Emma Mashinini, author of Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life, has shared her thoughts on the Marikana tragedy.

Mashinini, who is a veteran labour activist and trade unionist, asks why there is a need for an alternative union to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in the first place. She says that the future of the unions is dependent on education and on returning to the original mandate that was given to them by the workers:

I am advanced in my years, I am not actively involved in the work of organising labour within the trade union movement any longer, but I do know what is right and what is wrong.

What happened on August 16 is a dark chapter in the history of our nation’s democratic history, and shame has descended on all sides of this tale.

As I mentioned earlier, I do not have the strength to take centre stage in workers’ issues any more; my gauntlet and torch have been passed on to a younger generation. So much of what I have seen and heard about the Marikana tragedy has reached me via TV and newspapers.

• Complete article: The Star

Book details

• Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life by Emma Mashinini
  EAN: 9781770102279
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