| They "awaken us to the reality of the time bomb that has stopped ticking — it has exploded," The Sowetan newspaper said in an editorial. "Africans are pitted against each other ... fighting for a bigger slice of the mineral wealth of the country. In the end the war claims the very poor African -- again." |
The murder of over 30 striking miners in South Africa, by South African police, brings back memories of the Ludlow mine massacre in the United States back in 1914.
The Ludlow mine was owned by Rockefeller, who sent in his goons to put down a strike by workers who had been demanding better working conditions. Rockefeller's security men ended up killing about 25 people and eleven of them were children. Rockefeller is universally lauded as one of history's great capitalists, who built his fortune "on his own." But it also rests on blood spilled by others.
This is the dark side of capitalism. Murdering workers as a means to enforce discipline? Work on our terms and you die.
While no one was killed last year, the widespread police brutality against OWS protesters is in the same vein, it was just non-lethal. However, getting thrown in jail as a consequence of protesting rampant and legalized criminality by the financial sector also seems pretty harsh. Or how about the current "Pussy Riot" trial in Russia. Three young girls dance in a church with silly costumes, protesting Vladimir Putin and they face seven years in jail???
History always comes back to the same reality: it's the "haves" versus the "have nots" and the haves will always win. There have only been brief periods in human history where the have nots got a fair shot, and it ain't now.
