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Labour tragedy in South Africa
August 17, 2012 - 10:23am
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South Africa police defend shooting that killed 34 miners
Police say they were acting in self-defence
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/08/17/south-africa-mine-shooting...
Thanks for posting about this. Although, when I hear the word 'tragedy' I think of a natural disaster or accident. This was criminal. This was a massacre.
Well it's early times. Details will surface during the inquiry.
But having said that, that mining company needs to be shut down, charged, and booted out of the country, the country's leader, and cabinet officials needs to resign, and the police need to be suspended without pay, charged and fired.
It is time for once, for some accountability by the powerful people at the top (read: corupt government officials and corporate officials), and their hired assassins.
How many times do these things have to happen to working people who are just trying to eek out a meagre living in horrific conditions?
Some background.
The Marikana action is a strike by the poor against the state and the haves
The shooting at Lonmin's Marikana mine exposes weaknesses at the heart of South African society
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/17/marikana-action-strike-poor-state-haves
Of course he is correct, in that the leadership of the country has failed its people and need to do the right thing and resign.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafri...
Adding even more injustice to this atrocity...
South African Marikana miners charged with murder
A South African blogger on the "common purpose" murder charges:
http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/marikana-no-common-purpose-to-comm...
(snip)
News that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has decided to charge 259 arrested Marikana miners with the murder of their 34 colleagues who were shot dead by the police, is bizarre and shocking and represents a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system, most probably in an effort to protect the police and/or politicians like Jacob Zuma and Nathi Mthethwa.
In the dying days of the pre-democratic era, under increased internal and external pressure from opponents of Apartheid, the state relied more and more on the provisions of the Riotous Assembly Act as well as the common purpose doctrine in an attempt to criminalise the actions of all people involved in protest against the National Party government.
Section 18 of the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956 (which, incidentally, was never revoked by the new Parliament and is still on the statute books) states that any person who conspires with any other person to aid in the commissioning of a crime or incites or instigates any other person to commit a crime, is guilty of a crime – as if he or she committed the actual crime him or herself. Incitement to commit a crime is also a criminal offence in our common law.
The Apartheid state often used this provision to secure a criminal conviction against one or more of the leaders of a protest march, or against leaders of struggle organisations like the ANC (and later the UDF) whose members (on the instructions of the leader or leaders), had taken part in sabotage activities or the assault or killing of representatives of the Apartheid state. Even where that leader had not taken part in the sabotage or killing, he or she would be convicted of inciting the assault or the killing.
(end snip)
The rationale for power's fixation on the increasingly effective posture of the security state seems clearer than ever, which is to arrest the public's inclinations from time to time towards revolt over general conditions. Where today's unions and social democratic inclusive processes alone fail in their primary task of maintaining order within the ranks of production, the police with their bullets, the media, the judiciary, community and labour organizers, etc; strike their obscene accords in order to bring production back on line as quickly as possible. The curious bargains that had previously been struck in the West between productive worker/consumers and power for the sake of stability, and which gave off an air of freedom and emancipation for the average worker, are no longer required here to the same extent because the ground upon which consumption and production occurs has shifted significantly since the days of the twin geopolitical blocs. It is now the turn of peasant workers in other regions of the world, in China, in Latin America and Africa for example, to be raised up from bare existence to take their place as productive consumers, but only at a tightly controlled pace as growth expectations provide for. Certainly no one will be permitted to get ahead of themselves as the situation in South Africa clearly demonstrates. In North America and Europe, populations are destined for a restoration, if not more frequent reminders, of their traditional relationship with power as serfs toiling away at menial but still profitable service sector jobs on the wrong side of the heavily guarded moat/gated communities, inclusive of places where they actually live under constant surveillance, to be stirred up in the cause of their own meager existence as the various situations dictate for war against economic rivals who need to be brought into line as well.