Bullets, Words, and Class War

Five senior trade union officials, beginning with Joe Nkosi, 1st Deputy President of COSATU, were at the picket of the Pongola border crossing between South Africa and Swaziland yesterday. At a certain stage they formed a delegation, as unionists do, to talk to the police who were confronting them. Instead of talking to them, the police arrested them. At the Matsamo crossing police opened fire at close quarters, putting several people in hospital with serious wounds, and then arrested 20 of the demonstrators. See the linked brief report from COSATU. The policeman who was interviewed on SABC (SAFM) claimed this was justifiable as the traffic was being disrupted and this amounted to a “war situation”. SAFM’s Jeremy Maggs wanted to split the difference, as usual, as if COSATU is somehow half to blame for the fact that police are using firearms in the cause of smoother traffic-flow. Presumably Maggs would have declared a half-war situation, fired less bullets and arrested somewhat fewer people? The SABC TV announcer later said “Clashes cause people to be shot and arrested”. In English this fraudulent use of language is called the “passive voice”. Of course the clashes didn’t cause any arrests. Human beings did. Police, in fact. The BBC (nowadays often known as the Bush-Blair Corporation) is a master of such tricks of language (see link). Their report of the victory of the French working-class and youth is turned over and called “Humiliation for French government”. Why does the BBC call it a humiliation when a government listens to its people? Governments have to turn when the people tell them to. The South African government must also learn to turn, in Khutsong, in Moutse, in relation to the Gautrain and people’s transport, and in many other ways. No government needs to reverse itself into a false “war situation” like the police at the Matsamo crossing, and attack the very people it is supposed to serve and not boss. A turn for the people is a victory for all, and not a humiliation. Gautrain is not even wanted by the rich motorists for whom it was supposedly designed. Ministers who were talking about trade with the WTO have stopped talking. Employers of underpaid security guards use all sorts of tricks. See the three linked articles from Business Day below. The great Ann Crotty says she is sufferring from “Mittal fatigue”, causing her mind to wander at the competition tribunal hearings of the steel monopoly (see link below). In the process she has produced a spontaneous version of Karl Marx’s “Value Price and Profit”, and almost independently rediscovered the Theory of Surplus Value. Not all bourgeois writers are dishonest frauds. Viva Ann Crotty, Viva! The most outrageous of today’s stories is left for last. The Cubana flight 455 was blown up in the air on October 26, 1976. All on board died. The full story is known, yet the two principle terrorists responsible - Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada - walk free in the United States while the five Cuban investigators who uncovered their deeds have been in solitary confinement in separate US jails since 1998. This new article (linked) by José Pertierra, a Washington lawyer representing Venezuela, is well written and covers the three-decade story of US terrorism and deceit very clearly and briefly. Links: COSATU Swaziland border protest, names of those arrested (171 words) French strike victorious, BBC (631 words) Motorists likely to shun Gautrain, Business Day (322 words) COSATU slams state on China trade, Brown, Mde, Business Day (574 words) You guard millions but are paid peanuts, Nzimande, B Day (301 words) ROIC vs WACC is harder for individuals, Ann Crotty, B Rep (972 words) April 11- The Full Story of Cubana 455, Pertierra, Counterpunch (5200 words)