I'm sure I am not alone in being sickened by the obscene media circus we have seen gathered this week for the rescue of the 33 miners trapped underground for 68 days, at the San Jose mine in Copiapo, Chile.
This 'big' story in Chile has been very helpful this week to the English language corporate media to largely ignore the strikes, demonstrations and civil unrest in France which is currently threatening to bring the country to a complete standstill.
The corporate media has been deployed of course to divert attention away from the growing resistance to IMF inspired austerity measures across Europe and the mounting opposition to them both locally and internationally.
In what can only be described as an obscene spectacle these miners have been extracted from the jaws of death, only to be paraded and bribed by international banking interests, media spin doctors and a voyeuristic global audience gawping at what is promoted as 33 'lucky' men.
The Chilean government has done very well out of this artificially manipulated and media manufactured outpouring of sympathy for these trapped miners throughout their ordeal and rescue.
What has become nothing more than a commercially sponsored media inspired act of catharsis - laid on for us by a coalition of global gutter-press magnates like Rupert Murdoch (and various state propaganda mouthpieces like the BBC) - for days now has been a soap opera type news storyline, developing and unfolding to its spectacular conclusion live on TV.
Today it is announced that on the back of his government's newly found humanitarian image, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera is due to arrive in the UK ahead of his European tour, riding on the crest of a wave after the rescue of the 33 miners in question.
In a bit of gut-churning theatre Mr Pinera will be bringing fragments of rock from the San Jose mine as presents for Prime Minister David Cameron and the Queen.
Most bits of rock Britain's octogenarian Queen has collected over her long and ridiculously privileged life have sparkled rather more than Mr Pinera's gift will I think, unless of course we also count the Falkland Islands/ Las Malvinas as rocks that have been collected by Her Majesty over the years.
The fact that President Pinera is bringing bits of that collapsed mine as gifts for David Cameron (don't know if Clegg will get a bit too) and the Queen demonstrates what a relic of capitalism, deregulation and unadulterated greed it has now become.
These 33 abused and exploited miners will be paid to say all the right things and will enjoy the freedom of Greater Bilderbergia ...at least until they do something that will have them vilified and condemned in the very same magazines and tabloids that are presently in the process of mythologising them as heroes.
But what is the truth of the ordeal these 33 working men endured underground for two months?.... never mind the popping champagne corks, the emotional singing of Chile's national anthem, the entire media pantomime and the celebrity status that has accompanied their retrieval fom being buried alive....never mind all that froth and tinsel, why were they trapped in the first place?
That is the important question and so is its corollary...' what can we learn from their ordeal to avoid such catastrophes in the future'?
When Mr Pinera arrives in London he should be greeted by silent crowds wearing black arm bands and holding up placards that say International Labor Organization Convention 176 ......and nothing else.
The ILO Convention on Health and Safety in Mines was agreed in 1995 and last year a renewed campaign to have Convention 176 adopted has fallen on deaf ears in Chile one of the many mining countries to have failed to implement the tripartite agreement (between unions, employers and governments) ...to the massive detriment to mining communities worldwide.
Had the Chilean government implemented the internationally agreed health and safety arrangements for mines laid out in ILO Convention 176 - these 33 men would never have been trapped in the first place.
To understand why this has not happened in Chile in particular, we had better take a closer look at David Cameron's guest who like the last 'state visitor' to be invited by the Queen (that was of course Pope Benedict XVI) just happens to have a history of very close ties to fascism.
Here are a few details of the Chilean President, so we know who is soon coming to dinner and who'll be lauded in the UK press and greeted by our head of state as an inspiration to us all, clutching his dirty bits of rock from Copiapo.
These are not blood diamonds he is bringing of course, ...no it is more like 'blood mud' he'll be giving out as momentos on his triumphant trip to London.
For Mr Pinera is himself a media mogul, he owns 100% of Chilevisión, a tabloid terrestrial television channel broadcasting pap nationwide, but to avoid a conflict of interests, it has been recently announced it will be acquired by US corporate propaganda conglomerate Time Warner..... get the picture?
Pinera is a super rich man, he has built an estimated fortune of 1 billion USD as of March 2009, according to Forbes magazine.
