The heartless killing of 34 striking miners at Marikana on 16th August, 2012 by the South African police startled the world both in the manner and period it happened. Almost 20 years after the demise of apartheid, it evoked memories of the past and raised questions about the post-apartheid socioeconomic and political order and the integrity of industrial relations. This paper argues that Marikana is a crisis linked to the intersection of precariousness and fragmentation of workers. In explaining the choices by different stakeholders, it is imperative to unpack the political, historical, social and economic context.
The Marikana tragedy was, in fact, the zenith of a strike wave that had kicked off in January 2012 at Impala platinum mine following action by disgruntled rock drill operators (RDOs) after being excluded from a retention allowance awarded to mine blasters. This later spread beyond the platinum sector and was characterised by similar claims, violence and repertoires. The workers set uncompromising demands such as R12 500 per month for RDOs through independent workers’ committees directly to management disregarding industrial relations structures. Their militancy was unprecedented and from the onset rejected by the majority union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Democracy, industrial conflict and violence In industrial relations theory, conflict is managed through institutionalisation which assigns a key role to the development of institutions to regulate and manage conflict. Apartheid strike violence was explained by inadequate institutionalisation of industrial relations for black people. The struggle for democracy then undermined institutionalisation as blacks gained partial recognition as workers without political citizenship.
Democracy has been associated with the broadening of political participation, as well as balancing political rights and promoting nonviolence in claims. It has also brought about the establishment of third parties, for example, conciliation and arbitration panels to prevent violent resolution of disputes. Violent outbursts often bring to the fore simmering social tensions which in Marxist theory are associated with transformation. Can the Marikana tragedy be viewed from a similar perspective?
Post-apartheid legislation guarantees both industrial and political citizenship. However, institutionalisation of industrial conflict is undermined in the context of unresolved broader socioeconomic tensions.
From compounded to fragmented labour Before democracy, the majority of the mine workers lived in hostels as a solution to housing problems and a way to control the black workers. This system was designed to externalise costs and maximise profits. The black workers had to live here alone and were paid as single employees on the premise that their families had access to land for subsistence farming. Control of these hostels was a means of ensuring worker control through ‘compounding of labour’ (Bezuidenhout and Buhlungu, 2010). The NUM was however able to subvert employers’ logic of control by turning hostels into sites of mobilisation after 1982. Click here to read or download the full article
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