Anatomy of a massacre

The roots of heightened labour militancy in South Africa's platinum belt

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2159776
AutoresRounak Sil (0000-0001-9502-3122, University of Pennsylvania), Kate Samuelson (St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6JF, United Kingdom.)
Año2018
Volumen47
Número3
Páginas403-427
Fecha de publicación2018-07-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085147.2018.1492804
OpenAlexW2894148309
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas16

On 16 August 2012, a protracted strike at a platinum mine in Marikana, South Africa, culminated in the killing of 34 mineworkers by local security forces. Some viewed this tragedy through the lens of South Africa's apartheid past, recalling such events as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Others saw this episode as the latest cycle of angry protest and violent repression stemming from heightened inequality and poverty under global capitalism. This paper explores a set of institutional factors that occupy the middle ground between these two narratives about the massacre at Marikana. 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. 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. 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 effectively channel the frustrations of workers most in need of social protection

Capitalism · Development economics · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social protection · Sociology · Wage · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Political Economy and Marxism · Law