Families Riot As 166 Miners Confirmed Dead (the riot part is new)

[Tab]

All 166 miners trapped in a coal mine in China's Shaanxi province after a gas explosion were confirmed dead Wednesday, sparking riots by angry relatives.

About 800 relatives and coworkers of the victims stormed a government office, smashed windows and beat up officials after the announcement was made at the rescue command center Wednesday, Channel NewsAsia reported.
...
Some 25 officials were trapped on the fourth floor of the office building surrounded by rioters, the TV station reported. Local police and 30 soldiers were dispatched to the scene to try and restore calm.



The families blame managers' negligence and greed for the explosion, saying they forced the miners to continue working after dangerous gas levels were detected several days before.
http://www.wvti96.com/script/headline_newsmanager.php?id=368916&pagecontent=nationalnews&feed_id=59

[el_gato]

1. but people say "I need my modern conveniences like phones!"

Well somebody has to go down into these mines and retrieve the raw materials necessary to manufacture this shit. And the only people who are willing to risk thier lives to do something like that are people who are impoverished and desperate. Thus povery and desperation are a necessary part of capitalist production.

[Voltaire99]

2. Yes, good comment. (n/t)

[seriousstan]

7. I didn't realize that China was a capitalistic state.

After all, this was a "state-owned Chenjiashan mine".

[el_gato]

8. production is production

whether it is done by the state or by private enterprise and these commodities are sold in the market

so it makes no difference

[seriousstan]

10. So your take now is....

Thus poverty and desperation are a necessary part of ANY production? How do you think you got the computer you are using? What is the alternative to production? Shall we all just grow our own food and live in huts we have built by hand? What about those that can't do this? Shall others do it for them? For free? Or shall the state force others to do it for them for free? And then, isn't that production again? Round and round we go.....

On edit...I fixed your spelling of poverty.

[el_gato]

11. typical reactionary response

I know damn well where my computer came from the difference is, unlike you, I don't deny the suffering that is necessary in order for the world to operate the way it does. My take is the same whether it be under production in a capiatlist regime or that of a communist regime. Immiseration has been and always will be a necessary part of a world that is based on the production of commodities. However, it is rather questionable where the boudaries between what you call commmunist versus what you call capitalist lies. How do you reconcile the fact that all of this production going on in China is for the sake of western capitalists such as Wal-Mart? Thus I see China engaging in capitalism. Nevertheless, you are just searching for a red herring.

What is the alternative? Well, the end game of the fetishization of production will be the total destruction of the natural world for one. Take a look at the state of the world we are living in and then ask yourself what are the alternatives.

[Minstrel Boy]

14. It's a state-capitalist enterprise. Surely you know

that China's economy is not communist. Don't you?

Some businesses in China are state-owned, and increasingly many - including in the heavy industry sectors - are privately-owned. It's a mixed economy, and it's prone to corruption and exploitation.

The only thing red about China today is its deficit.

[Judi Lynn]

15. It would take a real fool to not grasp your meaning. Thanks, el_gato. n/t

[el_gato]

16. thank you

[Voltaire99]

3. We notice again that from China to Ukraine...

...the people are not afraid to take their grievances against government to the streets.

What has made US citizens so docile, so lamb-like, as their nation spins into fascism? Is it affluence? Do people imagine that it is actually something to take pictures of themselves with digital cameras mugging long faces while holding up signs saying, "Sorry, I really tried"? That's nothing. It's surrender chic.

[UncleSepp]

4. Today I am Chinese

I remember the stories growing up of my own family working in the mines, stories of disaster due to the same kind of negligence, greed, and lack of concern for the miners on the part of the management. It is as if there has only ever been one coal mine and one boss running it. Those stories formed how I see the world, how I think and who I am. As I learned them, they are stories of Pennsylvania, but the story in Shaanxi is the same. Their stories and my stories are our stories. Today I am Chinese.

[Blue_Tires]

5. good to see someone take a stand

against corporate malfeasance

[seriousstan]

6. Corporate??? What part of "state-owned Chenjiashan mine " do you not get?

[prolesunited]

9. Is this better?

Good to see someone take a stand against government-controlled malfeasance.

Bottom line is that workers, expendable cogs in the machinery, are being killed as a result of greed. With less government control and oversight and reducing funding for oversight, the same fate awaits us.

[el_gato]

12. It should also be pointed out that the corps that operate in the U.S.

use the tools of the state to achieve thier ends all the time.

There is no such thing as a free market since the market is manipulated by the dominant economic forces.

[fedsron2us]

13. Read Charles Levinsons book 'Vodka-Cola '

and you will see that Western Corporations and supposedly Communist states were co-operating in exploiting the workers even before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Same old shit just a different ideology.