The police chief says that cops were forced to shoot the 34 striking miners after a series of violent protests at one of the world’s largest platinum-producing mines.
South African Mine Strike turns into a massacre
A series of violent protests, at one of the world’s largest platinum-producing mines, led to several deaths and injuries after a shoot-out involving the police and striking mine workers.The strike by Lonmin’s Marikana mine, in the North Western province of South Africa, gained support of the young and old.
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South African Miners Fired on by Police
Al Jazeera English | 16 August 2012
At least 12 people have been killed when police opened fire on miners staging a protest at a platinum mine in South Africa, according to the Reuters news agency.
South African police opened fire and dispersed a crowd of striking miners at the Lonmin mine in the North West province on Thursday after issuing an order to the protesters to lay down their machetes and sticks.
A South African platinum mine turned into something akin to a war zone yesterday when an attempt by riot police to break up a week-old dispute by workers resulted in the deaths of up to 18 people.
Fighting between miners from rival unions had already claimed 10 lives over the past week near the Marikana mine near Rustenburg, about 100 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. Two of those killed were police officers who were hacked to death on Monday.
The leaders of two trade unions at Marikana – the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which has been dominant at the mine for 30 years, and the Association of Mining and Construction Union (Amcu) – blamed the London-listed mine owner Lonmin for the trouble.
Lesiba Seshoka, an NUM spokesman, said that the company had attempted to break the NUM’s dominance by granting a pay rise to a small group of rock drillers. “The company undermined the bargaining process by unilaterally offering an allowance to rock-drill operators outside the bargaining process,” he said. Continue reading →
July 09, 2012 via Associated Press Spanish miners in the northwestern provinces of Asturias and Leon, armed with homemade rockets and slingshots, have been battling police in protest against government cuts, including a slashing of subsidies in their industry.
Striking Spanish Miners Fire Homemade Rockets at Police
June 15, 2012 via Telegraph.co.uk Striking Spanish coal workers continued to block roads and clashed with police inside a mine in the northern region of Asturias on Friday.
[Workers strikes in China continue to grow in numbers and intensity.The following news report is an first draft of a translation. Later translations will be posted on Frontlines as they become available.– Frontlines ed.]
Shaoguan City dispatched riot police to suppress the workers on strike
Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, Zhenjiang District plow town, 2012-6-24
Rio Tinto Explosive Materials Factory, the entire factory staff from early May went on strike to protest against the company executives corruption, bribery, embezzlement of public funds. Employees at the plant entrance hang a large banner: “Give me my hard-earned money”, “anti-corruption grasping corruption” and so on.The company refused to respond positively to the demands of employees, instead only delayed, resulting in deterioration of relations and intensifying the strike.On June 22, workers clogged the road, causing traffic gridlock; blocked the factory gates, but let the leadership enter; and car blocked the door of the depots. The authorities dispatched hundreds of police in a confrontation with the workers.
Nighttime, the riot squad got orders to disperse the workers, the two sides clashed, police fired tear gas to suppress the workers, and a number of people were arrested.
Police broke into the factory, trapped the leadership away, taking away the blockage of cars, transported them away, and evacuated the explosives factory. Continue reading →
In protest against the ongoing foul and inhumane conditions at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison – one of Amerika’s most notoriously abusive and racist prisons – dozens of men at the prison went on a hunger strike. The strike began on May 22, 2012 and lasted several weeks.
I had spent over a decade imprisoned at Red Onion. Much of that time was spent in political growth, and my writing and circulating reports and articles to publicly expose abuses there, and trying to help build us a support structure on the outside.
I also struggled to to my peers the truism that while oppression does breed resistance, resistance without unity and public support is futile. Which is why our captors promote division and individualism among prisoners – a “mind your own business” and “don’t concern yourself with others” mentality – and manipulate us to misdirect our frustrations and ‘resistance’ against and between ourselves. It is also why they maneuver at every turn to alienate the general public against us with fear and hatred. The old Willie Lynch game.
To repress my efforts, officials kept me in solitary, often isolated from other prisoners. They routinely censored, destroyed and ‘lost’ my correspondences; imposed increased repression and abuses on me; and finally, on February 11, 2012, transferred me cross-country without notice or explanation to the Oregon prison system.
But I’d like to believe that despite their attempts to undermine and frustrate this work, my efforts, in collaboration with others of like mind, took root and bore fruit.
