South Africa: Marikana miners' fate under ANC's ultra-capitalism

From The Commune:

marikana: the suffering goes on

6 05 2013

As the homeless residents of Marikana, we are here because we do not have  anywhere else to go. We are also now jobless which means we cannot  afford to pay rent to live in someone’s backyard. We always vote for  this government but they always treat us like dogs in our own country.  The government sends the Anti-Land Invasions Unit, Law Enforcement and  SAPS to demolish our houses. They did this on Sunday, Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday and again on Friday the 3rd of May. They’ve now arrested four of us for public violence even though the police were the ones that hurt us, shot us and beat us.

On the 1st  of May, a public holiday which celebrates the resistance of  the workers and the poor against the oppression of the rich, the City  even again took the side of the rich and stole our building material.  This is thousands of Rands worth of our property which we don’t think we will ever see again because they don’t tell us where they have taken  it. Without this material, we have nowhere else to go because even if we had a little money, we can’t now rent somewhere build a shack there.

So we have nowhere else to go. Since Wednesday, we have been  sleeping out in the open, in the rain. While we sleep in the bush, at  least the snakes have forgiven us for moving onto their land. They don’t chase us away and now treat us with respect. They have become like our  brothers and sisters.

But the same cannot be said for our government which is chasing us  away as if we are not their brothers and sisters. As if we are not even  human. But next year, they will need us to go vote for them. But how can we vote for anyone that takes away our dignity.

Yesterday, on Friday the 3rd, Law Enforcement came again and took  away our waterproof tarps and plastic material the we were using to keep us dry from the rain. Why did they do this? We can’t build a shack with that material – we were just trying to keep dry and warm because we are stuck there with nowhere else to go. But the City of Cape Town is  heartless. They want us to get sick. They want to punish us for trying  to do whats best for our families, for our children. All 50 of us!

But we are not going anywhere. They can take the material. They can  shoot us. They can even kill us. But we will not move from this place.  This piece of land is not being use and has never been used (except by  criminals who go there to kill people, abuse children and rape women) so we will remain there unless we are given a piece of land that we can  call our own.

We have tried to engage with the City of Cape Town, but they ignore  us. We are trying to attend a meeting between the City, Law Enforcement  and SAPS at the Philippi East police station on Monday the 6th of May.  This meeting is about us but we have not even been invited! When we  spoke to Station Commissioner Colonel Mdimbaza, he told us: “I am sick  and tired of you. I don’t want to see you in that meeting. If I see your faces in the meeting, I will shoot you”.

So what can we do? The police shoot us, the Law Enforcement evicts  us, and the rest of the City ignores us. So we will just continue to  stay in Marikana until they give up or we die. This is the same story as the Marikana Massacre of the rich and government oppressing the poor  and it is being repeated all over the country included here in Philippi  East.

Abahlali baseMarikana

South African miners call for Communist Revolution

The following manifesto has been circulating online with the name of "Marikana Manifesto" (found at Random Pottins):

MINEWORKERS DECLARATION 19th September 2012 Marikana

We, the striking mineworkers, delegates from various Platinum, gold and other mines and mineworker communities, gathered here today, declare the following:

1. We stand in solidarity with the mineworkers, ex-mineworkers and their families in the rest of South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, DRC, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, in West Africa, in Chile, in China, in India, in Italy, Spain and the rest of the world;  2. We remember the hundreds of thousands of mineworkers who have died on the mines all over the world; we remember those who have died because of mine sickness such as silicosis. We remember all who face a daily death who still work in the mines. The capitalist mine owners become rich at our expense.  3. We remember the dead, the injured, shot down by the police on the 16th August 2012

4. The ANC government is not our government; it is the government of the mining bosses, of the capitalists. This is the same in every country in the world- the government is the government of the rich.
 5. The police are not there to protect us and our families but to keep us as slaves to the mining bosses and their cruel system of exploitation.  6. Our children have no future, we live shacks, the water is polluted, sewage runs in the streets, the few who work earn slave wages, because the mine bosses steal trillions of Rands and dollars worth of wealth from South Africa and the rest of Africa, every year. The migrant labour system is still there, it is just run by new bossboys, the ANC government;

7. The mines, factories and commercial farms should therefore be taken over, without compensation to the capitalists, and run by the workers,
 8. Parliament is a talkshop, covering the dictatorship of the owners of the mines and the international banks; the government and parliament are their local managers;

