by Benjamin Fogel The Lonmin Worker's Council was birthed by last year's wildcat strike at the London Mining (Formerly London Rhodesian mining) mines in Marikana. The strike itself emanated from a long-running dispute between workers and management stemming both from...
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Embryos of working-class power and grassroots democracy in Marikana
The formation of a workers' committee is an act of power by the working class. It has shaken capital by advancing far beyond trade union bureaucracy. The workers' committee in Lonmin had only been in existence for a week when the Marikana massacre took place on the 16...
Michael Moseki, strike leader
Michael Moseki, an elected strike leader at Samancor Western Chrome Mine, sits inside his tin shack and talks about the challenges of raising his five children on R4,700 a month. Just like other mine workers, strike leaders at various mines in the North West province...
Marikana shows dangers of populist leaders | by Carol Paton
Joseph Mathunjwa, leader of the Association of Mining and Construction Union, and Julius Malema, the expelled leader of the African National Congress Youth League, have several things in common. Like Mr Malema, Mr Mathunjwa was expelled from the National Union of...
Violence could have been foreseen | by Stuart Theobald
SIX weeks ago I went on a tour of Lonmin's operations in the Bushveld Complex near Rustenburg. It was a PR exercise. I was shown the Marikana clinic where the company had invested millions in impressive facilities. With a group of journalists, we saw schools it...


