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Comment by Brian Ross Ashley on November 20, 2012 at 1:37

Lybon Mabasa, SOPA President, Speaks Out Against the Repression of ...

When evidence was given, during the last week of October, at the judicial commission investigating what happened at Marikana on August 16, an e-mail from Cyril Ramaphosa (1) to the authorities and the police was produced. In this e-mail, the former trade union head and still leader of ANC asked the police, the minister and the multinational mining company Lonmin itself to undertake “concomitant action” in order to restore order against the “criminal” acts of the strikers. It was then that the police showed up and shot and murdered about 40 striking miners.

Comment by Brian Ross Ashley on October 2, 2012 at 18:31

ALGERIA

General Union of Algerian Workers

National Federation of Mine Workers and Assimilated

Message of solidarity in support of South African miners following
the Lonmin mine massacre in Marikana

The UGTA National Federation of Mine Workers and Assimilated condemns the massacre of 34 miners and the wounding of 78 others by the South African police protecting the Lonmin mining Company

It is the worst atrocity ever seen,  since the Sharpeville massacre under Apartheid.  The only crime committed by the Lonmin Company workers was to have come out on strike in support of their demand for better wages and decent working conditions in the Company that has been exploiting workers and their families for years.

The FNTMA  expresses its strong condemnation of the Company and police action and the failure of the South African government.

The FNTMA demands that all the miners imprisoned be liberated and that real negotiations get under way in a  serene and responsible atmosphere.

The FNTMA declares its solidarity with  and  support of the miners and all the workers of South Africa who have engaged in a struggle for a society that will ensure them the justice and dignity they won after long years of  battle against Apartheid.

For the Federal Bureau
General Secretary M. Bekkaï

Comment by Brian Ross Ashley on September 8, 2012 at 23:19

SA workers call to nationalise mines: Al Jazeera report

Comment by Brian Ross Ashley on September 6, 2012 at 4:37

CODESA lock out clause comes back to haunt us: SOPA

At the close of the negotiated settlement that was CODESA the Black majority and Black workers came out completely short-changed.

The negotiating parties had on the one hand agreed on the legalisation of Black poverty through the ‘property clause’. The clause that to this very day makes the fight against poverty a pipe dream. Under the present political framework it is impossible even to dream of economic freedom for the vast majority of our people. CODESA condemned particularly Black people, the Black majority to landlessness, homeless, joblessness and above all poverty and want. That is a fact. White privilege and position remains firmly in place, protected by a government that is not white in the main. Black disadvantage will remain a feature for the foreseeable future.