3/3/2023 0 Comments Phulwa episode 116![]() ![]() ![]() State violence against trade unionists culminated in the massacre of striking platinum miners at Marikana in 2012, a decisive turning point in declining state legitimacy. The state reaction to grassroots protest has been characterized by efforts at cooptation and repression. This steady decline has led to fragmentation, disengagement of union activists, and the return of autonomous workers' committees. COSATU consequently became a constituent member of the governing Triple Alliance dominated by the ANC, but notwithstanding some early achievements, it has become gradually marginalized by its former allies and detached from its radical origins and grassroots members. South Africa's large trade union movement, particularly the COSATU federation, played a decisive role in the overthrow of Apartheid in 1994. The argument may be seen as a labour-focused variant of Huntington's "gap hypothesis": workers' militancy has grown as existing institutional frameworks for ensuring labour peace have failed to channel the frustrations of workers most in need of social protection. At the sectoral level, gigantic platinum companies faced with falling commodity prices sought to limit losses by planning retrenchments and limiting wage increases, triggering repeated and sometimes violent wildcat strikes, especially when workers' grievances were set aside by local representatives of the COSATU-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers. At the national level, despite progressive labour regulations and a long-standing alliance between the leading trade union (COSATU) and the ruling African National Congress, institutional channels for social dialogue and collective bargaining were less effective than expected given COSATU's inability to criticize policies focused on business-led growth at the expense of the social protection of workers. This article explores a set of institutional factors that occupy the middle ground between these two narratives about the massacre at Marikana. Others saw this episode as the latest cycle of angry protest and violent repression stemming from heightened inequality and poverty under global capitalism. Some viewed this tragedy through the lens of South Africa's apartheid past, recalling such events as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. ![]() On August 16, 2012, a protracted strike at a platinum mine in Marikana culminated in the killing of 34 mineworkers by local security forces. ![]()
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