Posted on 02/03/2007 6:32:30 PM PST by blam
As well as the mine's questionable safety record, workers' benefits have been slashed, unions discouraged and employees are paid as little as £53 a month, despite rising copper prices.
This is not capitalism. It's slavery. Unions are a right of assembly. Capitalists and workers can make their bargain through unions if it is the most expeditious way to accommodate one another. Communists don't permit bargaining. Unions in communist societies are as useless as mammaries on a bull.
Oil is to Arabs as Labor is to Red China
The Chinese arent communist, theyre fascist.
Colonialism was the best thing that ever happened to Africa.
After the Imperial Powers were thrown out, the communists came to power and the working folks of Africa started to really get screwed. Well, hey, that's collectivism for you: screw the masses, they don't matter.
Are you saying the Chinese are more like Franco and Pinochet than Trotsky and Lenin? Trotsky and Lenin believed in the equality of the masses. Life sucked for all Russians under them. The Chinese seem to me to follow the Stalin model where a well cared for cadre drag the masses through Hell. It looks more communism to me. The masses have little material wealth, they have no choice, and the trains don't run on time.
Well, duh!
LUSAKA (Reuters) - At least 46 people were killed today when a blast tore through an explosives factory at Zambia's Chambishi copper mine, destroying the plant and ripping workers apart, Zambia's mining minister said.
"I cannot explain this tragedy which has killed 46 people so far. The entire plant has been razed. Most people were burned badly while others were just in pieces," he told Reuters by telephone from the mine, 400km north of Lusaka.
Officials said the explosion occurred at an explosives factory on the premises of the Chambishi mine, owned by China's NFC Mining Africa Plc. The mine itself was not effected by the explosion.
The Chinese-owned Bgrimm Explosives Plant is a major supplier of explosives for Chambishi mine and other copper mines in Zambia..." [Snip]
Yesterday we learned that this Zambian president claims he can cure AIDS with herbs. Maybe they need to turn him in and get a better one.
It depends on who you consider to be the masses. Hundreds of millions of common Chinese living along the coast are benefitting greatly with several times greater material wealth than just 10 years ago, while those in inner provinces are still very poor. It is the coastal regions that are also driving the economy.
It's wrong to say that only the Communist party members in China are benefitting. If that were the case, the Communists would have long been overthrown.
I agree with the other poster, the strong side of China is much more fascist than Communist. China will become ever more dangerous as its fascist side slowly grows, because fascism is far more efficient than Communism.
Also, trains in China's coastal regions do run on time.
The current Chinese leadership is more like Hitler than Pinochet or Franco. Remember that Hitler was the head of the National Socialist German Workers Party. His leadership got rich off of various deals with industry. The Chinese Communist Party has morphed into a National Socialist Party for this century. Rabidly nationalist, fraudulently pretending to speak for the workers and people, and letting capitalism flourish as long as they and their families get a big cut of the action, it is a repeat of Germany in the 1930's and a far cry from Mao or Pol Pot's different form of totalarianism. Where Mao murdered for ideology, the current party kills to keep the cash flowing.
Right on. The Chinese leadership is using nationalism to hold onto power. And they are suceeding. Chinese nationalism has never been higher. In 1989, Chinese students protest the government, that would never happen today.
That was before Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms. Today, the advent of a mix of raw and crony capitalism in China means ordinary Chinese are doing pretty well. Five million cars were sold in China last year, about three times the number sold in India. Cadres in China have to produce economic growth - which isn't all that hard in a country with low wages and huge amounts of cheap land. But India's subpar growth is an indication that rapid economic growth isn't like falling off a log.
Don't give our free traders any ideas to use here!
* My note: remember Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein offering the former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda, a place on the "Council of 12 Wise Men" back before saddam hid in the spiderhole?
My two cents
whats left of Chinese communist totalitarianism is used only to maintain control. The Chinese leaderships policy of military expansion, confrontation and economic colonialism are for the benefit of a ruling class. Theyre nationalist who use rigid socialism to control society. No pretense is left of international revolution and class struggle.
Fascist and communist are both very capable of dragging the masses through hell and I think youd agree were only discussing semantics. The current government in China isnt good for China, Asia, the US, or the rest of the world. It is a good deal for Chinas robber barons and politicians.
This is not capitalism. It's slavery. Unions are a right of assembly. Capitalists and workers can make their bargain through unions if it is the most expeditious way to accommodate one another. Communists don't permit bargaining. Unions in communist societies are as useless as mammaries on a bull.
I'm sorry, but I get the distinct impression that you think everyone is somehow entitled to work in an Osha certified air conditioned workplace. This is Zambia we are talking about, not America. They complain that the miners are paid as little as 53 pounds per month. That is 100 U.S. dollars per month, $1200 a year. You know how much the average Zambian makes per year? $395 dollars. Thats right, these "underpaid" miners according to the Brits are earning 3 times what they would working for domestic Zambian companies. If the miners don't like their job, they can quit anytime.
Precisely. If Zambia were to open its entire market to foreign investment, it would catch up to and overtake China* in no time. But it has taken probably millions of dollars in bribes by the Chinese government in order to be allowed to practice raw capitalism in Zambia.
* China is doing well because it has opened the door a crack. All of Africa would do well to do the same. But they won't do it. Some of it is cronyistic protectionism of favored tycoons. Probably the rest is one-upmanship - it's not enough to be rich - the rest of the country must be poor, to improve the relative standing of the plutocrats.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.