoot N, the shooter would of August 16th 2012 writes: have to be close. Very close, in fact, almost within touching Of the 34 miners killed at distance. (After having spent Marikana, no more than a days here at the bloody mas- 1http://numsa.org.za/article/numsa-central-committee-cc-press-statement-2012-09-02

53 sacre site, it does not take too Follow the numbered events on the much imagination for me to be- accompanying map to understand how lieve that N might have begged shocking was this premeditated slaughter. for his life on that winter af- ternoon.) And on the deadly 1. On the day of the killing about Thursday afternoon, N’s mur- 3,000 striking miners were gathered derer could only have been a on and just below the ‘mountain’ (ac- policeman. I say murderer be- tually a small hill). Joseph Mathun- cause there is not a single re- jwa, president of the union, the As- port on an injured policeman sociation of Mineworkers and Con- from the day. I say murderer struction Union (AMCU), came and because there seems to have pleaded with them to leave to avoid been no attempt to uphold our a police attack. The miners refused. citizens’ right to life and fair re- course to justice. It is hard to 2. Within 15 minutes of Mathunjwa imagine that N would have re- leaving, the police and army laid sisted being taken into custody razor wire, separating the strikers when thus cornered. There is from the Enkanini informal settle- no chance of escape out of a ment, where many of them live. ring of police.2 Casspirs (armoured cars), horses and water cannon moved up to encircle the workers.

3. Some workers walked down to the ra- zor wire to see if they could still get out through a gap. Witnesses say po- lice near the ‘small koppie’ (hillock) opened fire on them, probably with rubber bullets. Some workers fled through a five metre gap in the razor wire. They were met with a barrage of live fire from the police and many died. Images of this shooting were broadcast around the world.

4. Terrified strikers scattered in all di- rections, with a large number head- ing for cover by a koppie about 300 This interpretation of the killings is metres in the opposite direction from supported by an investigating team com- the wire. This ‘killing koppie’ is prising Peter Alexander, chair in Social where the largest number of strik- Change and Professor of Sociology at ers died. No cameras recorded this the University of , and re- slaughter. But evidence remained searchers Thapelo Lekgowa and Botsang on Monday, four days after the mas- Mmope, outlined below: sacre. There are remnants of pools 2http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-08-30-the-murder-fields-of-marikana-the- cold-murder-fields-of-marikana

54 of blood. Police markers show where people. In fact, key lead- corpses were removed. We found ers of the workers’ commit- markers labeled with letters up to ‘J’. tee have been arrested, in- timidated and tortured during 5. -8 Other strikers were killed as they the time in which the commis- fled across the fields. Some exam- sion has taken place, and we ples are marked on the map. Shots therefore question the extent to were fired from helicopters and some which the commission is able to workers, heading for hillock, were provide a space that is not bi- crushed by Casspirs. By Monday ased against the workers’ per- the whole area had been swept clean spective.4 of rubber bullets, bullet casings and tear-gas canisters. We also saw Initially, half of the Strike patches of burned grass, which local Committee, due to testify before the Com- workers claim are the remains of po- mission, were charged with the murder lice fires used to obscure evidence of of their own colleagues, under an old deaths.3 Apartheid era law of ‘common purpose’. These charges were subsequently ‘provi- sionally dropped’, after public protest and Following the massacre, the community threatened unrest but not one police officer of Marikana lived under a virtual state or official has been charged in relation to of emergency, with police patrols, raids the massacre. Meanwhile relatives of those and reports of unlawful arrests and harass- killed make long, difficult journeys to at- ment. Most of the miners who were killed tend the Commission. UK-based barrister and badly injured were sole breadwinners, James Nichol traveled to South Africa to and the loss of their earnings has left many participate as one of the legal team sup- of their dependents in a desperate situa- porting the miners and their families. As tion. The State has set up a Commission well as formal duties attached to this role, of Inquiry under retired judge Ian Farlam, he sends to his friends and colleagues back that already, less than two months into home, brief ‘reflections and impressions’, its expected six month duration, is cruelly as he describes them, of the day-to-day flawed. A new publication based on first proceedings in the court. He sent the fol- hand accounts of the killings and their af- lowing before Christmass: termath by the miners themselves makes the following observation: Finally, after 3 weeks and a 1000 kms, grieving widows, [The commission] aims to pro- mothers sisters and broth- vide ‘truth and justice’ on the ers have arrived. Their ne- basis of evidence presented to glect shameful, and contin- the commissioners, but it has ues...Video footage shown not observed working condi- without warning, machine tions underground and oper- guns, dead bodiesWeeping, un- ates in a courtroom environ- controllable fills the audito- ment alienating for ordinary rium, most have not seen be- 3http://socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=29403 4Peter Alexander et al, Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer, London, Book- marks Publications, 2013, p19.

