Strikers in South Africa attacked by police...34 die.

There is something going on in South Africa, so significant that it is the equivalent of Apartheid tragedies, I needed to share it with you. Tension in the country is building. I felt the best way to do this was to post an article to shed more light on the subject and then put in my two cents. The original article can be found here: www.nytimes.com. In my responses, sometimes I get angry. I don't apologize for that. But I don't just get angry, I start thinking of ways to put my anger into action.

South African Official Defends Police Killing of 34

Themba Hadebe/Associated Press

A protest on Friday near the mine where 34 miners were killed by the police on Thursday in South Africa’s worst labor-related violence since 1994. More Photos »

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: August 17, 2012

MARIKANA, South Africa — South Africa’s police commissioner on Friday defended the actions of officers who opened fire on miners a day earlier during a wildcat strike at a platinum mine. She said the episode left 34 people dead and 78 wounded, a sharply higher toll than initially reported.  

 

Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

Police officers surround the bodies of miners after opening fire on a crowd at the Lonmin platinum mine in South Africa on Thursday. More Photos »

 

The strike in Marikana has pitted the country’s largest mine workers union against a radical upstart union demanding sharp increases in pay and faster action to improve the grim living and working standards for miners. More Photos »

 

The commissioner, Riah Phiyega, described a desperate struggle by the police to contain the machete-wielding crowd of thousands of angry miners who broke through two lines of defense, leaving officers with no choice but to open fire with live ammunition. 

“The militant group stormed toward the police firing shots and wielding dangerous weapons,” Ms. Phiyega said at an emotional news conference here, using an extensive array of aerial photographs and video to demonstrate how the violence unfolded. Previous attempts by the 500-strong police force to repel the crowd with rubber bullets, water cannons and stun grenades had failed, she said.

“This is no time for finger-pointing,” Ms. Phiyega said. “It is a time for us to mourn the sad and dark moment we experienced as a country.” 

It was South Africa’s worst labor-related violence since 1994. The shootings stunned the nation: front pages of newspapers were plastered with pictures of dead miners lying in a field above headlines like “Bloodbath” and “Killing Fields.” 

President Jacob Zuma cut short his trip to neighboring Mozambique for a regional summit meeting to rush to the site of the bloody protest, 60 miles northwest of Johannesburg. 

“These events are not what we want to see or what we want to become accustomed to in a democracy that is bound by rule of law,” Mr. Zuma said in prepared remarks. He announced the formation of a commission of inquiry to investigate the illegal strike and the response of the police.

The police retrieved six guns from the protesters, including one that had been taken from a police officer who was hacked to death by the workers earlier in the week, Ms. Phiyega said, as well as many machetes, cudgels and spears. 

Miners who escaped the melee gave a very different account of what happened when the police closed in on the rocky outcropping they had occupied. A 36-year-old mine employee named Paulos was among the striking workers on Thursday when the police began encircling the rocky hill with razor wire. 

“They started shooting at us with rubber bullets,” Paulos said. “Then I saw people were falling and dying for real. I knew then they were proper bullets.” 

He struggled to understand why the police had opened fire with live rounds. 

“I never thought this would happen,” he said. “We thought the police were there to protect us.”

Women who said they were wives of missing miners gathered at the site of the protest, waving wooden sticks and singing protest songs. 

“I don’t know where my husband is, whether he is in jail, among the dead or the injured,” said a woman named Mbalenhle who declined to give her last name. “Our husbands were only fighting for their rights, but the police are killing them.” 

The shootout followed a tense week of protests by workers at the platinum mine, owned by Lonmin, a London company. The miners walked off the job last Friday, demanding that their wages be tripled.

The striking workers are members of a radical labor union that splintered off from the National Union of Mineworkers, one of the country’s biggest and oldest unions. 

The splinter group claims that the older union, which is closely allied to the African National Congress, is too cozy with big business and the political elite. 

Frans Baleni, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, rejected that notion and said the rival union, the Association of Mine Workers and Construction Union, was giving people false hope, with tragic consequences. 

“You have opportunists who are abusing ignorant workers,” Mr. Baleni said. “We saw the results yesterday.”

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WOAH. When I opened up that article, the photo literally brought tears to my eyes and put fear in my heart. That tank like thing next to the people is a Casspir. These things were parked somewhere hidden until around the time of the xenophobic attacks of 2008. For goodness sake they were supposed to be a thing of the past, put on display at the Anti-Apartheid museum as a symbol of a time of violence gone by. These are the very same vehicles that made my kids clutch to me and look at me with eyes that could only have been saying "I don't understand... I'm afraid." Now they are busting them out and using them against STRIKERS? 

