MINEWORKERS DECLARATION
19th September 2012 Marikana
We, the striking mineworkers, delegates from various Platinum, gold and other mines and mineworker communities, gathered here today, declare the following:
1.
We stand in solidarity with the
mineworkers, ex-mineworkers and their families in the rest of South Africa,
Swaziland, Lesotho, in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi,
DRC, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, in West Africa, in Chile, in
China, in India, in Italy, Spain and the rest of the
world;
2.
We remember the hundreds of thousands of
mineworkers who have died on the mines all over the world; we remember those who
have died because of mine sickness such as silicosis. We remember all who face a
daily death who still work in the mines. The capitalist mine owners become rich
at our expense.
3.
We remember the dead, the injured, shot
down by the police on the 16th August 2012
4.
The ANC government is not our
government; it is the government of the mining bosses, of the capitalists. This
is the same in every country in the world- the government is the government of
the rich.
5.
The police are not there to protect us
and our families but to keep us as slaves to the mining bosses and their cruel
system of exploitation.
6.
Our children have no future, we live
shacks, the water is polluted, sewage runs in the streets, the few who work earn
slave wages, because the mine bosses steal trillions of Rands and dollars worth
of wealth from South Africa and the rest of Africa, every year. The migrant
labour system is still there, it is just run by new bossboys, the ANC
government;
7.
The mines, factories and commercial
farms should therefore be taken over, without compensation to the capitalists,
and run by the workers,
8.
Parliament is a talkshop, covering the
dictatorship of the owners of the mines and the international banks; the
government and parliament are their local managers;
9.
Black Economic Empowerment or
Indigenization is a tool to by the international mining bosses and banks to
bribe a section of the local middle class to manage this slavery system for
them;
10.
No worker representative or official
should get more than the average wage that skilled workers have achieved; all
representatives and officials must be subject to instant recall by the
workers;
11.
The
striking mineworkers general meetings will decide as a collective when the
strike is stopped, suspended or when we take a step forward or a temporary step
back;
12.
We stand in solidarity with the striking
mineworkers at KDC Goldfields and any other mine that is on strike; we warn the
bosses to meet their demands or face a full scale general strike on the mines;
we call for a war committee of workers delegates from all mines to be
strengthened and to continue to co-ordinate our
struggles;
13.
We stand in solidarity with the striking
coal mine workers in Italy and Spain
14.
We thank all the working class and
activists around the world who came out in protest in support of us- you have
shown the real meaning of ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’.
15.
We call for all workers to immediately
remove all their shopstewards and leaders who sides with the ANC government and
the bosses. Workers’ take control of your unions
16.
At the same time we also call on all
workplaces and working class communities to elect worker’s representatives,
irrespective if they are in a union or not, permanent or casual, local or
immigrant and in the community, the delegates should include the youth and
unemployed. All representatives should be subject to instant recall by the
constituency that elected them.
Our demands remain:
·
The
families of the workers massacred by the police and the mine bosses must receive
the wage and full benefits of that worker, as if he was
alive;
• A minimum of R12500 for all mineworkers in
Africa. Workers are free to fight for more, such as R16070. All wages must rise
when prices rise and not be bound by any agreement to wait for a year or
years.
• Arrest the police and their commanders who
perpetrated the massacre.
·
Arrest the Lonmin bosses
for their complicity in the Marikana massacre
• An end to stealing by the mine bosses through transfer
pricing; bring back the wealth that the mine bosses have stolen- here are the
funds for jobs for all at a living wage, decent houses and services for all,
free, quality health care for all, for free, liberatory education for all; equal
pay for equal work- an end to casualization and labour broking.
• Arrest all the mine bosses for theft .Stop the
plunder of the wealth in Africa by Anglo American and other imperialist
monopolies
·
Nationalize all the land, mines, banks,
commercial farms, Sasol, Petro-SA, without compensation to the capitalists,
place these under workers’ control. This creates the basis for sharing all work
among all who can work, for ending all unemployment and low wages, for
disbanding the ghettoes and building integrated decent housing and service for
all, for free, quality health care for all, for free, liberatory education for
all.
·
Disband the police and the army; for the
general arming of the masses
The above programme sets the basis
for the setting up of a working class party, that unites the working class
fighters in South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa and around the globe. It is
this new party that will lead the struggle for working class power and a
Socialist workers’ state, indeed a federation of Southern African Socialist
states and a Socialist Africa. The pace at which the workers’ states are
integrated to become a unity will be determined by the respective working
classes themselves, although we realize that the Anglo American and other mining
monopolies keep us divided in different slave camps but for their sole benefit.
No struggle for workers’ power in Africa can succeed if the workers in
the USA, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and in other countries do not also
embark on the struggle for working class power on their own home soil.
Our mothers were kitchen slaves, our fathers were mineworkers, we want
the current and future generations to be free. That is why we are Socialist;
that is why we are Communist; that is why we are Trotskyist.
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Deklarasie van mynwerkers, uitgereik te Windhoek op die 22September 2012, by die 1ste Konferensie, - Voorts met Sosialism-, die volgende.
Die werkersklas
van Namibië , veral ons die mynwerkers, het die afgelope paar weke
met ʼn onverdeelde aandag die gebeure wat op Marikana plaasgevind
het , gevolg.
Ons het
kennis geneem van die werkers se stryd om beter lone en werksomstangighede; die
arrogante verwerping van hul eise deur die mynbase; die
verraadelike huiwering van die vakbondleiers om daadwerklik vir die
werkers te veg; die brutale geweld van die SAP teen die werkers; die stilswye
van die “demokratiese verkose regering “; die naamskending en poging om die
stakende werkers te kriminiseer; die naakte ellende en armoede van
die produseerders van die rykdom van Suid-Afrika (die werkers) en die stinkende
weelde van die parasiete van die arbeid van die werkers, die myn
base.
Voorts, het ons
ook kennis geneem van ons eie vakbondleiers wat tot op hede nog nie n word gerep
het oor die Marikana geweld; die afwesigheid van die vakbonde by die
solidariteit-demonstrasie by die Suid Afrikaanse ambassade in solidariteit met
die Marikana werkers op 23 Augustus 2012.
Voorts, wil ons hiermee ons bewondering
uitspreek teenoor die Marikana werkers wat ten spyte van die dood
van hul kamarade, die intimidasie van die polisie en staat
deurgedruk het met die staking en vandag met n
oorwinning spog teen die parasitiese mynbase.
Derhalwe, verklaar ons vandag hier in Windhoek by
hierdie historiese eerste Sosialistiese konferensie dat ons as namibiese
mynwerkers onverpoosd sal veg vir die versterking van bande van
mynwerkers regoor die suider afrikaanse sub-kontinent. Ons verklaar vandag hier
in Windoek dat “n injury to one is an injury to all”.
Ons verklaar hier in Windhoek, op 22 September
2012, by hierdie eerste Sosialistiese Konferensie gereel deur die
Marxistiese Studie Groep, dat die eise van die Marikana werkers nie net die eise
van die Marikana werkers is nie maar het nou die eise geword van ieder en elke
mynwerker regoor die suider afrikaanse subkomtinent.
Voorts met Werkers Solidariteit!!
Verteenwoordiger van 3 myne se werkers
heart of africa mineworkers iraq
