Capitalism: Savior of miners?
(editorial) from The Militant
“Capitalism Saved the Miners,” the Wall Street Journal headline read.
“It needs to be said,” declared an October 14 opinion-page piece. “The rescue of the Chilean miners is a smashing victory for free market capitalism.”
Columnist Daniel Henninger argues that the technology used to drill a hole to the trapped miners, create a capsule to transport them to the surface, and communicate with them via sophisticated cell phones shows that the profit system is necessary to advance humanity. “Without the year-over-year progress embedded in these capitalist innovations, those trapped miners would be dead,” he contends.
Henninger leaves out one thing: everything he points to that aided the miners’ rescue was created by the labor of the working class, which produces all wealth in society.
Capitalism didn’t save the miners—the capitalist drive for profit at all costs is what put their lives in danger. The Chilean mine bosses reopened the San José mine, which had been closed because it was unsafe. The price of gold and copper had gone up and they wanted to make money.
Massive media attention has been given to the Chilean government and President Sebastián Piñera, a billionaire businessman, for an “expertly managed rescue mission.” But the media says little about the deplorable conditions miners are forced to labor under every day. The San José miners risked their lives to go underground with little to no training in order to earn enough money to live. After their rescue they returned home to neighborhoods lacking sewage systems, running water, or paved roads.
It is possible today, with the science and technology developed by social labor, to lessen the burdens and dangers of work and provide quality food, clothing, shelter, and health care to every human being.
Far from looking to capitalism to bring about an end to poverty, wars, and oppression, workers and farmers need to look to waging a struggle to take political power into our own hands.
With state power the working class will use technology to advance society in the interests of the world’s majority, not to exploit human beings for the profit of a few. We will end the deaths and maiming on the job, along with the slaughter in wars of conquest and the needless deaths of millions from disease and malnourishment.
Related articles:
45 miners killed on the job in United States this year
Company disregarded safety in Chilean mine
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video of the song here
Miner's Lifeguard
Miner's life is like a sailor's'Board a ship to cross the waves
Ev'ry day his life's in danger
Still he ventures being brave
Watch the rocks, they're falling daily
Careless miners always fail
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale
Chorus
Union miners stand together
Heed no operator's tale
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale
Soon this trouble will be ended
Union men will have their rights
After many years of bondage
Digging days and digging nights
Then by honest weight we labor
Union workers never fail
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale
Let no union man be weakened
By newspapers' false reports
Be like sailors on the ocean
Trusting in their safe lifeboats
Let your lifeboat be Jehovah
Those who trust Him never fail
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale
You've been docked and docked, my boys
You've been loading two to one
What have you to show for working
Since this mining has begun
Overalls and cans for rockers
In your shanties, sleep on rails
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale
In conclusion, bear in memory
Keep the password in your mind
God provides for every nation
When in union they combine
Stand like men and linked together
Victory for you'll prevail
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale
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