His wealth is greatly due to his involvement in introducing credit cards to Chile in the late 1970s under Chilean fascist hard man Augusto Pinochet and American guru of Reaganomics, Milton Friedman.
Mr Pinera is a CIA backed bankster himself, so he should get on famously with our very own David Cameron.
In 1982, an arrest warrant was issued against Piñera.
He was accused of violating the Banking Law during his time as general manager of the Bank of Talca.
Pinera spent 24 days in hiding, while his lawyers appealed the order. A writ of habeus corpus was first rejected by the Appeals Court, but then approved by the Supreme Court, magically acquitting Pinera of all blame.
Actually he is currently 'out on bail' so to speak........
In July 2007, Pinera was fined approximately 680,000 USD by Chile's securities regulator (SVS) for not withdrawing a purchase order after allegedly received privileged information (an infraction similar to insider trading) of LAN Airlines stock in mid-2006.
Pinera again denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the whole process was part of a political attack to damage his image.
With a remarkable degree of foresight for a criminal billionaire in 1998, Pinera opposed the arrest and detention of his mentor Augusto Pinochet, in London, arguing that it was an attack on the sovereignty and dignity of Chile (as if there was much of the latter left after lthis week).
His political roots are inextricably linked to the Pinochet dictatorship which in 1973 overthrew Chile’s democratically-elected president, Salvador Allende.
Pinera's brother José was Labour Minister under the Pinochet dictatorship
Pinera therefore unsurprisingly given his close links with Chile's fascist past, has been vehemently anti-trade union and has worked diligently against the health and safety reforms that would have made this high profile rescue unnecessary.
"Chile will never be the same," he said to the miner's foreman, Luis Urzúa, as he (the last of the miners to emerge from the cavern) greeted Pinera, in a broadcast carried live across the globe.
But how will it be different?
Will Mr Pinera now drop his opposition to ILO Convention 176 which in its health and safety directives states than mines should have more than one exit, which if complied with here would have meant that another would not have to be drilled at the San Jose mine, at enormous cost both financially and in terms of the miners own safety and wellbeing.
Chile’s expenditure to save the trapped miners in San Jose , which some have estimated at 15 million (USD), and its dismissal of some mine regulators for allegedly failing to enforce the law and pronouncements to change practices, stands in sharp contrast to what the government spent to safeguard the lives of miners before the incident occurred.
According to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (11 October 2010)
"A chief cause of continued mining tragedies in most countries is government and employer opposition to unionization. So long as miners do not have rights protected by a union and a legal collective bargaining agreement, they will be forced to work under conditions that jeopardize their lives. In Chile existing labor laws are weak. Employers have no obligation to negotiate even after a trade union is formed, and multiple trade unions can exist at any one site, which plays into the hands of employers to keep workers divided.
The lack of democratic trade unions in China, where mining deaths far exceed those of other countries is a key cause of its staggering number of fatalities. In 2009, China recorded 2,600 official fatalities in coal mines. Actual figures are unknown. Some NGOs have estimated mining fatalities in China as high as 10,000 per year.
Three major fatal accidents in the last ten months in Turkey killed 59 miners, all of whom were unprotected by a trade union.
In Colombia, 73 non-union miners without a voice on the job died in an explosion largely due to the lack of methane detectors in the mine and the inability of miners to refuse unsafe work. In the U.S. 29 nonunion miners died in West Virginia because they had no power to demand even the most rudimentary protection at Massey Energy, one of the country’s most notorious anti-union employers."
Pinera is a super rich man, he has built an estimated fortune of 1 billion USD as of March 2009, according to Forbes magazine.
His wealth is greatly due to his involvement in introducing credit cards to Chile in the late 1970s under Chilean fascist hard man Augusto Pinochet and American guru of Reaganomics, Milton Friedman.
Mr Pinera is a CIA backed bankster himself, so he should get on famously with our very own David Cameron.
In 1982, an arrest warrant was issued against Piñera.
He was accused of violating the Banking Law during his time as general manager of the Bank of Talca.
Pinera spent 24 days in hiding, while his lawyers appealed the order. A writ of habeus corpus was first rejected by the Appeals Court, but then approved by the Supreme Court, magically acquitting Pinera of all blame.
