COMMENT - BFLF's excellent take on the destruction of real labour by the New Labour, Conservatives and
Murdoch press.
(BLACK OPINION SA) UK election: need for new struggle after Corbyn’s defeat
By admin Posted in Featured International News Politics Posted on December 14, 2019
Photo credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images
By BO Staff Writer
The following article by Moira Leahy and Josh Lees was previously published in the redflag.org.au website.
Every left-wing person watching the British general election results come in will do so with a heavy heart. The new Tory government is set to be headed by the absolute worst elements of the Etonian ruling class – a vicious, racist, anti-working-class regime with the vile Trump-loving Johnson at its head.
Many will draw conclusions similar to those drawn by the ALP and the media here after “Smoko” Morrison’s victory – that left-wing politics cannot appeal to working-class people, that working-class people are increasingly right-wing and racist and that only a Tory/Liberal-lite party can win.
This narrative will be championed loudly by the Labour right who have done their absolute best to undermine Jeremy Corbyn in their efforts to maintain Labour as a neoliberal party absolutely committed to their role as capitalism’s plan B party. They will argue that this result confirms that the sensible centre is the only way forward in politics.
Yet the story of this election is not a wholesale shift to the right in British society – but a dramatic decline in Labour’s vote. Those people who come to bury Corbyn are in large part to blame for this. Alongside their allies in the media, the Lib Dems and the establishment, the majority of the parliamentary Labour party have spent the last 4 years attacking both Corbyn himself and the more left wing policies he has championed. The attacks have been vicious and unrelenting, with Corbyn dishonestly portrayed as an antisemitic, authoritarian, Communist cult leader. At every turn they have undermined the growing left wing sentiment that put Corbyn into the leadership in the first place and saw him achieve the second best post-World War Two swing to Labour in the 2017 election.
They have been as responsible for making this a Brexit election as Johnson – with the aim of using it to crush Corbyn. They will be much happier with this result than they would have been with a Corbyn victory which cemented his position.
They posture as progressive pan-Europeans, but the small-l liberal opinion-makers of the BBC, the Guardian, the Liberal Democrats, and the centre-right of the Labour party have waged a savage campaign to slander and destroy Corbyn – and in so doing, they’ve ensured a heavy majority for Johnson’s reactionary pro-Brexit government. That shows their real priorities. For all their huffing and puffing about Europe, their main priority was stopping Corbyn from having any chance to implement a left-wing economic policy. They have used the most despicable slanders in the service of this cause, notably totally cynical accusations of anti-Semitism against anyone associated with even the mildest support for the Palestinian national movement. The impact of this ideological war will weigh heavily on the broad left in years to come. It was an ultimately successful counter-attack to the ascension of Corbyn to the Labour leadership.
In the past year they have mobilised huge numbers on the streets in the cause of Remain, have succeeded in winning Labour to support a second referendum, and contributed to the polarisation of British politics around this issue – as opposed to the class questions of inequality, austerity, education and the NHS which saw a strong result for Corbyn in 2017. Their strategy has succeeded – not in stopping Brexit, but in ensuring Labour lost votes at both ends.
Working class communities in the Labour heartlands have borne the brunt of neoliberalism since the early 1980s. Both Tory and Labour governments have carried out policies that have further entrenched the vast inequalities in British society that have seen a cycle of unemployment, poverty and neglect. For many of these people, voting for Brexit was a reflection of their anger and bitterness at politicians and the establishment. Labour in their areas represent that establishment – as the local councils, the Mayors and MPs. It was this disillusionment that outrageously created the space for Farage’s Brexit party to portray itself as the voice of the voiceless – a rhetoric reinforced by Labour’s support for a second referendum. The ultimate defection of Labour voters to Johnson’s Conservative Party in those areas, when Labour has been running on its most pro-worker platform in many years, represents a dramatic weakening of class consciousness amongst those long-suffering workers in the years since the Brexit vote. But in this election, many of them just didn’t bother to vote at all.
Corbyn’s early surge pointed to the potential for a different expression of that anger at neoliberalism. Hundreds of thousands of young people especially were drawn to Corbyn’s vision of socialism but that hope was consistently channelled into electoralism instead of mass action and struggle.
It is more accurate to describe British society as polarised than on a right wing trajectory. Corbyn received a positive swing in some constituencies like Liverpool and Manchester. The British Social Attitudes survey in 2019 showed, for example, that 86% of people believe the NHS faces a “major” or “severe” funding problem, up 14 points since 2014. 61% “would be prepared to accept” tax rises to increase NHS spending, up 21 points from 2014.
But aside from one demonstration two years ago Labour failed to mobilise its over ½ million new members into any increase in mass protests or strikes.
Neither did Corbyn put up a serious fight against the continual onslaught within his own ranks – capitulating at different times on the Trident nuclear weapon program, free movement of people, and the deselection as candidates of the Blairite MPs hell-bent on his destruction.
Without an increase of struggle and mobilisation, even popular and radical policies could not overcome the disillusionment sewn by decades of Labour betrayals from the Iraq war and privatisation to the response to the global financial crisis and austerity. This cynicism towards politicians, even more left ones like Corbyn, is in fact based in a certain reality about the world.
Even if Corbyn had won, his parliamentary approach would not have been able to overcome the right wing resistance of the bosses, the media and his own MPs to be able to implement even his moderate social democratic agenda. The woeful experience of reformist governments in Greece and Latin America demonstrates this.
The world is now witnessing an upsurge in struggle from below, from Lebanon to Iraq to Chile to France and beyond. The same anger that puts millions on the streets of Paris, Santiago and Hong Kong exists in London, Glasgow and Manchester.
Corbyn’s Labour received overwhelming support among young people, even in the Leave-voting areas of the north of England and southern Wales, alongside the Remainer stronghold of London. Those young people who tried to vote to defend the NHS, renationalise privatised industry, and reject Johnson’s reactionary politics can play an important role in building resistance to the attacks to come.
But that will be squandered if it is spent in more years of electoral work seeking power on the terrain that most favours the ruling class – building electoral majorities through official politics. That seemingly easy option has undermined the desire to resist austerity and neoliberalism in country after country. Waiting 5 years is not an option. And parliament is not where our power really lies anyway. We need the politics of struggle from below, and revolutionary, not parliamentary socialism.
No related posts.
Labels: BORIS JOHNSON, CONSERVATIVES, JEREMY CORBYN, LABOUR, NEW LABOUR
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Mpasa warns private firms against mistreating local workers
By Godfrey Chikumbi in Kawambwa
Thu 06 Feb. 2014, 14:00 CAT
PRIVATE firms mistreating Zambian workers should not be allowed to make the government unpopular, says Kawambwa district commissioner Ivo Mpasa.
Speaking shortly after he addressed scores of workers who had been engaged by a named private company to work on power lines in the district without paying them for over a year now, Mpasa yesterday warned that he would not tolerate any private firm, local or foreign to keep exploiting workers because their actions bordered on making government unpopular.
He said although the government relied on firms for job creation and growth of the economy, it would not allow its people to be abused in any way.
Mpasa said the government was for the poor people, whose plight and welfare it was seriously concerned about and would always safeguard.
"What these private firms shouldn't forget is that each time they mistreat our people, they make them cry that the government is not protecting them; and this is bad. That's why as government, we shall strictly monitor actions of maltreatment against our poor workers and immediately stop it. There have been situations where a firm engages local labourers and after they have done the work, the workers are dumped without being paid. Such actions are evil because they are aimed at destroying the belief that our people have in our government," charged Mpasa.
He assured the workers that the government would continue creating jobs through so many developmental projects that were being initiated in the area.
And Mpasa said jobs created locally should be for the local people and not people coming outside the district.
He said he was against the idea of employing people from outside when local people were also yearning for the same jobs.
"If they are constructing roads, let them just come with their engineering experts, not mere labourers. If you come with labourers, what jobs will the locals get? We are doing all these to help alleviate poverty for our local people," said Mpasa.
Labels: IVO MPASA, KAWAMBWA DISTRICT, LABOUR
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Govt declines to process FQM, NUMAW deal
By Darious Kapembwa
Wed 18 Dec. 2013, 14:00 CAT
THE government has declined to process the 2014 collective agreement signed between First Quantum Mining and the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers.
The agreement in question which rival union, the Mineworkers Union of Zambia, refused to sign entailed that NUMAW members were to get a 25 per cent salary increment covering a period of three years. The workers were to get 10 per cent in 2014, eight per cent in 2015 and seven per cent in 2016 which also meant that there was not going to be negotiations for better salaries and improved conditions of service.
NUMAW president James Chansa signed on behalf of his union despite resistance from some of his members while MUZ refused to sign, saying it was a betrayal to the general membership.
According to a letter dated December 13, signed by labour commissioner Cecilia Mulindeti Kamanga, to the two unions and FQMO obtained by The Post, the ministry was unable to process the collective agreement because it was not supported by consensus from representatives of all the workers concerned whose conditions of service were under review.
"The office of the undersigned is in receipt of the 2014 Collective Agreement signed between FQMO and NUMAW for approval by the Minister of Labour and Social Security in accordance with section 70 and 71 of the Industrial and Labour Relations Act Cap 269," read the letter in part.
