Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.24/25 (October 1987).
The 1987 mineworkers’ strike which began on 9 August was the most important strike in the history of the black workers’ movement. For three weeks 340,000 mineworkers struck against the most powerful bosses in South Africa.
In the course of the dispute nine strikers were killed and 500 injured in clashes with police and mine security. But the main tactic used was mass dismissals.
The strike was called off on 30 August without securing any additional concessions from the Chamber of Mines on the central issue of wages. Management have continued to victimise workers, and are refusing to reinstate worker militants who have been at the front of building the NUM.
Could the bosses have been forced to concede more? Could the mineworkers have won?
We reprint here a pamphlet issued immediately after the strike by comrades in the Transvaal who were active in the strike.
Following the pamphlet, we print extracts from interviews conducted by Inqaba correspondents – with mineworkers in several of the main mining regions during and after the strike.
Salute the Mineworkers
The Biggest Strike in History
The supporters of the Marxist Workers’ Tendency of the ANC salute the mineworkers. This strike was against the most ruthless bosses in the world. It was carried out in the face of Botha’s brutal state of emergency. It has shown that nothing can break the will of the workers to change society. Tribalism and factionalism, which the bosses have used to divide the ranks of the NUM, were overcome by the power of the mineworkers united in action. The strike-breakers and murderers of Uwusa were nowhere to be seen. No matter what, the bosses cannot break this union now. The future belongs to us. Phambili nomzabalazo ya basebenzi, phambili!
The 1987 Claim: could the bosses have paid?
Every cent of the 30% claim put to the bosses was justified. In 1986 the gold mines made a profit of R8,420 million and the coal mines made R989 million. The Chambers’ share-holders are growing fat whilst our families are starving. We have paid with our blood, our sweat and our lives for these profits. 681 mineworkers died in the goldmines in 1986 and now another 62 of our comrades have died at St Helena. We have paid; we should make them pay.
The Chamber: “1987, time to hold the line”
A lot has been written about the strike already. But the bosses’ newspaper Business Day said it all on Friday 4 September: “Anglo officials conceded that it was not a matter of being unable to afford the NUM demand. Nor was it that the mineworkers didn’t deserve it. It’s just that the time had come to hold the line on pay increases.” The truth, at last!
A stalemate or defeat?
Now we have heard words like these before. The bosses at OK, at the Railways and at the Post Office all said, in one way or another, that they had to ‘hold the line’ against union power. But the workers in these industries won historic victories. In contrast the mine owners were not forced to yield. They did not concede one major element of the 1987 claim. They did not retreat. They forced the union to retreat. Mineworkers are going back to work united, but on the bosses’ terms. Many militants and fighters will be victimised and thousands will have lost their jobs. We have to face the truth. The bosses won the test of strength this time. This was not a stalemate, it was not a draw. Given what we wanted, and what we got, it was a defeat.
A Fight to the Finish – Nothing Else Will Do
The bosses won partly because of their power. The SA mining capitalists are amongst the most powerful capitalists in the world. They are ruthless. They have mine security, the police, the army – in fact the whole system – behind them. So we can never be over-confident or underestimate what they will be prepared to do to defend their profits. The workers at Ergo and Vaal Reefs in particular know all about that. But the bosses did not win simply because of their power. They won because of mistakes and weaknesses on our side. Fighting the mine bosses involves preparation to fight to the finish. Nothing else will do.
Fighting Mass Dismissals
Any plan to defeat the mine bosses has to include a strategy to fight mass dismissals. The bosses will always use this tactic, so the NUM’s response to this is crucial to the future of the struggle. It is not an answer to say, as comrade Cyril did, at the start of the strike, simply, “How can they sack 300,000 mineworkers?” But a plan to fight mass dismissals has to look beyond the NUM itself. NUM has to raise the risks for all the capitalists, by mobilising the ranks of Cosatu as well. The NUM cannot win these battles alone – national solidarity action is vital.
NUM – Discuss a Strategy for Victory
The mineworkers who support the Marxist Workers’ Tendency of the ANC, have discussed many of the issues of the 1987 strike. We want to put forward the following as a contribution to the discussion on the 1987 strike and better preparation in 1988 and the years following.