Actually he is currently 'out on bail' so to speak........
In July 2007, Pinera was fined approximately 680,000 USD by Chile's securities regulator (SVS) for not withdrawing a purchase order after allegedly received privileged information (an infraction similar to insider trading) of LAN Airlines stock in mid-2006.
Pinera again denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the whole process was part of a political attack to damage his image.
With a remarkable degree of foresight for a criminal billionaire in 1998, Pinera opposed the arrest and detention of his mentor Augusto Pinochet, in London, arguing that it was an attack on the sovereignty and dignity of Chile (as if there was much of the latter left after lthis week).
His political roots are inextricably linked to the Pinochet dictatorship which in 1973 overthrew Chile’s democratically-elected president, Salvador Allende.
Pinera's brother José was Labour Minister under the Pinochet dictatorship
Pinera therefore unsurprisingly given his close links with Chile's fascist past, has been vehemently anti-trade union and has worked diligently against the health and safety reforms that would have made this high profile rescue unnecessary.
"Chile will never be the same," he said to the miner's foreman, Luis Urzúa, as he (the last of the miners to emerge from the cavern) greeted Pinera, in a broadcast carried live across the globe.
But how will it be different?
Will Mr Pinera now drop his opposition to ILO Convention 176 which in its health and safety directives states than mines should have more than one exit, which if complied with here would have meant that another would not have to be drilled at the San Jose mine, at enormous cost both financially and in terms of the miners own safety and wellbeing.
Chile’s expenditure to save the trapped miners in San Jose , which some have estimated at 15 million (USD), and its dismissal of some mine regulators for allegedly failing to enforce the law and pronouncements to change practices, stands in sharp contrast to what the government spent to safeguard the lives of miners before the incident occurred.
According to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (11 October 2010)
"A chief cause of continued mining tragedies in most countries is government and employer opposition to unionization. So long as miners do not have rights protected by a union and a legal collective bargaining agreement, they will be forced to work under conditions that jeopardize their lives. In Chile existing labor laws are weak. Employers have no obligation to negotiate even after a trade union is formed, and multiple trade unions can exist at any one site, which plays into the hands of employers to keep workers divided.
The lack of democratic trade unions in China, where mining deaths far exceed those of other countries is a key cause of its staggering number of fatalities. In 2009, China recorded 2,600 official fatalities in coal mines. Actual figures are unknown. Some NGOs have estimated mining fatalities in China as high as 10,000 per year.
Three major fatal accidents in the last ten months in Turkey killed 59 miners, all of whom were unprotected by a trade union.
In Colombia, 73 non-union miners without a voice on the job died in an explosion largely due to the lack of methane detectors in the mine and the inability of miners to refuse unsafe work. In the U.S. 29 nonunion miners died in West Virginia because they had no power to demand even the most rudimentary protection at Massey Energy, one of the country’s most notorious anti-union employers."
The attempts by the corporate media to turn this disaster into an international jamboree designed to deflect attention from the growing and titanic rebellion in Europe and to set up people like Mr Pinera as some sort of 'role model' Chile's caring sharing president is pure and unadulterated media hogwash.
Mainline media channels are desperate that we do not know that the striking trade unionists in France (and in varying degrees across all of Europe) are the real saviours of the Chilean miners. Because it is they and the rest of the international organised labour movement that will make the system that buried the miners for profit in the first place - and then dug them up again for even more profit - a thing of the past.
The Queen and Cameron want an accused financial criminal and fascist apologist to come here and be feted as a hero....but really to hold hands with because they are all afraid of what is going on outside in the real world....and well they might be.
I was around during the British Miners Strike against Thatcherism in 1984-85 I actively took part in it and I remember the ways that the miners and their communities were vilified and demonised in the gutter-press. This sudden outpouring of public sympathy and joy I'm hearing about on the radio at the rescue of the Chilean miners just turns my stomach, so cheap, so tacky ....so pathetically spoon fed, meanwhile the Queen is having another Nazi gangster to dinner....and my dear fellow UK taxpayers.... guess who is paying for it?
Support Industrial Action to Defend Civilisation and Decency Against Organised Crime At Home and Abroad!
