Luke Sinwell with Siphiwe Mbatha, The spirit of Marikana: the rise of insurgent trade unionism in South Africa

BOOK REVIEW   Luke Sinwell with Siphiwe Mbatha, The spirit of Marikana: the rise of insurgent trade unionism in South Africa     Philip Broster Lecturer at the University of Cape Town.     ABSTRACT Despite its title, this book does not look exclusively at the massacre that occurred at Marikana on 16 August 2012, when South African police officers shot and killed 34 striking mineworkers and wounded 78 others. Rather, it places that event in the context of a longer, larger struggle for dignity and economic freedom by the working class in South Africa. The authors did not do this to trivialise this significant event but to implore the reader to recognise that it was one moment, one particular incident in a long history of struggle and conflict, one that is not necessarily more important than another. As such, it pursues what George Lipsitz has called the 'long fetch', looking into the past and identifying the forces that slowly shaped what may otherwise appear to have been sudden and inexplicable.1 The book does this by attempting to describe the tensions between the various 'ordinary' individuals - the striking employees of Lonmin's platinum mine at Marikana - and their relationships to the labour collectives they started, helped lead, or held to account. It attempts to show how understanding these tensions is crucial to understanding the events that occurred at Marikana, and understanding South Africa as an economic project.     Title: The spirit of Marikana: the rise of insurgent trade unionism in South Africa Publisher: Pluto Press, 2016 Pages: 288 ISBN: 9780745336534 One must be careful not to overstate the importance of the Marikana massacre and events discussed in this book, as the lessons and memories of them infuse the ongoing protests at South African university campuses with protesting students demanding free, quality, decolonised education. This book not only tells the stories of the how and the why of the platinum belt strikes that started in 2012, and the associated responses by the police, government and mining companies that culminated in the Marikana Massacre. It also serves as a guide to others involved in these labour struggles by explaining protest tactics and positions taken, victories won and ongoing battles still being fought. It gives life to sociological theory, helping us better understand present and future working class struggles; the book, and lessons contained in it, possibly progressively shaping their outcomes. The book is a historical document that carefully shares the testimony of people who were protest organisers, who were on the ground when the events at Marikana were unfolding, and who were central to its story. For this contribution, we and future South Africans must be forever grateful. Reading this book reminded me of a book taught in first-year sociology classes at UCT: Robert Michels's Iron law of oligarchy. In this book, Michels suggests that, regardless the state of democratic organisations when started, all complex organisations are eventually ruled by a few elite individuals - they all eventually develop into oligarchies. By describing the manner in which one of the two main labour unions at Marikana, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), had become separated from the control of the workers it was meant to serve, the book hints at the replication of Michels's iron law. However, in describing the emergence and influence of independent worker committees, the second major union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), and the manner in which workers demanded their collective voice be their mandate rather than being dictated to by their union, the book serves as a possible counter-example to the 'iron' law. Perhaps, rather, the book begs us to ask whether in the struggles of workers there is in fact an iron law of democracy, one that shows workers will always and ultimately demand that their voices are heard. Not only are the powerful collective voices of South Africa's platinum miners heard through this book, but, most importantly, so are the stories of the individuals who experienced the ongoing injustices of working conditions described on the mines. When these individual mineworkers spoke of their experiences with those around them and found their lives to be similarly painful; they discussed what they felt was a justified wage for the work they did and, as the authors write, began a rallying cry for economic freedom and basic dignity. Each worker presented in the book has their backstory sensitively told in a way that exposes the effects of the presence of the past. This includes how the apartheid-reinforced migrant labour system still affects the daily lives of mineworkers, and serves to give the characters in the story a dignity and fullness that merely recounting the facts might not. The book is composed of an extensive yet vital preliminary section, followed by a lengthy introductory chapter and five more chapters, chronologically detailing the events leading up to the 12 August massacre at Marikana and the subsequent strike, the longest in South African mining history. The preliminary section introduces the key players making up the political landscape of South Africa. It also contains a list of the various leaders, formal and informal, discussed in the book. I found this very helpful as it can be difficult to keep track of the many individuals quoted and discussed. Perhaps most importantly, this section contains a timeline of key events that provides a helpful and clear overview of the big picture, and some appropriate maps, up front. The introduction positions the reader by explaining the theoretical frameworks through which the authors navigate the stories. The authors use Antonio Gramsci's analysis of emergent trade unions and his concept of 'organic intellectuals' to explain the events at Marikana. Gramsci's work is particularly relevant in this case because the emergent leadership of those involved in the worker committees showed intellectual insights into their lives and working conditions. They were not intellectuals in any formal sense - but when the opportunity presented itself, these 'ordinary' workers offered a counter narrative that successfully challenged the hegemony they experienced and inspired mass participation. Chapter 2 describes the origins of the worker committees at the mines and tells the important story of how the demand for a living wage of R12 500 was conceptualised. It weaves together the individual stories of the workers who were working at Lonmin mine and how they together started the discussion over wages, giving the chapter its title 'The spark underground'. The authors emphasise that movements such as those at Marikana don't 'just' happen, that coming together in such a show of conviction requires unity and the persuasion of others to the validity of a particular course of action. The chapter also details the (...truncated)