An Advance Plan for the Strike
The NUM leaders must plan and organise the strike long before it is called. In the final days before a national strike, rallies like the one that took place in Secunda this year, must be the rule, not an exception. These plans should also include an overtime ban for a long period before the strike is called. This year mineworkers worked overtime for months before the strike – giving the bosses the stockpiles which helped them to hold out. Every shaft stewards’ committee should give the bosses notice of the seriousness of their intentions by building a strike fund from mineworkers’ donations in the year before the strike.
No to Dismissals – Occupy Mine Premises
We think that the strategy suggested by the leaders at the start of the strike – for mineworkers to go home – was a fundamental mistake. It caused confusion, made scabbing easier and meant that when dismissals were issued the strike was weakened when thousands gave up and went home. Instead, mine workers have to organise against mass dismissals by refusing to leave the mines when dismissed and refusing to go home. The way in which the mineworkers at Witbank organised this is an example of what can be done. Similarly the Namibian workers at Tsumeb and the NUM workers at Westonaria who occupied the kitchens gave examples on which to base further action. National action of this type – where one dismissal was followed by a national campaign of occupations – would have a far greater chance of success than allowing the bosses and police to pick-off one mine at a time.
No to Dismissals – Prepare for the Bosses’ Onslaught
Such a campaign of occupation of the mines and hostels would bring about attacks from the state. So in each mine systematic preparations for organised defence committees need to be made. These defence committees would take up elementary points at the mine but also link with the local townships to involve the youth and other workers in plans to defend mineworkers.
No to Going Home
However, mineworkers could not last against serious armed assault by the state for a long time. Although national action reduces the likelihood of such state assault. So plans to retreat to local townships should be developed. Long after the police have gone, mineworkers then could still take action to save their jobs. They can only do this if they stay near the mine and do not go home.
A Campaign Against TEBA Scabbing
Before going out on strike NUM has to organise in all areas that the mine bosses recruit from – explaining to workers politically why they should not break the strike. This is a huge task but it could be done, especially if the union deliberately politicised the youth in these areas and drew them towards the struggle – otherwise the bosses will always have the possibility of using mass scabbing to defeat the strike. Serious struggle requires serious preparation. In these aims the NUM can only rely on their fellow workers and youth. Neither the Bantustan puppets of Botha nor the governments of Lesotho or Botswana will aid the workers’ struggle.
A Common Settlement Date for all Mineworkers
The leaders of the union should do everything in their power to create a common settlement date for next year. They should implement a timetable for negotiations by telling the bosses when they will negotiate. Every year the Chamber mineworkers have to think of a strike without the Goldfields workers. It is like fighting with one arm tied behind one’s back! Why should we help them to divide our ranks?
For the Reinstatement of Shaft Steward Councils
The only regiment in our ranks capable of organising such a complex struggle is the shaft stewards council. They should never have been disbanded in a year of struggle. They are the power base from which to carry out the battle plan!! Reinstate the shaft stewards councils!
For Democratic Accountability in All Negotiations
Worker democracy is the lifeblood of our union. Why did the union officials give in when there was unanimous rejection of the offer days before by the miners? If the ranks are consulted before a strike is called they should also be consulted before it is called off. It should become established procedure that the ranks are consulted at each stage through full discussion and voting where possible. But at least where major decisions are taken there should be a vote on the national strike committee.
For Annual Congresses to Prepare for Battle
Wage battles take place every year, so should our congresses! In fact there should be a special congress this year so that we can discuss the lessons and mistakes of this year’s strike and prepare for a victory in 1988.
Solidarity Action – NUM and Cosatu
The 1987 mineworkers’ strike ignited struggle throughout the country. Even the workers at Anglo headquarters struck in solidarity declaring: “We are all mineworkers!”
So far this year 11 million days have been lost in strike action. Last year 1.3 million days were lost. In these conditions it should have been possible for the leaders of Cosatu to have organised far more widespread solidarity action for the NUM campaign.
In fact, the conditions for linking the NUM struggle to a genuine development of the National Minimum Living Wage campaign in solidarity with the NUM could scarcely have been better. This would have united workers and youth across the country. It would have taken the whole movement forward and helped to hold back the bosses and the state.
Instead, after eighteen days of the greatest union battle in South African history all the leadership of Cosatu could say was:
“Cosatu does not rule out the possibility of sympathy strikes in several industries”!!
