Bay Area: Miners Shot Down. A fundraiser for South African miners

The video clip above is a trailer for the film "Miners Shot Down" describing the murder of 34 striking miners at the Lonmin Marikana Mine in South Africa two years ago.

On Saturday July 5th at 7.00 PM, the film is being shown at ILWU Local 34's hall in San Francisco. The next day, July 6th, Andrew Chirwa, President of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) will be speaking at ILWU Local 10's union hall. See the flier below for times and the locations.

Facts For Working People urges all working people to come see this film and help raise funds for the families of the slain workers.  An injury to one is an injury to all.

July 5th is also known as "Bloody Thursday".  It was on that day during the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, that two maritime workers were shot dead by the police.  In all, 6 workers were killed on the West Coast.   The film and event is part of a commemoration of workers' deaths at the hands of the bosses and the state in the US, South Africa and throughout the world. The showing of the movie is a fundraiser for the South African Miners that were killed at Marikana.

As this blog has pointed out previously, there have been dramatic changes in the relationship between workers, unions and the state (the ANC) in South Africa.  There has also been serious rifts within COSATU, the Confederation of South African Trade Unions.  NUMSA is the largest union in Africa and has condemned the role the African National Congress and the leaders of COSATU have played in the recent struggles. NUMSA will likely be striking on July 1st.  On the same day, the Longshore contract here on the West Coast expires.

"The NUMSA Congress resolved to i) explore the building of a socialist workers’ party, ii) to mobilise for both a United Front and a Movement for Socialism, iii) to reclaim COSATU from below, iv) to actively unite worker and community struggles through coordinated mass mobilisation on socio-economic demands, and v) to consolidate NUMSA as a worker-controlled union that organises along entire value chains and that provides the best service to its members. At this moment there can be no stronger foundation to radically transform South Africa." *

*See the Democratic Left Front statement on the NUMSA conference  and further posts on South Africa and the SA trade union movement in the links column under South Africa to the right.

** If you live in the Bay Area and would like a pdf of this flier for your workplace, lunchrooms,  college or school, send your e mail to: we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com