"In addition, communication has been received from MUZ indicating that they are not party to the 2014 Collective Agreement as also confirmed by the minutes of the signing ceremony held on 3rd December 2013...In this regard, I wish to refer the Collective Agreement back to the Joint Industrial Council for the employee representatives to have a collective position on the offer from management," read the letter.
Reacting to the development, MUZ general secretary Joseph Chewe said it was pleasing that the government was not compromised when it came to defending workers' rights.
"We thank the government, unlike the previous government where some ministers and some union leaders were compromised by multilateral corporations. But we wish to call upon law enforcement agencies to extend the fight against corruption to unions, so that people live within their means and represent our members without being compromised," said Chewe.
Chansa was unavailable for comment by press time.
Labels: FQM, JAMES CHANSA, LABOUR, NUMAW, UNIONS
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MUZ accuses KCM of scheming to weaken it
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Fri 30 Aug. 2013, 14:00 CAT
A ROW has erupted between MUZ and KCM management with the former accusing the mining giant of making malicious and provocative schemes to divide and weaken the union.
KCM has however refused to comment or respond to the accusations. Briefing the media yesterday, Mineworkers Union of Zambia president Nkole Chishimba alleged that Konkola Copper Mines was making serious but deliberate anomalies to the subscriptions of over 3,000 employees who are members of MUZ, a move meant to punish, discredit and weaken the union and its strong stance on many issues that affect the operations of the mining company.
"This problem that is being sustained by KCM started in July. KCM remitted members' subscription to the MUZ head office account as usually the case. The amount of money involved was within the usual levels that the union receives each month. Little did the union head office realise that though the figures appeared to be normal and that KCM met its agreement obligation in terms of distribution, monthly subscriptions were not deducted from MUZ members' wages as there was no official communication from the union," Chishimba said.
He explained that when the problem emerged and it came to the attention of MUZ, efforts were made by the union to find out what led to such unprecedented levels of anomalies, whether they arose from a problem in the payroll system and why only MUZ members were affected when the systems of other unions remained clean.
Chishimba said at the time, there was need for urgent verification and reconciliation because the matter involved three parties, the subscriber, the remitter, which in this case was KCM management and the recipient MUZ, which procedure, in the union's view, was the way to go when faced with such challenges.
"Through a phone call to KCM, a senior management representative indicated that they were ready to meet with MUZ on Tuesday this week. On the material day, the union braced itself and gathered at the agreed venue but KCM officials did not show up and no one gave reasons. This is unacceptable…the union has the moral duty to protect its members from any inconvenience which is not their own making," he said.
Chishimba said the refusal by KCM management to meet MUZ demonstrated just how the mining company disrespected the union and how ready they were to provoke the workers and their leadership.
He said the union had cause to believe that KCM had intent to weaken MUZ and drive away membership.
"There is also cause to believe that the company intended to provoke workers unto resorting to industrial action so that they dismiss them from employment. MUZ therefore urges its membership to remain steadfast during this turbulence as it is just a passing phase," Chishimba said.
He said KCM had no regard for workers' rights and must put its house in order.
Chishimba said MUZ would not take any blame for whatever would happen as the mining company had continued to ignore its role.
But KCM public relations manager Joy Sata refused to comment on the matter when contacted.
Labels: KCM, LABOUR, MUZ, NKOLE CHISHIMBA
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Govt to recruit district labour inspectors
By Godfrey Chikumbi in Kawambwa
Tue 06 Aug. 2013, 14:00 CAT
LABOUR deputy minister Ronald Chitotela says the government has this year earmarked recruitment of district labour officers across the country. And Chitotela has called for mutual respect between road contractors and their workers. In an interview on Monday, Chitotela said the introduction of labour officers in each district was aimed at enhancing labour inspections and laws enforcement.
Chitotela said the move to recruit district labour inspectors was necessitated by some employers' non-compliance with labour laws. He disclosed that offices had so far been created in all the 29 newly-created districts following Cabinet's approval of the structure. He said the remaining old districts would begin receiving labour inspectors before December this year although some had already benefitted from the first recruitment exercise.
"The office of the district labour inspector is very important as it seeks to bring meaning to the enforcement of labour laws. We need to bring dignity to the Zambian workers who have been crying of abuse. Some employers have been breaking labour laws with impunity, especially in places where labour inspectors are absent," Chitotela said.
And Chitotela advised road contractors and workers they employed to "give each other respect in order to avoid conflicts in their day to day activities". Chitotela's advice comes amid reports that some road contractors are physically harassing their workers for failure to execute instructions properly.
But Chitotela accused some workers of provoking their supervisors, causing unnecessary conflicts between themselves. He also accused some workers of being too lazy and failing to comply with time schedules set by their supervisors.
"What our Zambian workers must know is that these contractors have a schedule to honour. They have a period within which to do these roads and these are contracts which can be terminated at any time when terms are not adhered to. So there is need for mutual respect between the workers and contractors," said Chitotela.
Labels: LABOUR, RONALD CHITOTELA
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Guard walks home naked after employer grabs uniform
By Lemmy Likando in Mazabuka
Wed 17 July 2013, 14:00 CAT
A 53-YEAR-OLD security guard of Mazabuka district was last week forced to walk home naked after his employer dismissed and forced him to hand over the company uniform after he allegedly deserted his workplace. He has since, however, been reinstated.
Likwasi Chimonde, a resident of Kabbobola compound last week walked in his pants from Kaleya to his home, a distance of about three kilometres, after CHC Commodities project manager Baker Russell ordered him to undress and hand in his uniform on allegations that he failed to provide security at the workplace.
Mazabuka district senior labour officer Charles Muwowo confirmed that his office received a complaint of unfair dismissal and inhuman treatment from Chimonde, who was employed as a watchman by CHC Commodities, a grain storage company located within Mazabuka township.
Muwowo said he decided to summon Russell to his office after Chimonde lodged a complaint that he was dismissed instantly and forced to walk home naked after he decided to lock the gate and leave the premises in order to buy some painkillers upon developing a headache.
He disclosed that Chimonde was ordered to surrender the company uniform by Russell who went to the company premises around 20:00 hours and discovered that Chimonde was not present on site.
"This watchman claims he was not feeling well when he reported for duty around 18:00 hours and that around 19:00 hours he decided to go to nearby shops to buy some painkillers and it was that time that his project manager (Russell) visited the site and discovered that the guard was absent and the place unmanned," narrated Muwowo.
Muwowo further disclosed that when Chimonde returned to his place of duty, he found Russell, who was inside the premises after jumping over the gate and immediately demanded the company uniform from him before ordering him to go back home.
He said during his discussions with the two men, Russell, who admitted ordering Chimode to take off the uniform, apologised over his action and promised to reinstate him immediate.
Muwowo said Russell, in his defence, said he reacted in such a manner because Chimonde put the company property at risk, which he said was worth millions of kwacha and that if Chimonde was unwell as he claimed, he should have simply phoned him so that he could be excused from work.
He described the incident as a serious violation of human rights, warning that his office would not hesitate to bring to book employers who deliberately violate the Zambian labour laws.
Muwowo cautioned employees to ensure they follow regulations of the entities they work for in order to avoid getting into conflict with their employers.
Meanwhile, Muwowo revealed that the labour office in the district has this year handled a total of 127 labour complaints and recovered a total of K136, 000 on behalf of various deserving employees who reported their complaints to the office.
He told the district development and coordinating committee meeting that despite facing numerous operational challenges, his office remained committed to ensuring that labour laws are strictly followed and adhered to by both employers and employees.
Labels: LABOUR
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Sata promises to protect Zambians' interests
By Joan Chirwa-Ngoma in Beijing
Fri 12 Apr. 2013, 14:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Michael Sata has promised to protect the interests of Zambians in his pursuit for increased investments in the country.
And President Sata has asked China not to colonise its neighbours such as Taiwan but treat them as equal partners in development.
Meanwhile, President Sata charmed a packed auditorium of prospective investors, Zambian government officials and senior executives of China Nonferrous Metals Corporation (CNMC) Group when he constantly passed jokes and insisted on pronouncing certain words and names in Chinese.
During an interactive session at the China-Zambia Economic and Trade Forum organised by CNMC and the Zambian Embassy in China in partnership with Zambia Development Agency and Zambia Tourism Board, President Sata said the government would protect the interests of the Zambians in sourcing for investments from foreign countries.
During his meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior government officials, President Sata talked about how passionate his government was to attract valuable investments in a quest to reduce massive unemployment among the youth.
Yesterday, he continued his call for massive Chinese investments in Zambia's key economic sectors considering the country's potential for growth owing to several factors such as vast land, abundant water and mineral resources and conducive weather conditions.
But when one prospective Chinese investor who did not mention his name asked if the Zambian government would allow the use of Chinese currency, the Yuan, in transactions conducted by investors from China, President Sata said despite China and Zambia having more or less the same policies, his government would ensure the interests of Zambians came first.
"China comes first to China, other things come second. So Zambia also has to protect what it has. But that doesn't mean it should make you stop doing business in our country," he assured, adding that the Zambian government would protect Chinese investments in the country.
President Sata said Zambia had the most liberal foreign exchange policies in Africa which should excite the Chinese investors to invest in the country's economic sectors.