55 fore, most have no television, strike also saw the growth of the new union most have no electricity. There AMCU, and of its power to shut down pro- are no shoulders to cry on, no- duction. This terrified the mining bosses one to hug, only one person as well as the corrupt leadership of the now per family, allowedtoo expen- discredited National Union of Mineworkers sive. We warned the Com- (NUM), who openly collaborated with the mission - many times ignored. industry and the State against the striking They rejected trauma and be- miners. reavement councilors paid for The ANC government had identified (by many of you) from the platinum as central to its resource-based Marikana Support Campaign. development strategy; planning for a new ‘platinum valley’ to concentrate platinum- based manufacturing industries. But these The Strike plans were severely hit by the global crisis There is heavy, and growing, government and a dramatic fall in the price of plat- interference in the media in South Africa inum. According to Gavin Capps, a spe- 5. So it is no surprise that from the out- cialist at the University of , set, Marikana was presented as a sectional the earlier scramble to expand production strike by an irresponsible group of unor- has now led to a situation of global over- 7 ganised, unskilled ‘renegades’ with crim- supply . inal intent. The reality is very differ- The demand by the Marikana strik- ent. The backbone of the strike were the ers was for a tripling of their wages to rock drill operators (RDOs) in the plat- R12,500 a month, which on the face of it inum mines; South Africa holds 88 per- sounds surprising, until you realize that cent of the worlds platinum reserves and these men work ten to twelve hour shifts accounts for over three quarters of global underground, in the dirtiest, most danger- platinum production. Platinum plays a ous conditions (the RDOs are among the crucial role in South Africas economy, par- lowest paid), in 35 degree heat and all for ticularly since the decline in gold extrac- less than the equivalent of e90 per week. tion, but has been hit by the drop in de- (Over the last century, the mining indus- mand with the onset of global recession. try in South Africa has had a notorious Lonmin6, the British owned company at safety record with well in excess of 50,000 Marikana, were determined to avoid a re- deaths). peat of events at the neighbouring Impala Claire Ceruti, South African socialist platinum mine where, in January, a mili- and solidarity activist explains that the tant strike lasting six weeks, cost Impala workers organized their strike without an e200 million and stopped almost half of established union presence - the AMCU national platinum output. The Impala stepping in only in an advisory role only 5 David Smith, ‘Media bridles at attempt to curb conference coverage’, The Guardian, Dec 12 2012 (p33) 6Lonmin is the renamed British company Lonrho. The name change hides a shameful history even for an industry as brutal as mining. The firm was originally set up in 1909 to grab mining rights in what was then called Rhodesia. Even British Tory prime minister Edward Heath called Lonrhos boss Tiny Rowland ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’ in 1973. This was amid allegations of tax avoidance, brib- ing African leaders and breaking UN sanctions against the racist regime in Rhodesia. UK, Issue 2317 7Socialist Worker UK, Issue 2317

