Spirit of Marikana

Luke Sinwell is a Senior Researcher at the University of Johannesburg. He is co-author of The Spirit of Marikana (Pluto, 2016) and Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer (Jacana, 2013), co-editor of Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty-First-Century South Africa (Pluto, 2014). He is the General Secretary of the South African Sociological Association (SASA).Siphiwe Mbatha is a co-ordinator of the Thembelihle Crisis Committee (TCC), a socialist civic organisation in South Africa which fights for basic services for all. Siphiwe is also an assistant researcher at the University of Johannesburg. He first visited Marikana the day after the massacre to provide solidarity to the striking mineworkers.

• Glossary of South African OrganisationsList of Acronyms and AbbreviationsList of LeadersTimeline of Key EventsAcknowledgementsMaps1. Introduction2. The Spark Underground3. The Spirit of Marikana is Born4. Amplats Carries the Torch5. The Rise of the AMCU and the Demise of Worker Committees6. Insurgent Trade Unionism and the Great Strike of 2014PostscriptAppendicesNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

'Opens a window on the struggles of South Africa miners to overcome not only the opposition of the plutocratic mineowners, but also the opposition of the entrenched union establishment created in an earlier era of upheaval.'