Many of the hunger strikers are men whom I had the honor of serving as both student and teacher. Many are members of street tribes (so-called gangs) whose traditional rivalries kept them divided against and at odds with each other – divisions and conflicts which Red Onion officials acted at every turn to fuel and perpetuate. However, as one of the representatives of the hunger strike stated:
“We’re tired of being treated like animals. There are only two classes in this prison: the oppressor and the oppressed. We, the oppressed, despite divisions of sexual preference, gang affiliation, race and religion, are coming together. We are rival gang members, but now are united as revolutionaries.” Continue reading →
BHOPAL: Outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) has extended their support to ‘Bharat Bandh’ on May 31 in protest against the unprecedented hike in petrol prices asking the people to be on the forefront of the agitation against the wrong policies of UPA-IIgovernment at the centre.”Petrol prices went up 10 times in 14 months, triggering inflation. People have to stand up against exploitation,” CPI (Maoist) central committee spokesman Abhay said in an e-mail statement sent to TOI.Slamming the UPA-II government for repeatedly making claims poverty was declining, the rebels said increase in petrol prices within few days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made such a claim indicated that the government was not concerned about the common masses.
Abhay said the UPA-II and its economists were blaming subsidies for the present economic crisis and were trying to somehow phase out them. “This will only put the already overburdened common man in more trouble”, he added.
Maoists appealed to the people in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, parts of Maharashtra (Gadchiroli, Gondia, Chandrapur and Bhandara), Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar to actively participate in the Bharat Bandh on May 31.
How Weibo helped Dongguan factory workers get their voices heard
China Labour Bulletin, May 10, 2012
When the boss refuses to listen to workers’ grievances, those workers often have no option but to go on strike. But whether or not this tactic works sometimes depends on workers’ media advocacy skills.
On 7 May, workers at a Taiwanese-owned Crocs shoe factory in Dongguan heard that their monthly performance bonus would fall from 500 yuan to 100 yuan. Given that the bonus usually accounted for one fifth of their income, this was a big deal. They complained to the management who as usual didn’t bother to listen. In the afternoon of 8 May, around 1,000 workers, one third of the workforce, decided not to go to work.
But given the relatively isolated location of the factory, well hidden within a gigantic industrial park, the workers’ action didn’t get much attention, not to mention government intervention. When CLB called the factory office, the factory denied the bonus dispute by saying that workers wouldn’t know their bonus until the middle of this month.
One young worker, in anticipation of this official response, started posting strike information on his Weibo page in order to generate public support and media attention. To validate his account, he posted a photo showing the empty workshop during working hours.
CLB then posted a story about the strike on our Weibo page with the worker’s photographic evidence. The story immediately got the attention of labour rights activists and news reporters in Guangdong. Within one hour or so, the post had been retweeted more than 50 times.
In the late afternoon, the young worker told CLB that around five reporters had gathered at the factory gate but their attempts to get in had been foiled by security. The local labour bureau showed up as well.
In the morning of 9 May, CLB learnt that after government mediation, factory management had agreed to raise the bonus from the initial 100 yuan to at least 300 yuan. As a result the factory’s operations have basically returned to normal.
The young worker could not hide his exuberance when his effort to seek media attention during the strike paid off and reaped a substantial bonus increase for over one thousand of his coworkers.
In contrast, late last month, hundreds of employees stopped working at a Chongqing auto factory in protest against increasing workloads and stagnant pay levels over the last few years. The three-day strike got no traditional media coverage and only limited social media exposure and was eventually subdued by management’s threat of dismissal.
It is hard to imagine how the one thousand Dongguan workers’ voices could have been heard without one young worker’s persistent and successful media liaison, especially the use of Weibo. Microblogs have become a relatively free platform for workers, labour scholars, rights advocates, journalists and even trade union officials to interact and exchange information. But to get your particular cause noticed on this overloaded platform definitely requires skill and persistence. And it’s comforting to see China’s tightening control over this new social platform hasn’t balked workers’ attempts to get their voices heard.
Hundreds of prisoners on Wednesday went on hunger strike against a delay in investigation of their cases and poor living conditions in the central jail in northern Takhar province.
The jail superintendent, Brig. Gen. Abdul Rab, confirmed 600 inmates had gone on hunger strike. He said they were trying to convince the prisoners into calling off their strike. Continue reading →
Fourmonths ago, on August 8, 2011--Police arrest former People's Liberation Army Maoist combatants who were disqualified by the United Nations Mission in Nepal in 2007 as they chant slogans against the government in Katmandu, Nepal
December 30, 2011, Himalayan Times
BELAURI: The disqualified People’s Liberation Army(PLA) combatants have enforced Far-western region bandh on Thursday putting forth several demands.
The Maoist ex-combatants had warned of stir and agitations expressing dissatisfaction that the state has dragged them out of the cantonments labeling ‘disqualified’ in an indecent and discriminatory manner.
At a press conference, Bharat Rokaya, central secretary of Disqualified People’s Liberation Army was heard saying, “The party used us for ten years to fight in the people’s war and now it has left us in the lurch.”
DHANGADHI: Normal life of Kailali district has been hit hard on Thursday due to the Bandh called by ex-PLA combatants of the UCPN-Maoist, who are on agitation demanding implementation of past agreements made with the government.
