Soma mining massacre: the terrible cost of capitalist exploitation

Submitted by AWL on 17 May, 2014 - 8:02

On 13 May, the capitalist system of exploitation took the lives of around 300 workers in a coal mine “accident” in Soma, a town in western Turkey.

This is the biggest massacre of workers in the form of a “work accident” in the history of Turkey. The technical reason for the incident is still unknown. But for some reason a fire erupted in the mine, producing carbon monoxide with the fatal effect of poisoning the miners.

What happened in Soma cannot be downplayed as a “work accident”. What happened was a mass murder at a workplace perpetrated by the boss of Soma Holdings and its accomplice, i.e. the AKP government.

While greedy bosses do not take necessary work safety measures, the AKP government, which is responsible for inspecting workplaces for safety, turns a blind eye to the situation in workplaces. Just 14 days ago there was a proposal by opposition parties in parliament which demanded a parliamentary inquiry about the mines in Soma. And that proposal was rejected by the AKP.

On every occasion Erdoğan likes to declare that they are zealously working to clear all obstacles out of the way of the bosses. And now in Soma we are seeing the results.

Mines, where high level safety measures have to be taken, and where qualified workers should be employed, have been privatised and outsourced. To reduce costs bosses do not take necessary safety measures, and mines are filled with unqualified, short-term contracted and low-waged workers.

In an interview given to a daily, Hürriyet, Alp Gürkan, main owner of Soma Holdings, described how his company had grown, pointing out that they were extracting six million tons of coal a year. In that interview he boasted that they had reduced the cost of coal extraction from $140 to $24 and linked this to “the way the private sector works.” Now we are seeing once more what this kind of “achievement” costs workers.

The AKP government know there is a link between economic growth and the continuation of their rule. During AKP rule nearly 13,000 workers have lost their lives in work “accidents” and many more have been injured, maimed. These figures testify to the direct link between economic growth and “work accidents”. It has to be reminded that in 19 years Turkey has still not ratified ILO agreement no 176 on “Safety and Health in Mines”.

Work accidents (or rather murders at work) are one of the biggest problems for the working class. To raise awareness on this issue UID-DER had initiated a campaign with the main slogan “Work Accidents Are Not Destiny, Stop Workers Dying of Work Accidents!” And through this campaign UID-DER had reached hundreds of thousands of workers and managed to collect more than one hundred thousand signatures, submitting them to parliament.

Now there are many protests taking place across the country, which unsurprisingly face police repression. During his visit to Soma Erdogan was demonstrated against by the people of Soma and the miners’ relatives. The crowd chanted”Prime Minister resign!”

In important industrial areas many factories and mines joined a one-day strike. More than ten thousand miners in Zonguldak, a miners’ town, were among the most active. There was also international workers’ support extended to Soma miners. Workers in Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, especially miners, stopped work in solidarity.

Unless the working class gets organised and fights, bosses and their governments will not take necessary safety measures. And this fight cannot achieve its goal without taking aim at the capitalist system of exploitation!

Istanbul University occupied
Beth Redmond

Following the Soma mining disaster, around 1,000 students occupied Istanbul University.

The occupation came directly out of a protest against the university’s relationship with Soma Holdings, with one protester saying that “the faculty [of the university] is complicit in the deaths of the miners”.

The company that runs the mine has employees sitting on an advisory board at the Istanbul Technical University, and pressure from the occupation has already forced university management to sever ties with them.

But the students are pushing for more.

They demand the resignation of Orhan Kural, a professor in mining at the university, who said the workers in the mine “died beautifully”. They have said they will not leave the building until those responsible are brought to account.

Students have written the names of all the miners who were murdered on the walls of the occupation, as well as the slogan “We won’t be engineers of the murderers. We will be engineers of the people”.

The occupiers have been showing documentaries about problems with the mining industry and are having heated debates in the middle of a busy occupation.

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is in touch with members of the occupation.

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