* Spanish CCOO (Comisiones Obreras) on Marikana Massacre

Peter sez:
This a Google Translation from the site of an affiliate of the (once?) Spanish, once Communist, union confederation, the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO). Whilst it at least condemns primarily the violence of the state, it assumes implicitly, that the much-criticised Cosatu, is part of the solution rather than part of the problem, as well as the possibility of restoring the 'democratic' status quo ante.

I may be wrong here but I think we are still waiting for an inter/national union that recognises both the breadth and depth of the morass that Marikana has revealed.

Now read (or click) on...

http://www.industria.ccoo.es/gm/menu.do?Te_interesa:NOTICIAS:373072...

Sunday August 26, 2012

Sunday August 19, 2012

CCOO condemns violence and murder of Lonmin mine workers in South Africa

Television footage, which clearly is a large group of police shoot at will and almost point-blank, a group of protesters, who carried no firearms or explosives, are unequivocal proof that the South African police acted so intolerable for a democratic country.

This is true regardless of the causes of conflict and the previous clashes between groups of workers and trade unionists, and these with the police in the platinum mine (the third in the world) that the company Lonmin operates in the South African town of Marikana. Violent acts prior to the slaughter of yesterday had claimed ten deaths among workers, security guards and police. The shooting of protesters by police has produced at least 18 dead according to information from the media.

CCOO rejects violence as a tool of struggle of workers, indeed that which occurs between organized sectors thereof. CCOO believes that workers should use all the resources of action that guarantees a democratic society but not violence. But CCOO particularly condemns violence against workers by the security forces of the States, especially if it results in death. This is the case of the South African police action at the mine LONMIN.

CCOO calls upon the Government of South Africa and South African trade unions, particularly the main trade union federation, COSATU, [with which it] maintains fraternal relations, to help with all [its] might to end the fighting that has caused so much blood, to promote legal punishment of the culprits and solve the labor dispute that is at the origin of these dramatic events.