56 as the strike progressed. The action was people all enforced with pitiless repres- organized by an elected strike committee sion this was the Apartheid state . From who were incredibly democratic so much 1948 to 1993 over 2000 people who fought so that solidarity action was initially diffi- against it were hanged, thousands were im- cult to initiate as everything had to be dis- prisoned and millions were arrested and/or cussed first with the committee, and then displaced to distant ‘homelands’ to lan- by the strikers themselves8. The courage, guish there in abject poverty as surplus or tenacity, and organizational strength the ‘unproductive’ labour. The bitterness of rock-drillers have shown, and continue to this legacy helped fuel the militancy of one show, in the face of State repression, has of the most impressive contingents of the inspired workers not only in mining but worlds workers the black South African right across the industrial spectrum, and working class. previously unorganized, ‘unskilled’ work- The black trade unions first made their ers like security guards and grape pickers presence felt during World War Two. This have gone on the offensive for their own was when the then radical National Union minimum wage demands. of Mineworkers (NUM) was formed, lead- ing its members in a demand for ten shillings (this represented a 500 percent in- The Unions under Apartheid crease!). The strike, which mobilized thou- Marx explained over a century and a sands of workers eventually won, but the half ago that capitalism creates ‘its own state machine also went on the offensive gravedigger’ the working class. The against the workers’ movement. Alex Call- Apartheid state shaped, and was shaped inicos, writing of the period says that, ‘The by, this process in a very particular way. destruction of black political and trade Ever since gold and diamonds were discov- union organization was both the condition 9 ered in South Africa in the 1880s, a con- of apartheids success and its objective’ . stant supply of cheap, migrant labour was Over the following decades, despite the re- the condition on which the mining industry pression, struggles emerged that were po- depended for its profitability. Apartheid litical as well as economic bus boycotts, was not just a system of cruel, racist laws the women’s movement, township revolts, that made black people second class cit- student rebellions, community struggles - izens in their own country, it was, most all fed into the industrial struggle which in importantly, a way of managing the huge turn fuelled the political one. But the core battalions of black migrant labour neces- was the black working class. sary to this process. Racism, the denial of Charlie Kimber in his review of lit- rights to black Africans and paying poverty erature dealing with the struggle against wages, had been practiced by the colonial Apartheid writes: powers in South Africa, both British and Boers but it wasnt until 1948 that the The modern union movement system of Apartheid was formalised and was born after a wave of codified. The hated , the cre- strikes in 1973 centred on the ation of the artificial ‘homelands’ or Ban- area around Durban. Despite tustans, the enormous (white run) bureau- immense repression it grew, cracy that policed the movement of black slowly, during the 1970s so that 8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZUUSggOFU4&feature=em-uploademail-new. 9South Africa between Reform and Revolution, Bookmarks, London 1988, p15

57 by the end of the decade it ten people still use stinking bucket toi- clearly posed a real potential lets. The black middle class has grown threat to apartheid’s rulers.10 and a tiny black elite has made itself fab- The trades union movement ulously wealthy. Anti-apartheid activist had ‘given powerless people a archbishop Desmond Tutu famously said chance to wield power for the that the ANC government had ‘stopped first time in their lives’ 11. the gravy train only long enough to get on’. But the situation that obtains is not just Kimber makes the crucial point that down to the personal failings of greedy in- dividuals. The explanation for why it has The state could torture and come to this is a political one. murder activists, it could in- Here it is instructive to look at the pol- filtrate and repress community itics of the SCAP - it was they who pro- organisations, it could murder vided the ideological cement that held the the guerillas sent to challenge nationalist ANC and the workers’ move- its military might. But it could ment together. Their political strategy not destroy the unions or blunt is based on a ‘stages theory’ approach to their economic power.12 achieving social change where workers de- mands are put on the back burner until the Politics and the workers’ move- bourgeois democratic revolution has been won. Its origins are part of the legacy of ment Stalinism a legacy that required that the The so called Tripartite Alliance of the Communist Parties which developed inter- ANC, the South Party nationally under the inspiration of the Bol- (SACP) and COSATU, runs the SA State. shevik Revolution of 1917, would serve as This political marriage was (and remains) ‘outposts’ of Russias foreign policy, rather based on a shared notion that an all- than fomenting revolution at home. This class alliance of progressive forces in South started in the 1920s in China, could be seen Africa was necessary to achieve ‘national at work in Europe in the thirties in the liberation’ from the Apartheid state and struggle against fascism, and in the anti establish ‘normal’ bourgeois or capitalist colonial struggles in India, Africa and be- democracy, where black and white would yond. be treated as equals. Eighteen years on The argument, which always tends to from the ending of Apartheid, this is still appear in anti-colonialist struggles, goes the underpinning ideology all classes must like this: first we need maximum unity of work together to establish the type of state all classes to get rid of the colonial power than can deliver on its promise of equality and achieve national liberation. Thus talk and prosperity for all. of , or workers’ power, must be Meantime South Africa remains one of put on hold, lest the non-worker elements the most unequal societies on the planet; - the middle classes, and ‘progressive’ or unemployment is double what it was when ‘national’ capitalists, take fright. Once we the ANC were elected, one in four South have gotten rid of apartheid (or the colo- African children are malnourished, one in nial power), we can then move on to build 10http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj64/kimber.htm 11(S Friedman, Building Tomorrow Today, Johannesburg 1987 12http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj64/kimber.htm