"You can take away your money at any time if it is acquired in a proper way. If not, I am afraid you will have to ask Chairman Mao Zedong to come and help you," he cautioned in a joking manner. "Zambia remains one of the most liberalised economies of Africa despite steps being taken to put measures to regulate the flow of money (through the amendment of the Bank of Zambia Act)."
President Sata said the Zambian government does not discriminate against investors but looked at the ideas being brought to Zambia.
"The Zambian government will only look at your ideas; it will not look at your colour or your eyes. Zambians have no ill feelings against foreigners, so the best way forward for any serious investor is to visit the intended destination for investments," he said. "Come and see Zambia for yourselves."
President Sata also asked China to help Zambia resuscitate Zambia Airways, a national carrier that was liquidated in the early 1990s.
"If you help us bring back Zambia Airways, we will bring China, Hong Kong, Taiwan together, but don't colonise them. Treat them as equal; we don't want you to colonise them," he said. "And once Zambia Airways starts, its first stop will be Beijing."
President Sata also jokingly told the Chinese to invest in Zambia's agriculture sector to help feed many of their relatives who had nothing to eat.
"We are exporting a small percentage of products out of Zambia. Come to Zambia and help feed people here in China. I saw your relatives in the mountains who have nothing to eat," he joked as the auditorium was sent into laughter. "Come and taste our fresh beef; it's not like here where you get milk even from ceramic tiles… If you are too slow, everybody else will be coming to Zambia and your position will be taken. The Indians are also coming to Zambia to invest."
And earlier, President Sata refused to deliver his speech while seated at the high table but opted to stand at a common podium, saying he was strong.
President Sata wound up his state visit to China yesterday and is expected in Zambia today.
Labels: LABOUR, MICHAEL SATA, MINING
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COMMENT - Not just a minimum wage, but a basic income for everyone. This is a proposal brought before the EU.
Title: Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) - Exploring a pathway towards emancipatory welfare conditions in the EU
Current status: Collection ongoing
Deadline: 14/01/2014
Commission registration number: ECI(2013)000001
Date of registration: 14/01/2013
Registration language: EN / Other languages available: DE HU FR SV IT PT SL DA NL FI ES
Subject-matter: Asking the Commission, to encourage cooperation between the Member States (according to Art 156 TFEU) aiming to explore the Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) as a tool to improve their respective social security systems.
Main objectives: In the long run the objective is to offer to each person in the EU the unconditional right as an individual, to having his/her material needs met to ensure a life of dignity as stated by the EU treaties, and to empower participation in society supported by the introduction of the UBI. In the short term, initiatives such as “pilot‐studies“ (Art 156 TFEU) and examination of different models of UBI (EP resolution 2010/2039(INI) §44) should be promoted by the EU.
Provisions of the Treaties considered relevant by the organisers: TEU Art. 2+3; TFEU Art. 5+156, Charter of Fundamental Rights Art. 1+2, 5+6, 15, 21, 34
Organisers / Members of citizens' committee:
* Representative: Klaus SAMBOR - aon.914008712@aon.at
* Substitute: Ronald BLASCHKE - blaschke@grundeinkommen.de
* Other members: Stanislas JOURDAN, Sepp KUSSTATSCHER, Olympios RAPTIS, Branko GERLIC, Anne MILLER
Website: http://www.basicincomeinitiative.eu
Annex: Full_Annex_ECI_unconditionnal-basic-income.pdf (116591 bytes)
Draft legal act:
Sources of support and funding:
Labels: LABOUR, MINIMUM WAGE, UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME
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Violation of rights, interests of workers and retirees
By The Post
Fri 16 Nov. 2012, 14:00 CAT
Fackson Shamenda, the Minister of Labour and a former trade union leader, acknowledges the violations of the rights and interests of workers and retirees. And he has attributed this to "a lot of factors".
Fackson says the government has identified issues of concern regarding the country's labour laws and has pointed out a number of reforms that the government is undertaking or is planning to undertake relating "to declining and poor conditions of service for many Zambian workers, widespread casualisation of labour, unsafe workplaces, unrealistic and inadequate retirement packages which are often not in harmony with the cost of living and failure to pay pensioners and retirees their benefits on time".
Fackson has promised that the government is undertaking "a comprehensive review and amendment of current labour-related legislation; rationalise the administration of the ministry to effectively carry out its inspectorate function so as to promote the welfare of workers in workplaces; domesticate and implement international labour standards that Zambia is a signatory to".
But the government, as an employer and the largest employer in the country for that matter, is one of the leading violators of the rights and interests of workers, pensioners and retirees.
But while we welcome the good pronouncements being made by our Minister of Labour, we feel there is need to remind the government that it cannot call other employers to virtues, to respecting the rights and interests of workers, pensioners and retirees which it does not itself make an effort to respect, to observe, to practice and promote.
The government has to show leadership in the struggle to improve the conditions of workers and the respect of workers, pensioners and retirees' rights and interests. The government is doing very badly in terms of paying pensioners and retirees their dues. Politicians get their gratuities even before their term of office is over. Parliamentarians are always getting paid their mid-term gratuities. And before Parliament dissolves, all their dues are paid to them.
And all other politicians get their dues and other benefits long before their terms of office come to an end. But this is not so with the workers. There are many government workers who have been waiting to get their retirement benefits for many years and some have died long before getting paid. It seems the political leadership of this country thinks of itself first and the people they are elected to serve thereafter or as an after-thought.
It seems payments to the political leadership of this country take precedence over payments to government workers.
This being the case, how can government effectively and efficiently lead the struggle for the improvement of workers' conditions?
We ask our leaders to be exemplary in their daily lives. And the appeal for fair and just treatment of workers should be heard in government. Justice begins at home, and the government itself, together with the political leadership of this country, must be the first to give witness.
Employees have a strict duty to give their employers efficient and conscientious work for which they have a right to a just salary or wage. Work provides an opportunity for each of us to show that we are images of God. Why is this so? This is so because God is Creator and we, every woman and man, show forth God's image when we continue creation through our work, our labour, our engagement in shaping the future of our country. The dignity of work must be recognised with just wages and safe conditions.
Every employer should ask himself or herself the question: do I pay proper wages? And every employee should equally ask himself or herself the question: do I work conscientiously? Every citizen of this country should ask himself or herself the question: do I promote just employment policies?
Every employer, including the government, should give employees an honest salary or wage and then ask them for more substantial support.
We should condemn all forms of employment that place profit before persons and are based on the exploitation of one by another.
Of course, we cannot pretend that everything is as it should be in our country. There are times of great difficulties which often demand austerity measures to be put in place. But the austerity required in such times needs to be equally shared among all.
The rights of workers, like all rights, are based on the nature of the human person and on his or her transcendent dignity. Among these rights are: a just wage; a working environment not harmful to the workers' physical health or their moral integrity; social security, and the right to assemble and form associations. And therefore, trade unions which enable workers to improve their conditions should be valued and promoted by everybody in society.
We are reminded in Matt 20:4: "Go to my vineyard and I will give you a fair wage." Remuneration for work should guarantee people a dignified livelihood for themselves and their families.
Government should therefore regulate industries and commerce to protect workers' rights and to curb exploitation. By means of work and making use of intelligence, people should be able to make the earth a fitting home - "... come to me, all you who labour and are over-burdened, I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28).
A society's wellbeing depends on efforts to ensure that no member feels excluded from the mainstream of society. This requires that all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve their lives. Access to dignified employment is one sure way of ensuring the inclusion of everyone in the life of society. Zambia has been enjoying economic growth but the poverty levels have not adequately reduced as a result. The creation of dignified employment is crucial to ensuring the reduction of poverty in the face of economic growth.
By means of work and making use of the gift of intelligence, people are able to exercise dominion over the earth and make it a fitting home - "your work will provide for your needs; you will be happy and prosperous" (Ps 128:2).
Clearly, work is at the centre of the social question, the key to making life more humane. And it is pleasing to see the government increasingly taking a pro-worker stance and committing itself to justice for workers and wanting to be a government of the poor.
People have the right to the fruits of their labour, but should use them to benefit all - "work with your hands and be dependent on nobody as we charged you" (1Thess 4:11).
We are all called to use our talents through our work in order to build up the good of our society. The effect of having no quality jobs, high unemployment is degrading and making quality work available is most important. And each worker is called to learn their trade well and practice it with care; the sanctification of work consists in this.
But we should always bear in mind that people's work concerns not only the economy but also, and especially, personal values. Work is rooted in respect for human dignity. It is done by a collection of individuals who have chosen to come together and to unite their minds, wills and hearts for the common good. And as such, every effort should be made that the enterprise becomes a community of persons.
If our country is to move forward, honest and hard work is demanded of all of us - "by the sweat of our face, you shall eat bread" (Gen 3:19).
Clearly, the priority of work over capital places an obligation in justice upon employers to consider the welfare of their workers before the increase of profits.
The socioeconomic problems that occur today cannot be solved unless new fronts of solidarity are created: solidarity of the poor among themselves, solidarity with the poor to which the rich are called, solidarity among the workers, and with the workers. Institutions and social organisations at different levels, as well as the state, must share in a general movement of solidarity.
There will be opposition from capital to these initiatives that the government is taking to protect the rights of workers and improve their conditions. But what needs to be done should be done in spite of the opposition that may be faced. The economy should be for the benefit of all the people.
