re: #21 Dark_Falcon

1) The assertion that Platinum mine owners were not engaged in suppressive activities is absurd. Mining has been central to the history of repression in South Africa.

2) Both the WV miners and the SA miners demanded an increase. The % does not matter and indicates that the SA miners actually are way more underpaid than the WV miners since what is mined has more value and is harder to mine. Also, Poland’s solidarity was a wild cat strike. The SA system is and has always been corrupt.

3) The trigger event was police firing tear has at the demonstrators, who were hemmed in at all sides - see trucks surrounding them - and they moved in the only open direction available to them - and were shot down.

But I find it telling how the right wing justifies and defends violence from the state on Unions and workers and the disenfranchised.

91 years ago, Labor activists took up arms to fight for their rights and these days right wing Americans piss down on unions.