On this day in 2012, the Marikana Massacre took place when South African police fired on striking workers, killing 34 and injuring 76 in the most lethal use of force by the state in half a century.
The shootings have been compared to the infamous Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, when police fired on a crowd of anti-Pass Law protesters, killing 69 people, including 10 children. The Marikana Massacre took place on the 25-year anniversary of a nationwide strike by over 300,000 South African workers.
On August 10th, miners had initiated a wildcat strike at a site owned by Lonmin in the Marikana area, close to Rustenburg, South Africa. Although ten people (mostly workers) had been killed before August 16th, it was on that day that an elite force from the South African Police Service fired into a crowd of strikers with rifles, killing 34 and injuring 76.
After surveying the aftermath of the violence, photojournalist Greg Marinovich concluded that “[it is clear] that heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood.”
Following the massacre, a massive wave of strikes occurred across the South African mining sector - in early October, analysts estimated that approximately 75,000 miners were on strike from various gold and platinum mines and companies across South Africa, most of them doing so illegally.
A year after the Marikana Massacre, author Benjamin Fogel wrote “Perhaps the most important lesson of Marikana is that the state can gun down dozens of black workers with little or no backlash from ‘civil society’, the judicial system or from within the institutions that supposedly form the bedrock of democracy.”
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 💖 Come talk in the New Weekly Queer thread
- 💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⭐️ August Movie Nominations ⭐️
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
I’m glad you had such a nice trek!
I remember going through some ancient Roman ruins (I think it was just Pompeii, but it mightve been somewhere else) and gawking at all the stuff. The baths, the Cave Canem (beware of dog lol), it was late in fall so the pomegranate trees were full and just dropping all this nice juicy fruit, farmers were burning their olive plants (dunno why still), feeling how people lived 2000 years ago. And then coming upon the modern tourist pizzeria they installed near where a bunch of people burned and choked on volcanic ash.
There’s something so nice about this tension when we’re traveling of this kind of sacred and profane moment overlapping.
way to go comrade, congrats!
How much did it cost?
THE TACO BELL FANDOM IS DYING
LIKE AND SHARE THIS IF YOU’RE A REAL BELLEND
They renamed retweets to reposts? Christ that’s dumb, Xposts would’ve been vaguely clever. The one time in his life where X would’ve made sense and the melonhead misses it.
why is there a hentai comm on the front page ❌
Saw a cute girl while when I was done watering the garden. Made sure to strut all tall and good postured past her. Then I disconnected the hose before shutting off the water and got blasted. So much for looking cool.
in North Korea, I was in the theater watching Juche Cars 2 and was eating beans when I spilled beans on myself and this teenagers behind me loudly exclaimed “this [probablywillgetremoved] is eatin’ beans” and everyone laughed
liberals when they go to a communist website and nobody lets them be casually racist like every other corner of the internet
hrt has officially taken 1.5 inches out of my height
deleted by creator
Posting just doesn’t hit the same
I think it’s because I’m less depressed
The best takes are when you are least happy
The purple bell means so much when you have not much else going on
deleted by creator
The best takes are when you are least happy
Sooo true
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
I’m glad that my company is reimbursing costs for meals and gas, alongside paying for my hotel because this drink from the hotel bar is expensive af
the warehouse is closed for the rest of the week so Im off work without pay, and we dont know if theyre going to bring us back next week. Fun times folks, fun times
lmao fucking debate nerd in the taliban opium thread replying with logical fallacy cartoons