The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Leonard Gentle -
How soon we forget…When the striking workers were killed by the police at Marikana there was a universal sense of shock and horror. How could it have come to this? Just 18 years after apartheid and here we go again - the police mowing down demonstrators. Now AngloPlat has announced that it will retrench 14 000 workers and the mood amongst the commentariat is, “Well, what did they expect?”
Angloplat’s announcement seems to confirm our most dismal...
Tumi Moloi, a striking miner who works at an Amplats shaft close to Rustenburg spoke at the "Unite the Resistance 2012" conference in London (UK) on Saturday, 17 November. He is a strike committee member in Rustenburg, where 30,000 miners working for Amplats platinum - a subsidiary of global mining giant Anglo American - have been on strike for two months.
Moloi led his shaft's 4,500 workers out on strike in September.
Moloi is a member of the Rustenburg Strike Committee,...
Anna Majavu -
The mines and the farms are two enduring symbols of old white colonial theft, of the minerals and land. Because of the monopoly of the National Union of Mineworkers, whose leaders and officials have long preferred compromise and co-determination over worker control, it has been difficult for mineworkers to strike – until the Marikana massacre.
It has possibly been even harder for farm workers to strike.
Human Rights Watch estimated recently that less than 3% of South African farm...
Leonard Gentle -
Over the past weekend, the striking mineworkers of Amplats gathered at a mass rally in Rustenburg and howled their defiance of a series of ultimatums issued by the company. At De Doorns, farm workers are on a wildcat strike - the latest of a series that has become a feature of the South African landscape over the last three months, knocking Mangaung off the front pages. Something is stirring from below…and it is time we got beyond the fear and trepidation that have become the stock...
Gillian Schutte -
I met Marikana community member, mineworker and activist, Tsepo M, at a coffee shop in Melville. He had some business to attend to in Johannesburg and a colleague set up the meeting for me to discuss the current situation in Marikana.
A man in his late 50’s, Tsepo’s face bears the markings of years of hard work and struggle.
He tells me that he has been attending the Farlam Commission – an intense situation, which is infused with painful moments and trauma. In addition...
Richard Pithouse -
to the fragrance of lemon blossoms
and then to the ultimatums of war
- Pablo Neruda, Right Comrade, Its the Hour of the Garden, Isla Negra, Chile, September 1973
When COSATU and the Communist Party have to rely on the police and their stun grenades, rubber bullets and, by some accounts, live ammunition to force their way into a stadium against the opposition of striking workers it is clear that their assumption of a permanent right to leadership is facing a serious challenge from below....
