ABSTRACT
This chapter employs a social-biographical approach to understand the events under investigation. It follows the ethnographic tradition exemplified by David Graeber, as it lays bare the mineworkers' 'cultural universe' in relation to the movement that they initiated and sustained. The chapter argues that individual organic intellectuals, through the workers' committees which they were central in forming and maintaining, fuelled the 2012 strike at Amplats and the 2014 strike which took place across the Rustenburg platinum belt. It presents a section on hegemony, organic intellectuals, and leadership and provides information for the reader to understand the context in which Solomon and other leaders at Amplats enacted their agency. The chapter also provides much detail about the informal networks which were established in a relatively short period and by a small number of workers at the mine. It discusses the significance of individual leadership in the development of collective actions.
