BUILT ON HISTORY: ANALYSING THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINE SHOOTINGS
By Joe Moore
“The mineral wealth and the vast majority of the fertile land still remained in the hands of multinational corporations and the Boers.”
Joe Moore is a member of the Socialist Workers Party in Cork. He is also a prominent activist with Anti-Deportation Ireland (ADI) http://www.facebook.com/AntiDeportationIrelandadi http://antideportationireland.blogspot.ie/ and the Cork Anti-Racism Network (CARN).
Joe is a regular column contributor to AfricaWorld Newspaper http://www.africaworldnewspaper.com/
The following is a reprint of Joe’s Article of September 23rd 2012
Sharpeville 1960, Soweto 1976, Marikana 2012. In all cases people demanding basic civil rights were met with the full force of the state and murdered in cold blood. In the cases of Sharpeville and Soweto the killings were carried out by the racist white minority apartheid regime. Marikana however is different. The apartheid regime was confined to the dust bin by history by the people of South Africa after years of heroic struggle, culminating in the election of the ANC in April 1994. The first free election, where black people had won the right to vote. So why has it come to this? Why did the police and army of the ANC government act in the same murderous fashion as the armed forces of the apartheid regime?
Firstly let’s look at the immediate cause of the massacre. Miners at the British-owned Lonmim platinum mine struck for a living wage, 12,500 rand, slightly over €1,000, per month. This demand was met with total opposition by the bosses. Mineral wealth was the main economic reason was the European colonisation of southern Africa. Once gold and diamonds were discovered in the late 19th century, the rate of occupation greatly increased. Brutal colonisers, like Rhodes, stole land, made hundreds of thousands of people homeless and slaughtered thousands in order to get their grubby paws on riches that were not theirs. The destruction of crops and grazing land followed in order to force men to work in the mines so that they could feed their families. It is estimated that since gold was first discovered in the 19th century, over 80,000 miners have died in avoidable accidents in southern Africa. However in forcing so many Africans to work in such hellish conditions, the white capitalists created the earliest and one of the most militant sections of the black working class.
The National Union of Mineworkers was founded by these workers to fight for decent pay and conditions. It went on to build its strength from strikes in the gold mines in 1975. The NUM was also part of the Congress of South African Unions, which played a leading role in the fight against apartheid. COSATU, together with the ANC and the South African Communist Party, formed the Tripartite Alliance, which lead the fight to end white minority rule. The overthrow of the apartheid system was one of the greatest victories against racism and colonialism in the 20th century. For the first time ever in South Africa black people enjoyed full political freedom. However economic freedom was denied to them. The mineral wealth and the vast majority of the fertile land still remained in the hands of multinational corporations and the Boers. One of the first acts of the interim government was to accept a “loan” of $850million from the International Monetary Fund. This came with the usual IMF strings, structural adjustment programmes, the removal of trade tariffs, cuts backs in public spending and the privatisation of public utilities. One immediate effect on the poorer people was the consequent privatisation of water and electricity.
For the majority of black people, although they had won political freedom, they still lived their lives in extreme poverty. At the same time, some of the former leaders of the liberation struggle went on to become very wealthy. Tokyo Sexwale became a “successful business man”, his diamond company is now the 3rd largest in South Africa after De Beers and JFPI Corporation. He is also the chair of Northam Platinum. Cyril Ramaphosa, coincidentally one of the founders of the National Union of Mineworkers, is now an executive in a number of multi nationals, including Coca Cola and Unilever. Somebody once described apartheid South Africa as being like a pint of Guinness, the majority black with a thin white layer on top. Post-apartheid South Africa is a cup of cappuccino, again the majority black at the bottom, the thin white layer on top but this time having a sprinkling of black on top.
So back to Marikana, many mineworkers have grown totally disillusioned with the NUM because of its membership of COSATU, is totally tied to the ruling establishment. As a result they formed a fighting, breakaway union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). This union is leading the fight not just in Marikana but right across the platinum mines in the country. Because the ANC now supports the mining companies and the NUM, the strike by AMCU members was seen as a challenge to its political and economic interests. The result was the massacre of 34 strikers.
I will end with two quotes from the Freedom Charter, drawn up by the ANC in June 1955. “The police force and army shall be open to all on an equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of the people.” “All who work shall be free to form trade unions.” It is time for the workers of South Africa to move beyond the Tripartite Alliance of the ANC, COSATU and SACP, and set about winning economic, as well as political freedom.