Look at Marikana, on Google Earth's satellite map. The place is a wasteland. Miles and miles of fields which spend most of the year charred and burned to clear out the remains of the crops. Miles of electrical wires and towers that I can assure you, ship their energy far from the source, if you catch my drift (there were a ridiculous amount of scheduled "power outages" in my township where the electricity was shut off completely, sometimes for hours on end... people were told it was part of a green initiative to save energy, but in reality this really took away from the productivity of their days). There is a highly crowded township North West of there, where I'm sure most of the miners live. That could explain a lot. 

Seriously, what do you expect people to do? Of course they are striking, they are hungry for so much more than food. How can an environment like that, an informal settlement with little access to the things humans need to live a quality life (clinics, hospitals, schools, grocery stores, places to buy clothes, taxi ranks for transportation) sustain life?! This is an anger that has been building up for years. It's like apartheid all over again, Africans against Africans. Why are these Black African police officers not joining in the strike? Their lives are affected by non-living wages too. I understand that many people have to think of just doing their jobs to survive, but if we always have that mentality then we will always let other rule us, take away from us... well, US! And the Unions who failed to serve their people... the ones that allegedly gave the strikers false information that lead them to tragic consequences... if this is true that is the lowest of lows. That warrants the deepest shame. 

Oh yes, let us call the strikers "militants." Let us justify their DEATHS because they were supposedly wielding machetes and waving them around... UM HELLO? THEY WERE PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM GUNS. With LIVE bullets. Which do you think is more lethal? At the same time I grieve for the police officers' lack of solidarity with the miners, I grieve for the miners who may have attacked police officers, as well. I will not deny that tensions were running high on both sides but the point is, this is not Ubuntu. This is not democracy. This is divide and conquer of the different ethnic groups, classes, and this is some BULLSHIT that is going to keep happening if this puppet "Black" government for "Black people" doesn't wake the hell up and employ some Sankofa: look where you've been. Learn from it and move on.

Chicago workers shut down plant -- a sign of more to come?

On Saturday a group of 250 unionized workers peacefully shut down the Republic Windows and Doors plant after they were given 3 day’s notice that their factory was closing. They were also told that they would not be getting their severance packages or their vacation pay. With the thought of losing their jobs in an already unforving economy, workers decided to take action and are still protesting at this very moment.

So what started this mess in Chicago? As the workers closed down the plant in shifts, union leaders talked to the press outside and criticized the bailout of the plant that is leaving ordinary laborers behind while the head honchos on top leave with millions. The company claims that it can’t pay its employees because cancelled loans from the Bank of America won’t let them.

The Bank of America received $25 million by the US government in order to give out to corporations in the form of loans. Republic Windows and Doors was one of the many factories that was given tax payer money by the government during the bailouts, and their loans were to come from the Bank of America. When their loan money was cancelled and their monthly sales had almost fallen by half ($2.9 million), CEO Rich Gillman decided to close the doors of the factory. The Bank of America responded that they were not responsible for the factory’s financial obligations to its employees, therefore resolving itself of any guilt. It does seem rather ironic doesn’t it… taxpayer money being handed out to banks and corporations and not being used to better the working conditions for the TAX PAYING workers. Workers and protesters outside the factory realize how badly they had been exploited and carrying signs that say: “You got bailed out, we got sold out.”

Workers along with US Representative Luis Gutierrez (D) arranged for a meeting with company officials on Friday, but were angered when no officials showed up. Another meeting was scheduled for today in the afternoon.

The workers of the Republic factory are finding themselves in the national spotlight, providing hope and encouragement for workers across the country that find themselves without jobs. Many of the workers are surprised to see support coming from Rev. Jesse Jackson who has delivered food for the striking workers, the governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich who has urged all corporations in Illinois to not accept loans from the Bank of America, and even Barack Obama who spoke in favor of their strike. “The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they’re absolutely right and understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy,” he said at a news conference on Sunday.

Such action is reminiscent of the workers’ struggles in the 1920s and 30s. It has been compared to the 1936-37 sit down strikes by General Motors factory workers in Flint, MI as a way to unionize the Auto Industry. As the United States finds itself on the brink of another depression, is this a sign of things to come? Will similar protest be seen around the country as the economy continues to get worse?

We can only hope so.

It may be the only hope for the working class people of this nation.