Today as we remember Marikana, we must also remember that the first person who died before the actual masacre was a Police Man. Police officers are vulnerable workers who work under unquestionable commands from their superiors and it is them that meet and confront our people. I do not justify in whatever form police brutality but in this case a police man was slain first. In remembering the masacre we must not forget the men who died on duty. They too are workers like the rest that we must remember. Secondly my thoughts are with the many who were brutally slain this fateful day, their demand for a better living wage that claimed their lives must inspire workers of the world to never sucumb to capital. But further what we learn from Marikana is of paramount that disunity of workers only compromises them and empowers mining bosses, we learn from the rivalry between amcu and num that the more the workers are devided, the stronger and arrogant capital gets. The Masacre of Marikana miners must never be spoken without this unhealthy contestation of the two unions. We must remember that once upon a time, while mining bosses were milking poor workers, two unions were at logger heads, conniving, smeering against each other, going to the same mining management clicking deals of recognition, this painful truth must be remembered along the Marikana masacre. For me, I remain convinced that no union both amcu and num must be given recognition for leading the workers in the days before, to and after the masacre. But further it is irresponsible to only remember the masacre and not those who died after, because the continuous killing of workers in Marikana has serious capacity to provoke another masacre but this time, miner on miner, worker on worker. The poor workers who have been killed after the masacre for choosing their own association at the mine, those who are killed until today for leaving a particular union, for being members of another union or for refusing to be part of such union. All these of our people must be remembered in the same spirit and the painful facts and truths on marikana must teach us lessons for the future. May the slain blood of our people and miners not be for nothing. Workers of Marikana despite their affiliation must remember that they have a lot in common, they are all exploited by mining profiteers who eat of their sweat and blood. They all live in poor inhuman conditions in hostels without medical cover, they are all at risk of getting sicknesses underground, there is no job security for them, they earn peanuts, etc. Their common challenges and conditions are enough to make them tolerant of each other. The shift of the fight on each other as workers and not mine owners redruce the fighting capacity of unions. May the souls of the slain workers and the fighting spirits of them all, the toiling spirits of slain police live long and continue to inspire us. Lest we forget
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 20:51:09 +0000