58 the society we want. The same logic was moves beyond the first stage the estab- at work in the post 1916 liberation struggle lishment of ‘normal’ capitalist democracy here in Ireland, illustrated in Ken Loachs neither in Africa nor Ireland nor anywhere film The Wind the Shakes the Barley, when else. The second stage the struggle for so- workers’ gains during the incredible wave cialism, when the working class can have of militancy during the ‘War of Indepen- their day well that comes later. When? dence’, were curtailed and then rolled back When the nation state is properly estab- by the nationalist leadership, with the in- lished. when the economy has become sta- struction that ‘labour must wait’. For us ble.when the industrial base is develope- in Ireland there is an important parallel dwhen weve attracted enough investment between the trajectory of the ANC and for jobssome ‘tomorrow’. Despite the ap- that of Fianna F´ailwhich also has impli- parent ‘common sense’ appeal of the stag- cations for Sinn F´einnow. Fianna F´ailin ist approach, history shows that the post- the 1920s said and did much more radical poned ‘tomorrow’ for workers never comes, things that Sinn F´eindo today and then or when it does it’s Marikana. This is went on to become Irelands leading capi- because regardless of whether the admin- talist party with consequences we all know istration of a capitalist state is black or about. white, (or whether they wear the ‘green Writing about the relationship between jersey’ or once led the IRA), when capital- the ANC and SACP, Peter Dwyer and Leo ism itself is the basis of economic relations Zelig put it this way: in the society then its the interests of cap- ital that will dominate. The history of building multi- In the years of the freedom struggle, class popular alliances goes the politics of the SACP bridged the gap back to the African national- between the aspiration to ‘socialism’ of ist leadership of the ANC un- the rising workers movement and the na- der Nelson Mandela, Walter tionalist politics of the ANC Like all na- Sisulu and Oliver Tambo in tional liberation movements, the ANCs po- the 1950s. Recognizing that litical aspirations were primarily for a na- industrialization and urbaniza- tional (capitalist) state, free from colo- tion were changing the social nial domination. Apartheid was theo- composition of African soci- rized by the SACP as a form of ‘inter- ety, they sought to build al- nal colonialism’; liberation then was the liances with trades unions and ending of Apartheid, which, once got- working class township com- ten rid of, would allow for ‘business as munities. This strategy dove- usual’, and could include ‘normal’ left ver- tailed with that of the Com- sus right politics. The SCAP strategy munist Party, which, under or- chimed with COSATU on the basis that ders from Moscow, pursued a once the national democratic state was es- ‘peoples front’ that brought to- tablished, then the task of getting a work- gether differing social groups ers, or socialist democracy in a free South to strengthen national libera- Africa would /should be taken up. NUM tion.13 leader opened the found- The sad history of ‘stagism’ in na- ing conference of COSATU in 1985 with tional liberation movements is that it never the following statement: 13Peter Dwyer and Leo ZeligAfrican Struggles Today, London 2012

