Dying for a raise

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Marikana-miners-protest-R12500-or-pack-your-bags-and-leave-de-country-0912, Dying for a raise, World News & Views The massacre in Marikana, South Africa, of striking mine workers has caused dismay and disbelief the world over. Thirty-four miners were slaughtered and 78 others wounded by a hail of police gunfire.

How could this be in today’s South Africa? How could this happen in a post-apartheid South Africa?

How could this happen under a predominantly Black government, led by the African National Congress (ANC)?

The spectacle tells the tale: Black police, clad in blue overall uniforms, were called by the Lonmin Mine Co. officials, to stand against Black miners holding a wildcat strike demanding better wages and improved working conditions.

Miners at Lonmin Platinum are paid on average R4,000 ($480 U.S.), and were demanding a raise to R12,500 ($1,500) per month. These strikers, several thousand rock drill operators, were trying to live and raise families on $120 – per week!

How could this happen under a predominantly Black government, led by the African National Congress?

When they refused police orders to disperse from a nearby hill, the cops attacked them with automatic weapon fire.

Who do you think they worked for: their people – or the mine operators and owners? Who did they serve and protect?

In Marikana, in South Africa’s North West Province, lies a mine boasting one of the world’s richest veins of platinum. Indeed, South Africa is home to some 80 percent of the world supply of platinum, one of the world’s most precious and strategic metals.

And striking miners are dying for a pittance, while owners and investors are making billions!

Striking miners are dying for a pittance, while owners and investors are making billions!

The cops of capitalism serve those who can afford their services. Period.

Marikana, North West Province, South Africa, joins Sharpeville for police and state massacres of Africans.

Just as Sharpeville sparked resistance, let Marikana now do the same!

© Copyright 2012 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s latest book, “The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America,” co-authored by Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill, available from Third World Press, TWPBooks.com. Keep updated at www.freemumia.com. For Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews. Send our brotha some love and light: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Mahanoy, 301 Morea Road, Frackville, PA 17932.