On the one-year anniversary of the massacre of 34 striking workers at the Lonmin plc Marikana mine in South Africa, the members of the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity express their ongoing solidarity with the Lonmin plc mineworkers, their families and the entire Marikana community who, though still grieving their losses, continue on the fight for justice and decent work for all.
We once again strongly condemn this tragic event and the fact that an entire year has passed without the perpetrators of this violent crime against workers being arrested or prosecuted. We therefore support the workers’ quest for justice as well as their demands, which include:
– The arrest and trial of police and public officials involved in the massacre;
– Decent work and a living wage to improve the living conditions and well-being of all mine workers and their families;
– The declaration of August 16th as a public holiday in honour of those who lost their lives at the Marikana mine;
Workers must have the right to collectively bargain – free of intimidation, harassment and violence.
We also demand that the State guarantee the right of workers and victims’ families to justice, which means providing them with adequate resources and access to the justice system.
The Marikana massacre is a devastating but clear demonstration of the deadly links between corporate power and repression, all in the name of increasing corporate profits. Hundreds of campaigns, networks, movements and organisations from around the world have united in the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity to join forces in fighting corporate violations of peoples’ rights and governments’ complicity with their crimes. We invite social organisations, trade unions and workers in Marikana to join us in building global resistance to the current model, which allows transnational corporations to violate workers’ rights in total impunity, and developing an alternative vision of a world free of corporate power in the framework of a People’s Treaty.
END Corporate Impunity and State complicity!