9. Black Economic Empowerment or Indigenization is a tool to by the international mining bosses and banks to bribe a section of the local middle class to manage this slavery system for them;
 10. No worker representative or official should get more than the average wage that skilled workers have achieved; all representatives and officials must be subject to instant recall by the workers;

11. The striking mineworkers general meetings will decide as a collective when the strike is stopped, suspended or when we take a step forward or a temporary step back;
 12. We stand in solidarity with the striking mineworkers at KDC Goldfields and any other mine that is on strike; we warn the bosses to meet their demands or face a full scale general strike on the mines; we call for a war committee of workers delegates from all mines to be strengthened and to continue to co-ordinate our struggles;  13. We stand in solidarity with the striking coal mine workers in Italy and Spain  14. We thank all the working class and activists around the world who came out in protest in support of us- you have shown the real meaning of ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’.  15. We call for all workers to immediately remove all their shopstewards and leaders who sides with the ANC government and the bosses. Workers’ take control of your unions

16. At the same time we also call on all workplaces and working class communities to elect worker’s representatives, irrespective if they are in a union or not, permanent or casual, local or immigrant and in the community, the delegates should include the youth and unemployed. All representatives should be subject to instant recall by the constituency that elected them.

Our demands remain: • The families of the workers massacred by the police and the mine bosses must receive the wage and full benefits of that worker, as if he was alive; • A minimum of R12500 for all mineworkers in Africa. Workers are free to fight for more, such as R16070. All wages must rise when prices rise and not be bound by any agreement to wait for a year or years. • Arrest the police and their commanders who perpetrated the massacre. • Arrest the Lonmin bosses for their complicity in the Marikana massacre • An end to stealing by the mine bosses through transfer pricing; bring back the wealth that the mine bosses have stolen- here are the funds for jobs for all at a living wage, decent houses and services for all, free, quality health care for all, for free, liberatory education for all; equal pay for equal work- an end to casualization and labour broking. • Arrest all the mine bosses for theft .Stop the plunder of the wealth in Africa by Anglo American and other imperialist monopolies • Nationalize all the land, mines, banks, commercial farms, Sasol, Petro-SA, without compensation to the capitalists, place these under workers’ control. This creates the basis for sharing all work among all who can work, for ending all unemployment and low wages, for disbanding the ghettoes and building integrated decent housing and service for all, for free, quality health care for all, for free, liberatory education for all. • Disband the police and the army; for the general arming of the masses

The above programme sets the basis for the setting up of a working class party, that unites the working class fighters in South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa and around the globe. It is this new party that will lead the struggle for working class power and a Socialist workers’ state, indeed a federation of Southern African Socialist states and a Socialist Africa. The pace at which the workers’ states are integrated to become a unity will be determined by the respective working classes themselves, although we realize that the Anglo American and other mining monopolies keep us divided in different slave camps but for their sole benefit. No struggle for workers’ power in Africa can succeed if the workers in the USA, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and in other countries do not also embark on the struggle for working class power on their own home soil.
Our mothers were kitchen slaves, our fathers were mineworkers, we want the current and future generations to be free. That is why we are Socialist; that is why we are Communist; that is why we are Trotskyist.

South African class struggle: unrepentant Zuma continues in the way of repression

The class struggle in South African mines continues with police attacking with all the power of industrial technology self-organized miners armed with mere sticks and a few machetes. See more details at Al Jazeera.

The dimensions of this already epic class struggle of those who extract the gold and other luxury items from the entrails of the earth, so the wealthy can sport their stupid-looking rolex and the like, are just getting bigger as we speak. The self-proclaimed paladin of the working class, Jacob Zuma, is showing his true colors, colors of betrayal and shameless greed, by not nationalizing the mines automatically and putting to trial both the greedy businessmen and the murderous policemen and ministers behind them.

Zuma is a class traitor but we already knew that, didn't we? 

The question is how much will take for the South African people as a whole to march to the his palace in Tswane, former Pretoria and take the justice and the power in their hands as is needed. 

This strike is big but it may become something much bigger. Go miners!, go workers!, go South Africans!

Marikana massacre: surrendering miners were murdered

Zuma still sits on his throne, now revealed as one made of the skulls and bones of the South African workers. Zuma the polyginous, Zuma the probable rapist, now Zuma the murderer of workers.

