South Wales miners strike xmas cards
Submitted by hellfrozeover on Mar 14 2013 21:41
Set of 4 Xmas cards produced by Rhymney Valley Miners Support Group in South Wales during the strike of 1984-85. Images on the outside and writing by miners on the inside. Black & white scans.
Police invasion of Greek anti-mining town
Submitted by Thrasybulus on Mar 10 2013 22:06
The dispute over gold mines in Greece intensified this week. Police invaded the town of Ierissos and tear-gassed school children as residents protested.
The last few days have seen more incidents in the dispute over gold mines in Northern Greece. Police invaded the town of Ierissos, which is close to the mining site at Skouries, on Thursday morning whilst carrying out an investigation into an earlier arson attack.
Greece: Mining compound attacked
Submitted by Thrasybulus on Feb 18 2013 14:52
Over the weekend a group of people carried out an attack against a controversial mine in northern Greece causing significant damage to vehicles and mining equipment.
On Sunday morning a group of 40-50 people raided the compound of the mining company Hellenic Gold in Skouries, northern Greece, and set fire to some vehicles and equipment. The raid, which caused a substantial amount of damage, was another act in the continuing resistance to the environmentally destructive gold mines in this area.
UK news airs footage refuting police claims about murdered Marikana miners
Submitted by red jack on Jan 29 2013 03:18
Ben Fogel writes on the new footage of the Marikana Massacre screened on Channel Four in the UK and asks where was the South African media?
Five months after the Marikana Massacre in South Africa, footage of police action at the ‘killing koppie‘ ["hill"] has finally reached the public.
Tell us lies about the miners - Dave Douglass
Submitted by Steven. on Jan 16 2013 21:28
An angry study of the UK media campaign of distortion and lies against miners during the great strike of 1984-5, written by one of the participants.
Police kill striking diamond miners in Sierra Leone
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 2 2013 00:20
Hundreds of workers are striking against non-payment of bonuses, for an end to racism, and improved conditions at Sierra Leone’s largest diamond mine in Koidu. Following a blockade of the entrances and clashes with scabs, the armed forces were deployed, who opened fire on the workers, killing two and injuring many others.
The dispute is being reported as the ‘biggest’ to have hit Sierra Leone’s highly lucrative diamond mined for many years. The government have been heavily involved in the industry following the end of the civil war in 2002.
Self-organised strikes on the mines and farms in South Africa
Submitted by red jack on Nov 15 2012 08:15
Two interesting new articles on the self-organised wave of strikes in South Africa that has now spread from the mines to the farms (self-organised militancy began in the shack settlements in 2004). With militant mass strikes organised outside of the unions many sense that new political possibilities are in the air.
The Farm Workers' Strike: It's Far From Over
by Anna Majavu
Marikana: A Point of Rupture?
Ben Fogel on South Africa after the Marikana Massacre. The article also provides a critique of left strategy that orientates towards COSATU, the SACP and the state rathering than popular struggles.
Quote:
A crisis occurs, sometimes lasting for decades. This exceptional duration means that incurable structural contradictions have revealed themselves (reached maturity) and that, despite this, the political forces which are struggling to conserve and defend the existing structure itself are making every effort to cure them, within certain limits, and to overcome them.
Marikana prequel: NUM and the murders that started it all
Submitted by red jack on Oct 12 2012 06:47
The coverage of the Marikana massacre seems to start with the mass killings of 16 August. But that’s not where, or how the violence started, and it wasn’t rivalry between unions, either. Rewind a few days and prepare for goosebumps: you’ll find a web of conspiracy around two murders which not reported in the media and ended in no arrests, but scared the living daylights out of the workers before the weeks of horror started.
by Jared Sacks, The Daily Maverick
What the Marikana massacre highlights
Submitted by red jack on Sep 23 2012 13:11
Cape Town anarchist Shawn Hattingh on the Marikana massacre.
The sight of policemen gunning down striking workers at Marikana was truly galling. Reports too have now emerged that on the day of the shooting some workers may have been executed far from the view of the press’s cameras; and allegations have also surfaced that strikers arrested in the aftermath were tortured.
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