All educational institutions, transport services and business sectors have been completely shut down from the bandh.
Ex- PLA Combatants said that they have been on agitation to implement the agreement made with the government saying they have been displaced from the society in the name of rehabilitation.
They further said that no progress have been done as per the four-point agreement such as removal of the tag of ‘disqualified’ labeled to describe them, their proper management and to provide lump some economic package.
About 272 combatants were disqualified while carrying out their verification at seven division offices of Maoist Army at Talbandi of Kailali district.
(AP) ATHENS, Greece — Protesting power and municipal workers blockaded several state electricity company buildings around Greece Monday, in protest at an emergency property tax being collected through electricity bills.
Members of an electricity workers’ union cut off power last week to the Health Ministry for four hours, and on Monday blocked the entrance to a site where power disconnection orders are issued.
Pharmacies also closed in greater Athens, demanding that state-assisted health insurers settle growing debts. On Tuesday, transport workers are to hold a four-hour stoppage to protest staff cuts. Continue reading →
[In India, the gap between rich and poor is huge and continues to grow. And in Andhra Pradash, the gap can be defined by the way the state’s economic, political, and cultural resources have been denied the people of the Telangana region. In recent times, the long historic Telangana movement has sharpened its struggle for a separate state. This week, things have intensified with a complete shutdown of rail, bus, autorickshaws, roads, and schools. Various political forces are involved and have joined this massive people’s movement. — Frontlines ed.]
Telangana stir hits rail, road services
newsxlive on Sep 23, 2011
The Telangana agitation is once again peaking. This is the 12th successive day that the agitation has been building up and the situation is heading for complete shutdown in all 10 districts including Hyderabad. Several trains passing through the region have either been cancelled or diverted for the 48-hour duration of the rail roko call given by the Telangana agitators. One by one, several services like bus, auto, schools and power have been hit.
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Pro-Telangana activists sleep on railway tracks during the rail roko agitation near Hyderabad on Saturday
2-day rail blockade in Telangana begins
Indo-Asian News Service
Hyderabad, September 24, 2011
Schoolchildren raising slogans in support of separate Telangana State at Moula Ali Station in Hyderabad
Transport services in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh came to a halt as a two-day ‘rail blockade’ and strike by auto-rickshaws began Saturday morning, adding to the woes of people already reeling under the impact of protest by the state-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC).
In an unprecedented situation, commuters have no access to any mode of public transport.
As over 10,000 RTC buses remained off the roads in Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region for the sixth day, all trains were cancelled for Saturday and Sunday.
500,000 autorickshaw drivers joined the people's strike
Moreover, 500,000 auto-rickshaws also joined the ‘people’s strike’ demanding a separate Telangana state. Over 60,000 three-wheelers in Hyderabad are participating in the strike.
South Central Railway (SCR) cancelled over 72 express and 264 passenger trains originating from or coming to Telangana or passing through the region.
“In view of some incidents that took place during similar protests earlier, we are not operating train services this time,” said SCR chief public relations officer K Sambasiva Rao.
Leaders and activists of the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) squatted on railway tracks at hundreds of places across the region.
Leaders of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India-ML New Democracy squatted on the track at Kazipet in Warangal district, the main junction connecting south and north India.
The railways have cancelled all 222 (Multi-Modal Transport System) services or local trains in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and 102 DHMU (Diesel Hydraulic Multiple Unit) trains in other parts of Telangana.
The SCR authorities have also short terminated, diverted and rescheduled many long-distance trains in the north-south and east-west corridors. The rail link between Hyderabad and rest of Telangana and also between the state capital and other regions of Andhra Pradesh has completely snapped.
Telangana supporters have lunch on the rail track as part of their “rail roko” programme, in Nalgonda on Saturday
All the trains between Hyderabad and destinations like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Guwahati, Patna, Rajkot and Balharshah have been cancelled.
Hundreds of policemen, personnel of railway police and central paramilitary forces were deployed at stations to protect railway property.
Secunderabad and Nampally (Hyderabad) railway stations — two of the busiest railway stations in south India — wore a deserted look.
All the trains were cancelled from Friday midnight while some long-distance trains coming to Hyderabad were stopped earlier in the day.
On February 11, 2011 Egyptians toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak. Blogger and viral video producer Aalam Wassef was one of the many people who worked for years to make it happen. This is first in a series on the daily life of
Egypt’s revolution. It’s a manual on how a civil resistance was built to win.
Nearly 1,600 workers at the General Motors Halol plant in India have been on strike for the last three weeks. Workers manufacturing the popular GM Cruze and Aveo vehicles are paid just 47 to 92 cents an hour. There is no collective contract. Management is unilaterally demanding a 20 percent increase in daily production goals. Over 269 auto workers at the GM Halol plant are suffering permanent spinal cord injuries due to constant heavy lifting without ergonomic health and safety standards. Management is suspending and relocating striking workers while hiring non-union “scabs.”
