South Africa - August 16, 2024

Working Class Summit Statement
in Remembering the Marikana Martyrs

The Working Class Summit (WCS) joined hands with the Marikana martyrs on the 16th of August

On this day, the 16th of August 2012, the state massacred 34 mine workers who were demanding a living wage of R12,500. The police shot down mine workers at the Marikana Koppie and a further 18 fleeing workers at the nearby Koppie. As workers, we will never forget the heroic sacrifice of these mineworkers, who will be remembered for revolutionising wage bargaining and actualising the struggle for a living wage. We will neither forget the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of workers who took up batons of their fallen comrades and staged one of the most significant mass strikes in South African history. AMCU must be saluted for taking this struggle forward in 2014 in the historic five (5) month strike that paralysed the platinum industry and all its subsequent struggles.

As we commemorate not just the brutal massacre and the collaboration of capital and the state to smash the mass strike of mineworkers, which gave us the deadly phrase “concomitant action” demanded by now President of the country Cyril Ramaphosa, it is necessary to reflect and draw inspiration for the way forward at this time of deep crisis in our country.

In truth, we must note that the hundreds of thousands of rock drillers who went on strike in all the major platinum mines of this country were making a statement. Their action was to tell the mine owners ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Their heroic actions were a profound statement against the reproduction of a neo-Apartheid system, where black workers must continue to live and work like slaves without dignity. The rock drillers were drawing attention to the continuation of a migrant labour system, where the state refuses to provide decent housing and services to mine workers.
Consequently, we have the reproduction of divided Apartheid cities, towns and villages. It is an absolute disgrace that more than 12 years after the massacre, Marikana is worse than an Indian slum. But what one sees in Marikana is the reality all over the country. Everywhere across our country, we see collapse and dysfunction. This is the outcome of two processes, namely,

The outcome has been the outsourcing of municipal and other state functions to incompetent and corrupt corporations and the breeding of a culture of assassination and destruction rather than solidarity and ubuntu. It is this culture which has poisoned politics and the political process in this country. It has created a vacuum politically, where integrity, honesty, sacrifice and service have been replaced by opportunism. Just look at all the political parties who seek to profit from Marikana by paying lip service and contributing nothing to the lives of workers and mining communities.

In the memory of our Martyrs – Mambush and his compatriots, the Working Class Summit stands with AMCU in understanding the urgent need to fill the political vacuum. Let us unite our efforts to build the unity of workers in the struggle, which is the fastest route to constituting workers’ power. It is clear from the failure of capitalism, manifested in almost 50% unemployment, the worst levels of inequality in the world and violence against women, that we need a government of the workers and for the workers. In the Working Class Summit, we call this socialism, which means freedom for us. That is why we pledge to stand shoulder to shoulder in a united struggle against the scourge of retrenchments for a living wage and decent work for all.

Long live the spirit of Mambush, Long Live!
Long live the martyrs of Marikana. Long Live
Long Live AMCU, Long Live

The statement issued by:
Working Class Steering Committee on behalf of the Working Class Summit (WCS)

For more details contact,
Cde Lebohang Phanyeko: 076 387 8608
Cde Abeedah Adams: 072 028 3551