Solidarity with Gold Mineworkers on Strike!
Build a Mass Campaign to Nationalise Mines under Worker and Community Control
By Ndumiso Ncube and Carmia Schoeman
On 9 March mineworkers organised in the Association of Mine and Construction workers Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold mines in Carletonville and Driefontein downed tools. Production in the gold mines has come to a standstill for almost three months, as workers fight for wage increases of R1000 amongst other demands. At the same time, it has been revealed that the Sibanye CEO, Neal Froneman, enjoyed a R300 million paycheck for 2021 – enough to cover the R1000 per month increase for 25 000 workers!
Since 19 May, thousands of workers have occupied the grounds of the Union Buildings to pressure the government to intervene in this strike. As with this year’s Clover strike, government ministers have proven themselves incapable of acting decisively in these moments to secure livelihoods and jobs while unemployment ravages the working class of South Africa. Instead, they have acted as mere “facilitators” while they say their hands are tied. Mineworkers are now calling on Cyril Ramaphosa directly to intervene. WASP members in Tshwane have been speaking with workers while they camp out braving the freezing temperatures in the capital. Some say they are “willing to die here” if that is what it takes.
Workers radicalised by growing polarization
In the past three years the price of gold has increased by more than 40%, and as with the Platinum Group Metals (PGMs), this commodities boom has been further pushed by the war in the Ukraine. Profits for mining companies are soaring, yet Sibanye-Stillwater claims that increases above R800 will send the company into the red. Workers are correctly identifying that the only people benefiting from the commodities boom are the bosses, not those who risk their health and lives kilometres deep in the mines to extract this valuable resource.
Mtshali, who works in the processing plant, said that “after 34 years of working in the mines, [he] still earns less than R10 000 a month”. For many mine workers like him it is difficult to understand why someone who sits comfortably in an office can earn so much more than the workers who have to work underground. Such low salaries also mean that workers are unable to send their children to good schools or universities, while it’s also impossible to build a decent house. Although Mtshali dreams to fix the broken windows of his home, he cannot afford to.
The inequality extends beyond pay. While executives like Neal Froneman enjoy access to the best healthcare in the private sector, mineworkers like Mtshali cannot afford the hospital bills and medication for their families. Meanwhile, mineworkers face unique health problems – rocks can fall on them when they are working underground, they constantly deal with sores on their feet as a result of mine water filling their boots while underground, and long-term lung diseases remain a serious epidemic.
Dennis, who works in a deep shaft, is certain that their demands for increases are reasonable. He argues that even though they believe that the mines should be in the hands of the workers and communities that are affected, they are merely at this point demanding salary increases to survive the current surge in living costs.
Towards living wages and democratic worker control
Many workers at the Union Buildings spoke about the higher wages in the platinum sector and believe they, too, deserve a living wage for the back-breaking work they do. In this struggle, it is important to remember how the platinum mine workers won the R12 500 wage almost a decade ago. How much, or how little, workers are paid is ultimately a question of the balance of forces in the class struggle. It is the workers who extract wealth from the mines – when the mines are not running, billions of rands are lost in mere months as with the current strike action. Without the mineworkers, CEOs like Neal Froneman have no job, and shareholders make no profit. Therefore, every cent of profit made by companies like Sibanye is the stolen wages of the workers and the bosses will not give it back without a fight. Froneman has arrogantly said they “will not tolerate an increase which is much above inflation” – of course this doesn’t apply to people like himself! It will take an organised programme of struggle against the bosses and their protectors in government to win the living wages that workers deserve.
The experience of the struggle in the platinum sector almost a decade ago showed that workers had to build the broadest solidarity possible – extending to farm workers across the country – to forge a struggle against the ANC government, the mine bosses, and the union leadership who betrayed them. This fight exposed clearer than ever before the traitorous role of the ANC, especially Ramaphosa who ordered the brutal massacre of the Marikana mine workers, in protecting the profits of the bosses. The need for a class-based approach to struggle and the contradictions of the tripartite alliance were laid bare.
The gold miners strike is setting the stage for future struggles to come in the mining sector as a whole. This shines a spotlight on the ongoing struggles that mining affected communities face against greedy multinational companies that care only about extracting as much wealth from the land and workers as they can get away with. The bosses are rightfully scared that a working class victory in the gold mines could result in increased confidence and struggle in other areas like the platinum mines.
Mining companies squeeze profit out of workers and destroy the natural environment that communities depend on. While Sibanye-Stillwater gold miners are on strike for higher wages, community members in Sekhukhune are demanding Amplats to reopen Twickenham mine or surrender the mine to the community. Amplats closed Twickenham mine 6 years ago, sending thousands into unemployment after a decade of mining activities in the area had devastated water supplies in the area. Sekhukhune residents led by Sekhukhune Combined Mining-Affected Communities complain that they can no longer grow crops due to the damage caused by mining. As a result, community members are determined to see the mine reopened. Furthermore, it is clear to the community that profits from Twickenham mine must serve the people.
While WASP supports the demands for higher wages, we urge workers and communities to recognise the importance of fighting for a socialist society. No concessions made under a capitalist society can be enough to liberate the working class. Workers and communities must unite in fighting for democratic ownership of the mines. Profits from mining should not go to individuals such as Froneman or wealthy shareholders. Rather, these profits should be used to build schools, hospitals, rehabilitate the land, and to meet the needs of communities. However, the bosses will not give up their hold on the wealth. Workers and communities must continue mobilizing and strengthening the forces for carrying out rolling mass actions.
The capitalist system cannot meet the needs of the working class and poor. Instead, the system depends on poverty and high unemployment as tools for keeping wages low and profits high for the elites. Ultimately it is up to the working class to fight not only for higher wages, but for control of the commanding heights of the economy. WASP supports the mineworkers’ militancy and determination to fight against capitalist exploitation.
We say:
- Build a fighting campaign of solidarity across the mining sector: mine workers and communities unite through rolling mass actions like secondary strikes, pickets, occupations, and protests.
- Build democratic strike committees to ensure that workers remain in full control of the strike.
- No illusions in the ANC and tripartite alliance – Remember Marikana and the countless betrayals, failures and corruption. The ANC are part of the ruling class and will only move if there is pressure from below.
- Use every campaign to build towards a mass workers party as a political alternative to the capitalists in the ANC, SACP, EFF.
- Build support across trade unions and community organizations to fight against the mine bosses
- Fight for 15! Every worker deserves a living wage – fight for a minimum of R15 000!
- Unite the working class behind a programme for the nationalisation of the mines under democratic control, so that the wealth of South Africa can be used to serve the needs of the people, not fill the pockets of the bosses
- Fight for a socialist world, free from all oppression and exploitation
