Edit, 18 47 hour on 26 August, fine-tuned 2034 hour: I have seen information that these cooperative miners’federation also is against union recognition and so is somewhat more reactionary than I thought. I still think we should never be on the side of government and its repression. My basic position has not changed. But the article below is defective. I will let it stand as it is, however; it was my honest effort, and it is dishonest to pretend that I thought otherwise than I did.

“There are nicer ways to do it, but the nice ways always fail”. That was what I found myself thinking (and humming) after I heard about the killing of a deputy minister by miners in action in Bolivia. The quote is from a Malvbina Reynolds civil rights song, It Isn’t Nice(1). The anger behind the ministers’ death has reasons. And nicer ways to make their point had not led to very noticeable results. What is the fight about? Read the rest of this entry »