15000 Striking Miners March in South Africa
Continuing coverage of the Marikana Mine Strike in South Africa
http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/lonmin-strikers-remain-defia...
As the spineless pragmatic wing of the Democratic Party supports Rahm Emmanuel over the striking Chicago Teachers Union, the labor movement in South Africa is showing the power of solidarity. 15000 gold miners walked off the job today demanding the removal of their union leadership, as well as pay of 12500 R, the same amount demanded by the striking miners at the Marikana platinum mine. The mining industry accounts for approximately 20% of South Africa’s GDP. However, the average miner in South Africa earns about 600 US dollars a month (4000 R).
The GINI coefficient (named after Italian sociologist Corrado Gini) is used to measure the inequality of wealth within a country. If a country has a near perfect distribution of wealth then the Gini coefficient will be near zero, while the greater the inequality within the country the closer the coefficient will be to 1. The country with the lowest Gini coefficient is Sweden (.25). South Africa’s score is .67, and only two 2 countries have a higher score (Namibia and Seychelles). The South African miners are asking for a living wage, one that allows them to live with a modicum of dignity in a country with massive inequality.
Comments
sorry about the formatting
could not figure out how to move the words off of the side of the picture.
now that is an awesome show of people power!
solidarity! :D
South Africa is the most inequitable country on the planet
Isn't it an inspiring display of solidarity? I included the GINI number to show what the miners are battling. There was an extremely condescending article in the Finanial Times by an SA 'mining' expert who went on and on about how well paid the miners are compared to the rest of the SA citizenry. His basic argument boiled down to 2 points, 1. you're already paid better than the rest of the country so quit being greedy, and 2. the mines cannot pay you what you want and still afford to pay multi million dollar salaries to management. SA no longer has an arpeitheid government, but it still has an apartheid economic system.