Marikana’s path

Journal Article

2015

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Social Dynamics

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Taylor & Francis

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University of Cape Town

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Abstract
The Marikana massacre of August 16, 2012 broke open an unexpected clearing in South African political life. The immediate response of many mainstream commentators and institutions – from political parties to universities – was to close that space up again, or pretend it was not there. Far from recognising how Marikana had changed our horizons, they treated it as a momentary aberration or unforeseeable tragedy, the result of criminality, backwardness, police indiscipline and the like. Instead, more than two years after the massacre, Marikana has cut open a path of its own. No one knows for certain where that path will lead, whether it will take us to the future society that Marikana workers fought for or even to a clearer vision of that future, extending beyond the lives of the mineworkers to society as a whole. In the meanwhile, I describe five stations along that path, distinct and yet interrelated.
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