Zuma, the heir of Verwoerd, Zuma the arrogant, Zuma the enemy of South Africa.

It has been known now that after the massacre engineered by the police on that infamous August 16th, those who tried to hide or surrender were often shot dead on the spot by the police agents. Those who were not murdered, were beaten by police.

Blood stains have been hidden since by intentional graffiti.

Source: Al Jazeera.

South Africa: several injured in miners' strike

The all out miners' strike in South Africa is getting more and more complicated. At least four workers were injured by police at a gold mine near Johannesburg partly owned by relatives of President Zuma, whose political continuity is less and less clear. 

While some of the previously arrested miners were released yesterday, many others remain in prison, accused under fascist laws issued by the Apartheid regime. 

The real issue is that the immense wealth of South Africa has not been nationalized as it should and remains in the hands of a few greedy capitalists, mostly foreigners. There cannot be democracy while the wealth remains in the hands of a few: that's mere oligarchy.

Desmond Tutu calls for Bush and Blair to face charges before the ICC

Nobel Peace Prize Desmond Tutu has called, writing at The Guardian, for former US President George W. Bush and his vassal and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, to face charges for crimes against humankind for the invasion of Iraq. 

On what grounds do we decide that Robert Mugabe should go the International Criminal Court, Tony Blair should join the international speakers' circuit, bin Laden should be assassinated, but Iraq should be invaded, not because it possesses weapons of mass destruction, as Mr Bush's chief supporter, Mr Blair, confessed last week, but in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein? 

The cost of the decision to rid Iraq of its by-all-accounts despotic and murderous leader has been staggering, beginning in Iraq itself. Last year, an average of 6.5 people died there each day in suicide attacks and vehicle bombs, according to the Iraqi Body Count project. More than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict since 2003 and millions have been displaced. By the end of last year, nearly 4,500 American soldiers had been killed and more than 32,000 wounded.

On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.

 I just have one qualm: don't forget the third of the criminal trio: Jose Mari Aznar:

Azores conference: the three top war criminals of Iraq (source)

H/t: Jews sans frontieres.

South Africa: Zuma goes totally mad and charges miner survivors of "murder"

I never liked Jacob Zuma and now much less. He rose to power with a pseudo-lefty rhetoric and the support of the historical COSATU union but he's clearly a reactionary and his polygamous marriage and likely rapes are just a symptom of a most selfish personality who has regard for nobody, unless holding strong power (like the European-owned mining multinationals). 

The Marikana massacre is just the natural outcome of having that madman in power. But Zuma is surely just representative of how reactionary the ANC as a whole has become in the end.

Now the South African authorities are charging the few lucky survivors of the massacre with murder, go figure! The "logic", if any, behind it is the use of laws inherited from the Apartheid regime.

South Africa needs urgently a serious opposition by the left to the ANC and it needs such opposition to take power. The Marikana massacre and everything surrounding it has made it obvious.

South African miner strike extends - symptom of widespread discontent

The Marikana massacre has only caused working class struggle to grow: two other platinum mines have been closed by walkouts and this may well be just a symptom of much wider problems. From Al Jazeera:

Thandi Modise, premier of North West Province where the platinum mines are located, warned on Tuesday that the protests may spread further if authorities don't deal with the massive and growing inequality gap that has many South Africans feeling they have not benefited in the 18 years since black majority rule replaced a racist white minority government.

Unlike North African states last year but like many European ones, the obvious problem in South Africa is not formal democracy or freedom of speech... it is real democracy: economic democracy by which the People and not just some oligarchic bloodsuckers controls the economy for our own benefit. 

This one is the revolution that has yet to be made: to put the economy under direct democratic control by the People and for the People.

South Africa: police massacre miners at key platinum mine

I doubt that such a massacre was perpetrated even in the worst of South African Apartheid regime, at least they were very rare. 

Some 18 miners were massacred by scores of police armed only with live ammunition today in th context of a controversial ("illegal") strike in a platinum mine in Marikana (NW Province, South Africa). This massacre was preceded by other reported incidents in which 8 miners and two police agents died. 

Videos of the terrible massacre can be seen at Euronews (link 1, link 2) or at Brisbane News. While reports here and there claim that the miners were outflanking or attacking the police armed with machetes, what can be seen is scores of police agents with lethal weaponry shooting at what ends up being, after smoke dissipates, 18 corpse. 

