America’s Shell Production Is Leaping,... Wed Apr 24, 2024 05:29 | Anti-Empire
Ukraine Keeps Snapping Up Chinese Drones Tue Apr 23, 2024 03:14 | Anti-Empire
Moscow Is Prosecuting the War on a Pathe... Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:26 | Anti-Empire
US Military Aid to Kiev Passes After Tru... Sun Apr 21, 2024 05:57 | Anti-Empire
The Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian M... Sat Apr 20, 2024 01:38 | Anti-Empire Anti-Empire >>
A Blog About Human Rights
UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights
5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights
Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights
Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights
Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights Human Rights in Ireland >>
The Smoking Gun in Wuhan: The German-Chinese Lab and the HIV Inserts Wed Apr 24, 2024 11:26 | Robert Kogon In January 2020, an Indian team caused shockwaves with a paper that found HIV inserts in SARS-CoV-2, prompting Luc Montagnier to declare the virus engineered. Robert Kogon offers evidence HIV work was being done in Wuhan.
The post The Smoking Gun in Wuhan: The German-Chinese Lab and the HIV Inserts appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
New Scientific Evidence That CO2 Emissions Can?t Warm Atmosphere Because it is ?Saturated? Published... Wed Apr 24, 2024 08:00 | Chris Morrison Further scientific evidence has emerged to suggest that the Earth?s atmosphere is 'saturated' with carbon dioxide, meaning that at higher levels the 'greenhouse' gas will not cause temperatures to rise.
The post New Scientific Evidence That CO2 Emissions Can’t Warm Atmosphere Because it is “Saturated” Published in Peer-Reviewed Journal appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Nick Dixon and Toby Young Discuss Whether a Summer Election is Likely, Why so Many Tory MPs Turn Out... Wed Apr 24, 2024 07:00 | Toby Young In the latest Weekly Sceptic, the talking points are whether Rishi will go for a summer election, the Met refusing to let someone "openly Jewish" cross the road and why so many Tory MPs turn out to be wrong-uns.
The post Nick Dixon and Toby Young Discuss Whether a Summer Election is Likely, Why so Many Tory MPs Turn Out to be Wrong-Uns and Should Mark Rowley Resign? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Wed Apr 24, 2024 00:49 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Massive Climbdown From WHO as Latest Draft of IHR Amendments Drops Almost All Offending Aspects Tue Apr 23, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones The just-released draft of the International Health Regulations amendments from the WHO Working Group shows a massive climbdown in almost all areas of concern, according to UsForThem.
The post Massive Climbdown From WHO as Latest Draft of IHR Amendments Drops Almost All Offending Aspects appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Israel's complex relations with Iran, by Thierry Meyssan Wed Apr 24, 2024 05:25 | en
Iran's hypersonic missiles generate deterrence through terror, says Scott Ritter... Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:37 | en
When the West confuses Law and Politics Sat Apr 20, 2024 09:09 | en
The cost of war, by Manlio Dinucci Wed Apr 17, 2024 04:12 | en
Angela Merkel and François Hollande's crime against peace, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Apr 16, 2024 06:58 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
What really happened at the Lonmin Mine?
The Story Beneath the Surface, Part I
The story that needs to be told about the massacre at the Lonmin mine in South Africa, will not come from the capitalist mainstream media, nor be told by the South African government. The story must come from those of us who wont allow for the critical questions behind the death of so many compañeros go unanswered. This is but a humble contribution towards that aim.
The telling of the story: Part I
Introduction
There is a dirty political story needing to be told beneath the horrible massacre of striking miners in the Lonmin mine in South Africa. A story not unlike many others involving post colonial regimes across the Global South, which have been unable or unwilling to truly realize their nation’s liberation and have instead held fast to neoliberal economics and neocolonialist social constructs.
No event since the end of Apartheid sums up the shallowness of the transformation in South Africa like the Marikana massacre has.
The story that emerges from this massacre is one of failure and betrayal by both the ruling African National Congress party (ANC) and the labor union leaderships; of party fragmentation and the vilification of legitimate opposition; of power struggles at the expense of the well being of the people and the workers; of self promotion, hypocrisy, ideological opportunism, lies, deceptions and corruption…In other words, not a story of leading a nation along a path of revolutionary transformation after centuries of colonialist racist exploitation, but a story about the machinations of the new administrators of the same illicit and brutal capitalist state set on advancing their own power and privilege.
Eighteen years after the ANC came to power, unemployment in South Africa among poor blacks is nearly 50%. Half of all employed workers in the country get no more than $2.50 a day. The modern urban infrastructure of roads, housing, services, recreational facilities, etc, that is enjoyed by the wealthy white population, and the new black middle class and ruling elite, has been built by the expropriation of millions of poor black labor hours, the nation’s progress but a distant mirage to those who produced it.
In the black townships as well as in the worker squatter camps that have sprung around the rich South African mines, living conditions are often horrendous. Criminal activity and violence is endemic, HIV is epidemic, and prostitution and alcoholism are rampant. Residents are often forced to live without electricity or proper sanitary systems while their children fall ill from chronic diseases due to poor hygiene.
All of this represents leadership failure and betrayal for the oppressed and exploited black population of “free” South Africa which is very much aware that it deserves much more after centuries of brutal colonialist rule. Neither the ANC government nor, in the case of the miners, their union, has been willing or capable of advancing and instituting the necessary changes to eliminate even the most crude manifestations of the apartheid system of injustice in the mines.
These words, by an unidentified Lonmin miner, capture the story of millions of workers across South Africa, and the story that I believe the striking rock drillers set out to change:
“Even though I belong to a union, they underrepresent my needs. My concerns are not adequately voiced, and I have no influence. Decisions never seem to benefit me.“I am constantly violated; and have to work under subjective violence. Despite my strength, I am powerless.”
Coming Next:
The telling of the story: Part II
Digging Deeper at Lonmin
-
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2History has showed we seem to learn nothing from the past. The Massacre of Peterloo or Britons Strike Home, "representing the charge of the Manchester Yeomanry on the unarmed populace in St. Peter's Fields, Manchester. The yeomanry are depicted as butchers armed with axes reeking with the blood of the victims."[1]
The text reads: "Down with 'em! Chop em down my brave boys: give them no quarter they want to take our Beef & Pudding from us! ---- & remember the more you kill the less poor rates you'll have to pay so go at it Lads show your courage & your Loyalty"
It happened in Pennsylvania and plenty of other places. Nothing will change as we are now trained in the "ME " society. The public are more interested in the cavortings of Princes to be bothered about the other guy.If you stand up for the other chap you will soon have a plug put in your mouth by the tools of big buisnes that contronl communications etc.
There will be the usual inquiries conducted by the same mentality that derive their power by being compliant beans to the system status quo. Nothing will change as nobody is bothered. remember the saying about the 4 people "Nobody ,Somebody, Anybody and Everybody"
Condolences to the familys of the miners who were murdered by the tools of the big business.
Colour bar and colour domination was at the heart of apartheid, and this immoral ideology was opposed actively in South Africa and other countries between 1948 and 1994. But, as history repeats itself again and again, yesterday's liberators can become today's tyrants. Apartheid ideology backed colour and class domination. Whether a country has a rainbow flag, a green flag, a red banner flag or a union jack flag doesn't matter if organised labour is suppressed and shot down while trying to better its pay and working conditions.
In rainbow South Africa the multiracial state is not neutral. The power of organised capital is much more equal than the power of organised labour. Bear that fact in mind when discussing the evils of apartheid and the evils of postapartheid.