Labels: FACKSON SHAMENDA, LABOUR
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Anglo Platinum fires 12,000 workers as SA unrest deepens
05/10/2012 00:00:00
by Reuters
ANGLO American Platinum (Amplats)
fired 12,000 wildcat strikers on Friday, a high-stakes attempt by the world's biggest platinum producer to
push back at a wave of illegal stoppages sweeping through South Africa's mining sector and beyond.
The rand fell sharply after the announcement, suggesting investors fear the sackings could worsen what is shaping up to be the most damaging period of labour unrest in Africa's biggest economy since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Police shot dead one striking miner overnight, bringing the death toll in two months of unrest to 48. Strikes have spread beyond the mining sector, with Shell declaring on Friday that it would not be able to honour contracts to deliver fuel near Johannesburg because of a trucking strike.
The unrest is causing political trouble for President Jacob Zuma and his ruling African National Congress (ANC), the veteran liberation movement with long-standing ties to labour unions.
"You fire 12,000 people, and it's like 'Oh my god, what happens now?'" one Johannesburg-based currency strategist said.
When rival Impala Platinum fired 17,000 workers in January to squash a union turf war, it led to a six week stoppage in which three people were killed, the company lost 80,000 ounces in output and platinum prices jumped 21 percent.
The police shooting of 34 strikers at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on August 16 poisoned labour relations in the sector even more, and the hefty wage deal that ensued triggered copycat demands in gold and iron ore mines.
"Amplats had been giving signals that it was going to hold the line after Lonmin had folded - but it's a huge gamble," said Nic Borain, an independent political analyst.
"Someone had to take it on the chin or this would have kept on unravelling and spread through the economy. It's difficult to know whether this causes the unrest to spread or whether it takes some of the sting out of it. It could go either way."
Speaking to South Africa's e-News television channel, one dismissed worker said Amplats was "starting a war".
ANC Pressure
Zuma tried to put a positive spin on the situation in a speech to business leaders late on Thursday, stressing that since the end of white-minority rule South Africans have shown "the capacity to overcome difficulties when we work together".
"We should not seek to portray ourselves as a nation that is perpetually fighting," he said.
However, with an ANC leadership run-off looming in December, Nelson Mandela's 100-year-old liberation movement is preoccupied with its own divisions. Zuma is seen as unlikely to take any action to stabilise the economy that could upset his political allies in the unions.
"In the build-up to the election, the government is unlikely to come out with any clear policy directives," said Simon Freemantle, an analyst at Standard Bank in Johannesburg.
Reflecting such concerns, Moody's cut South Africa's credit rating last week. Finance Minister Pravi Gordhan has already said he will have to cut his 2.7 percent growth forecast for 2012 when he delivers an interim budget on October 24.
Miner Shot
More than 75,000 miners, or 15 percent of the workforce in a sector that accounts for 6 percent of output, have been out on unofficial strikes and tensions with security forces and mining bosses were running high even before the mass Amplats sackings.
Near the "platinum belt" city of Rustenburg, 120 km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, workers said a miner was killed by a rubber bullet fired by police overnight.
"He was shot here by the police," Mbubhu Lolo, one Amplats striker told Reuters, pointing to his midriff.
Police would not confirm the cause of the death, although the ground nearby was strewn with spent rubber-bullet shell casings and teargas canisters after clashes the previous night.
On Friday, protesters in a shanty town near the Amplats mine barricaded streets with rocks and burning tyres as more than 30 riot police backed by armoured vehicles stood nearby.
Earlier in the week, an Amplats training centre and two conveyor belts were torched, making it harder to restart operations when it does manage to resolve the standoff.
AngloGold Ashanti, South Africa's biggest bullion producer, has lost virtually all local production due to wildcat strikes, while rivals Gold Fields and Harmony Gold have also taken a hit. Around 300 strikers at Kumba Iron Ore have also blockaded the company's giant Sishen iron ore mine in the remote Northern Cape province.
Force Majeure
Apart from the mining sector, a strike with more potential to damage the wider economy is brewing in transport, with 20,000 truckers on a two-week authorised stoppage to demand higher pay.
Shell said on Friday it could not honour fuel delivery contracts around Johannesburg, declaring "force majeure" to free itself and customers from existing obligations.
"There is fuel available across the country, so the issue is not fuel supply, but the challenge is delivering it safely to our retail sites," the oil major said. Other petrol companies are holding their breath, especially around the commercial hub Johannesburg, but have not yet followed Shell's move.
Raising the stakes, transport union SATAWU said it wanted workers at railways and ports to strike next week, a development that would affect coal and other mineral shipments.
Coal output from one of the world's biggest suppliers has so far been unaffected but any disruption could hit power utility Eskom, which is already struggling to prevent a repeat of a 2008 power crisis when the grid nearly collapsed. Some 85 percent of South Africa's electricity is generated by coal-fired plants.
Many supermarkets and logistics firms are running on back-up plans because of the truckers' strike. U.S. car giant General Motors said production at its Port Elizabeth plant on the south coast had been affected.
Labels: LABOUR, MINING, PLATINUM, STRIKE
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Anglo American to face SA silicosis hearing
01 Oct 2012 13:29 - Ed Stoddard
Anglo American will face a hearing next year to determine if it's liable for miners who contracted silicosis while working in its gold shafts.
Anglo American will face a hearing next year to determine if it's liable for miners who contracted silicosis while working in its gold shafts. (AFP)
Anglo American no longer has gold assets in South Africa, but the proceedings, initiated by 18 plaintiffs, have been launched on the grounds that miners contracted the debilitating lung disease when the company still ran bullion mines.
The arbitration hearing is scheduled to begin on September 2 2013 and will be presided over by a panel including South Africa's former chief justice, Sandile Ngcobo, lawyers for the plaintiffs said on Monday.
"The hearing will determine if Anglo American South Africa is liable to compensate the plaintiffs," said Richard Meeran, a partner at UK-based law firm Leigh Day & Co, which is representing the miners along with the Legal Resources Centre and Legal Aid South Africa.
A spokesperson for Anglo American in South Africa said he was not immediately able to comment. The case is separate from a silicosis class action suit filed in August against AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony on behalf of thousands of workers.
In the Anglo American case, proceedings were first issued in 2004 by 18 former gold miners who are suffering from silicosis. Three of these men have since died. Legal and industry experts have said the different suits, if successful, could cost the industry billions of dollars.
Miners contracted silicosis, which has no known cure, by working in gold mines for many years without adequate protection. The silica dust that causes the disease is inhaled from gold-bearing rocks. The disease causes shortness of breath, a persistent cough and chest pains. It also makes people highly susceptible to tuberculosis, which can kill.
Question: how much of the tuberculosis in South Africa (clearly) is not about HIV/AIDS, but from occupational diseases miners run into? Like asbesthosis, silicosis, and other diseases of the respiratory system? Tuberculosis is consistenly listed as the leading cause of death in South Africa, in Statistics South Africa's Death Notification Forms Survey. (For the 2008 survey, see here, which includes Appendix D: The 10 leading underlying natural causes of death: 1997–2002.) - MrK
Tens of thousands of black miners from South Africa and neighbouring countries are believed to have contracted silicosis during the decades of white apartheid rule, when their health and safety were not priorities of the country's gold barons. – Reuters
Labels: ANGLO-AMERICAN, APARTHEID, DEBEERS, GOLD, HEALTHCARE, LABOUR, MINING
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200 Ngabwe Mine workers protest
By Misheck Wangwe and Isaac Phiri in Kitwe
Sun 30 Sep. 2012, 09:40 CAT
OVER 200 youths that were recruited by Ngabwe Mine of Central Province yesterday protested in Kitwe, demanding the arrest of the proprietor for allegedly abandoning them at the mine.
The irate youths that were recruited from different parts of the country blocked Kabelenga road in Kitwe, which leads to the labour office and attempted to block Obote Avenue before being restrained by riot police.
The workers said the government and law enforcement wings must take action against Felix Chipaila and his managers who allegedly abandoned them in the remotest part of Central Province in chief Ngabwe's area with no food, transport or means of communication.
A representative of the workers, Victor Bwalya, described working conditions at the mine as slavery, saying the over 800 mineworkers were living in an 'open prison' at the mine.
Bwalya said there was no road leading to the mine when they were taken there and they worked for two months to clear over 250 kilometres but were not paid.
"I came from Kasama and we were recruited from Wusakile here in Kitwe and we were taken to the mine site. It's in the remote area of Central Province. We were told that everything is there, (that) they've put up nice shelters and beds, but we found nothing.
We were sleeping on those big leaves found in the bush. When it comes to food, it's a sad story; we were serving ourselves nshima in cups and when we run out of food, it's only porridge and many times we slept on empty stomachs but we were working like that. Sometimes we would have nshima with salt for a week," Bwalya said.
Bwalya said the management of the mine promised to be paying them K2.8 million as salaries, but had never done so.
He said the working and living conditions at the mine became unbearable as many of their colleagues started suffering from dysentery, diarrhoea and malaria.
"Most of my colleagues became generally weak, a situation that forced the 200 workers to start walking from the mine to chief Ngabwe after the mine site managers disappeared," he said.
