The Mythology of Work: How Capitalism Persists Despite Itself, edited by Peter Fleming. Pluto Press, London, 2015, 199 pp., ISBN: 978 0 74533 486 8, £60.00, hardback.
| Author | David Watson |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12451 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/bjir.12453
57:1 March 2019 0007–1080 pp. 202–219
BOOK REVIEWS
The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa,by
Luke Sinwell and Siphiwe Mbatha. Pluto Press, London, 2016, 240 pp., ISBN:
9780745336534, Price £75.00, hardback.
The events of 16 August 2012 have come to be known as the Marikana massacre,
in which 34 striking mineworkers were killed in one of the largest acts of state-
sponsored violence witnessed in South Africa since the Soweto uprising in 1976, in
which protesting students were killed by police, as they demonstrated against the
apartheid regime. Workers at the Marikana platinum mine, operated by Lonmin,
undertook unprotected strikes to demand a ‘living wage’ of R 12500 per month
(roughly £680). This was one of a number of strikes that has rocked the ‘platinum
belt’ of South Africa in recent years, and throughout the book the authors seek
to examine the origins of the strikes, and the ‘sparks underground’ that united the
workers, especially in the absence of support from the majority trade unions. A
key question being asked by the researchers was how the mineworkers organized
and sustained the strikes during the period and this required an exploration of the
micro-processes that took place prior to Marikana and further developed in the
aftermath.
Helpfully, this book has a comprehensive glossary upfront, and picks out the key
people and players, along with a timeline of events. This is valuable in drawing the
threads of the stories together,since the book does not focus solely on the events that
unfolded at Marikana, but narrates how this particular strike began, and how the
subsequent workers’cause progressed outwards. Although the Marikana Commission
of Inquiry was set up to look at the causes of the events at Marikana, the researchers’
view was thatit did not adequately explore the role of worker committees and proposes
instead thatthe formationof these committees was central to understanding the strikes:
they demonstrate that these structures united workers in an expression of working-
class power by facilitatingnot just demands for better wages, but their feelings towards
their unaccountable union, which they no longer believed representedthem. Thereby,
the workers shifted the balance of power and engendered a new culture in the mines
informed by democratic structures.
The research draws on original primary interviews conducted with the leading
individuals involved in the organization of workers in their call for a living wage,
and what it highlights is the collective power of ordinary people self-organizing who
were operating outside the usual dispute resolution and political frameworks. This
‘insurgent unionism’ is uniquely interesting given the tripartite alliance between the
African National Congress (ANC), South African Communist Party (SACP), and
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which arose in South Africa
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2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Book Reviews 203
in 1990, the intentions of which were to show howworkers and politicians could work
together to correct the economic injustices in the post-apartheid era.
The stark reality ably demonstrated through this research is that the economic
conditions of the apartheid regime and the resulting class divide remain firmly fixed:
mining boardrooms are dominated by white managers who have never worked in
the harsh conditions underground, dictating the conditions to (broadly speaking)
uneducated black workersthat they must endure.As the authors explain, these workers
are victims of apartheid education, often relocatingfrom rural areas in search of work,
in order to finance their children’s education in order to provide them with a better
economic future. This vision can be realized through the understanding that workers
do have powerthrough greater class cohesion.
As the book is written not just as a historical interpretation of the Marikana event,
but rather an exploration to assist in acting as a commentary on the events as they
unfolded after the massacre, it oers a contemporaneous account of the underlying
tensions and the way in which workers approached their causes.After failing to secure
support from management or their union, the workers self-organized, elected leaders
to speak on their behalf and developed worker committees. It is this approach that
is fundamental to the contagion factor that caused the strikes to spread and united
workers across other mines. In eect, in the aftermath of the massacre, workers were
resolved to fight on in order to secure gains so that no man died in vain. It is this
ambition and confidence that defines the spirit of Marikana.
The approach taken by the workers has had lasting eects on the platinum
belt well beyond that of the strikes in 2012 and 2014. It has shaken the power
dynamic, with workersrejecting their previous union (National Union of Mineworkers
(NUM)), which was seen as a ‘pocket union’ (an agent of both the employer and the
government),and then not just welcoming another union (Association of Mineworkers
and Construction Union (AMCU)) but helping it to topple the dominance of the
NUM. The way workers have described the NUM in their accounts suggests that
the union got too comfortable and worked for the employer rather than benefitting
workers,with ocials enjoying comfortable pay in their oces whilethe workers went
into the dangerous environmentunderground. There remains a great deal of animosity
towards the NUM as they refusedt o takeup the workers’ concerns, actively attempted
to dissuade them from striking, and indeed shot at workers in the days preceding 16
August massacre.
There are lessons contained in these pages for trade unionists worldwide, which
I believe makes this book essential reading for anyone in the movement. If unions
become institutionalized, there is an inherent danger that the demands of the
workers remain unserved. The fight for emancipation starts with the workers and
requires strong unions that are prepared to listen and take forward the plight of
the worker — free from political influence, whether from employers or the state.
The events at Marikana demonstrate that trade unions need to facilitate rather than
direct, in building strong working-class alliances, uniting workers across geographical
and sectorial boundaries. This is not to say that unions should refuse to work
with employers or government, but instead must remain suitably sceptical of cosy
relationships where they come at the expenseof the workers.
CHRIS RIMELL
Accord Union
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2019 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.
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