The second Euronews link is probably the clearest video and it seems clear that the miners only maneouver in an apparent desperate attack AFTER police begins shooting at them.

3000 miners walked out in the key platinum mine (producing 12% of all global platinum) after a newly constituted independent union demanded a dramatic salary raise. The strike is opposed by the institutional union COSATU, akin to controversial President Jakob Zuma, which may have incited the first incidents for fear of losing their control of the South African Working Class.

The mine is owned by Lonmin corporation, a Capitalist residue of the British imperial past in the region (founded in 1909 as the London and Rhodesian Mining Company Limited). In spite of all the promises, the wealth of South Africa remains mostly in the hands of the old colonial masters, now with a Black management.

A Black management that seems to have no problem in massacring workers demanding what belongs to them. 

Shame on you, Zuma. Shame on you, COSATU. Shame on you ANC. You have become what you once fought against.

Echoes of the Class War (Sep 2)

Basque Country: Leitza mayor, Oier Eizmendi, to trial for alleged "apology of ETA". He only showed his sympathy for Basque prisoners, often on mere ideological charges, deported hundreds of kilometers away from home (there are thousands of witnesses) ··> Ateak Ireki[eu].

France: Nazi style deportation of Roma citizens. A hundred Romani people were forcibly transported in a special train from a camp in Northern Paris. As the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators (who now man the French right wing bloc in power) did in the 1940s, adults and children were transported separately. And to ice the cake, they were transported by a train line that was historically used for Nazi genocidal deportations in the past ··> SA[es].

Spain: Thousands demonstrate in Madrid against constitutional reform that will force citizens to work for the international bondholders in exchange of nothing ··> Red Roja[es].  

Spain: Call for weekly demos at Puerta del Sol (Madrid) against the impunity of fascism ··> SA[es].

Spain: street named after fascist leader Primo de Rivera in Horcajo de Santiago (Cuenca province). The mayor Pedro J. Matrínez was the promoter of the name change in person and belongs to a party, PP (likely to win next polls), self-defined as Christian-Democract, Liberal and belonging to the political Center. Go figure! ··> SA[es].

Andalusia: Málaga Nazi rallies denounced by Left parties. Aggressions and death threats denounced as well, with tolerance from police in many cases ··> SA[es].

Germany: PSG calls for nationalization of banks: Neither national solutions nor Euro-bonds. Expropriate the banks! Now, will the citizens support such bravery and bluntness or will they again be mesmerized by false promises of those proven to have supported the armed robbery once and again? ··> WSWS.

EU: IMF claims European banks weak ··> Global Finance.

USA: Actress Daryl Hanna arrested (right), among others, for opposing environmentally dangerous continental pipeline. Last week Canadian actresses Margot Kidder and Tantoo Cardinal were arrested as well for the same reasons ··> The Gazette. 

El Salvador: Central America University condemns liberation of military criminals. Supreme Court ruling 'political' and 'unnaceptable' ··> LINYM[es].

Colombia: tuna canning company Seatech International Inc. uses slave work. Their lead trademark is Van Camp's, which is exported to various American states, including the USA ··> LINYN[es].

South Africa: municipal workers walk out through the country demanding salary rise··> WSWS.

Nepal: internal differences among Maoists about disarming ··> Indian Vanguard.

India: Maoist women (left) rise against deforestation ··> Indian Vanguard.

MOST WANTED: South African racist child murderer

A yet unnamed individual self-identified as 'Terrorblanche' (wordplay with the surname of Terreblanche a notorious Nazi killed last year in a murky rape incident) has become the most wanted criminal in South Africa overnight. The reason? This photo posted in his Facebook page:

The photo, which hurts the soul (sorry about that) appears to show a murder of a young boy, with the aggravation of racism. 

The criminal had 588 'friends' on Facebook, many of which may have seen the photo, and none of which denounced the crime. In some cases they even left favorable remarks. These people are accomplices under South African and International laws. 

However I fear that the justice system is too lenient with this type of crimes: even death penalty is too merciful for such devils. 

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

Cables from the class war (Aug 3)

Portugal: state spends €2.4 billion in bank and sells it for only €40 million

The Banco Portugués de Negócios (BPN) has sucked 1.4% of Portuguese GNP in this criminal "saving" operation. The bank was finally sold to Angolan corporation Banco Internacional de Crédito (BIC).

30% of all offices will be closed, with the corresponding job losses.