The workers are striking the GM Halol plant:
General Motors India Pvt. Limited
Halol, District Panchmahal
Gujurat State, India
The strike is being led by the progressive Gujurat Kamdar Mandal union:
Mr. Nihil Mehta, General Secretary
Gujurat Kamdar Mandal
(Affiliated to the Indian Trade Union Congress, ITUC)
The workers are struggling to improve health and safety conditions at the factory and guarantee respect for worker rights.
Strike Demands
Immediately stop the hiring of non-union replacement workers, while well over 1,000 GM Halol workers are on strike.
Stop management’s unilateral across-the-board demand to increase daily production goals by 20 percent.
Improve health and safety conditions, especially adopting adequate ergonomic standards to prevent further spinal cord injuries to the workers.
Immediately cease the suspension and relocation of striking workers.
All overtime premiumsmust be paid according to Indian law.
The Halol GM workers want to negotiate a collective contract, so that the workers’ voice is heard.
There are 800 regular full-time workers at the Halol plant and 800 temporary workers-who do the exact same jobs, but have no rights and are paid just 47 cents an hour, which is half of what the full-time workers receive. The union wants the 800 temps to be hired as regular full-time workers, able to join the union and paid fairly. Continue reading →
Lisbon, Portugal (CNN) — An estimated 3 million workers walked off the job Wednesday in Portugal’s first general strike in 22 years, a protest against austerity measures imposed by a government under market pressure to cut spending.
Portugal says it will cut its budget deficit to 7.3 percent of its gross domestic product by the end of 2010 by trimming public salaries by 5 percent, raising value-added taxes from 21 to 23 percent, and reducing pension benefits and other government spending. But with unemployment at 10.9 percent, the country’s two largest unions argue that the ruling Socialists’ austerity measures will only make things worse.
“We have got 200,000 people in a population of around 10 million who are in soup kitchens,” said Aquino Noronha, a flight steward who joined Wednesday’s walkout. “This cannot go on. What we feel, those of us who are on strike, is it’s only the workers who have to pay for this.”
Similar austerity measures provoked new protests by students in Britain and have unions calling for massive weekend demonstrations in Ireland, where Prime Minister Brian Cowen announced another round of budget cuts Wednesday.
Though many stores and restaurants in Lisbon remained open, the strike shut down the country’s airports, rail stations and buses and snarled traffic around the capital. At the Cais do Sodre transit station on the city’s waterfront, subway and commuter trains, ferry boats and buses were few and far between — and some commuters said their morning trips were extended by an hour or more.
Portugal’s two largest unions estimated that 3 million of their 5 million members joined the strike. The government said the turnout was smaller than unions claimed, but admitted it was a broad-based action. Continue reading →
[Since the end of South African apartheid was accompanied by extraordinary deals with international capital to forestall the popular demands for national liberation and economic equality, the government has faced round after round of mass protests, largely localized and short-lived. But now the crisis of the regime, driven by the crisis of the global imperialist system, is unraveling the “tripartite alliance” (ANC, COSATU trade union federation, and the South African Communist Party) as mass struggles and class struggles erupt with new intensity.-ed.]
A worker is sprayed by a water canon during a strike by civil servants outside a hospital in Soweto August 19, 2010. Strikers blocked the entrances to two hospitals around Johannesburg and teachers vowed to blockade a main highway as a stoppage by more than 1 million civil servants expanded on its second day on Thursday. Photograph by: SIPHIWE SIBEKO Credit: Reuters
By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent
Friday, 20 August 2010
South Africa’s schools and hospitals were transformed into battlegrounds yesterday as a nationwide strike escalated into a sometimes violent test of strength between the government and unions.
Police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds blocking roads in one area while healthcare workers picketed hospitals, preventing patients from seeking help.
Public-sector unions have launched an indefinite strike demanding an 8.6 per cent pay rise, which the government has insisted the debt-stricken country cannot afford. The struggle could be critical to the future of President Jacob Zuma as well as damaging for sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy.
“This is more than an industrial dispute,” said Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, an expert on organized labour at the University of Johannesburg. “It is a political testing of strength in which Zuma can’t be seen to be weak.”
Crowds who blocked a main road near a hospital in Soweto, holding up traffic and blocking entrance to patients, were broken up by police firing rubber bullets and water cannons. Elsewhere in Johannesburg striking teachers threw bricks and stones at police, while nurses tore down a gate at one hospital as pickets struggled to block colleagues who wanted to go to work as normal. Continue reading →
The police chief says that cops were forced to shoot the 34 striking miners after a series of violent protests at one of the world’s largest platinum-producing mines.
Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle 