No, not the French Napoleon. The Orwellian Napoleon, the pig who ultimately came to rule Animal Farm as a tyrant, enforcing his faux proletarian edicts with vicious dogs.
... some of the animals remembered--or thought they remembered--that the Sixth Commandment decreed 'No animal shall kill any other animal.
Tyranny has once again come to South Africa. Enforced by a corrupt African National Party and their police, they were willing to mow down thirty four dirt poor miners to protect the interests of the owners of mines the ANC once vowed to nationalize; vowed to use the mineral wealth which lay below South Africa in those mines for the good of the people.
((Ndlelen)) was still a child 18 years ago, when the white racists lost power and black South Africans liberated themselves from apartheid... The Lonmin mining company pays him the equivalent of $750 a month... "It simply isn't enough," he says. "I have to feed my wife and three children with the money." Ndlelen was among the 3,000 workers who went on strike at the Marikana platinum mine more than two weeks ago...
The workers were demanding that Lonmin double their wages. They danced, sang songs and even waved spears and machetes. On Thursday, August 16, police officers finally lost their patience and fired into the crowd with automatic weapons. When it was over, 34 of Ndlelen's fellow miners lay dead.
... in those days they had been slaves and now they were free, and that made all the difference, as Squealer did not fail to point out.
Like Ndlelen, a large share of the black majority still lives in corrugated metal huts. South Africa's schools are just as miserable as the health care system, and youth unemployment exceeds 50 percent. The gap between rich and poor is now even wider than in the days of white rule...
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Like Ndlelen, many ordinary workers haven't felt represented by the ANC in a long time. Its top officials live a life of obscene luxury. Embroiled in their intrigues and power struggles, they seem to have forgotten the well-being of ordinary ANC supporters long ago.
Not content with the murder of their citizens, the Government has now decided -- taking cues from a different Orwell novel -- to charge the surviving miners with the murder of those of their comrades who fell.
War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength
The New York Times explains:
Two weeks after the police opened fire on a crowd of 3,000 workers engaged in a wildcat strike at a platinum mine near Johannesburg, killing 34 people in the bloodiest labor unrest since the end of apartheid, prosecutors are bringing murder charges against a surprising set of suspects: the miners themselves.
Using an obscure legal doctrine frequently relied upon by the apartheid government in its dying days, prosecutors did not accuse the police officers who shot and killed the strikers as they surged forward, machetes in hand. Instead, officials said Thursday that they were pursuing murder charges against the 270 miners who were arrested after the dust settled and the shooting stopped...
Frank Lesenyego, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority... said they were being charged under a law known as common purpose, in which members of a crowd when a crime is committed can be prosecuted as accomplices.
The Times perceives the
Animal Farm-like evolution of the ANC as well:
The shootings have fed a growing sense of betrayal at the country's governing party, the venerable African National Congress, many of whose senior members have joined a wealthy elite a world away from the downtrodden masses whose votes brought them to power at the end of apartheid in 1994. Now the prosecutors' decision to charge the miners in the killings threatens to intensify that rift.
A week ago local activists from labor, Occupy Oakland, and other progressive and radical groups came together at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland at a rally in support of the Marikina miners. The Occupy Oakland Labor Solidary Committee read a statement of support at that rally
which has now been published:
To the workers striking against Lonmin:
We are the Labor Solidarity Committee of Occupy Oakland. We have been watching your struggle and are inspired by the strength, courage, and determination you have shown. We always support any and all workers who realize their power and stand up to fight back back against injustice. Injustices come from bosses, government, and even supposed allies.
None have fought with more fervor and righteous persistence as you. Few have ever faced the horrors that you have in return. We are both mournful and enraged by the brutality we know you have suffered. These actions must not go unanswered.
We extend to you a hand of solidarity from across the globe. We want to fight alongside you. We are workers also; your battles are our battles. We are on the same side; we share the same enemies on the other side.
We call on all people who have only their labor to survive and any of their organizations to not just speak, but to act in solidarity with you. We would like to take action against any company that buys, transports, or invests in products from Lonmin PLC. This includes refusing to install, sell, use or transport products containing material from this mine. It also includes shutdown actions against investors and companies who service Lonmin PLC.
We also support every effort to resist unjust economic and government systems, including your actions resisting murderous, violent police. This is another common battle that we share.
Lastly, we support your ability to organize in any way that way that you, as workers, decide, in order to combat the injustices you face. We will do what we can to support and defend you. This is one fight; we should be one fist.
In mourning, outrage, and solidarity,
-- The Occupy Oakland Labor Solidarity Committee
But it was NOT all right, everything was NOT all right, the struggle was NOT finished... He DID NOT LOVE Big Brother.
Rally in Oakland in support of the miners
"This does not look like negotiating"