Screening and Q&A: Miners Shot Down and Fallism in Contemporary South Africa

When

Sunday, February 21, 2016

2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Sunday, February 21st, 2pm

In August 2012, mineworkers in Marikana, one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines, began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days later, the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. Miners Shot Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company, Lonmin, the ANC government, and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers. What emerges is collusion at the top, spiraling violence, and the country’s first post-apartheid massacre.

Since Marikana, protest movements representing significant challenges to state and corporate power have proliferated across South Africa. Within the last year, students and workers at public universities have successfully challenged their administrations and the government by organizing under banners such as #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall, #EndOutsourcing, and #PatriarchyMustFall. These escalating challenges to state and corporate power are remarkable for garnering victories and international attention by naming the unfulfilled promises of the end of apartheid. Join us for this screening of Miners Shot Down, followed by a Skype Q&A with current organizers within South Africa’s student and labor movements.

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