"We started begging for food from the villagers in chief Ngabwe and got our clothes and some few valuables in exchange for food. That's how we started walking from chief Ngabwe to chief Mukubwe. We walked over 70 kilometres and the village headman we found assisted us very much. We sold our remaining belongings and we raised about K8 million for transport and we booked a bus from chief Mukubwe to Luanshya and then here," Bwalya said.
He said they wanted the police and the district administration to locate the proprietor who was nowhere to be seen so that he could pay them their dues and be brought to justice as many of his colleagues from various parts of the country were stranded and spending nights at Kitwe district administration offices.
Kitwe district commissioner Elias Kamanga said the police and the district administration was working round the clock to locate Chipaila.
Addressing the workers, Kamanga said it was unacceptable that a Zambian dumped the young men in the bush after promising them jobs, adding that a positive answer would be made known to them by tomorrow.
Labels: GENOCIDE, LABOUR, MINERS, STRIKE
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Re-establishment of public employment services on cards
September 6, 2012
By NANCY MWAPE
GOVERNMENT will next year re-establish
public employment services to address unemployment in Zambia that still remains a challenge. Minister of Labour and Social Security Fackson Shamenda says Government is working on a number of interventions to address unemployment in the country.
“Indeed, unemployment still remains a challenge in Zambia; we are still faced with a large informal sector with little or no decent working conditions,” he said.
Speaking at the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) annual reception held in Lusaka on Tuesday night, Mr Shamenda said Government will also implement apprenticeship or internship programmes in collaboration with employers’ organisations.
He said the Ministry of Finance and Youth and Sport are leading the development of youth empowerment schemes while the Labour Ministry together with other partners is leading the development of the 2012 – 2015 decent work country programme.
Mr Shamenda said his ministry is working with the central statistical office to conduct the 2012 labour force survey on baseline data for assessing performance scheduled to commence in two weeks’ time.
He said the ministry will also put in place an overarching employment promotion strategy to replace the national employment and labour market policy that has been in place since 2005 but was not implemented.
“Government will remain true to its word. What we have done in the past eleven months is in line with the party manifesto.
Working with FES and the International Labour Organisation, we have engaged a consultant who will work on a roadmap on comprehensive labour laws,” he said.
Mr Shamenda said it is common knowledge that when the PF took over the country, it had fairly good economic indicators in terms of inflation rates and growth but noted that the social situation in the country at the time left much to be desired, which was manifested by very high unemployment, underemployment levels and rampant abuse of workers’ rights.
He also commended FES for its contribution made over the years in the areas of capacity building for labour administration and general governance.
Earlier, FES resident director Heiner Naumann cited civic education, research in socio-economic matters, support of trade unions, small scale industries and democratic organisations as part of the institution’s areas of support.
Mr Naumann said FES believes in a principal functioning of Zambian democracy adding that the fight against corruption, decent conditions of work and the empowering of underprivileged groups of the society are a great concern.
Labels: FACKSON SHAMENDA, JOBS, LABOUR, UNEMPLOYMENT
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Marikana: Mthethwa receives preliminary report on assault allegations
25 Aug 2012 09:07 - Sapa
A report alleging that arrested mine workers have been assaulted by the police was handed to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Friday.
"The preliminary report provided to the minister confirms that on August 22 it came to the attention of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) that
detainees linked to the Marikana incident were assaulted by [SA Police Service] SAPS members at Phokeng police station and Mogwase police station," Mthethwa's spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said in a statement.
Police shot dead 34 striking Lonmin Platinum mine employees and wounded 78 in a violent confrontation last Thursday. A total of 260 mineworkers were arrested.
They complained to the IPID that they had been assaulted by the police during their arrests.
"The IPID's investigators registered a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm at the Mogwase Police Station. Investigators obtained statements from 50 victims in this regard," said Mnisi.
Two similar cases were opened at the Phokeng and Jericho police stations by mineworkers detained there.
Mnisi said arrangements were being made for some of the miners to be relocated and to receive medical attention.
"Any police officer who conducts him or herself in a manner that is not in line with constitutional principles should face the full might of the law and I encourage IPID to investigate these allegations, without fear or favour," Mthethwa said in the statement.
– Sapa
Labels: LABOUR, MASSACRE, MINING, POLICE BRUTALITY
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Marikana tragedy: Who authorised the use of live ammunition?
21 Aug 2012 21:05 - Andisiwe Makinana
There was only one question opposition parties in Parliament wanted answered by the judicial commission of inquiry into the Marikana tragedy. Members of Parliament on Tuesday demanded the inquiry, announced by President Jacob Zuma on Friday, investigate who authorised the use of live ammunition on the striking workers. The incident left 34 people dead and more than 70 injured last week.
In a fiery parliamentary debate on Tuesday about the Lonmin platinum mine tragedy Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa emphasised the responsibilities that the Constitution imposes on citizens, but opposition MPs said the Constitution has been breached and whoever gave the instruction to the police to use live ammunition should be held accountable for the deaths of 34 striking workers.
Mthethwa said Thursday's event could have been avoided "if all of us had adhered to the noble principles of our Constitution".
He said the Constitution guarantees rights and imposes responsibilities on the citizens of the republic.
Mthethwa cited section 17 of the Constitution which assures the citizens the right to "peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and present petition and section 205 which speaks specifically to the South African Police Service and enjoins the members of the service to 'prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order, protect and secure the inhabitants of the republic and their property and uphold and enforce the law'."
He said the police as part of our security services are always and at all material times guided by the Constitution of the Republic. The police did all in their power to avert (a violent) situation, he said.
"As we indicated above, the Constitution of the Republic guarantees us the right to strike, to protest in a peaceful orderly manner to express our dissatisfaction with anything. While all South Africans enjoy these rights, rights always come with responsibilities," said Mthethwa.
But leaders of the opposition parties came out guns blazing demanding answers on who authorised the use of live ammunition, and also called for a broad and data-driven commission of inquiry.
Lack of leadership
The Democratic Alliance's Lindiwe Mazibuko said the tragedy spoke of a lack of top-level leadership and of ministerial accountability.
She said the judicial commission of inquiry should specifically establish who authorised the use of live ammunition on the striking workers, within the context of how the police manage violent strikes. "Whoever authorised the use of live ammunition must be held accountable.
"It must also be revealed on what, if any, intelligence was the planning was conducted; and if the national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, exercised appropriate judgment and leadership. At what point did she intervene?"
Mazibuko said the commission should also carefully examine the conduct and Mthethwa's role adding that: "In most democracies, a crisis of this magnitude would have immediately precipitated the resignation of the minister, and, in many cases, the fall of the government.
"The DA is concerned that no one in this government seems to be assuming political responsibility for the [tragedy]. We need accountability now."
She added that police minister, the secretaries general of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and the chief executive officer of Lonmin should carefully consider their positions, and offer their resignations. "Their position is untenable."
Congress of the People president, Mosioua Lekota reiterated that the incident was avoidable "had we only stuck to the provisions of our Constitution".
'Militarisation'
Lekota blamed the "militarisation" of police, especially highlighting the introduction of military ranks to the police service. He said this had prepared the "young" police officers in a manner which resulted in an outcome like the Marikana tragedy.
He said while the Constitution prescribed for a police service and not a police force, Zuma introduced military ranks. "When the authors of the Constitution decided on a police service, and not on a militarised police force, they had been informed by what had happened in the past under the then police force."
Lekota said whoever authorised the use of live ammunition was in breach of the Constitution.
"In this country, the Constitution does not allow death sentence, who is this authority who has the right to say to the police shoot with live ammunition that was definitely going to take lives ... Who was this person who is above the Constitution, who had the authority to decide that this right to life will be suspended today, for this moment and therefore shoot? ... Who had the authority to waive the right of the people to life and to mow down those numbers of people that were slaughtered on that day there," asked Lekota.
The Inkatha Freedom Party's Velaphi Ndlovu questioned the presence of the police in Marikana, saying they had been used by management.
"Why did the police go there, who called them? Workers were not on the mine property and didn't pose any threat to the management."
Civilian leadership
The appointment of a civilian to top police leadership also came into question.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, who visited Marikana with other leaders of the opposition parties on Monday, said incidents like Marikana were here to stay, "unless we do away with the deployment of people with no professional police background to senior SAPS levels to command juniors with military training".
"Perhaps, it is time for this House to review the mechanism of civilian oversight in the SAPS. Should we not confine civilian oversight to the office of the Minister and let experienced police personnel run SAPS?"
Holomisa also questioned the tactics the police used to disarm and disperse striking mineworkers.
He then suggested that Parliament should closely monitor these salary negotiations given the questionable involvement of the police in this labour dispute. "We should not lose sight of the fact that both NUM and Amcu workers have one thing in common. They demand a salary adjustment."
Labels: BANTU HOLOMISA, LABOUR, MASSACRE, MINING, PLATINUM, POLICE BRUTALITY
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History of South Africa's Cheap Labour Economy: The 1946 Miners Strike and the Marikana Massacre
by Chris Webb
Global Research, August 21, 2012
Socialist Project
On August 4, 1946 over one thousand miners assembled in Market Square in Johannesburg, South Africa. No hall in the town was big enough to hold them, and no one would have rented one to them anyway. The miners were members of the African Mine Worker's Union (AMWU), a non-European union which was formed five years earlier in order to address the
12 to 1 pay differential between white and black mineworkers. The gathering carried forward just one unanimous resolution:
African miners would demand a minimum wage of ten shillings (about 1 Rand) per day. If the Transvaal Chamber of Mines did not meet this demand, all African mine workers would embark on a general strike immediately.
