Igor
1st September 2012, 12:43
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19424484
Workers arrested at South Africa's Marikana mine have been charged in court with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot by police.
The 270 workers would be tried under the "common purpose" doctrine because they were in the crowd which confronted police on 16 August, an official said.
Police opened fire, killing 34 miners and sparking a national outcry.
I hate it when workers kill each other by luring blameless police officers to open fire gosh dammit
This "common purpose" doctrine is straight-out Apartheid era shit, the exact same strategy and the exact same laws Apartheid used to suppress black activism; the doctrine was used during the Apartheid rule to charge all involved even if they commit no violent acts, because they as a group can be considered to have a common purpose. It's a basic tool of class rule, the act of protest in itself will make you guilty of the most violent acts committed. You don't even have to be armed or involved in any act besides protest to be potentially charged with murder. Hell, nobody in the crowd has to kill people as we're seeing right now, the killings were commited by the motherfucking police. ANC protested against this shit when they were in opposition, but now the South African ruling class is happy to use it again to keep uppity miners in check.
There's a good chance this will be overturned but it still is quite showing re: the situation of workers' struggle in South Africa and how reactionary the ANC regime really still is
Workers arrested at South Africa's Marikana mine have been charged in court with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot by police.
The 270 workers would be tried under the "common purpose" doctrine because they were in the crowd which confronted police on 16 August, an official said.
Police opened fire, killing 34 miners and sparking a national outcry.
I hate it when workers kill each other by luring blameless police officers to open fire gosh dammit
This "common purpose" doctrine is straight-out Apartheid era shit, the exact same strategy and the exact same laws Apartheid used to suppress black activism; the doctrine was used during the Apartheid rule to charge all involved even if they commit no violent acts, because they as a group can be considered to have a common purpose. It's a basic tool of class rule, the act of protest in itself will make you guilty of the most violent acts committed. You don't even have to be armed or involved in any act besides protest to be potentially charged with murder. Hell, nobody in the crowd has to kill people as we're seeing right now, the killings were commited by the motherfucking police. ANC protested against this shit when they were in opposition, but now the South African ruling class is happy to use it again to keep uppity miners in check.
There's a good chance this will be overturned but it still is quite showing re: the situation of workers' struggle in South Africa and how reactionary the ANC regime really still is