This article analyses some of the reasons for the violent repression of the miners' strike in Marikana, South Africa, in which 34 people died on 16 August 2012. It explores the economic and productive context which led the Rock Drill Operators to demand a wage increase outside the usual wage-bargaining structures. It goes on to examine the strikers' subjectivity and the principles of their strike. Because the strike was organised independently of the main union, the National Union of Mineworkers, by miners demanding direct talks with their employer, as a sign of recognition, it illustrated a crisis of representation and embodied an alternative politics. The author argues that the African National Congress government was faced with a challenge to its instituted forms of political representation and, as a result, ordered the police to fire on the demonstrators.
1 Cette association familiale de parents et amis est créée avec et pour les personnes en situation de handicap mental en 1962. Elle est affiliée à l'UNAPEI (Union nationale des associations de parents et amis des personnes handicapées mentales). Pour plus de détails, voir : http://www.papillonsblancs-rxtg.org/asso.htm
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