Workers mounted the platform one after the other to testify: “When I think of how we left our homes in the reserves, our children naked and starving, we have nothing more to say. Every man must agree to strike on 12 August. It is better to die than go back with empty hands.” The progressive Guardian newspaper reported
an old miner getting to his feet and addressing his comrades: “We on the mines are dead men already!”[1]
The massacre of 45 people, including 34 miners, at Marikana in the North West province is an inevitable outcome of a system of production and exploitation that has historically treated human life as cheap and disposable. If there is a central core – a stem in relation to which so many other events are branches – that runs through South African history, it is the demand for cheap labour for South Africa's mines. “There is no industry of the size and prosperity of this that has managed its cheap labour policy so successfully,” wrote Ruth First in reference to the Chamber of Mines ability to pressure the government for policies that displaced Africans from their land and put them under the boot of mining bosses.[2]
Masters and Servants
Mechanisms such as poll and hut taxes, pass laws, Masters and Servants Acts and grinding rural poverty were all integral in ensuring a cheap and uninterrupted supply of labour for the mines. Pass laws were created in order to forge a society in which farm work or mining was the only viable employment options for the black population.
And yet the low wages and dangerous work conditions kept many within the country away, forcing the Chamber of Mines to recruit labour from as far afield as Malawi and China throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Sordid deals between Portuguese East Africa and Apartheid South Africa ensured forced labour to be recruited for the mines and by 1929 there were 115,000 Mozambicans working underground. “It has been said,” wrote First in her study of migrant Mozambican miners, “that the wealth of Reef gold mines lies not in the richness of the strike but in the low costs of production kept down by cheap labour.”[3]
When AMWU was formed in 1941 black miners earned 70 Rand a year while white workers received 848 Rand. White miners had been organized for many years, but there was little solidarity between the two groups as evidenced by the 1922 Rand Rebellion led by the whites-only Mine Workers Union. White miners went on strike against management's attempt at weakening the colour bar in order to facilitate the entry of cheaper black labour into skilled positions. Supported by the Communist Party of South Africa under the banner of “Unite and Fight for a White South Africa!” the rebellion was viciously crushed by the state leaving over 200 dead. The growth of non-European unions in the 1940s was dramatic and for the very first time the interests of African mineworkers were on the table. Their demands threatened the very foundations of the cheap labour system, and so in 1944 Prime Minister Jan Smuts tabled the War Measure 1425 preventing a gathering of 20 or more on mine property. Despite these difficulties the union pressed on and in 1946 they approached the Chamber of Mines with their demand for wage increases. A letter calling for last minute negotiations with the Chamber of Mines was, as usual, ignored.
By August 12th tens-of-thousands of black miners were on strike from the East to the West Rand. The state showed the utmost brutality, chasing workers down mineshafts with live ammunition and cracking down on potential sympathy strikes in the city of Johannesburg. By August 16th the state had bludgeoned 100,000 miners back to work and nine lay dead. Throughout the four-day strike hundreds of trade union leaders were arrested, with the central committee of the Communist Party and local ANC leaders arrested and tried for treason and sedition. The violence came on the cusp of the 1948 elections, which would see further repression and the beginning of the country's anti-communist hysteria.
National Union of Mineworkers Poster on Fortieth Anniversary of 1946 Strike.
While it did not succeed in its immediate aims, the strike was a watershed moment in South African politics and would forever change the consciousness of the labour movement. Thirty years late Monty Naicker, one of the leading figures in the South African Indian Congress, argued that the strike “transformed African politics overnight. It spelt the end of the compromising, concession-begging tendencies that dominated African politics. The timid opportunism and begging for favours disappeared.”[4] The Native Representative Council, formed by the state in 1937 to address the age old ‘native question,’ disbanded on August 15th and ANC president Dr. A.B. Xuma reiterated the demand for “recognition of African trade unions and adequate wages for African workers including mineworkers.”[5]
The 1946 mineworkers strike was the spark that ignited the anti-apartheid movement. The ANC Youth League's 1949 Program of Action owes much to the militancy of these workers as does the Defiance Campaign of the 1950s and the emergence of the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) in the 1960s.
It is too early to say what sort of impact the current Lonmin strike will have on South African politics, but it seems unlikely that it will be as transformative as those of the past. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), arguably the heirs to the 1946 strike are currently engaged in a series of territorial disputes with the breakaway Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). Meanwhile COSATU's muted response has echoed the ANC's line of equal-culpability and half-mast public mourning. The increasingly incoherent South African Communist Party has called for the arrest of AMCU leaders with some of its so-called cadres defending the police action. Former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema's plea for miners to hold the line and form a more militant union reek of political opportunism.
Still Dependant on Cheap and Flexible Labour
What no one has dared to say, aside from the miners themselves, is that the mining industry remains dependant on cheap and flexible labour, much of it continuing to come from neighbouring countries. This has historically been the source of most miner's grievances. A recent Bench Marks Foundation study of platinum mines in the North West province uncovered a number of factors linked to rising worker discontent in the region. Lonmin was singled out as a mine with high levels of fatalities, very poor living conditions for workers and unfulfilled community demands for employment. Perhaps most significant is the fact that almost a third of Lonmin's workforce is employed through third party contractors.[6] This form of employment is not new in the mining industry. In fact, since minerals were discovered in the 19th century labour recruiters have scoured the southern half of the continent for workers. The continued presence of these ‘labour brokers’ on the mines and the ANC's unwillingness to ban them – opting instead for a system of increasing regulation – is the bloody truth of South Africa's so-called ‘regulated flexibility.’
There are a number other findings from the Bench Marks study that are worth mentioning as they illuminate some of the real grievances that have been lost amid photos of waving pangas. The number of fatalities at Lonmin has doubled since January 2011, and the company has consistently ignored community calls for employment, favouring contractors and migrant workers. A visit by the Bench Marks Foundation research team to Marikana revealed:
“A proliferation of shacks and informal settlements, the rapid deterioration of formal infra-structure and housing in Marikana itself, and the fact that a section of the township constructed by Lonmin did not have electricity for more than a month during the time of our last visit. At the RDP Township we found broken down drainage systems spilling directly into the river at three different points.”[7]
In fact, the study predicted further violent protests at Marikana in the coming year. The mass dismissal of 9000 workers in May last year inflamed already tense relations between the community and the mine as dismissed workers lost their homes in the company's housing scheme.
Once again, these facts are hardly new in the world of South African mining. Behind the squalid settlements that surround the mineshafts there are immense profits to be made. In recent years the platinum mining industry has prospered like no other thanks to the increased popularity of platinum jewellery and the use of the metal in vehicle exhaust systems in the United State and European countries. Production increased by 60 per cent between 1980 and 1994, while the price soared almost fivefold. The value of sales, almost all exported, thus increased to almost 12 per cent of total sales by the mining industry. The price rose so dramatically throughout the 1990s that it is on par with gold as the country's leading mineral export.[8] South Africa's platinum industry is the largest in the world and in 2011 reported total revenues of $13.3-billion, which is expected to increase by 15.8% over the next five years. Lonmin itself is one of the largest producers of platinum in the world, and the bulk of its tonnage comes from the Marikana mine. The company recorded revenues of $1.9-billion in 2011, an increase of 25.7%, the majority of which would come from the Marikana shafts.[9]
For risking mutilation and death underground workers at Marikana made only 4000 Rand, or $480 a month. As one miner told South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper that, “It's better to die than to work for that shit ... I am not going to stop striking. We are going to protest until we get what we want. They have said nothing to us. Police can try and kill us but we won't move.” These expressions of frustration and anger could be from 1922, 1946 or today. They are scathing indictments of an industry that continues to treat its workers as disposable and a state that upholds apartheid's cheap labour policies. •
Chris Webb is a postgraduate student at York University, Toronto where he is researching labour restructuring in South African agriculture. He can be reached at christopherswebb_AT_yahoo.ca.
Notes:
1. Monty Naicker, “The African Miners Strike of 1946,” 1976.
2. Ruth First, “The Gold of Migrant Labour,” Spearhead, 1962.
3. Ruth First, “The Gold of Migrant Labour,” Spearhead, 1962.
4. Monty Naicker, “The African Miners Strike of 1946,” 1976.
5. Dr. A.B. Xuma quoted in Monty Naicker, “The African Miners Strike of 1946.”
6. The Bench Marks Foundation, “Communities in the Platinum Minefields,” 2012.
7. The Bench Marks Foundation, “Communities in the Platinum Minefields,” 2012.
8. Charles Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, 211.
9. Marketline Advantage Reports on South Africa's Platinum Group Metals, 2011.
Global Research Articles by Chris Webb
Labels: APARTHEID, LABOUR, MASSACRE, MINIMUM WAGE, MINING, SACP
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Amcu blames NUM, politics for Lonmin massacre
17 Aug 2012 15:41 - Faranaaz Parker
Amcu head Joseph Mathunjwa has laid the blame for the Lonmin massacre on mine management, the National Union of Mineworkers and North West police. Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa breaks down. (Paul Botes, M&G)
The Association of Mineworkers and Constructution Union (Amcu) has distanced itself from the conflict at Lonmin mine and said the massacre could have been avoided had management made good on their commitments to workers.
