Description
Book SynopsisA comprehensive examination of the contemporary mineworkers’ movement in South Africa, in a vivid ethnographic narrative
Trade Review'Opens a window on the struggles of South Africa miners to overcome not only the opposition of the plutocratic mineowners, but also the opposition of the entrenched union establishment created in an earlier era of upheaval.' -- Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York Graduate Center
'Highlights the crucial role of ordinary workers in changing history. It is a richly textured portrayal of the lives and activities of the grassroots worker leaders who organised the historic platinum strikes in South Africa. It is a path-breaking history of the labour movement and a scholarly tribute to the agency of the slain Marikana miners and their comrades' -- Trevor Ngwane, South African socialist and anti-apartheid activist
'The book provides what is currently missing - a detailed and sympathetic history, from within the ranks of the unions and workers committees and in the words of the strikers themselves' -- Leo Zeilig, editor of Class Struggle and Resistance in Africa (2008)
'This book provides a fascinating and unique account of a set of pivotal events in recent South African history, as well as insight that is both locally and comparatively profound' -- Dunbar Moodie, Professor of Sociology, Wits University
'An incisive yet empathetic account' -- African Studies Quarterly
'Exceptionally extraordinary' -- CLR Journal
Table of ContentsGlossary of South African Organisations
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
List of Leaders
Timeline of Key Events
Acknowledgements
Maps
1. Introduction
2. The Spark Underground
3. The Spirit of Marikana is Born
4. Amplats Carries the Torch
5. The Rise of the AMCU and the Demise of Worker Committees
6. Insurgent Trade Unionism and the Great Strike of 2014
Postscript
Appendices
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