This is simply not good enough. Elijah Barayi said at the Cosatu congress that “Cosatu was here to bury P.W. Botha”. The workers were ready. The Cosatu leaders should have issued a clear call for action and then organised as never before to ensure its success.
NUM and Solidarity Action
Such co-ordinated national action would have been one of the keys to victory. The NUM leaders should have raised their call clearly that Cosatu should have organised such solidarity action, especially when the Cosatu leaders were hesitating. The workers would have responded to such a call.
Solidarity Action – at Local and National Level
This solidarity action also has to be built by the mineworkers themselves. In every area work should be started now to build Cosatu locals by mineworkers playing an active role, and through these build links with local communities and the local youth – between mineworkers and other workers, and from there to the women and the youth. In all of these strategies all mineworkers must see the vital role that the youth can play in developing the struggles of the NUM!!
Legal and Illegal Action
One of the main arguments that will be put forward against this general strategy is that much of it is illegal and would open the gates for state repression.
We have no objection to taking legal tactics into account at every stage of the battle. In fact the struggle has won important legal concessions on dismissals and health and safety. But we do not agree that the bosses’ courts are the real factors which safeguard workers’ rights.
The bosses fight to the finish and therefore we cannot go into battle without recognising this. This year we relied on legal pressure too much. Whilst we fight to their legal rules they are hitting us below the belt with their army, their police, their mine security, their informers, their lies in their press and their intimidation. Our leaders should know this.
The union movement was built in struggle – not in the issuing of affidavits. If our mothers and fathers had been afraid to break the law the unions would not exist today!
The real battle is not won by lawyers’ debates in the courts. It is our force, our power or their force, their power – which decides. This is the important balance of forces, anything that tips it in the workers’ favour is legal in the laws of the class struggle.
Could NUM have won in 1987?
Yes, NUM and Cosatu together could have won. Even a few more percent would have been seen as a victory. This could only have been achieved by using the kind of strategy that is put forward in this pamphlet.
Such a strategy would mean that the bosses would be more prepared to settle on wages than face a huge strike wave engulfing the country, uniting the struggles of Numsa, Potwa, Sarhwu, Ccawusa, Fawu and Cwiu.
However, the defeat suffered is in one major sense only a partial defeat. The ranks of the union remain united and committed to struggle. It is not over-confidence or mistaken loyalty which allows us to say that if these strategies are implemented by the leaders of the NUM the warriors of the rank-and-file will ensure a famous victory in 1988.
For a Socialist South Africa
We believe that politics and economics cannot be separated in South Africa, or anywhere else. The bosses took a political decision not to concede the NUM claims. They are happy with the present balance of forces on the mines. They could afford to pay, but they could not afford to tip this balance in favour of the workers. There is no way that a mineworkers strike is not a challenge to the political power of the capitalists in South Africa.
The real solution to the problems that the workers face is to do away with the bosses’ system completely. We must replace capitalism where the masses suffer poverty and hardship and the few are rich with socialism, where, as the Freedom Charter says, the wealth belongs to us all.
The great workers’ struggles this year mark a new chapter in history. We can see the workers hold the future in their hands. We are going to build an unbreakable movement based on the forces of the workers and the youth, on the NUM, on Cosatu, on SAYCO and the ANC to smash apartheid and capitalism forever.
Last Words
All these issues must be discussed in the ranks of the NUM so we can learn from our mistakes and prepare for 1988. But we leave the last words to a mineworker:
“We have never achieved anything without struggle. When you fight you strengthen your organisation and that strength can lead to victory. But you must fight for what you want. You can’t get anywhere otherwise. When we all speak with one voice, then we’ll see what the bosses will do.”
Viva NUM Viva!
Reinstate the shaft-stewards councils!
For a special congress to discuss the 1987 strike!
Organise now for the 1988 claim!
Forward to victory in 1988!
Build a mass ANC on a socialist programme!
Forward to a socialist South Africa!
Mineworkers Speak
Reports from Inqaba correspondents.
Workers’ Demands
A 30% Wage Increase. “Our main and foremost demand is the living wage. The mine bosses have for a long time been giving us a dying wage. We don’t want that. We want a 30% increase.
“The chief reason we went on strike was for wages. We wanted an increase in our daily pay. Although there are different groups that earn different wages, almost all wages are low especially for black miners. We went on strike because the Chamber stuck to between 13 and 23%. This is incredibly low.”
