6/10/2023 0 Comments Phulwa episode 116![]() 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. ![]() 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. ![]() ![]() This article explores a set of institutional factors that occupy the middle ground between these two narratives about the massacre at Marikana. Others saw this episode as the latest cycle of angry protest and violent repression stemming from heightened inequality and poverty under global capitalism. Some viewed this tragedy through the lens of South Africa's apartheid past, recalling such events as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. On August 16, 2012, a protracted strike at a platinum mine in Marikana culminated in the killing of 34 mineworkers by local security forces.
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