While winds of war are increasingly blowing in Syria and states' rhetoric (from any side but the European non-side) made of imperialism, red-lines violated and vengeance to be seek is bulging even more, something else is going on in that big pot that goes under the name of Africa.
It might look not that important on the grand-scene of political-economical chess-playing but this is actually a period of great turmoil among workers. The largest strike ever recorded in South Africa (and one of the larger worldwide in recent years) has been going on for days with more than 80.000 mine workers participating. The bone of the contention was not trivial. There were two diametrically opposite visions of the current half-crisis of mining (and more broadly economy) in the country. One represented pretty much the voice of the black majorities of workers increase welfare. Requests of the relatively moderate and most influential trade union, the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) entail a 60% raise of current wages so to leave definitely beyond all the accusation that South African mining still lives in the time of apartheid. The second one instead is embedded in the perspective of ruling economic class of the country according to which gold mining as a sector is on the verge of collapse and that all could be offered to protester was a meagre 6% raise barely accounting for inflation.
The settling of a deal at one of the main companies (Harmony Gold) for just the 8% does not represent a galvanising success for worker's protest although the very fact that a movement in South Africa managed to coordinate a similar grand-scale operation involving such a huge mass of people is undoubtedly an at least partial accomplishment. It is a step that reassure about the capacity of organised workers to fight for their right. To be clear, this was not a victory without its toll as about 46 person died during the unrest according to reports.
While overall encouraging in its development, the case of workers protest in South Africa is still enclosed in the traditional dialectic between local capitalists and local workers. Indeed although the influence of the global market in the lost of South African predominance in gold production is undoubted (resulting mostly from the increase of the relevance of Australian mining) the unraveling of this struggle and the powers involved in it are chiefly local. Another, again African example can help to grasp what the future of workers protest might look like in the global arena.
As is well known Libya has been the locus of one of the most long lasting (and more violent) Arab Springs, culminated in an attack led by France and the United States resulting (after much time and skirmishing) in the deposition of the Muammar Gaddafi. As in other Arab Springs, constructing (or at least agreeing on what was to happen after the deposition of the tyrant) proved to be much more difficult than destructing. A revolt has recently emerged in the rich Cyrenaica region, where most of the facilities connected to oil production are located. Rebels are actually local workers which, they say, have decided to seize the region leaving the rest of the country with just two oil fields in order to oppose the increasing power of Muslim Brotherhood in the Tripoli government.
Putting aside religious issues, the majority of the demands of rebels, according to reports, relates primarily with their economic conditions. More broadly since 2012, oil production facilities in the countries are increasingly becoming the focus of protest, because workers are well aware of their criticality and are willing to turn them in tools for the affirmation of their requests.
The recent revolt of Cyrenaica add to this dimension also a further level of political connoisseurship, since rebels are explicitly trying to exploit for their own benefit the 'passive' hostility toward Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated recently by the US and epitomised in the tragic events occurred in Egypt.
It might look not that important on the grand-scene of political-economical chess-playing but this is actually a period of great turmoil among workers. The largest strike ever recorded in South Africa (and one of the larger worldwide in recent years) has been going on for days with more than 80.000 mine workers participating. The bone of the contention was not trivial. There were two diametrically opposite visions of the current half-crisis of mining (and more broadly economy) in the country. One represented pretty much the voice of the black majorities of workers increase welfare. Requests of the relatively moderate and most influential trade union, the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) entail a 60% raise of current wages so to leave definitely beyond all the accusation that South African mining still lives in the time of apartheid. The second one instead is embedded in the perspective of ruling economic class of the country according to which gold mining as a sector is on the verge of collapse and that all could be offered to protester was a meagre 6% raise barely accounting for inflation.
The settling of a deal at one of the main companies (Harmony Gold) for just the 8% does not represent a galvanising success for worker's protest although the very fact that a movement in South Africa managed to coordinate a similar grand-scale operation involving such a huge mass of people is undoubtedly an at least partial accomplishment. It is a step that reassure about the capacity of organised workers to fight for their right. To be clear, this was not a victory without its toll as about 46 person died during the unrest according to reports.
While overall encouraging in its development, the case of workers protest in South Africa is still enclosed in the traditional dialectic between local capitalists and local workers. Indeed although the influence of the global market in the lost of South African predominance in gold production is undoubted (resulting mostly from the increase of the relevance of Australian mining) the unraveling of this struggle and the powers involved in it are chiefly local. Another, again African example can help to grasp what the future of workers protest might look like in the global arena.
As is well known Libya has been the locus of one of the most long lasting (and more violent) Arab Springs, culminated in an attack led by France and the United States resulting (after much time and skirmishing) in the deposition of the Muammar Gaddafi. As in other Arab Springs, constructing (or at least agreeing on what was to happen after the deposition of the tyrant) proved to be much more difficult than destructing. A revolt has recently emerged in the rich Cyrenaica region, where most of the facilities connected to oil production are located. Rebels are actually local workers which, they say, have decided to seize the region leaving the rest of the country with just two oil fields in order to oppose the increasing power of Muslim Brotherhood in the Tripoli government.
Putting aside religious issues, the majority of the demands of rebels, according to reports, relates primarily with their economic conditions. More broadly since 2012, oil production facilities in the countries are increasingly becoming the focus of protest, because workers are well aware of their criticality and are willing to turn them in tools for the affirmation of their requests.
The recent revolt of Cyrenaica add to this dimension also a further level of political connoisseurship, since rebels are explicitly trying to exploit for their own benefit the 'passive' hostility toward Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated recently by the US and epitomised in the tragic events occurred in Egypt.
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