Speaking at a press briefing in Sandton on Friday, Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa, said management had reneged on commitments it had made to miners earlier in the week.
On Thursday a violent confrontation between striking Amcu members and SAPS forces at Lonmin's Marikana mine in the North West left 35 dead and 78 injured.
President Jacob Zuma has returned from a SADC summit in Mozambique to visit Rustenberg. The presidency said in a statement that Zuma was concerned about the violent nature of the protest. Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa also visited the area.
Ongoing violence
There has been ongoing violence in the area, with clashes between two rival unions at the mine – the older National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the decade-old Amcu.
Earlier this week Amcu and NUM blamed each other for the violence.
Mthunjwa presented two documents as evidence that the mine had made commitments to the miners that their grievances would be dealt with.
"Management could have stuck with their commitment … The commitment was once you're there peacefully at work, management will address your grievances through union structures," he said.
According to Mathunjwa, it was this about-turn that led workers to refuse to lay down their arms and leave the mountain.
Mathunjwa also slammed the media for characterising the conflict at Lonmin as a clash between the two unions.
Infighting
"This is an infight of the members of NUM with their offices. It's got nothing to do with Amcu," he said.
According to Mathunjwa the workers on the koppie where the massacre took place were largely disgruntled NUM members who had lost faith in their union representatives.
"It's possible that Amcu members were there but its not Amcu that coordinated the protest on the mountain," he said.
He said Amcu's leaders had been called to the site on Monday to intervene in the standoff between workers and the mine, even though it did not represent those involved in the dispute.
"I pleaded with them. I said leave this place, they're going to kill you," said Mathunjwa, who later broke down in tears.
He denied that it had promised the workers that it could negotiate a wage of R12 500, as has beenreported.
The two unions have been fighting for control of mines in the area. In February they clashed over membership at Impala Platinum mines in Rustenberg.
In the run-up to Thursday's confrontation with police, ten people including two police officers and two private security guards were killed and cars were torched.
Amcu calls for an external inquiry
Mathunjwa also said that recent allegations of links between Amcu and the PAC or the ANC Youth League were "baseless and unfounded".
"We have no relationship with any political movement in this country or outside this country," he said, adding that Amcu was "apolitical" and would " never ever" associate itself with any political party.
However, he also implied that politics had had an impact in how the situation unfolded.
He complained that the security detail extended to Amcu and NUM representatives who had gone to speak with the workers on Monday was withdrawn on Tuesday once the NUM leaders – who are part of both Cosatu and the SACP – left the area.
"You can draw the conclusion," he said.
Mathunjwa called for an independent, external inquiry – not conducted by the South Africa government – to identify the causes of the Lonmin massacre. He also gave assurances that Amco would "cooperate and support any action taken to deal with this issue".
Union rivalry
The violence that erupted at Lonmin's Marikana mine had been long in the making, the ANC Youth League said on Friday.
"The signs were loud and clear for all to see during the Impala tragedy," the youth league said in a statement.
"We refused to see them, we were happy to accept then, as we did now, that the problem is and was trade union rivalry."
The league said an exploitative mining regime, capitalist greed and poverty were to blame.
It also condemned the use of live ammunition in public order policing.
"[We] call on Minister [Nathi] Mthethwa to conduct a full investigation to explain to South Africans how it is that police turned on our people and killed them, when the right to life is paramount."
Blame game
Parliament's portfolio committee on police on Friday said it was too early to blame anyone for the shooting.
"Playing any form of blame game at this stage would be irresponsible and insensitive," acting committee chairperson Annelize van Wyk said in a statement.
"We need to have all facts before we pass judgement. We call on all commentators to respond in a sensitive and responsible manner, and to refrain from making statements that can further entice violence and endanger more lives."
Van Wyk said the portfolio committee supported a request by Mthethwa for a commission of inquiry into what had happened.
The committee also wanted the inquiry to investigate developments over the past eight months at the mine.
Van Wyk said the training of police also needed scrutiny.
"We need to look at the training of police members, [and] relevant equipment in relation to the level of violence they are confronted with."
Violence and intimidation
The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said strikes in South Africa were becoming synonymous with violence and intimidation.
"The tragic events of the past week cast a negative light over South Africa and the willingness of stakeholders to enter robust debate," Sacci said in a statement.
The Pan Africanist Youth Congress of Azania expressed shock at the number of people killed in Marikana.
"We strongly condemn the barbaric conduct of the police and the government's indifference in resolving the dispute, which has been going on for more than a week already."
Payco called for Mthethwa and national police commissioner Riah Phiyega to be fired.
– Additional reporting by Sapa
Labels: ANC YOUTH LEAGUE, LABOUR, MASSACRE, MINING, NUM (SA)
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Zuma announces inquiry into Marikana shooting
17 Aug 2012 17:58 - Phillip De Wet
President Jacob Zuma says a commission of inquiry will be established to investigate the cause of the Marikana shootout that led to over 30 deaths.
When the police finally told its side of the Marikana story, it didn't speak of panic and mistakes, arguing instead that they "had no choice". (Oupa Nkosi, M&G)
Our Coverage
* Amcu blames NUM, politics for Lonmin massacre
* Lonmin's burning: Mthethwa says over 30 killed
* Lonmin violence: It's D-day for the unions
* Lonmin crisis: A tinderbox of discontent
* Live blog: Lonmin mine shootings
More Coverage
* Independent police body to investigate Lonmin shooting
"We have to uncover the truth about what happened here. In this regard I've decided to institute and commission of inquiry. The inquiry will enable us to get to the real cause of the incident."
* Read the liveblog of the Lonmin mine shooting here.
Zuma, who cut short his SADC meeting in Maputo to visit the site on Friday afternoon, offered his condolences to the families of those killed.
"We offer our sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones. Our thoughts are also with those who are recovering in hospitals and clinics. Our thoughts are also with the police service who are at times called upon to intervene in difficult situations. The events of the past few days have unfortunately been visited upon a nation that is hard at work at addressing the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality."
Zuma was careful to steer clear of blaming either side for sparking the violence that resulted in 34 deaths and 78 wounded.
"Today is not an occasion for blame, finger-pointing or recrimination. Today challenges us to restore calm and to share the pain of the affected families and communities."
"Having received the briefing … it is clear there is something serious behind these happenings and that's why I've taken the decision to form the commission."
"In a very short space of time, we will announce the results."
For Zuma's full speech click here.
'No choice'
When the police finally told its side of the Marikana story on Friday, it didn't speak of panic and mistakes, arguing instead that they "had no choice".
Video footage and witness interviews paint a definite picture of the Marikana shooting (the one national police commissioner Riah Phiyega says should not be referred to as a "massacre"): a small group of police, caught wrong-footed by aggressive protesters, firing in panic on the onrushing crowd. And perhaps using more live ammunition than is strictly necessary, in shock and in fear of their lives.
But on Friday, after nearly a full day of silence, the police did not speak of panic or mistakes. Instead it argued – without saying in so many words – that its members had done nothing wrong.
"The militant group stormed towards the police firing shots and wielding dangerous weapons," Phiyega said, reading from a prepared statement. "Police retreated systematically and were forced to utilise maximum force to defend themselves."
Police footage and documents, including aerial shots documenting events, argue persuasively that the group of miners were indeed militant and armed, and concertedly attacking. That is born out by the fact that the protesters were, apparently, not necessarily acting in a fully rational manner; the SAPS seemed to confirm swirling rumours that protesters had, under the ministration of a sangoma, come to believe that they were bullet-proof.
What neither documents nor police top management addressed, however, was the sheer number of shots directed at the onrushing protesters, leaving 34 dead and 78 injured. Numbers that look all the worse in contrast with the single policeman injured in the incident, and who had been discharged from hospital in less than a day. That disparity seems to stem from exactly the panic the police are now denying was present.
There are a number of other questions that remain unaddressed. As angry and concerned women protested near the site of the shooting, police said they had no mechanism in place for families to determine whether their loved ones were among the dead and injured. The SAPS did hope, however, to at least positively identify all the dead before the end of the day.
Nor could police say whether any of the 423 police members who were on the front lines of the confrontation had been suspended from duty, implying that at least some who had been involved in the shooting were still policing the area. That is directly contrary to regulations, although a fluid and remote situation means usual rules can be bent.
Amcu head Joseph Mathunjwa on Friday laid the blame for the Lonmin massacre on mine management, the National Union of Mineworkers and North West police.
Amcu distanced itself from the conflict at Lonmin mine and said the massacre could have been avoided had management made good on their commitments to workers.
Mathunjwa said management had reneged on commitments it had made to miners earlier in the week.
President Jacob Zuma has returned from a SADC summit in Mozambique to visit Rustenberg. The presidency said in a statement that Zuma was concerned about the violent nature of the protest. Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa also visited the area.
Ongoing violence
There has been ongoing violence in the area, with clashes between two rival unions at the mine – the older National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the decade-old Amcu.
Earlier this week Amcu and NUM blamed each other for the violence.