59 If workers are to lead the strug- ternational Monetary Fund. Patrick Bond gle for liberation we have to said of it: ‘The loans secret conditions .in- win the confidence of other cluded the usual items from the classical sections of society. But if structural adjustment menu: lower import we are to get into alliances tariffs, cuts in state spending, and large with other progressive organi- cuts in public sector wages’. sations, it must be on terms The newly elected government quickly that are favourable to us as abandoned such policies as nationalization, workers. When we do plunge particularly of the mines, that could have into political activity we must given them control over wealth accumu- make sure that the unions un- lated in private hands. More and more, der COSATU have a strong neoliberalism came to dominate economic shop floor base not only to take policy and more and more the new gov- on the employers but the state ernment sought to squash any systematic as well. In the next few days opposition to it. One of the best organ- we will be putting our heads ised and most militant working classes in together not only to make sure the world was held back as the Commu- we reach Pretoria but to make nist Partys leadership justified the ANC a better life for us workers in regime’s shifts. Trade union militants be- this country. What we have to came caught up in a process of stopping make clear is that a giant has strikes rather than encouraging them. risen and will confront all that What was required to counter this was stand in its way. 14 politics that sought to harness the power of workers in the interests of workers them- By its second conference, COSATU selves. The theoretical basis for such poli- had adopted the ANC’s tics was to be found in the theory of perma- a document containing no mention of so- nent revolution developed by Leon Trot- cialism, and certainly no primacy of place sky, first in response to the 1905 Revolu- for workers. The same Cyril Ramaphosa tion in Russia and then in direct opposi- incidentally is today a multi millionaire tion to the stages theory of Stalinism in the and among his directorships is included the 1920s. This argued that the working class platinum mining corporation at Lonmin! should take the lead in the democratic or anti-colonial struggle so that the national Could it have been different? revolution could ‘grow over’ into the so- cialist revolution. In South Africa it was Nelson Mandela, jailed for 27 years, in his the threat posed by the militancy of black first speech after his release said: ‘There workers in their factories, mines and com- must be an end to white monopoly on po- munities that forced the hand of the ruling litical power and a fundamental restructur- class into getting rid of apartheid. This ing of our political and economic systems power could have been channeled not in to ensure that the inequalities of apartheid the direction of a weak (stagist) compro- are addressed and our society thoroughly mise, but in a much more thorough-going democratised’. Yet the very first act of challenge to the capitalist bosses. Trag- the ANC-led interim government was to ically, the political forces that could have accept an $850 million loan from the In- given this lead were too small and too weak 14J Baskin, Striking Back, a history of COSATU, Verso, 1991

60 to challenge the hegemony of the SACP. tion to address this situation.’15 The response of the SACP to the mas- A song from the heroic battles of min- sacre speaks for itself. At its congress ers in the USA in the 1900s poses the ques- in September, just after the killings, gen- tion ‘Which side are you on?’. Settling for eral secretary Balde Nzimande pledged a stagist solution ultimately places those his party’s support for ‘the government’s who have advocated social change on the crackdown’, adding that ‘the ringleaders side of the capitalists, despite themselves. must be dealt with and separated from the The logic of securing the ‘first stage’ the mass of misled strikers’16. The NUMs lead- bourgeois democracy means that stability ers are also part of the SACP leadership of the capitalist state is paramount. This and the party is closely identified with the is what makes events like Marikana almost Zuma faction in the ANC17. inevitable, especially when the system is facing crisis. Profits in South African plat- inum mining have seen a decline since the Victory for the miners onset of global recession. The last thing The Marikana miners have paid dearly for the platinum bosses need is a newly invig- their victory. They won a 22% increase orated movement of mineworkers. It is also in pay far short of the original demand the last thing the corrupt leadership of the but unprecedented in industrial claims in NUM want to see. And if the platinum the past forty years. But it is in the industry isn’t kept happy, it can threaten wider implications of the outcome that the state with disinvestment, with repatri- their true victory lies as the Alexander- ating even more of its profits than it does led research team remarked ‘worker or- already, or laying off workers (in a country ganizations in the mines will never be where unemployment currently stands at the same again. Thousands of workers around 40%). In such circumstances, the have rejected their old union [the collab- state does what it has to do and if that orationist NUM] and many of these have means Marikana, then that what it means. linked strike mobilization to politics in a Keeping capital happy also means par- new way’. 18 In addition, since the strike, ticularly vile tendencies get free reign; thus hundreds and thousands of South African we see the former firebrand, miners’ leader workers have been inspired to take mili- Cyril Ramaphosa, grabbing multiple top tant action, particularly in securing mini- directorships including a directorship of mum wage deals across a range of indus- Lonmin. An email he sent to one of his tries reliant on ‘unskilled’ workers. Cru- fellow Lonmin directors on the eve of the cially Marikana has called into question massacre at Marikana was presented as ev- the role of the government and the defer- idence at the Farlam Commission of In- ence with which the ANC has been treated quiry into the killings of the striking min- hitherto. The Marikana miners took on ers. It read: ‘They are plainly dastardly the bosses, armed police, the government, criminals and must be characterised as corrupt union officials and beat them. De- such...There needs to be concomitant ac- spite thirty four killings, hundreds of ar- 15 Communication from James Nicholl, barrister on legal team supporting miners and their families at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry. 16Blade Nzimande, ‘Defend the gains of the working class. Take responsibility for the national demo- craticd revolution’, speech distributed at the 11th COSATU Congress. 17Peter Alexander. Op. cit. p140 18Peter Alexander. Op. cit. p148