Danger Pay. “We decided to demand danger pay. Because you can imagine a person who goes down 5 to 6 kms without any allowance for that whatsoever”.
Death Benefits. “For a long time we have been cheated, working under difficult and dangerous conditions, just for nothing. When miners died their families received very little benefits. But you should listen to the bosses when they express their sympathies – something that does not come from the bottom of their hearts. How can they say this when they send police to kill miners taking part in a legal strike? Death is the order of the day on the mines. The Chamber must pay families of the deceased for five years.”
16 June – a Paid Holiday. “Up till now the mines refuse to acknowledge June 16 as a day of mourning for those who gave their lives for the freedom of all, even the white man, yet they acknowledge December 16. We told them that we were prepared to work on December 16 and not June 16. Yet they refused to budge.”
Longer Holidays. “Paid holidays have been limited to a period of 26 days. Considering the length we spend on the mines underground, it is only fair that we have a paid holiday for a whole month – that is 30 days paid leave.”
The mineworkers’ strike came on the crest of a wave of industrial struggles. When the strike started over 400 000 other workers up and down South Africa were also involved in disputes. Earlier in the year the victories of workers at OK and SATS [SA Transport Services] inspired workers generally. The mineworkers were steeled for what they knew would be a bitter battle to improve their own conditions.
One said: “To begin with we thought that the strike was going to last for a week, or even a few days because all the unions were in favour of a strike. The South African economy depends on the mines. That is the wealth that is produced from underground through our sweat. Now what is left is that we will continue even if it is too long.
“Our families know that we are on strike. They support us through and through. Even our youngest children support us. They want nice clothes for Christmas and New Year, they want pocket money. My oldest daughter said if we give up the fight we must not come home. This is the most encouraging thing I have ever heard, the most powerful of all messages of support I have yet received.
“There are problems. Life is difficult without money but we will rather fight for a living wage. At the end of the day we would have lost a few rands, but gained far more than that. This is what is keeping us going.”
Worker in Evander region (two weeks into the strike): “Members are resolved to stay on strike. We depend on the strength of our members; it will continue until we get what we demanded from the Chamber. Workers are prepared for more than a month.”
Organising for Struggle
A strike committee member said: “We were elected after everyone voted in favour of the strike.
“The members of the strike committee went from shaft to shaft boosting the morale of the workers. They also looked for whatever problems the strikers had. We brought messages of support to the miners, and distributed pamphlets giving details of the progress of the strike, and what was happening in other regions. The miners stayed in the hostels. Most of us were discussing the strike and supporting each other. We also discussed problems to give to the strike committees.”
Evander: “We called a regional meeting. But the problem is many do not come. And also here we’ve got a problem of people coming from Malawi and Mozambique. Those people do not want to participate in union activities.
“During the strike we used the E plan. This is a system we use in different conditions. In my branch every day the men arrive here at 3 pm – then all information we have got from other regions, we send back to the workers, and encourage them.
“In the hostel each room of 18 workers has a representative. This is the only means of communication when the management doesn’t allow us to have mass meetings.”
Klerksdorp: “Workers were called into the halls, two hours a day, maybe once a week, it depends on the problems. The strike committee was around the mine.”
Vaal Reefs: “Workers behaved well during the strike. It was nice to see workers not drinking. Alcohol destroys a person and the way he thinks. It also breaks unity. We want to maintain a cool and rational mind in a sober head.”
The Call to Go Home
At the beginning of the strike the NUM leadership announced “Operation Exodus”, mistakenly calling on workers to go back to the reserves. The response to this was varied. Most workers saw the necessity to stay on the mines to oversee and strengthen the strike. Others faced practical difficulties in returning home.
Vaal Reefs: “We did not go home because we did not have money. The banks through which we deposit our money were closed to us. We also thought that if others went home this might easily bring a division among our ranks of fighters, whom we are presently building up during these strikes to be brave and fearless fighters and leaders of tomorrow.”
Evander: “We don’t have the exact figure of how many workers did go home, but at Leslie mine about half of the strength decided to go home; and also at some other branches some of the workers did go home – but not all of them.
“A large number remained to support the strike. You see some workers want to be there in the strike, they want to see what is happening, rather than going home and being at home.