Mthunjwa presented two documents as evidence that the mine had made commitments to the miners that their grievances would be dealt with.
"Management could have stuck with their commitment ... The commitment was once you're there peacefully at work, management will address your grievances through union structures," he said.
According to Mathunjwa, it was this about-turn that led workers to refuse to lay down their arms and leave the mountain.
Mathunjwa also slammed the media for characterising the conflict at Lonmin as a clash between the two unions.
"This is an infight of the members of NUM with their offices. It's got nothing to do with Amcu," he said.
Losing faith
According to Mathunjwa the workers on the koppie where the massacre took place were largely disgruntled NUM members who had lost faith in their union representatives.
"It's possible that Amcu members were there but its not Amcu that coordinated the protest on the mountain," he said.
He said Amcu's leaders had been called to the site on Monday to intervene in the standoff between workers and the mine, even though it did not represent those involved in the dispute.
"I pleaded with them. I said leave this place, they're going to kill you," said Mathunjwa, who later broke down in tears.
He denied that it had promised the workers that it could negotiate a wage of R12 500, as has been reported.
The two unions have been fighting for control of mines in the area. In February they clashed over membership at Impala Platinum mines in Rustenberg.
In the run-up to Thursday's confrontation with police, ten people including two police officers and two private security guards were killed and cars were torched.
Amcu calls for an external inquiry
Mathunjwa also said that recent allegations of links between Amcu and the PAC or the ANC Youth League were "baseless and unfounded".
"We have no relationship with any political movement in this country or outside this country," he said, adding that Amcu was "apolitical" and would " never ever" associate itself with any political party.
However, he also implied that politics had had an impact in how the situation unfolded.
He complained that the security detail extended to Amcu and NUM representatives who had gone to speak with the workers on Monday was withdrawn on Tuesday once the NUM leaders – who are part of both Cosatu and the SACP – left the area.
"You can draw the conclusion," he said.
Mathunjwa called for an independent, external inquiry – not conducted by the South Africa government – to identify the causes of the Lonmin massacre. He also gave assurances that Amco would "cooperate and support any action taken to deal with this issue".
Labels: JACOB ZUMA, LABOUR, MASSACRE, MINING, TRADE UNIONS
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Chinese at Maamba mine stay indoor
By Edwin Mbulo, Mwala Kalaluka and Gift Chanda
Wed 08 Aug. 2012, 11:30 CAT
OVER 30 Chinese nationals working for Maamba Collum Coal mine in Sinazeze have decided to lock themselves up in the mine quarters for fear of being attacked by Zambians.
And several Zambian mine workers have deserted Sinazeze fearing they might be arrested following the killing of a Chinese national during a minimum wage protest.
In Lusaka, police yesterday stopped a minimum wage-related protest by workers of a Chinese firm contracted by the government to construct prefabricated quarters for ZAF officers in Lusaka's Twin Palm area.
In an interview, Nkandabbwe Ward Councilor Partson Mangunje said the barbaric killing of the Chinese national by protesting miners had caused a vicious circle of economic breakdown.
"It is not only the Zambians who are scared of going back for work, the Chinese are also afraid and are spending most of their times locked up in the quarters since the incident happened. I appeal to the government to send in a negotiator to talk to the two groups; the Zambians and Chinese so that we can bury what has happened and forge ahead," he said.
Mangunje however said there was need for the employers to be serious when engaging workers because most of the people employed in the mines were those that could neither neither read nor write.
"We now have a situation of people who can't read and understand the contracts and what happened was that they ended up acting on group influence. We need a minimum of a Grade Seven full certificate as a qualification for one to be employed in the mines," he said.
Mangunje appealed for more dialogue so that a similar situation could be avoided in future.
And a union representative Moddy Chigonke said the union had failed to meet the mine workers for them to resume work because most of their whereabouts were not known as they had deserted Sinazeze for fear of being arrested.
Meanwhile, a check by The Post at shaft one, two, and six found the place quiet as the mines were deserted and only security personnel were at the gate.
And a miner who sought anonymity said police arrested the mother and wife of a miner who was on the run, only identified as Cephas.
He said they were picked up at 11:00 hours, but when contacted for a comment, Southern Province deputy police commissioner Fred Mutondo said the only woman picked up was treated as a witness and had since been released.
He said he was not informed of any arrests that could have been made afterwards.
"We picked up a woman yesterday (Monday) after she was found with goods that were looted from the deceased Chinese's house and she confessed that her husband is the one who took the goods to the house. The man later handed himself to the police and is detained in Choma," he said.
Some residents have expressed disappointment with the mine management for not putting in place a sound human resources management policy.
And Lusaka Province police commissioner Solomon Jere said some anti-riot officers were sent to the site and the workers that were about to protest were told not to because they had not complied with
the law.
"They were advised the law must be followed. We have got a system of laws in place," said Jere. "If they want to do, maybe, a demonstration there is supposed to be a procedure to be followed. A
notification, that is what the law provides but they did not do that. They obliged and everything is back to normal."
Police sources told The Post that some of the Chinese that were at the site when the ill-fated protest was about to commence locked themselves for fear that the workers who were about 200 would harass them.
"The workers started protesting at around 07:30 hours and they were demanding for the minimum wage from the Chinese. The Chinese have a contract with the government to construct the ZAF quarters," the
source said.
The sources said since the workers work in shifts, those that were supposed to work the day shift were not working but that later some Chinese managers came to address them.
And the Southern Province police command says it will not rest until all the people behind the killing of a 50-year-old Chinese supervisor at
Sinazeze's Collum Coal Mine over a wage dispute are caught.
Southern Province deputy police commissioner Fred Mutondo said in an interview yesterday that the 12 suspects picked and charged in connection with Wu Shengzai would appear in a Choma court today.
Wu died instantly after an irate mob protesting over the recently revised minimum wage pushed a trolley that is used to carry coal from the pit into the tunnel where he attempted to hide.
Sources said the 12 suspects left Sinazongwe for Choma at around 12:00 hours yesterday afternoon but that the remnant Chinese work force at Collum Coal Mine had barricaded themselves from the locals.
"There are still about twelve suspects; eight miners and four local people," said Mutondo. "It investigation is still ongoing. We will not rest until all of them suspects are captured."
And the government has assured foreign investors in the country, including the Chinese community, that Zambia was a safe and secure investment haven for them.
Information and broadcasting minister Kennedy Sakeni stated in a press release yesterday that the government regrets Wu's death and he described the incident as unfortunate, uncalled for and uncharacteristic of Zambians' peaceful and hospitable nature.
"Government wishes to assure the Chinese community at Collum Coal Mine, and investors at large, that Zambia is safe and secure for themselves and their investment," Sakeni stated. "In this regard, the government will endeavour to provide a safe and secure environment within which all investors will operate by ensuring, among other interventions, that incidents of this nature do not recur."
Sakeni, who urged employers in the country to embrace dialogue in
resolving their differences, said the government was confident police
would carry out thorough investigations on the Collum incident to
ensure culprits are brought to book.
However, economic consultant Prof Oliver Saasa said in his comments over the Collum incident that Chinese investors may not be the only
ones threatened by Zambia's current investment climate.
In an interview yesterday, Prof Saasa, who regretted Wu's killing,
said the unfortunate incident should be a lesson to the country to
ensure a certain level of consultation prevails before certain
decisions are taken.
"The issue of the minimum wage is an important issue in a country
like Zambia where poverty levels are very high and salaries for those
low earners can actually be up scaled in light of the economic growth
posted in the last 10 years," Prof Saasa said.
He said the issues of the minimum wage should have been handled
carefully to prevent incidents like the one at Collum Coal Mine as
they dent the country's image and also impact on the country's
investment climate.
"Sometimes people reject something that is in their interest because
you failed to accommodate them at the level of making that decision,"
Prof Saasa said. "The Statutory Instrument just came and it was
quickly implemented. So you run into these problems."
Prof Saasa said the environment where foreigners come to invest matters.
"We need to take a leaf from what has happened at Collum coal mine
and do things right. We keep reminding people that the world out
there has a lot of opportunities and that it is not just Zambia where
people can take their money," said Prof Saasa.
"You should not allow a situation where workers take the law in their
hands especially if they are killing as a result of the
misinterpretation of poorly communicated decisions by the government."
Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Zhou Yuxian told The Post on Monday that
Chinese in the country were frightened following Wu's killing and they had
asked to meet him on the evening of that day so that they could be consoled.
Collum Coal Mine has had a number of operational problems.
Mine officials at Collum had blocked the then Southern Province minister Alice Simango from going to check the poor working conditions.
In October 2010, police charged two Chinese mine managers with attempted murder after they allegedly opened fire on a group of miners at the same mine.
At least 11 workers were injured in the incident at the mine.
The owners were reported to have felt threatened by the miners during a protest about their pay and conditions.
The case had brought an angry reaction in a country where Chinese businesses have invested heavily.
The miners had been protesting against poor working conditions at the Collum mine when the managers opened fire at random.
The cases against the duo were later dropped through a nolle prosequi.
China has invested more than $400m in Zambia's mining industry and Chinese investments in the country are continuing to grow.
But this has led to rising tensions in some areas and complaints that the government is prioritising Chinese investment over workers' rights.
Labels: LABOUR, MAAMBA COLLIERY, MINING
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