Hi Patrick, thanks very much for your report from the barricades. I hope that this is indeed a Soweto-type breaking point. The Arab Spring heads south. And where next?
Fred Quoting Patrick Bond <[email protected]>: > Well Fred, welcome to uneven and combined development in the extreme... > > Here's where Polgren > http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/africa/south-africa-to-charge-marikana-miners-in-deadly-unrest.html?_r=1&hp > gets it wrong: > "For days, the authorities watched warily as the crowd grew more > militant. Two police officers were hacked to death, and eight other > people were killed in violent clashes. On Aug. 16, the police were given > the order to move in. The police said they tried to chase away the > miners with rubber bullets and stun grenades, but were forced to resort > to live ammunition when the miners surged at them. The police said that > they retrieved six guns from the scene, including one that belonged to > one of the dead police officers." > > If I were editing it would be: > "For days, the authorities - closely allied to Lonmin, which for many > years has kept the mineworkers in migrant labour servitude not > substantially different than in pre-1994 days - had intervened against > the mineworkers, who grew more militant. In circumstances not yet > explained, two police officers were hacked to death, and eight other > people were killed in violent clashes, as Lonmin put pressure on workers > to behave, and then on the police to ensure that worker gathering sites > (even off mining company property) were harrassed. On Aug. 16, the > police were given the order to move in so as to assist Lonmin's > strike-busting strategy: the company had announced that workers would be > fired if they didn't return to work that day. The police said they tried > to chase away the miners with rubber bullets and stun grenades, but > could not explain why they would use force against thousands of > mineworkers who were simply sitting on top of a small hill day after > day, not threatening anyone, and not physically blocking any economic > activity. The policy resorted to massacring three dozen workers - > including a dozen caught on most journalists' video coverage. They were > penned in, and apparently in the course of fleeing, they surged around a > barbed-wire fence at a line of police, who mowed them down. Not a single > policeman was injured. The police said that they retrieved six guns from > the scene, including one that belonged to one of the dead police > officers - but the police have lied on so many occasions that it is > impossible to believe anything they say. The bottom line is that Lonmin > has enormous power to influence the local police, the 'sweetheart union' > (National Union of Mineworkers) and extremely important politicians such > as Cyril Ramaphosa (former Mineworkers leader and now a major Lonmin > shareholder). The degree to which crony capitalism has destroyed hopes > for genuine liberation through the African National Congress, was > unveiled yesterday in the charges of murder laid - not against the > police who shot 121 mineworkers (34 fatally), but - against many of the > 270 subsequently arrested by the police while fleeing the carnage." > > In a Pretoria conference on the Arab Spring's meaning for Africa > yesterday, I had a debate for a couple of hours on the final panel with > Thabo Mbeki's former right-hand man minister, and he simply shut up when > confronted with the word Marikana. I have a feeling that this massacre > has the potential to become as important a break point as was Soweto in > 1976. The 1%ers in the ANC, Lonmin and corporatist trade unions must > also sense this possibility. > > Even some intrepid journos have cottoned on to the police lies, as you > see from this well-circulated new attempt to piece together the August > 16 events: > http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-08-30-the-murder-fields-of-marikana-the-cold-murder-fields-of-marikana > > It is outrageous, eh. And the mobilisations to assure this is not > captured by the right-wing populists (Julius Malema's crew) are gaining > more momentum, as Joburg lefties rapidly learn the conditions and actors > in a place - just 100 km west of the continent's richest metropolis - > that most of us had never heard of before August 16: Marikana. > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
