NEW YORK CITY, October 16—Seventy five professors, students from CUNY, and workers from other unions were recently organized by the Progressive Labor Party and the International Committee of the Professional Staff Congress to see the documentary film, Miners Shot Down. It is a gripping depiction of the slaughter of 34 striking platinum miners on August 16, 2012 at Marikana, South Africa. We were fortunate to have the film’s director and activist, Rehad Desai, answer questions and describe the many current struggles of workers there.
As poverty and inequality grow in South Africa, workers are rapidly moving to the left, opposing the ANC government, and debating how to end capitalism. PL’ers pointed out that miners in Mexico and other countries are fighting against what’s shown in the film: company officials working hand-in-hand with the repressive apparatus of the capitalist state to stop workers fighting for a living wage. Militant strikes are powerful and necessary, and the Marikana miners set the example for workers around the world by fighting back with machetes and spears. But as long as the capitalists maintain state power, there will be more disappearances like Aytozinapa, more massacres like Marikana, and more Black Lung disease for the miners who live long enough to retire (see letter on page 6). What’s missing right now is a revolutionary party. Without a revolutionary communist party the workers will continue to struggle but also continue to suffer, never obtaining what they need – a society where they share the fruits of their labor and decide their own futures.
People who came to the event contributed money towards the work of the Marikana Support Committee, which continues to demand reparations for the families of those killed and that those responsible pay for their crimes. Audience members asked tough questions—such as “How did the African National Congress, which fought hard against apartheid, come to betray the workers in South Africa?” Part of the answer to that question is that the African National Congress was led by the South African Communist Party, which fought for reforms. While SACP members displayed tremendous courage and dedication in the struggle against apartheid, they did not have a revolutionary program.
When the ANC came to power in 1994, they were now in charge of running a capitalist economy. The need to maintain corporate profitability outweighed other considerations, and the government was soon acting on behalf of the business class, which meant imposing austerity and suppressing workers strikes, as in Marikana. Moreover, some of the ANC leaders — like Cyril Ramaphosa, the former leader of the National Miners Union—were given high-ranking corporate positions and became very wealthy. Ramaphosa is personally worth $675 million, and sits on the board of directors of Lonmin—the very company the miners at Marikana were striking against! Lonmin, one of the world’s largest platinum companies, worked closely with the police who murdered the 34 workers, many shot in the back while fleeing.
Less than two years later, 70,000 mine workers shut down all three SA platinum companies for five months, until the company agreed to pay salary increases (though less than the 12,500 rand the workers were demanding as a minimum salary). In 2013, hundreds of thousands of workers in auto, construction, airport and other industries shut down their workplaces. The working class in South Africa has refused to be cowed. Someday they will take power and build an egalitarian communist society, inspiring and aiding workers in all of Africa — and the rest of the world — to do the same.
SIDEBAR
Campus Worker-Student Alliance Needed
On October 6, professors, students and campus workers at the Universities of Johannesburg, Witwatersrand and Cape Town held demonstrations demanding no outsourcing of work to private contractors, which has cost many their jobs and lowered wages. This developing campus worker-student alliance on behalf of the lowest paid workers at the universities is also demanding free university education and ending the repression of student activists.
Here in NYC, CUNY faculty and staff have been without a contract for more than five years. The union is planning a strike authorization vote, though not for a few more months. Our leadership stresses that “we don’t want to strike” and emphasizes the penalties for striking under the Taylor Law. However, there are also penalties for not striking, namely having to accept concessionary contracts that have long lasting effects, including continuing the poverty wages of adjuncts, who teach more than half the classes at CUNY. When unions like the transit union (TWU) have struck in the past, they did so in order to avoid painful givebacks, knowing full well they would be hit with fines and the loss of dues check off. There are also 10,000 CUNY workers in DC 37 who have also been without contracts and salary increases for years. If both unions shut down all 23 campuses and organized thousands of students to demand no tuition hikes, more money for CUNY and no concessionary contracts, it would have a powerful galvanizing effect on the city, energizing workers and students to stand up and fight back, as they’ve courageously done in South Africa.