Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa
featuring
Luke Sinwell, senior researcher at the University of Johannesburg, whose research includes radical theories and practices of participatory governance, social movements and housing struggles, ethnographic research methods and action research. In addition to his book on Marikana, he is co-editor of Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty-First Century South Africa  

The Marikana massacre, which witnessed 34 mineworkers being gunned down by the police August 16, 2012 arguably marked a key turning point in South African history. However, we know very little about the informal networks that were created by mineworkers in order to challenge management not only at Lonmin (Marikana), but also at Amplats and Impala South African.  Luke Sinwell works closely with militant workers, especially miners, and the Left,
particularly the Democratic Left Front, and will talk about mining, capitalism and the spirit of Marikana.  Recently the Democratic Left Front acting in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. held a march on the U.S. consulate in protest against the police murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, linking police brutality in the U.S. to what militants face in South Africa.
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Plus
350,000 Member Strong Union Leader at Forefront of Organizing United Front Against South Africa’s Class Inequalities
with Irvin Jim, Secretary General,
National Union of Metal Workers South Africa (“NUMSA”) ******************************

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350,000 Member Strong Union Leader at Forefront of Organizing United Front Against South Africa’s Class Inequalities and “Colonialism of a Special Type”
with 
Irvin Jim, Secretary General, National Union of Metal Workers South Africa (“NUMSA”) 


           “NUMSA, in line with the Freedom Charter demands, has demanded that nationalization of the Reserve Bank, mines, land, strategic and monopoly industries without compensation must take place with speed, if we are to avoid sliding into anarchy and violence as a result of the cruel impact of the continuing Colonialism of a Special Type which breeds poverty, unemployment and extreme inequalities in South Africa today…,” NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim  

Jim talks about NUMSA’s advocacy for its members interests against the corporateocracy and the exciting developments with the  Preparatory Assembly of the United Front in South Africa, a possible forerunner of the formation of a workers party, socialist in its orientation, with an eye on 2016 local government elections. NUMSA leadership has criticized the ruling majority party, the African National Congress for failing to take responsibility for South Africa’s growing inequality and the fact that infrastructure, education, water resources and health systems remain unfairly distributed across the societies of South Africa.  

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National Union of Metal Workers
Fighting the Class Struggle in South Africa
with
Mphumzi Maqungo, Treasurer, National Union of Metal Workers

On May Day 2014 Building Bridges Building Bridges spoke with one of South Africa’s foremost leaders of the workers movement as their national election approaches. The National Union of Metal Workers, South Africa is South Africa’s largest trade union with more than 339,000 (339,567) members.  It is an active affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the biggest trade union federation in South Africa.  The union considers itself to be Marxist-Leninist and has had a fraught relationship with COSATU and the African National Congress  for its silence on controversial ANC policies, especially its promotion of privatization and its failure to end the wealth

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What The Lonmin-Marikana Mining Massacre Says About 
The New South Africa
with
Mazibuko Jara, editor, “Amandla, South Africa’s new progressive magazine Standing for Social Justice”, a leader of the Democratic Left Front in South Africa, bringing together 40 South African social movements into a broad anti-capitalist front, former media officer of the South African Communist Party, and first chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign challenging big pharma and an AIDS denialist government to win ARV treatment. 

Nelson Mandela was an inspiration for reformers and revolutionaries through-out the 20th century. He galvanized a mighty force of freedom fighters to break the back of the apartheid system. But the transition from the apartheid system in South Africa left intact the capitalist economic system and the continued exploitation and poverty of South Africa's majority black population. On 16 August 2012 – the south African police massacred 34 striking miners at Marikana mine, owned by the London-based Lonmin company. A democratic South Africa was meant to bring an end to such barbarity. And yet the president 
and his ministers, locked into a culture of cover-up. 

Jara discuses the  political situation in South Africa in the after-math of the Lonmin-Marikana mineworker massacre, and its broader context, including internal ANC battles over that tragedy and what it means for working class struggles and efforts to build the left

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Palestinians Refuse To Be “Cleansed” From Their Land
with
. Dennis Banks, American Indian Movement (AIM)
. Alice Walker, writer
. Zwelinzima Vavi, Gen. Sec., Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)

AIM leader Dennis Banks, renowned author Alice Walker, and South African labor leader Vavi came together to an international tribunal to grapple with Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and strategize how to build greater support internationally for Palestinian self-determination.  They reveal Israel as an
occupier, an aggressor, confiscating Palestinian land and removing the indigenous residents and then when faced with resistance, operating in a fashion that each panelist viewed through the historical lens of their own people’s brutalization.   Dennis Banks reflected on the genocide of Native Americans. Walker referenced the enslavement of Africans and American institutional racism and Vivi thought that the South African system of Apartheid was echoed by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
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http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesAliceWalkerDennisBanksZwelinzimaVaviOnPalestine

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