61 rests, torture and intimidation they held wing’ (or MK), trans- their own organization, and their strike, to- lated ‘Spear of the Nation’. They were gether. As the researchers said of it ‘This branded as terrorists and reviled in the was one of the most remarkable acts of media. Eventually the more far sighted courage in labour history, anywhere, and members of the South African capitalist at any time.’ 19 class saw that apartheid could no longer In a ‘Special Report’ on the ANC in deliver in the same old way and that the the Guardian David Smith states ‘Bishop struggle to end it was helping to create Jo Seoka, president of the South African what it feared most a militant working Council of Churches, recently warned that class. And so they did a deal with Mandela a revolution could go from mines and grape and the ANC; history shows that nation- farms to townships and suburbs. Moeletsi alists, however radical, always do a deal Mbeki, a political economist and brother with capitalism. The deal was to get rid of of the former president Thabo Mbeki, pre- the apartheid state but to leave the cap- dicted South Africas ‘Tunisia Day’ will italist order intact the first stage in the come in 2020’20.He might need to revise ‘stages theory’ thus achieved. The next the timescale! Since 2005, South Africa stage has become the consolidation of the has probably had more strike days per ‘free’ South African state, in which ‘labour capita than any other country.21 In ad- must wait’. And when labour gets impa- dition, South Africas level of ongoing ur- tient with poverty wages and rotten living ban unrest is greater than anywhere else conditions, Marikana shows what the ANC in the world, and there were more com- are now willing to do. munity protests in the first six months of 2012 than in any previous year.22 Mean- Many Irish workers today look to as a while, the Marikana widows and families radical alternative to the sell-outs of the endure with courage and dignity the State- Labour Party indeed Sinn F´ein’sprove- sponsored Farlam Commission of Inquiry; nance would have many similarities with they are determined to get ‘justice’ for that of the ANC. But what is most impor- their loved ones and their communities. tant is the politics they share the politics The Marikana Support Campaign has is- of nationalism - that ultimately put the in- sued an appeal for solidarity internation- terests of capital, before the interests of ally. The appeal is reproduced below. workers, of the platinum bosses before the miners. Of course Sinn F´einwould reject Marikana and Ireland the notion that they would sell-out work- ing people in this way. But we need only Marikana has particular relevance for Ire- look to what they do in office in the North, land. Nelson Mandela was a heroic leader; implementing Tory cuts, to see where they he and his comrades pursued the fight are likely to go in the South. Moreover, it against apartheid with courage and tenac- is significant that they refuse to rule out ity under the banner of national liberation. coalition with Fianna F´ail.As the old joke He was co-founder of the ANC’s ‘armed goes ‘Whats the difference between Fianna 19Peter Alexander. Op. cit. p150 20David Smith. Special Report ANC leadership. The Guardian Dec 12 2012 (p32) 21Peter Alexander, ‘Barricades, ballots and experimentation: making sense of the 2011 local gov- ernment election with a social movement lens’. In Marcelle C. Dawson and Luke Sinwll, Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty-first Century South Africa, , London 2012. 22Peter Alexander. Op. cit. p146