“And another problem, if everybody can go home then the management will be able to hire some people, let’s say temporarily, to work on the mines. Now it’s becoming difficult for them to get other people to work.”
Far West Rand: “Most of the workers at our mine went home except the shaft stewards. We only stayed a week at home, and then we came back on the 17th and on the 22nd we were fired.
“Management was trying to close the hostel, and said, ‘OK, if you don’t want to go to work, go home.’
Management Violence
What tactics were management using to try and intimidate workers and break the strike?
Orange Free State: “At Saaiplaas they tried to separate people into their tribes. They say the Basotho must not participate in the strike although it is a legal strike, because these people are foreigners in this country.
“Mine security have forced people to go down. Also the management have encouraged team leaders to force people underground. No matter whether the man is working on the surface or not, they forced each and everybody.
“In one incident at the road junction outside President Steyn workers were gathered waiting for taxis which are not allowed to go into the shaft but then the security police shot at them using rubber bullets and tear gas – nine people were injured, and others were in hospital.”
Evander: “Violence is being caused by management. At Bracken and Kinross the security used to go around the hostel every morning to say the workers had to wake up. Now, they are well armed next to the doors, when they see a worker coming out not having working clothes on they just take him to a police van. In most of the houses they used to open the doors and throw some tear gas inside, and when they come out they would beat them.
“Yesterday at Kinross mineworkers were just eating when they threw teargas into the room, then as the workers were coming out they fired rubber bullets, then they got in and assaulted workers with the butt of the gun. Maybe if you go to Kinross mine you can see the workers pulled out the windows and jumped out of the windows.”
Vaal Reefs: “Workers were just sitting in their compounds. There were suddenly tents being erected by management outside the compounds. They said the tents were for those who were not on strike. But at our mine everyone voted for the strike. When the management saw no-one was moving to these camps they tried to cause faction fights.
“This also did not work. Then they tried to get in the Russians (vigilantes). We could not sleep; then Hippos started rolling in. It was around four in the morning. They forced us out of the com-pounds into the houses. Then they shot people, in the hostels, kitchens, and those who were washing.
“They said those who were injured must go to the mine hospital. They went, then they were arrested. They were later released. They were still injured. They were only treated by NUM doctors in Johannesburg. Real bullets, rubber bullets, and teargas were used on us.”
Evander: “Management also used other methods. They tried to convince workers by telling them that other mines have already gone back to work. Then they try to reduce their confidence counting the figures of money they are losing per day. Workers seeing the figures think they we are losing a lot by just staying here getting nothing; others decide well they cannot support the strike anymore.”
Mine Bosses Recruit Scabs
Evander: “Scabs are being recruited from Lesotho. In fact management has control through the agencies; they say each TEBA must recruit one hundred people a day. One of the TEBA people told me they are recruiting workers even if they’ve got no experience on the mines. That’s mainly for Western Deep No. 1 and Vaal Reefs.”
Did workers try to convince those who were still working that they must join the strike? What approaches did strikers make to scabs?
Evander: “At our mine from the beginning the indunas and tribal reps stayed separately from the workers. So workers went to them and told them not to stay there because they are doing management’s work. ‘Let’s be all on strike and fight together’. They asked them to leave and come and join the strike – which they did!
“Then the workers put their own reps, not mine security, at the entrance to the hostel and in the kitchen. But now the management is taking a hard line and expelling them.”
Vaal Reefs: “There were lessons that non-strikers learnt. The team leaders especially. They went underground to work. When they got there they were forced to ‘layisha’ (load). Some of them refused. The white miners then beat them up. Those who worked were forced to work hard. They have learnt the hard way, nothing pleases the bosses. If you become their sweet boy, the more they make you work hard for peanuts.
“One team leader called Tola had his jaws crushed. He refused to ‘layisha’ saying he was a team leader. A white miner told him that all those who did not work were not underground but in their hostels fighting for better wages. All those who were underground were there to work. Many workers were injured in this way but the management told them to say they had been beaten by strikers.
“Those who were forced to work hard later came to us and begged forgiveness!”
Have there been any cases where mine security have joined the strike?
Evander: “No. I think they joined them in some ways; let’s say they co-operate with the workers, but they do not go with the workers. The security are not allowed to join our union in this area; that is all these Gencor mines. They do not go with the workers, but they support the workers.
