Notes from a Farmworkers' Strike

by Ben Fogel, Mahala

Politics is not only about the exploits of big men (and the occassional woman); it’s not only about Zuma vs Motlanthe or Malema vs Zille and the rest of this sorry, but entertaining coterie that our political class consists of. Politics begins with people being able to talk and organise in their own communities or workplaces, it begins with ordinary men and women, rather than the latest Manguang related shenanigans.

Western Cape winelands: The strike's over, nothing's solved

December the 4th marked the short-lived resumption of the Western Cape farmworkers’ uprising, after a 10-day break for negotiations which have seemingly come to nothing. Workers across the Boland went back on strike, but only for day, as it appears the strike has been called off by all “stakeholders”. Yet it is clear that it was COSATU's Western Cape branch, chaired by Tony Ehrenreich, that called off the strike without receiving a mandate from most stakeholders or the workers themselves. 

By BENJAMIN FOGEL, The Daily Maverick

The second round of the strike has been a disaster - a major display of weakness that could potentially set back the farmworkers' struggle for years. Disempowering the emergent political agency that has resulted from the unified action of farmworkers, wage negotiations are now to be conducted by unions on a farm-by-farm basis, while also including the unrealistic temptation of a profit-sharing scheme.

Cape winelands: Why the farmworkers defied Cosatu

Driving through the Hex River Valley after Wednesday’s chaotic protests feels like entering a ghost town. Yet when one manages to find residents and speak to them, it becomes crystal clear that the farm workers are planning to hold out for their wage demands – and that few of them know anything of the well-publicised promises that they would be back at work this week. By JARED SACKS, The Daily Maverick

Entering the Hex River Valley on Thursday morning was a surreal experience. Following Cosatu's well publicised statement on Wednesday, I had expected that most farmworkers would already be in the fields trying to recuperate their lost wages over the past two weeks.

The Farm Workers' Strike: It's Far From Over

by Anna Majavu, SACSIS

The mines and the farms are two enduring symbols of old white colonial theft, of the minerals and land. Because of the monopoly of the National Union of Mineworkers, whose leaders and officials have long preferred compromise and co-determination over worker control, it has been difficult for mineworkers to strike – until the Marikana massacre.

Fire in the Vineyards: The Making of a Farm Worker Uprising in the Hex River Valley

by Chris Webb, The Amandla Blog

As labour tensions continue to simmer in South Africa’s mining industry, farm workers in the Hex River Valley have called attention to the fact that they earn some of the lowest wages in the country. Their voices, so often silenced by the paternalistic relations that still define rural social relations, have once again been dismissed by commercial agricultural interests and their allied political leaders as the voices of mob, directed by shadow ‘third force.’ In reality the deprivations of hunger, poverty and violence are the driving force behind this uprising, as anyone who has visited the shack settlements that skirt the N1 highway in this region and will know. In the township of Stofland workers survive on seasonal work on the farms (often for as low as R65 a day) and rely on social grants and family remittances for the rest of the year. Few trade unions have made inroads in this region, and the firing of live rounds on striking workers by farmers demonstrates the brutal face of modern industrial relations in parts of the agricultural sector.