The sale of this toxic bank is part of the deal agreed with Brussels in exchange of a toxic credit of €78 billion, credit that Portugal will never be able to pay anyhow. 

··> El País[es].

In other words: Portugal is giving away assets, even if toxic, in exchange of toxic credits that only serve to delay the fall of the creditors of Portugal, largely private banks in other European states. 

Let them fall! Declare bankruptcy now!

Spain: national football team and banners

You can wear on your shoulder the fascist banner imposed by dictator Franco in the 1930s but you cannot carry the one of your forcibly annexed country. This happened to a player who chose to carry the flag of Asturias:

And they say it is a "democracy"...

(From Sare Antifaxista).

Lithuania: Vilnius mayor takes out the tanks in defense of bicycles

Not sure what to think but it's jaw dropping in any case: in a crazy stunt to dissuade drivers from parking in bicycle lanes, the mayor of the Lithuanian capital had himself filmed on a heavy armored vehicle smashing an ill-parked car. The owner shows up by the end and the crazy mayor shakes his hand and says: next time park in the right place.

Morocco: thousands march against absolute theocratic monarchy

Last sunday, on the day of the Be'ya, the yearly feudal ceremony of wowing loyalty to the king, 4000 marched in Casablanca and at least 5000 in Tangier demanding full democracy.

··> Reuters.

South Africa: worker strikes reach a record this year.

200,000 gold miners, 150,000 coal and diamond miners... Diamond production halted... The only thing that prevents the struggles from joining into one single unstoppable revolutionary movement is COSATU, the once fierce South African union confederation now does lip service to polygamous machista (and probably rapist) Jacob Zuma and his neoliberal plans for South Africa.

··> WSWS.

Related: Chile miners' strike continues after 10 days ··> WSWS.

Japan: deadly areas in Fukushima Dai Ichi

Two particularly deadly hotspots of radiation have been admitted to exist in Fukushima I NPP. They were pictured thanks to gamma ray imaging techniques (left).

The red spots are above all measuring devices: above 10 Sieverts per hour, which is a deadly dose.

··> ABC7

Related: Another Tokyo University professor attacks government: It's all about money, isn't it?

··> Ex-SKF.


Palestine: Israel recognizes that they took organs from army-murdered Palestinians as war trophies. ··> Protestation.org.


Science: bubble multiverse may be for real

The gamma ray background may have the prints of several inter-universe interactions. These marks have been located by a computer program, what essentially eliminates the chances of subjective evaluation. 

··> BBC.




Today's music: General Strike by La Polla:

Lyrics:

Pickets, pickets!
General Strike!
Those are pickets, it's the General Strike!

Telegraphic news review (July 22)

[Updated]

Romania: Protest against Canadian gold mine project in Romania. Permit is illegal. Cyanide poison risk. Culture minister resignation demanded. AFP.

Spain: Indignants' March approaches Madrid. Tele Sur video at PO (Spanish with English subtitles).

Belarus: 20 arrested in silent protests against dictatorship. Euronews video at PO.

Egypt: Protests continue for fast track reform. ABC.

South Africa: Wave of strikes grows. Extreme police repression. One killed. New law restricts freedom of speech. COSATU denounced as strike-breaker. Executive workers may earn as much as 300 times what basic workers. WSWS.

Malawi: Riots demand that President Mutharika resigns. Lilongwe and Mzuzu most affected. Violence began when judge declared peaceful protests against the rising cost of life illegal. BBC.

Japan: Fukushima Daiichi reactors no. 3 and  no. 4 suffer electric supply cut. TEPCO denies it may be yet another problem. NHK.

Colombia: 10,000 oil workers on strike. Unhappiness with working conditions. Triggered by firing of 1100 contractors by CEPSA's local subsidiary Cepcolsa after they became unionized. Contractors forced to accept short weekly contracts once and again. Fox.

USA: Hunger strike in California prison continues against extreme isolation punishments. Tele Sur video (Spanish with English subtitles) at PO.

Australia: Tear gas and bean bag rounds (shock pellets that can kill) to repress riot at immigrant detention center in Christmas Island. ABC.

Health: Key male infertility defect affects 25% and is a hidden protein defect (normal motility and sperm count). SD.

Quantum Physics: Heavy cousin of neutron observed for first time: Xi-sub-b (Ξ_b⁰). SD.

Thanks to Protestation.org and Energy News.