“Management don’t always trust their own mine security. During the strike they bring other security from other mines. For instance we’ve got a problem here, there are security from as far as Rustenburg.
Mass Dismissals
In the last 72 hours of the strike 36,000 workers lost their jobs, bringing the total number of dismissals to 46,000. The mining houses had already announced that a further 50,000 would lose their jobs if they did not return to work, and that they would accelerate the pace of these dismissals.
For the whole period of the strike management had used the threat of “return by … or the sack” as a weapon to force miners back to work. At Vaal Reefs No. 6 workers were told by the bosses that strike action would “force” them to close the shaft.
OFS: “Some were dismissed at No. 1 Western Holdings … and there’s others at No. 2 and at No. 4. At President Steyn they dismissed 90 shop stewards. They were told that if they don’t want to go back to work they will dismiss them. Even those who ran away from the strike, and went home, and when they came back what they say is that they took a date for them. And if you failed to report on that day then they dismiss you.”
Klerksdorp: “I think about 18,000 were dismissed in the end from Vaal Reefs. Everybody who didn’t adhere to their ultimatum was summarily dismissed. This was before the 29th … before NUM was meeting management to discuss violence.
“When workers decided to come back from home they are refused by management to enter their hostels. You come to the gates, which are manned by security, and they don’t want to let you in. But still most workers are staying away.”
The End of the Strike
On the weekend of 29-30 August NUM leaders again met with the Chamber, and on 30 August it was announced that the strike was over. NUM leaders accepted the Chamber’s offer of 23%, which had been rejected by the workers four days earlier. Workers returned to work, but in many cases management has refused to reinstate sacked workers, especially NUM activists.
Far West Rand: “At Randfontein Estates where the strike was 100% all the shaft stewards, and some members, have been dismissed. Then at unrecognised mines like Venterspost, Western Point, Durban Deep, only a few people went on strike, and they fired all of them. 52 workers were fired at Durban Deep.
“The union is trying to assist workers to get their jobs back but in the meantime, management has called workers to come and report for duty.
“At Randfontein, when they went back to report for re-employment, they were called in numbers of ten and then management asked the vigilante group inside the office: ‘Do you need this one, do you need this one?’ And if they say, ‘No, this is a shaft steward, we are no more interested in him’, then they chase him away. These vigilantes are made up of hostel indunas… And one is the manager.”
Lessons of the Strike
Far West Rand: “Workers feel very unhappy about the end of the strike.”
But “last year very few people believed the union would be able to pull out so many workers and let alone for three weeks. I think we’ve proved many people wrong and I think the same will apply for the future as well. The Chamber themselves acknowledged this – the muscle and the discipline and the organisation of the NUM. They never expected so many workers, they expected about 6,000 workers. workers.
“The fact that the strike went on created a loss of profits. For the Chamber, this was their main concern, and was the cause of the repressive measures with which they dismissed workers and tried to break the strike in the end.
“On this question of dismissals we feel that the problem of this year’s strike is the fact that the other mines were still continuing working. So we feel we should organise those mines who didn’t go on strike.
“We also feel that in future we must try by all means to make it a point that TEBA does not recruit.”
Vaal Reefs No. 8: “There is only one lesson there, if we go on strike we must be sure that most of us are on strike, and we must be united. Unity is something the bosses saw they cannot break and also our fighting spirit.
“If the strike is 100% on with proper support structures, and understanding from the community about our demands, the strike can be successful.
“Although we failed to achieve our chief demand, an increase in wages up to 30%, there have been significant gains and lessons. Unity is the chief important factor. We also have to remember that we must always move forward. A strike like this is preparing us for tougher battles ahead. It is building up the militancy of the workers in their demands for a living wage.
“The next time we will obviously avoid this and that mistake, but we know the history of the mines, the mine bosses, the state, the police, and the workers who go on strike. This will forever build our strength, correct our weaknesses, to fight for a living wage since we, and not the bosses, produce the wealth under the earth.”
Strike committee member, Vaal Reefs: “The message that we got from Cosatu was that we cannot go backwards, we must go forward. But we think that other Cosatu affiliates must put into practice the slogan ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’.
“We know that most of the factories derive from the mines, or these factories supply the mines. The mine bosses have control or shares in those factories, so that when we are on strike the other bosses feel the pinch. But industrial action will make them feel the punch. Should workers in the factories also go on strike, we will get what we want.”