62 F´ailand Sinn F´ein? Answer: About sev- visionally drop the charges. Since the mas- enty years!’ sacre the community of Marikana has lived The struggle for workers’ power and under a virtual State of Emergency, with real democracy must be informed by dif- police patrols, raids and reports of unlaw- ferent politics revolutionary socialist pol- ful arrests and harassment. Over half of itics in order to have a chance of success. the Lonmin Strike Committee due to tes- The project is the same, from Durban to tify before the Commission of Inquiry have Dublin, from Cape Town to Cork. The been over the past days charged with mur- spirit of the Marikana miners will live in der. all these struggles. It is our duty as social- To date not one police officer or offi- ists to see that these struggles are imbued cial has been charged for the massacre at with the politics that can lead them to vic- Marikana. Yet some of the miners still face tory. the prospect of long prison sentences as the Note: it is with some pride that we State intends to blame the miners them- record the fact that James Nichol, one of selves for the violence. Most of the min- the lawyers representing the miners and ers who were killed and badly injured in their families, is a long standing member of Marikana were sole breadwinners and the the SWP in Britain, that Peter Alexander, loss of their earnings has left many of their co-author of the report, now published as dependents in a desperate situation. Marikana: A View from the Mountain and The Marikana Lonmin miners secured a Case to Answer, Bookmarks, 2013, was a 22 percent pay rise. It was short of the a long standing member until his move to R12,500 demand but the deal was hailed South Africa and that they, together with as a victory. What the miners have actu- Claire Ceruti and Rehad Desai, activists in ally done is fight a brave fight for a living the solidarity campaign, are all supporters wage. They have drawn public attention to of the International Socialist Tendency. the gap between the wages of mine work- ers and platinum and gold sector bosses, Marikana Support Campaign- many of whom earn 1000 times more than the average miner. The massacre and the An Urgent Call for Interna- victory have inspired strikes in other mines tional Solidarity across the country. The Marikana Support On the 16th August, South African Police Campaign has been endorsed by the vari- fired live ammunition at striking miners at ous strike committees and this has raised Lonmin’s Marikana mine, killing 34 and the demand for campaign material. injuring 78. Many were killed were shot at close range while trying to surrender. What the Campaign has The Marikana miners were demanding a achieved so far tripling of their salary to R12,500 (£950 or e1100) per month. The campaign and legal representatives In the following days, 270 of the have kept vigilant watch on the State spon- Marikana strikers were arrested and sored Farlam Commission of Inquiry, push- charged with the murder of their colleagues ing for transparency and forcing a post- under the Common Purpose doctrine, a ponement to ensure the presence of fami- law last used under Apartheid. They were lies so that the restorative objective of the released on bail after public pressure forced commission can be met more effectively.In the National Prosecuting Authority to pro- addition the campaign has organised legal

63 representation for twenty six of the fami- Bank: Nedbank lies, paid for a private forensic pathologist, Branch: Constantia kept close watch on biased media report- Branch Code: 101109 ing and offered alternative analysis, mo- Account No: 1011102366 bilised for practical support and resources Reference: Marikana Support Campaign for the families of the strikers, organised SWIFT: NEDSZAJJ placard protests of the loco inspection of the killing site as well as nationwide pick- NB: HRMT stands for Human Rights ets and demonstrations demanding an end Media Trust The Marikana Support Cam- to police harassment and intimidation of paign is supported by many organisations the Marikana community, brought large including:Amnesty International SA, Cen- numbers of people to Marikana to bolster tre for Applied Legal Studies, Advocates locally organised protests and to attend For Transformation Centre for Study of strike and community meetings, produced Violence and Reconciliation, Equal Edu- campaign materials, badges, leaflets and cation Law Centre, Human Rights Me- T-shirts etc; organised striker and commu- dia Trust, Lawyers for Human Rights, Le- nity representative speaking tours in cities gal Resources Centre, RAITH Foundation, and townships across the country. Right To Know, Section 27, Social Jus- All of this costs money. In the com- tice Coalition, Socio-Economic Rights In- ing months we need to increase the pres- stitute, Treatment Action Campaign, As- sure on the Farlam Commission of Inquiry sociation of Mineworkers and Construc- through a coordinated national and inter- tion Union, National Council of Trade national campaign that presses for a just Unions, Marikana Development Forum, outcome for the Marikana families of the Wonderkop Women’s Group, Wonderkop deceased, the scores injured, and hundreds Tribal Council, Alternative Information arrested. Development Centre, Soweto Concerned Account Name:HRMT 1 for Marikana Citizens. Support Campaign

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