LETTER
During the strike Inqaba received this letter from a former mineworker who has been actively involved in the recent past in building the NUM. Although we were unable to publish it at the time we think the comrade’s letter will be of interest to our readers.
11/8/1987
Dear comrades,
Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa has told the mineworkers to go home for the period of the strike. He said he was doing this to prevent them from being killed by the police.
I believe that if the workers accepted this decision it will weaken the strike very much.
First of all, that unity the workers have got is going to be damaged.
Where the strike is not 100% solid, how can you deal with strike-breakers if the strikers have gone home? The strikers need to be able to identify those who have doubts, those who think that half a loaf is better than none, and take measures to show them that if they stand and fight together victory can be theirs.
We work 5 kms down. It is no joke, but the wage we were getting last year was R300 per month and that includes Sunday working. The majority of the workers did not get R400. Imagine the numbers that would support the living wage campaign if properly prepared and fought for.
When there were strikes previously, we just sat quietly in the hostel. It was difficult for them to attack us when we were united. The violence there came when mine security wanted to protect scabs.
We used to sing freedom songs for encouragement and have a meeting every day on the mine premises to discuss the strike.
For some mineworkers, Malawi is home. Where are the workers to get the R100 to take them home? It is many days travelling. What happens if the bosses make an offer? How will the NUM leaders contact the rank-and-file if they have gone home? Must they use SABC and Ilanga?
Families will expect money from returning workers. They will have to draw money unexpectedly as there was no plan before for them to go home now.
There should have been a plan two months back by the NUM leadership to collect extra rands from the workers and explain to them that it is going to be used during the strike to feed them and organise transport to meetings.
In the homelands, it will be easy for Gatsha and Zwelithini to address the workers in tribal language. They will try to persuade them to go back to work, as the Lesotho government already seems to be doing. The state will work with the tribal authorities to control the movement of the workers.
If the workers go home, how are they going to fight Uwusa?
Other unions should be asked to support the miners. How can the working class as a whole support the mineworkers if they are sent home to rest in the reserves, and when they weren’t even chased there by the bosses in the first place?
No Place
Comrade Cyril should not go along with the migrant labour system in any way. By telling the workers to go home that means there is no place for them here if they are not working.
The workers must stay as near to where they are working to protect their mines and to keep that unity.
The workers’ power comes from being together where they work. This is shown by the workers at Western Deep and elsewhere who have taken over mine kitchens and hostels. At some mines it is reported that the workers have set up roadblocks and are controlling the hostel gates to stop people going to work.
The NUM leaders must appeal to township dwellers to work hand-in-hand with the miners for food and a place to stay. At Kloof gold mine last year, the 30 people from the local township of Bekkersdal who worked at the shop servicing the mine went on strike. The Youth Congress asked the miners to boycott the shop which they did. Now the miners can go to the community and ask for that support to be returned.
Youth spoke at our strike meetings during last year’s pay strike at Kloof. Shaft stewards had got to know the activists through their visits to the township. Those contacts must be made into firm links now.
Township dwellers will easily support the mineworkers. Even taxi-owners provided us with free transport during last year’s strike.
People can have respect for mine-workers. It takes guts to work in the mines. The person working next to you can just die. Many give up working after a day.
The whole country is going to shake with the strike. There won’t be money for Botha’s Hippos.
It is a very favourable opportunity for Cosatu’s living wage campaign. Small factories who are fearful of taking action because of their size can now join with the miners. Cosatu must call a general strike around this question.
Each and every strike taking place at present has the same grievances. It may not be the same bosses, but everywhere workers are treated the same. Everywhere workers are demanding an end to cheap labour.
It is not going to be easy to dismiss so many mineworkers. It takes time to recruit their replace-ments, and then you cannot just go underground. You have to learn how to handle yourself down there, and the people who do the training are the ones on strike! It looks like the bosses are just going to have to do with one house and one Benz.
June 16th last year the miners did not participate in the general strike. They do feel part of the struggle, but want to know how.
A clear strategy for this strike and action by the rest of the working class will end the isolation of the mineworkers for ever. Our movement will be powerfully strengthened in its fight for national liberation and socialism.
Yours in the struggle,
A former Kloof mineworker
© Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2020).
